South Korea, US and Japan to hold September drills

South Korea said Friday it will hold joint military exercises with the United States and Japan from September 7 to 11 in international waters east and south of Jeju Island.

Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North Korea-focused Freedom Edge exercise is an annual defensive drill meant to respond to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats and safeguard regional peace and stability.

Yonhap news agency reported that the multi-domain exercise is expected to include maritime missile defence, air and air-defence drills, anti-submarine warfare and cyber defence.

Freedom Edge was first held in June 2024 after an agreement by the leaders of South Korea, the United States and Japan at their Camp David summit in 2023.

The announcement follows US President Donald Trump's order this month to cut the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises with South Korea from 11 days to five. Trump said at the time that the drills were “very insulting” to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and said Kim had been “very well behaved”.

South Korea said Monday the United States had cancelled another joint exercise, the biennial Ssangyong drills, because of constraints on force availability caused by the war with Iran.

North Korea has shown little sign of reciprocating to Trump's overtures, firing missiles and condemning the scaled-down drills, Washington's approval of arms sales to South Korea and US plans to fund programmes documenting human rights abuses in the North.