The US, Japan, and South Korea on Monday kicked off five days of trilateral military drills for the third consecutive year, exercises that North Korea has denounced as evidence that the US is continuing hostile policies toward Pyongyang despite Washington cutting short earlier US-South Korean war games.
The drills, dubbed Freedom Edge, began in 2024 and were a result of a Camp David summit President Biden hosted in 2023 with the leaders of South Korea and Japan. Washington has been fostering the mending of ties between Tokyo and Seoul as part of its strategy against Beijing in the region. The drills were held twice in 2024, making the 2026 version the fourth iteration.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that the “multidomain” exercises began in waters east and south of South Korea’s southern Jeju Island. US Pacific Command said the five days of drills will take place in international waters and airspace to the south of South Korea, as well as at military installations and command posts in Japan.
Rear Adm. Kim Ji-hoon of South Korea’s JCS said that the drills were meant to counter North Korea, which just commissioned its second naval destroyer. “The trilateral Freedom Edge exercise is being executed to counter North Korean nuclear and missile threats, and that’s the main purpose of the exercise,” Kim said, according to Yonhap News Agency.
“I am sure this will also send a message to the recently constructed ship by North Korea,” Kim added.
In a statement condemning the exercises, North Korean Defense Minister Kim Song Gi noted that they were coinciding with Orient Shield, major trilateral drills between the US, Japan, and Australia that will be held from September 8 to September 24. The exercises will involve the deployment of a US Typhon system, which can fire Tomahawk missiles, putting North Korea, China, and Russia in range from Japanese territory.
“I sound a note of warning against the reckless military moves of the US and its satellite countries to create a serious military confrontation and possibility of conflict on the Korean Peninsula, and solemnly warn of the consequences to be entailed by them,” the North Korean defense minister said.
President Trump scaled back the US-South Korean Ulchi Freedom Shield war games in August, a step he said he took due to his “very good relationship” with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un. While Trump has said he’s seeking to hold another meeting with Kim this year, there’s no sign Pyongyang is interested at the moment, though Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, recently said the two leaders “still have an excellent relationship.”
