The four-day exercise on South Korea's east coast will involve more than 20 vessels and an assortment of aircraft, which will conduct drills on anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare operations.
The launch was the eighth of its kind this year as Pyongyang is testing the precision of its weapons technology and pressuring the United States into offering concessions like sanctions relief.
South Korea's President Moon Jae-in says preventing such a crisis through persistent dialogue and diplomacy will be the task that political leaders in the countries concerned must fulfil together.
North Korea confirmed that it had fired a Hwasong-12 "ground-to-ground intermediate- and long-range ballistic missile," in a first test since 2017 of a weapon that powerful.
North Korea fires unidentified projectile towards the sea off its east coast amid Pyongyang's calls for US and South Korea to scrap their "hostile policy."
The missiles are "a strategic weapon of great significance" and flew 1,500 km before hitting their targets and falling into the country's territorial waters, state media said.
The test-fires were Pyongyang’s first major provocation since President Biden took office in January, an apparent move to pressure the US administration and to boost North Korea’s leverage in future talks.
Japanese fighters conduct joint air drills with US supersonic bombers close to the Korean peninsula as reports emerge of Pyongyang miniaturising a nuclear warhead.
Pyongyang conducted intercontinental ballistic missiles tests on Friday to prove its ability to strike America's mainland, drawing a sharp warning from US President Donald Trump.
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