Korea-Japan Security Alliance Restoration Begins First ROK-US-Japan Anti-Submarine Joint Exercise

Korea-Japan Security Alliance Restoration Begins First ROK-US-Japan Anti-Submarine Joint Exercise

With the restoration of the security alliance between South Korea and Japan, the first military drill between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan began on the 3rd with an anti-submarine tracking and rescue drill targeting an underwater launch from North Korea.
The Ministry of National Defense announced on the same day that the South Korean, US and Japanese navies will begin their first two-day anti-submarine exercise in six months to strengthen cooperation against the growing missile threat from North Korea.
On the same day, the Ministry of National Defense said, “Search and rescue training has been resumed this year in order to normalize security cooperation between Korea, the U.S. and Japan.” The forces of the three countries of Korea, the United States, and Japan conducted search and rescue drills for disaster response and humanitarian assistance from 2008 to 2016, but were stopped due to the deterioration of Korea-Japan relations.
The Pentagon statement said the exercise was designed to enhance the capabilities of the three countries to counter underwater security threats posed by North Korea's submarine-launched ballistic missiles and other assets.
After a press conference for the Korea-Japan summit on the 16th of last month, President Yoon Seok-yeol responded to a question about the GSOMIA issue by saying, “Korea’s national interest is not a zero-sum relationship with Japan’s national interest. I think it is a win-win national interest,” he said. “The security crisis in both countries is very helpful in responding to it. In that respect, I also declared the complete normalization of our GSOMIA at the meeting a little while ago.”
Defense officials told the Associated Press that the three countries will detect and track South Korean and US unmanned underwater vehicles disguised as enemy submarines and other assets.
Yomiuri said, "In the first anti-submarine exercise, information is shared while searching for and tracking the enemy underwater and checking the flow of interception". will join,” he reported.
The Associated Press said, “The two-day exercise comes as North Korea recently unveiled a type of battlefield nuclear warhead, raising concerns that North Korea could conduct its first nuclear test since 2017.” It is pursuing the construction of larger submarines, including nuclear-powered submarines. Last month, North Korea conducted missile tests in response to the ROK-US alliance. Bilateral military training. Weapons tested include nuclear-powered underwater drones and submarine-launched cruise missiles, suggesting that North Korea is trying to diversify its underwater weapons system.”
Reuters said, “The exercise will be held in international waters off the coast of Jeju Island in southern South Korea, involving the US aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Nimitz, which arrived southeast of Busan last week.” It was done by promising to produce more weapons-grade nuclear material to expand its arsenal, and boasting of nuclear-powered underwater attack drones.”
'News 1' said, "This anti-submarine warfare training is conducted in a way that uses underwater unmanned targets (EMATT) owned by the ROK and US Navy instead of actual submarines. EMATT, which generates sound waves of a frequency similar to that of a submarine, is put into the depths of the sea and then exchanged information collected by the powers of each country to detect, identify, and track it.” It is paying attention to the possibility of carrying out the launch of a military reconnaissance satellite. After the launch of a semi-intermediate-range ballistic missile (MRBM) on December 18 last year, North Korea announced that it would complete “preparations” for its first military reconnaissance satellite by April this year,” it reported.