The United States, Japan and South
Korea will hold two days of missile tracking drills starting on
Monday, Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force said, as tensions
rise in the region over North Korea’s fast-developing weapons
programmes.
The United States and South Korea conducted large-scale
military drills last week, which the North said made the
outbreak of war “an established fact”.
North Korea has fired missiles over Japan as it pursues
nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in defiance of U.N.
sanctions and international condemnation. On Nov. 29, it
test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile which it said
was its most advanced yet, capable of reaching the mainland
United States.
This week’s exercises will be the sixth drills sharing
information in tracking ballistic missiles among the three
nations, the defence force said.
It did not say whether the controversial THAAD system would
be involved. The installation of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude
Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea has angered China,
which fears its powerful radar could look deep into China and
threaten its own security.
North Korea’s missile test last month prompted a U.S.
warning that North Korea’s leadership would be “utterly
destroyed” if war were to break out. The Pentagon has mounted
repeated shows of force after North Korean tests.
The United States has also pressured China and other nations
to cut trade and diplomatic ties with North Korea, as part of
international efforts to dry up Pyongyang’s illegal cash flows
that could fund its weapons programmes.
On Sunday, South Korea said it would impose new unilateral
sanctions on 20 institutions and a dozen individuals in North
Korea, barring any financial transactions between those
sanctioned and any South Koreans.
“This unilateral sanction will prevent illegal funds flowing
to North Korea and contribute to reinforce international
communities’ sanctions against North Korea,” South Korea’s
finance ministry said in a statement.
The move is largely symbolic as trade and financial
exchanges between the two Koreas have been barred since May 2010
following the torpedoing of a South Korean warship, which the
North denied.
North Korea regularly threatens to destroy South Korea,
Japan and the United States and says its weapons programmes are
necessary to counter U.S. aggression. The United States stations
28,500 troops in the South, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.
(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko, additional reporting by Haejin Choi
in SEOUL,
