The navies of South Korea, the United States and Japan on Friday held their first trilateral anti-submarine exercise in five years amid tension over a series of North Korean missile tests.

The exercise was held in international waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, just a day after North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea off the east coast, US Vice President Kamla Harris visited South Korea and the heavily fortified border between the two countries. Korea.

Thursday’s test was the third of its kind in five days by North Korea, which has fired an unprecedented number of missiles this year.

“The exercise aims to enhance their ability to respond to North Korean submarine threats, including submarine-launched ballistic missiles, at a time when Pyongyang is constantly posing a nuclear and missile threat through a series of ballistic missile tests,” the South Korean Navy said. in a statement.

The US Navy said the exercise will increase interoperability as well as tactical and technical coordination between the three countries.

The US and Japanese navies also said the exercise is expected to strengthen the “free and open Indo-Pacific” amid tensions over China’s actions in the Taiwan Strait.

It has not conducted anti-submarine exercises since 2017 as the previous South Korean government sought to improve inter-Korean relations and facilitate disarmament talks between Pyongyang and Washington, which have stalled since 2019.

New South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, has vowed to strengthen trilateral security cooperation with the United States and Japan to better counter advanced weapons threats from North Korea.