SK launches defence drill amid tension with Japan

THE South Korean armed forces launched a two-day military exercise to defend the easternmost islets of Dokdo on Sunday amid growing tensions over trade and their shared history, in a show of its staunch defence stance against Japan’s repeated claims to sovereignty over the cluster of rocks in the East Sea.

The Navy announced that the drill involves Navy, Air Force and Army forces, such as naval warships and aircraft, as well as Army and Marine Corp troops.

“Indeed, it’s an exercise to guard our sovereignty and territory,” Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Ko Min-jung said at a press briefing.

She said it’s regular training and asked media not to attach excessive “political” meaning to the exercise.

The drill has been held twice a year, usually in June and December, to better fend off possible foreign infiltrations to the rocky outcroppings and the surrounding waters.

The timing of this year’s practice has drawn keen public attention, with Seoul and Tokyo locked in an escalating trade fight.

Japa n sta r ted i mposing st r icter ex por t rest r ict ions aga i nst Sout h Korea ea rly la st mont h, a move stem ming f rom d i f ferences over wartime forced labour. Japan, which has made territoria l claims to Dokdo, has protested t he drills.

Tokyo claimed that South Korea is no longer trustworthy in terms of its handling of strategic, dual-use materials.

In a countermeasure, South Korea has decided to terminate a major pact with Japan on exchanging military intelligence.

Ko said the Dokdo defence training is aimed at improving the military capability against potential threats from “all forces”, not just Japan.

Asked about the schedule of this year’s exercise, she added that weather conditions and “various other” factors were considered.

A Navy official earlier said the military formally named it “East Sea territory defence exercise” in consideration of its significance and size, a show of determination and resolve to defend the country’s territories in the East Sea, including Dokdo.

Seoul’s military drills immediately drew protest from Tokyo, which repeated its sovereignt y over t he islets.

In a protest lodged through a diplomatic channel, Tokyo expressed its “deep regret” over the drill and “strongly urged” Seoul to stop it, saying the rocky islands, known as Takeshima in Japan, are “an integral part of the territory of Japan”, according to Kyodo News Agency.

According to the Navy, the country’s first Aegis-equipped destroyer, Sejong the Great, and nine other warships, along with 10 warplanes, including the F-15K, were deployed in the drill.

“Overall, the size of the armed forces doubled compared with previous levels,” a Navy official said.

The Sejong the Great boasts the SPY-1D rada r s y stem capable of detecting and tracking 1,000 distant aeria l ta rgets simultaneously.

With the system, the warship has detected North Korea’s missile launches, including its first longrange rocket test in April 2009.

It is also equipped with an advanced fire control system, due to which the vessel was selected as a top gunship during the fire support training of the US-led multinational Rim of the Pacific exercise in 2010.

South Korea launched the Dokdo drill in 1986.

South Korea has maintained effective control of the nation’s easternmost islets with a small police detachment since its liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945.