South Korea’s Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported this week that the U.S., South Korea, and Japan will likely hold a joint aerial exercise near the Korean peninsula on October 22, the first time the three countries will conduct an aerial drill.
Dong-a Ilbo added that the three countries are coordinating the exercise locations.
Yonhap news agency also said that the drill will likely be held on October 22 and involve the US B-52 strategic bomber and fighter jets from the three countries.
Amid growing tensions with North Korea and China’s increasing assertiveness in the region, the exercise will be the latest in a series of joint actions by the three countries to improve their coordination.
At a parliamentary hearing last week, General Kim Seung-kyum, who chairs the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said South Korea, Japan, and the U.S. planned joint aerial drills.
Yonhap news agency reported this week that the three countries have completed work on a three-way communications hotline in a further sign of their growing trilateral security cooperation.