The Navy plans to carry out its regular defense exercise over Dokdo next week, the easternmost South Korean islets claimed by Japan, a Navy official said Wednesday.
“The exact date of the drill could be adjusted depending on weather conditions,” the Navy official said.
The Coast Guard will also join the Dokdo drill, which South Korea has been conducting every spring and autumn since its inception in 1986.
A total of 10 warships, including a surface vessel and a guided-missile patrol killer, will participate in the drill in the waters off Dokdo, along with several aircrafts, according to the official.
The exercise will be performed under a scenario in which South Korean forces block foreign troops’ illegal occupation of the islets.
A plan to deploy an Air Force tactical aircraft is also under consideration, the official added.
Next week’s drill has no political context and is purely for military purposes, the official said.
“It has nothing to do with any political situations, including South Korea-Japan relations. It’s aimed purely at military purposes,” he said.
Dokdo has long been a source of diplomatic, and sometimes military, tensions between South Korea and Japan, which lays territorial claims over the rocky South Korean islets.
South Korea keeps a small police detachment on the islets, effectively controlling them.
On Monday, President Park Geun-hye and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held summit talks for the first time since they took office nearly three years ago although Dokdo was not a major part of their discussions. (Yonhap)
