Arab News Japan

TOKYO: Japan and the United States conducted a joint exercise on Saturday in response to “an increasingly severe security environment, including North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile launches,” the Ministry of Defense in Tokyo announced.

But North Korea saved no time to denounce the drills.

“This bilateral exercise reaffirms the coordination of Japan Self Defense Forces (JSDF) and U.S. Armed Forces, demonstrating the close Japanese American cooperation in responding to any situation, and further strengthens bilateral operational capability,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Japan’s Self-Defense Forces and America’s military routinely work together to maintain high levels of operational readiness in the event of any threat to Japan, it said.

Saturday’s drills took place in the airspace over the northwest of Kyushu, Japan’s main southern island, and included five Japanese F-2s, two American B-1Bs American F-16s.

Meanwhile the Korean Central News Agency, quoted the secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea Park Chung-cheon as saying “The United States and South Korea have decided to extend the joint aerial exercise Vigilant Storm, a very dangerous choice that will have consequences.

Using the same rhetoric North Korea say, Park added that “the irresponsible decisions of the US and South Korea are driving the current Korean situation out of control, brought on by the provocative military actions of the Allied Forces. The United States and South Korea will come to know that they have made a gross and irreparable mistake.”