South Korea, the US and Japan began their first trilateral multi-domain exercise today. The three-day exercise, named Freedom Edge, got underway in South Korea’s southern island of Jeju. The exercise comes amid efforts to deepen security cooperation against threats from North Korea by its deepening ties with Russia. The exercise will focus on ballistic missile defence, air defence, antisubmarine warfare, search and rescue, maritime interdiction and defensive cyber training.
Earlier, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a summit in Pyongyang, where they signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty that calls for military assistance if one of them is attacked.