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AFP
SEOUL
SOUTH KOREA, Japan and the United States will hold their first anti-missile drills together next month to guard against threats from nuclear-armed North Korea, a Seoul official said Monday.
The drill will be held in the waters near Hawaii on June 28, said an official at the Seoul's defense ministry, ahead of the US-led Rim of the Pacific naval exercises.
"The training will involve detecting and tracing an imaginary missile from North Korea, but will not include missile interception," said the official.
US will launch an airplane as a mock-up missile, which all three countries will monitor from ships equipped with an Aegis anti-missile system, Yonhap news agency reported.
The upcoming exercise was proposed at a trilateral military meeting held after the North's long-range rocket launch in February, the official added.
The rocket launch -- held a month after Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test and seen as a disguised ballistic missile test -- drew widespread condemnation and prompted the UN to slap its toughest sanctions ever on North Korea.
