Japan, US, ROK to hold missile tracking drill amid DPRK crisis

The United States, Japan and Republic of Korea (ROK) will hold two days of missile tracking drills starting on Monday, Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force said, as tensions rise in the region over the fast-developing weapons programs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The United States and ROK conducted large-scale military drills last week, which the DPRK said made the outbreak of war “an established fact”.

The DPRK has fired two missiles over Japan as it pursues nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in defiance of UN sanctions and international condemnation. On November 29, it test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile which it said was its most advanced yet, capable of reaching the mainland United States.

The exercises will be the sixth drill sharing information in tracking ballistic missiles among the three nations, the defense force said.

It did not say whether the controversial THAAD system would be involved.

Last month’s missile test prompted a US warning that DPRK’s leadership would be “utterly destroyed” if war were to break out.

The DPRK regularly threatens to destroy ROK, Japan and the United States and says its weapons programs are necessary to counter US aggression. The United States stations 28,500 troops in the South, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.

(REUTERS)