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South Korea-USjoint antisubmarine exercises

On Apr. 3, South Korea, the US and Japan began three days of joint antisubmarine exercises in the water south off of Jeju Island in international waters between South Korea and Japan. As the first time the three countries have conducted joint antisubmarine exercises, this takes their trilateral military cooperation one step further than the previous humanitarian search and rescue exercises (SAREX) and missile warning exercises.

“These exercises are designed to ensure that the three countries can respond effectively to the North Korean submarine threat, including its development of submarine launched ballistic missile capability,” South Korea’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement released on Apr. 3. The Ministry explained that the exercises had been discussed during the Defense Trilateral Talks between senior defense officials from South Korea, the US and Japan in Dec. 2016.

The exercises are part of the expansion of South Korea’s bilateral military cooperation with Japan and its trilateral military cooperation with the US and Japan, which began in earnest during the administration of former president Park Geun-hye. South Korea’s military cooperation with the US and Japan has shifted into high gear since the three countries reached an information sharing agreement in Dec. 2014. In May 2015, South Korea and Japan’s Defense Ministers met for the first time in five years, and in the first half of last year, there was a series of meetings between the chiefs of staff of the South Korea and Japanese army and navy. In Nov. 2016, the two countries reached a bilateral information sharing agreement. Since June 2016, the three countries’ navies have held four missile warning exercises.

The vessels participating in these exercises were the destroyer Gang Gamchan and a Lynx helicopter from the South Korean navy, the Aegis destroyer USS McCampbell, an MH-60 helicopter and a P-3 maritime surveillance aircraft from the US Navy, and the destroyer Sawagiri and an antisubmarine helicopter from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer

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