South Korea, the U.S., and Japan will go ahead with a trilateral military drill next month to better deal with North Korean nuclear threats.
The three allies will carry out air defense, maritime missile defense, anti-submarine and cyber defense exercises. This announcement comes even as Donald Trump seeks to revive dialogue with Pyongyang.
The decision to move forward with the drill comes a day after North Korea vowed to retaliate against what it called U.S. hostilities. North Korea has previously slammed such trilateral exercises as a reckless show of strength that demonstrates its adversaries’ confrontational stance.
If the exercise proceeds as planned, North Korea is expected to react strongly, which could potentially cool momentum for talks with the U.S.