Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

First Korea-U.S.-Japan Missile Warning Training

For the first time, Korea, the U.S. and Japan are conducting a missile warning training exercise that involves the sharing of missile detection and tracking information.

The MND reported on May 16 that Korea-U.S.-Japan missile warning training is being put on the drawing board within the TISA(Trilateral Intelligence-sharing Agreement) with the aim of more effectively protecting Korea against North Korea’s increasing nuclear and missile threats. Since the TISA agreement was reached, this is the first time that the three nations have worked to build up a network for the sharing of missile information in real time.

For this training, which is connected with 2016 RIMPAC(Rim of the Pacific Exercise) starting at the end of June, each country contributes an Aegis while the U.S. deploys one aircraft to act as a ballistic missile. The trajectory information of the phantom target detected by those three Aegis vessels is going to be shared via the U.S. inland relay station located in Hawaii.

A senior MND official stressed the irrelevance of the participation in the U.S. missile defense (MD) system. He said, “MD participation involves a high level of cooperation across all stages, including missile development and production, deployment and operation. We are trying to ensure interoperability of information through this training, while independently establishing Kill-Chain and KAMD(Korea Air and Missile Defense).”

It has been reported that this warning training was suggested by the U.S. during Korea-U.S.-Japan Defense Assistant Secretary level talks held on February 9, just after North Korea fired a long-range missile.

By Chul-Hwan, Kim < droid001@dema.mil.kr >
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