South Korea, the United States and Japan will conduct a joint exercise to detect and track ballistic missiles in waters off the Hawaiian Islands in mid-July, Radio Korea International reported, citing South Korea’s defense ministry.

And the Ministry of Defense said: “The conduct of these maneuvers was the implementation of an agreement reached between the defense ministers of the three countries at their last meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the Asian Security Summit in Singapore.”

The three countries and Australia will conduct Exercise Pacific Dragon on July 14 near the Hawaiian Islands, with the exercise based on improved tactical and technical coordination among participating countries, including detection, tracking and reporting on ballistic targets.

It is worth noting that North Korea fired several artillery shells last Sunday, a week after it launched eight short-range ballistic missiles towards the East Sea.