S. Korea, US, Japan launch system to share NK missile warning data in real time

This file photo on Nov. 12 shows Defense Minister Shin Won-sik, left, and his respective U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Lloyd Austin, center, and Minoru Kihara, holding three-way talks. Shin and Austin met in Seoul, Dec. 12, while Kihara joined the session virtually. Courtesy of Korean defense ministry

South Korea, the United States and Japan on Tuesday launched a system to share North Korean missile warning data in real time, the defense ministry said, in the latest effort to bolster trilateral security cooperation against the North.

The three sides also jointly established a multiyear plan for trilateral military drills as agreed by their defense chiefs in a three-way meeting in November as they seek to better counter evolving North Korean nuclear and missile threats.

"The three countries established the system to detect and evaluate missiles launched by North Korea in real time to ensure the safety of their citizens and enhance related capabilities," the ministry said in a release.

The system's activation comes just a day after North Korea launched what it claimed to be a Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the regime's fifth ICBM launch this year. Leader Kim Jong-un said the launch showed what option the North would take "when Washington makes a wrong decision."

The ministry did not provide details on the type of data to be shared by the three sides, but Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said in a media interview Monday they would include the missile's presumed launch point, flight path and expected point of impact.

As the U.S. has bilateral alliance treaties with South Korea and Japan, it has had a data sharing system with each ally, but there has not been a direct data linkage between the two Asian neighbors that have long been in historical feuds stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

The ministry said the three countries have also approved the multiyear exercise plan, starting next year, noting that they plan to regularize military drills and stage them in a more systematic and efficient manner.

"Today's progress in cooperation ... will advance a new era of South Korea-U.S.-Japan security cooperation," it said. "The three countries will continue to strengthen trilateral cooperation to respond to regional challenges and ensure peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, including the Korean Peninsula, and beyond."

In November last year, President Yoon Suk Yeol, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to share the missile warning data in real time in a joint statement at their Phnom Penh summit.

The three leaders also agreed to operationalize the system by the end of this year and to hold "annual, named, multi-domain" trilateral exercises on a regular basis to enhance cooperation at their Camp David summit in August this year. (Yonhap)