Pentagon reports U.S., Japan and South Korea have participated in missile defense exercises

The U.S. Pentagon reported Monday that the United States, Japan and South Korea participated in missile defense exercises off the coast of Hawaii between Aug. 8 and 14.

“The U.S. Navy, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and the Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy participated in a ballistic missile search and track and missile warning exercise during the multinational exercise Pacific Dragon off the coast of the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) in Hawaii,” the Defense Department said in a statement.

Thus, the missive notes that the three countries have shared information on tactical data, as part of their trilateral agreement touted on June 11 in Singapore at the Shangri La Dialogue security forum.

At that meeting, the defense ministers of the three countries announced an agreement to resume joint military maneuvers to “search for and track ballistic missiles” to serve as a deterrent to North Korea.

The joint military exercises had been suspended since December 2017 and were a response to North Korea’s missile tests, although they also have China as a secondary target, as Taiwan was mentioned for the first time in this type of trilateral forum.