Home > National > Defense

Korea, U.S. and Japan hold tabletop exercise in Seoul

Published: 24 Apr. 2025, 15:34

Cho Chang-rae, Korea’s director general for defense policy, center; Kara Abercrombie, acting U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy plans and capabilities, left; and Taro Yamato, director general for defense policy at Japan’s Ministry of Defense pose for a photo following the 15th Korea-U.S.-Japan security meeting held in central Seoul on Sept. 10, 2024. [NEWS1]

South Korea, the United States and Japan held a joint tabletop exercise (TTX) on Tuesday and Wednesday for the first time in five years to strengthen trilateral responses to North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threats, Seoul’s Ministry of National Defense announced on Thursday.

The three countries conducted the TTX alongside a working-level Defense Trilateral Talks (DTT) meeting at the Defense Ministry headquarters in Yongsan District, central Seoul.

The two-day event aimed to discuss the key agenda for the upcoming high-level DTT session scheduled for the first half of the year.

South Korea’s deputy director-general for international policy, the U.S. Defense Department’s director for East Asia and the director of Japan-U.S. defense cooperation at Japan’s Ministry of Defense all attended the event.

The three countries agreed to resume the trilateral TTX during a ministerial meeting on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in June 2024.

This week's drill marks the first such exercise since 2020 and the first time it has been held outside the United States.

The TTX featured a simulated scenario involving North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats. Specific details remain undisclosed, with the content of the exercise classified under a mutual agreement among the three defense authorities.

“Korea, the United States and Japan agreed to maintain the momentum of trilateral security cooperation,” the ministry said. “This also demonstrates that the three-way cooperation remains steady under the second Donald Trump administration.”

The main session of the DTT, a vice-ministerial level security dialogue among South Korea, the United States and Japan, brings together Seoul's director general for defense policy, the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs from Washington and Tokyo’s director general for defense policy.

The 15th session took place in Seoul on Sept. 10 last year.

If held in the first half of this year, the upcoming meeting will mark the 16th session and the first since the launch of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second administration in January.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
BY CHO MUN-GYU [[email protected]]