South Korea, Japan, US conduct air drill as defence chiefs meet

By Jack Kim and Joyce Lee

SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea, Japan and the United States conducted a joint air drill on Friday involving a U.S. B-52 strategic bomber and fighter jets of the three allies over international waters, the South's defence ministry said.

It was the first time this year that a U.S. B-52H strategic bomber was deployed to the Korean Peninsula for a drill, conducted to improve deterrence against North Korea's increasing nuclear and missile threats, it said.

The three countries' defence chiefs also held an annual meeting in Seoul on Friday, where they recognised the importance of close trilateral cooperation in addressing security challenges posed by North Korea, in the Indo-Pacific and beyond, the defence ministry said in a statement.

"We're illuminating a future path together, a path where partnerships can evolve through persistent and regular engagement from building capacity to really sharing responsibility," U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine said in opening remarks before the meeting.

"(North Korea) and China are undergoing an unprecedented military build-up with a clear and unambiguous intent to move forward with their own agendas. We need to be mindful of that."

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also met Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo in Malaysia on Friday.

They agreed to maintain a strong deterrence against North Korea as well as strengthen cooperation in fields such as energy, shipbuilding, critical minerals and other matters of supply chain security as well as artificial intelligence, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The three met on the sidelines of meetings by top diplomats from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as other nations, in Kuala Lumpur.

LAVROV VISIT TO NORTH KOREA

The three countries have boosted security cooperation in recent years, as tensions have increased stemming from North Korea's military developments and its deepening military ties with Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's scheduled visit to North Korea starting on Friday is the latest high-level meeting between the two countries amid a dramatic upgrading of their strategic cooperation, which now includes a mutual defence pact.

Russian news agency RIA reported that the Russian Foreign Ministry was looking into when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might visit Russia, although Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said there were no immediate plans for a visit by either of the leaders from the two countries.

Caine, South Korea's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Kim Myung-soo and Japanese Chief of Staff Yoshihide Yoshida "discussed the deployment" of North Korean troops to Russia, their joint statement said.

The South Korean intelligence service has said North Korea may be preparing to deploy additional troops in July or August, after sending more than 10,000 soldiers to fight with Russia in the war against Ukraine.

North Korea has agreed to dispatch 6,000 military engineers and builders for reconstruction in Russia's conflict-hit Kursk region.

(Reporting by Jack Kim and Joyce Lee; editing by Ed Davies and Mark Heinrich)