S. Korea, US, Japan to conduct Freedom Edge joint drills in early September
South Korean and U.S. warships participate in the Freedom Edge exercise in international waters south of Jeju Island on Sept. 16, 2025. Courtesy of Joint Chiefs of Staff
South Korea, the United States and Japan will conduct their trilateral military exercise off South Korea's southern coast early next month, Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Friday.
The multi-domain Freedom Edge exercise will take place from Sept. 7-11 in international waters east and south of Jeju Island, the JCS said in a message to media.
"The exercise is defensive in nature, which is held by the three nations annually to counter North Korea's nuclear and missile threats and to safeguard regional peace and stability," the JCS said.
The upcoming drills come after Seoul and Washington scaled down their bilateral Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise by half last week, following U.S. President Donald Trump's order to reduce the drills in a move seen as a conciliatory gesture toward North Korea.
Given the scaling back of the UFS drills, whether the allies would hold their trilateral exercise with Tokyo this year had been a point of attention.
The U.S. Pacific Command told Yonhap News Agency earlier this week that the three countries were coordinating to prepare for Freedom Edge, signaling that the exercise will be carried out as planned.
Pyongyang has long denounced military drills involving South Korea and the U.S. as rehearsals for invasion, rejecting the allies' position that they are of a defensive nature.
Trump instructed the Pentagon to adjust the UFS, describing the drills as potentially sending an "inappropriate and hostile" message to Pyongyang. His remarks came as he renewed his push to resume dialogue with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un this year.
It remains to be seen what key U.S. military assets will participate in this year's Freedom Edge. Last year's drills were held without a U.S. aircraft carrier, its first absence since the inaugural drills, as U.S. carrier strike groups were deployed to the Middle East.
The Freedom Edge exercise was one of the key outcomes from the trilateral Camp David summit of the three countries' leaders in August 2023, marking a significant step forward in institutionalizing the three-way security cooperation among the U.S. and its key Asian allies.
The three previous Freedom Edge exercises were held in June and November of 2024, and in September last year.