In light of North Korea’s ongoing missile launches, the United States and Japan are conducting a combined military exercise with the American aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan in the vicinity of Japan, the Japanese defence ministry announced on Saturday.
On Thursday, North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles into the ocean with Japan as their target. The launch was the first since Pyongyang flew an intermediate-range missile over Japan on Tuesday and the sixth in the past 12 days.
“Amid an increasingly severe security environment surrounding Japan, including North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile launches, Japan Self-Defence Forces and U.S. Armed Forces have been conducting a bilateral exercise,” the ministry said in a statement.
The combined exercise, in which a Japanese destroyer is taking part, has been going on since October 1st, according to the announcement. It was unclear when it was supposed to end.
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This week, joint drills between the United States and South Korea were conducted.
According to a statement from North Korea’s state media KCNA on Saturday, the defence ministry was “taking a stern look at the development of the current situation, which is very worrisome,” about the US-South Korean drills.
(with inputs from agencies)
