The United States, Japan and South Korea all held military drills today, hours after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile in Pyongyang's second major weapons test this month.
North Korea's test launch of the missile, which landed in Japanese waters, showed a potential ability to launch nuclear strikes on all of the US mainland, prompting a firm rebuke from Washington.
Washington quickly condemned the launch and vowed to take 'all necessary measures' to guarantee the safety of its territory and its allies South Korea and Japan
Within hours of Pyongyang's missile launch, Tokyo and the US held joint military drills in the airspace over the Sea of Japan in response to 'an increasingly sever security environment surrounding Japan', officials said.
The exercise also 'further strengthens the deterrence and response capabilities of the Japan-US Alliance', a joint staff statement distributed by the Japanese defence ministry said.
South Korea's military also said its F-35 fighter jets conducted drills with simulating aerial strikes on North Korean mobile missile launchers at a firing range near its land border with North Korea.
Seoul said a group of eight South Korean and US fighter jets separately performed flight training off the Korean Peninsula's east coast.
The exercises 'showed we have a strong resolve to sternly deal with an ICBM launch and any other provocations and threats posed by North Korea, and the allies' overwhelming capacity and readiness to launch precision strikes on the enemy,' South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
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