SEOUL: South Korea, the United States, and Japan held combined air drills, involving a B-1B bomber, south of the Korean Peninsula on Sunday, the South’s military said, in a show of force after North Korea’s new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch last week. The trilateral drills took place over waters east of South Korea’s southern island of Jeju amid heightened tensions after the North fired the new Hwasong-19 ICBM into the East Sea on Thursday in its first launch of a long-range ballistic missile this year.

According to Yonhap News Agency, during the drills, South Korean, U.S., and Japanese fighter jets escorted the U.S. heavy bomber over waters where the air defense identification zones of South Korea and Japan overlap, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a release. The JCS said the drills demonstrated the bomber’s capabilities to strike a simulated target, but later clarified that the training was conducted as a non-live-fire exercise.

“This exercise took place in response to North Kore
a’s launch of an ICBM on Oct. 31,” the JCS said. “Amid gradually increasing security cooperation between the three countries, (we) will strengthen coordination to deter and jointly respond to North Korea’s threats.” The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command also confirmed the exercise, noting that it continues the cooperation between the three countries to enable an immediate response to regional security challenges.

It marked the second air exercise between the three sides this year, the JCS said, amid joint efforts to strengthen trilateral security cooperation against evolving North Korean nuclear and missile threats.