US, Japan, South Korea to hold joint drill; China objects

The exercise will be led by the USS George Washington, pictured near Busan, South Korea in 2010. (Photo/Xinhua)

The United States, Japan and South Korea will conduct an unprecedented joint drill in the waters south of the Korean peninsula on June 21-22, prompting objection from China, which announced later that it will hold a naval drill in the western Pacific, reports our sister newspaper China Times.

It is the first time the three nations have held a joint exercise together, with the US shifting its strategic emphasis to the Asia-Pacific region over the past year. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington, based in Yokosuka, Japan, will lead the exercise.

According to a Pentagon release on Wednesday, the two-day exercise will focus on improving interoperability and communications with South Korea and Japan, to facilitate disaster relief and maritime security activities in the future.

The three will "conduct this exercise beyond the territorial waters of any coastal nations," it added.

The navies of the US and South Korea will immediately conduct a drill in the Yellow Sea on June 23-25, immediately after the three-nation exercise.

Though South Korea and Japan are US allies in the region, both have approached military cooperation with caution. An earlier report citing South Korean officials said the US and South Korea had planned a three-party drill in 2010 but faced objections from within South Korea due to the country's bitter colonial history with Japan, which led to the idea being shelved.

The joint drill was proposed again at a meeting between Washington and Tokyo in June last year which called for a reinforcement of security and defense cooperation between the three countries, informed sources told Japanese news portal Jiji Press.

The US later highlighted disaster relief cooperation as the key purpose of the exercise to make it easier for South Korea to give its backing to Japan's inclusion, and decided to divide the drill into two stages: the first stage will simulate a rescue operation by armed forces of three countries on June 22-23, while the second stage will be a military exercise by the US and South Korea only on June 23-25.

The joint drill is intended to discourage North Korea from provoking tension on the Korean peninsula, sources told Jiji Press.

Beijing said on Thursday that it is opposed to the joint drill. "China holds that the international community, especially Asia-Pacific countries, should take moves to increase peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and northern Asia, not [take moves] to the contrary," Liu Weimin, spokesperson for China's foreign ministry, was quoted by the official news agency Xinhua as saying.

Beijing said it will also hold a drill in the western Pacific region, but did not give a specific location or time for the exercise.

Source : http://www.wantchinatimes.com