The United States, South Korea, and Japan Agree to Conduct Joint Military Exercises

The United States, Japan, and South Korea have agreed to hold new trilateral joint military exercises this summer. According to Reuters, the agreement to conduct the exercises is included in a joint statement released by the U.S. Department of Defense on Sunday following a meeting of the defense ministers of the three allied countries. Lloyd Austin, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, met with his counterparts from Japan and South Korea on Sunday on the sidelines of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security meeting in Singapore. According to the organizers, ministers, senior government officials, as well as business leaders and security experts will discuss security challenges at this meeting. According to the U.S. Department of Defense statement, the three countries are "committed to continuing to strengthen trilateral cooperation to ensure peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, the Indo-Pacific, and beyond." The three countries also agreed to establish a "trilateral security cooperation framework" this year in an effort to institutionalize their military cooperation. Senior defense officials from the three countries criticized North Korea's recent ballistic missile launches and military spy satellite using ballistic missile technology, deeming it a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.