US, South Korea Launch Naval Drills Hours after North’s Missile Test

By Staff, Agencies 

South Korea and the United States began their first combined naval exercise near the peninsula in five years on Monday, a day after Pyongyang conducted a ballistic missile launch.

Washington is Seoul's key security ally and stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea.

South Korea's hawkish President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, has vowed to beef up joint military exercises with the United States, after years of failed diplomacy with North Korea under his predecessor.

“This exercise was prepared to demonstrate the strong will of the South Korea-US alliance to respond to North Korean provocations,” the South's navy said in a statement.

It further added: “The four-day exercise on South Korea's east coast will involve more than 20 vessels and an assortment of aircraft, which will conduct drills on anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare operations, tactical maneuvers and other maritime operations.”

The drills come a day after nuclear-armed Pyongyang conducted another ballistic missile launch, the latest in its record-breaking blitz of weapons tests this year.

Seoul had also detected signs the North was preparing to fire a Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile [SLBM], the president's office said Saturday, a weapon Pyongyang last tested in May.

Earlier this month, the North revised its nuclear law, enshrining a "first strike" doctrine and vowing never to give up its nukes.