US, South Korea and Japan hold first-ever trilateral aerial exercise

SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean, U.S. and Japanese militaries conducted their first-ever trilateral aerial exercise on Sunday in response to evolving North Korean nuclear threats, South Korea’s air force said.

The training held near the Korean Peninsula was to implement the three countries’ earlier agreement to increase defense cooperation and boost their joint response capabilities against North Korean threats, the air force said in a statement.

The drill involved a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber from the United States and fighter jets from South Korea and Japan, the statement said.

South Korea and Japan are both key U.S. allies in Asia, which together host about 80,000 American troops.

The three countries have occasionally held trilateral maritime drills, such as anti-submarine or missile defense exercises, but Sunday’s training marked the first time for them to perform a trilateral aerial drill.

In South Korea, expanding military drills with Japan is a sensitive issue, because many still harbor strong resentment against Japan’s brutal 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula. But the North’s advancing nuclear program has pushed South Korea’s conservative president, Yoon Suk Yeol, to move beyond historical disputes with Japan and beef up a trilateral security cooperation with the U.S. and Japan.

In August, Yoon, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met at Camp David in their countries’ first stand-alone trilateral summit and agreed to bolster their defense cooperation to deal with North Korea’s nuclear threats. The three leaders decided to hold annual trilateral exercises and put into operation by year’s end the sharing of real-time missile warning data on North Korea.

Sunday’s drill could draw a furious response from North Korea, which has long bristled at U.S. training exercises with South Korea, calling them an invasion rehearsal and responding with missile tests. The North slammed the Camp David agreement, accusing the U.S., South Korean and Japanese leaders of plotting nuclear war provocations on the Korean Peninsula. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called Yoon, Biden and Kishida “the gang bosses” of the three countries.

Worries about North Korea’s nuclear program have deepened after it enacted a law that authorizes the preemptive use of nuclear weapons last year and has since openly threatened to use them in potential conflicts with the U.S. and South Korea.

韩国首尔——韩国空军表示，为应对朝鲜不断演变的核威胁，韩国、美国和日本三军于周日举行了首次三边空中演习。

空军在一份声明中表示，此次在朝鲜半岛附近举行的训练是为了落实三国此前达成的加强防务合作、提升联合应对朝鲜威胁能力的协议。

声明称，此次演习动用了美国的核动力B-52轰炸机以及韩国和日本的战斗机。

韩国和日本都是美国在亚洲的重要盟友，两国共驻扎着约 8 万名美军。

这三个国家偶尔会举行三方海上演习，例如反潜或导弹防御演习，但周日的训练是他们首次进行三方空中演习。

在韩国，扩大与日本的联合军事演习是一个敏感问题，因为许多人仍然对日本1910年至1945年对朝鲜半岛的残酷殖民统治怀有强烈的愤慨。但朝鲜不断推进的核计划促使韩国保守派总统尹锡悦超越与日本的历史争端，加强与美国和日本的三边安全合作。

8月，尹锡悦、美国总统乔·拜登和日本首相岸田文雄在戴维营举行了三国首次单独三边峰会，并同意加强防务合作，应对朝鲜的核威胁。三位领导人决定每年举行三边联合军演，并在年底前启动朝鲜导弹实时预警数据共享机制。

周日的演习可能会激起朝鲜的强烈反应。朝鲜长期以来对美韩联合军演不满，称其为入侵演习，并以导弹试验作为回应。朝鲜猛烈抨击戴维营协议，指责美国、韩国和日本领导人密谋在朝鲜半岛挑起核战争。朝鲜领导人金正恩称尹锡悦、拜登和岸田文雄是这三个国家的“黑帮老大”。

朝鲜去年颁布了一项授权先发制人使用核武器的法律，此后又公开威胁要在与美国和韩国的潜在冲突中使用核武器，这加剧了人们对朝鲜核计划的担忧。