The United States, Japan, and South Korea have activated a trilateral real-time tracking system to detect and assess North Korea’s missile launches, the three countries said in a joint statement on December 19.
“The launch of the real-time sharing mechanism will make it possible to share missile warning data among the three countries on a continuous basis,” defense chiefs of the partner countries said in a statement. “This marks a new page in defense cooperation among our three nations.”
The countries also established a multi-year plan for trilateral military exercises. The joint drills plan “will enable the three countries to conduct their training in a more systematic and efficient manner by regularizing it in the future,” the statement said.
“Amid a very difficult security environment, including the situation in North Korea, cooperation among the three countries is indispensable for regional peace and stability,” the joint statement added.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Japanese Defense Minister Kihara Minoru, and South Korean Minister of National Defense Shin Wonsik recently agreed to finalize the two initiatives by the end of 2023 at the United States-Japan-Republic of Korea Trilateral Ministerial Meeting in November.
The idea was coined by US President Joe Biden, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during the East Asia Summit in Cambodia in November 2022. The system would “improve each country’s ability to detect and assess the threat posed by incoming missiles,” the three leaders had said in a joint statement at that time.
What information is being shared?
Under the new mechanism, the three countries will share information on the launch site, flight trajectory and hitting point of North Korean missiles around the clock. Previously, The United States used to shared such information separately with South Korea and Japan.
South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said “We will have warning data on North Korean missiles much faster, and be able to secure enough time to respond effectively”.
North Korea test-fires intercontinental ballistic missile
The announcement of the new arrangements comes a day after Pyongyang test-fired a solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile. In its test flight, the Hwasong-18 ICBM missile stayed in the air for more than an hour before splashing down into waters, around 250 kilometers west of Japan’s Okushiri Island, according to the Japanese Defense Ministry.
Test-firing the missile was aimed at reviewing “the combat readiness of the DPRK’s nuclear war deterrence and confirm its mobility, combat capability and reliability,” the Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday. DPRK is the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.