Largest-ever Japan-U.S. defense drills begin amid Korean Peninsula tensions+

TOKYO, Dec. 3 Kyodo -
Japan's Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military began their largest-ever
joint drills Friday with the South Korean military taking part for the first
time as an observer amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
The 10th staging of the drills since 1986 will run for eight days at bases
across Japan, as well surrounding waters and air space. The drills follow the
four-day U.S.-South Korean military exercises held through Wednesday in the
Yellow Sea on the heels of North Korea's shelling of a South Korean island late
last month.
''Naturally, we take into consideration changes in the security environment in
surrounding areas, but with this, we are not targeting a specific country,''
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said to reporters at the Diet building when
asked about the significance of the latest exercises.
The exercises will also contribute to strengthening cooperation between Japan,
South Korea and the United States, Kitazawa said.
Some 34,000 personnel, 40 vessels and 250 aircraft from Japan's ground,
maritime and air self-defense forces, and around 10,000 personnel, 20 ships and
150 aircraft from the U.S. military are to engage in training maneuvers in mock
military attacks on Japan.
The vessels include the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier the George
Washington, which also participated in the U.S.-South Korean exercises, and the
Maritime Self-Defense Force's Aegis-equipped destroyers.
The drills center on a ballistic missile attack, with Aegis destroyers equipped
with Standard Missile-3 interceptors of both countries being deployed to the
Sea of Japan off the Noto Peninsula in central Japan and Patriot Advanced
Capability-3 ground-to-air missiles mobilized at bases from Hokkaido to
Okinawa.
The SDF and the U.S. side plan to coordinate the detection, tracking and
interception of a simulated ballistic missile aimed at Japan without actually
firing any missiles, while F-15 fighter jets from Komatsu base near the
peninsula will also practice air defense maneuvers.
Several South Korean military personnel are to board a U.S. Aegis ship to
observe the missile defense training.
In the Pacific off Okinawa and other Nansei islands stretching in southwestern
Japan, the George Washington and Japan's ''flat-top'' destroyer capable of
carrying 11 helicopters are to engage in antisubmarine and air defense drills
to defend remote islands from invasion.
When the U.S. and South Korean militaries conducted joint drills in July in the
Sea of Japan after the fatal sinking of a South Korean warship in March, for
which North Korea is blamed, the Japanese MSDF took part as an observer.
==Kyodo