Japan’s Nikkei Shimbun (Nikkei) reported on the 2nd that the United States is considering expanding military exercises with South Korea and Japan as North Korea launches ballistic missiles one following another.
U.S. Pacific Air Force Commander Kenneth Wilsbach told Nikkei on the 30th of last month, “It will be an option for countermeasures (to North Korea)” with the expansion of military exercises in mind by South Korea, the United States and Japan.
Samuel Paparo, commander of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet, said the three countries “must work more closely on the threat.”
On the 30th of last month, the ROK and U.S. navies and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Forces conducted a combined anti-submarine exercise in the high seas of the East Sea for the first time in five years since April 2017.
North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the East Sea the day before Armed Forces Day, the fourth in the past week.
North Korea has launched 20 ballistic missiles and two cruise missiles this year.
South Korea, the US and Japan are wary of the possibility that North Korea may conduct a seventh nuclear test in the near future.
The South Korean National Intelligence Service predicted that if North Korea conducts its 7th nuclear test, it is highly likely to take place between the 20th Party Congress of the Chinese Communist Party on the 16th of this month and the midterm elections in the United States on the 7th of next month.
Nikkei said, “A US official said, ‘There is pressure from China (not to test a nuclear weapon) until the end of the CCP Congress, which begins on the 16th.’ If it is judged that this situation is in place, the possibility of conducting a nuclear test is high,’ he said.
/yunhap news
