South Korea, Japan and the United States began naval exercises near the Korean peninsula on Monday to deal with “growing submarine threats” from Pyongyang.
The maneuvers, including anti-submarine warfare and search and rescue operations with a US aircraft carrier, will take place today and Tuesday in the waters south of Jeju Island, off South Korea’s southwest coast.
In addition to the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, two North American destroyers (USS Wayne E. Meyer and USS Decatur), three South Koreans (ROKS Yulgok YiYi, ROKS Choe Yeong and ROKS Daejoyeong) and a Japanese (JS Umigiri).
The exercises “were organized to improve the response capabilities of the Republic of Korea [nome oficial do Sul]the US and Japan against North Korea’s increasingly sophisticated submarine threats, including submarine ballistic missiles [SLBM]said a statement from South Korea’s defense ministry.
This maneuvers come shortly after Pyongyang announced two tests of a nuclear submarine “drone” that can reportedly generate radioactive tsunamis to hit fleets and ports.
The “drone” or guided torpedo, dubbed Haeil-1, is theoretically equipped with a tactical warhead dubbed Hwasan-31 that the regime announced last week in a message highlighting the strengthening of its short-range nuclear arsenal for possible use on the peninsula. Korean and around.
On Sunday, in an editorial published by the official KCNA news agency, North Korea condemned the spring military maneuvers carried out by the Allies in the south of the peninsula, accusing Seoul and Washington of lying by describing these exercises as “routine”. and defensive in nature”.
Seoul, Tokyo and Washington already held naval exercises in September last year.
Source: DN
