South Korea, US, Japan hold anti-North Korea submarine drill

The U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in Busan Sunday. Pic/AP

The South Korean, U.S. and Japanese navies began their first anti-submarine drills in six months on Monday to boost their coordination against increasing North Korean missile threats, South Korea's military said. The two-day drills come as North Korea's recent unveiling of a type of battlefield nuclear warhead prompted worries the country may conduct its first nuclear test since 2017.

The maritime exercises in international waters off South Korea's southern island of Jeju involved the nuclear-powered USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and naval destroyers from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, South Korea's Defense Ministry said in a statement.

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The training was arranged to improve the three countries' capacities to respond to underwater security threats posed by North Korea's advancing submarine-launched ballistic missiles and other assets, the statement said. South Korean defense officials said the three countries were to detect and track unmanned South Korean and U.S. underwater vehicles posing as enemy submarines and other assets.

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