Rivals Japan and S. Korea hold first joint naval exercise

TOKYO -- The navies of Japan and South Korea continued on Thursday their search-and-rescue exercises in the East China Sea, sparking anger from China.

Officials said the two navies are operating off South Korea's Cheju Island. The drills, the first joint military exercises by the two countries, focused on responding to a fire on a civilian vessel.

The exercise is scheduled to end on Saturday. The South Korean Defense Ministry said 1,200 soldiers are participating from Seoul and Tokyo as well as a destroyer, an escort vessel and a helicopter from South Korea and three destroyers, one patrol plane and three helicopters from Japan.

Japan and South Korea -- longtime rivals-- have intensified their cooperation in the wake of North Korean missile threats. The United States has been leading the effort to persuade Pyongyang to cancel plans to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Two U.S. missile-tracking vessels have been spotted at the U.S. Navy base in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture. Japanese defense sources said one of the vessels, the 17,015-ton Observation Island, arrived at Sasebo Monday to join the 2,262-ton Invincible, which entered the base in southwestern Japan in July.

North Korea has denounced the exercise. "The exercise is aggressive and criminal in its nature,'' the North's official Korean Central News Agency said. "We will never tolerate (those) who are persisting in such military actions. If they finally provoke a war. They will have to pay dearly for it and suffer a miserable defeat.''