South Korea starts two-day war games to defend against Japan
South Korea will begin two days of war games today to practice defending the disputed Dokdo islands off its east coast, against an unlikely attack by Japan. Seoul has controlled the islets in Sea of Japan (East Sea) since the end of Japanese colonial rule on the Korean peninsula. Tokyo also accused South Korea has occupied the island (known as Takeshima in Japan) illegally.
South Korea first staged drills in 1986
The drills come just days after the United States President Donald Trump announced the suspension of long-running joint exercises with South Korea, aimed at defending against North Korean aggression, calling them "expensive" and "provocative". While an attack from Japan is deemed unlikely, South Korea first staged the drills in 1986 and has conducted them twice a year since 2003.
Seoul Defense Ministry spokeswoman on the two-day training
"The Dokdo defense drill is a routine training conducted to prevent an invasion from external forces," Choi Hyun-soo, a spokeswoman at Seoul's Defense Ministry, said. The two-day training will involve six warships and seven aircraft while a unit of marines will land on the largely bare rocky islets, inhabited by around 40 people (mostly police officers), Hyun-soo added.
Relationship between South Korea and Japan
Both South Korea and Japan are market economies, democracies and US's allies, and both are threatened by nuclear-armed North Korea, but their relationship is heavily strained by historical and territorial issues. The two neighbors are also mired in a long-running feud over Japan's wartime sexual slavery of Korean women despite an agreement to settle the issue in 2015.
