US, Japan, South Korea Meet to Discuss Holding Periodic Missile Defense Drills

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The United States, Japan, and South Korea convened a meeting in Washington on Friday about security on the Korean peninsula and discussed the “regularization” of defense exercises to respond to and deter North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, according to a joint statement.

Representatives from the three countries at the meeting, called the 13th Defense Trilateral Talks, discussed how to deepen cooperation against the North Korean threat, urged the North to “stop all destabilizing activities,” and called for it to return to negotiations.

The three countries “reaffirmed that a DPRK nuclear test, if conducted, would be met with a strong and resolute response from the international community,” the statement said, using North Korea’s official name.

It follows North Korea’s announcement on Friday that it had tested a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, a development set to “radically promote” its forces, which experts said would facilitate missile launches with little warning.

South Korea’s military said it fired warning shots on Saturday to repel a North Korean patrol vessel that temporarily crossed the countries’ disputed western sea boundary while chasing a Chinese fishing boat.

The North Korean patrol boat crossed the so-called Northern Limit Line at around 11 a.m. while pursuing the Chinese boat in waters near South Korea’s Baekryeong island but immediately retreated after a South Korean naval vessel fired warning shots, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Sunday.

South Korean Navy’s patrol ships search for survivors from a sunken South Korean navy ship near South Korea’s Baekryeong island, on March 29, 2010. (Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo)

The South Korean and U.S. militaries will conduct another large-scale joint exercise next week involving some 110 warplanes, including advanced F-35 fighter jets. Seoul’s Defense Ministry said the aerial drills, which will begin Monday and continue through April 28, are aimed at sharpening combined operational abilities and demonstrating the allies’ joint defense posture in the face of a North Korean threat.

Missile sirens gave a jolt to residents in Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido Thursday morning.

People were told to seek immediate shelter after North Korea fired what appeared to be a new model of a ballistic missile.

The rare missile alert caused a lockup in train schedules, but the evacuation warning was later lifted after the missile was confirmed to have fallen outside Japanese territory.

Japan is holding the G7 meeting this week, and top diplomats from Europe and North America were arriving Sunday in the country to discuss, among other topics, ways to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, how to confront China’s aggression toward Taiwan, and how to draw North Korea back to nuclear disarmament talks.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (C), accompanied by U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel (R), holds up his boarding card as he is greeted by Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi (L), as he boards a train at Tokyo Station in Tokyo on April 16, 2023, to travel to Karuizawa, Japan for a G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. (Andrew Harnik, Pool/AP Photo)

But even before the Group of Seven foreign ministers’ talks began, outside events threatened to overshadow the diplomacy, including questions about U.S. intelligence leaks that cast doubt over crucial alliances, and security worries after someone threw an explosive device at the Japanese leader during a campaign event.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.