U.S. and Japan stage joint drill amid regional tensions

U.S. and Japanese forces began military maneuvers on Friday, heaping pressure on North Korea which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said posed an “immediate threat” to the region and a long-term threat to the world. South Korea, which joined U.S. forces in military drills this week days after North Korea shelled a South Korean island, has for the first time joined the maneuvers as an observer as the three countries seek to rein in the reclusive North. Two marines and two civilians were killed in the attack on Yeonpyeong, prompting a return of fire by the South minutes later, ramping up tension between the two sides that have technically been at war since their 1950-53 conflict which ended in a truce, not a treaty. The exercises that began on Friday will involve about 44,500 military personnel from both countries in waters east of the southern island of Okinawa, home to a controversial U.S. military base, and elsewhere. About 60 ships, including the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington and 400 aircraft, will take part in eight days of drills. “North Korea poses an immediate threat to the region around us, particularly to South Korea and Japan,” Clinton said in the Kyrgyzstan capital Bishkek, according to a transcript released by the State Department. “It poses a medium-term threat if it were to collapse to China, because of refugees and other instability. And it poses a long-term threat to the entire world, because of its nuclear program, and its export of weapons around the world.” She said South Korea had exercised “great restraint.” CHINA ROLE The United States has been pushing China, North Korea’s only major ally, to bring the reclusive country to heel. China has refused to blame North Korea for last week’s attack, or for the earlier sinking of a South Korean naval vessel. A team international investigators said the North torpedoed the ship. On Wednesday, South Korea’s spy chief said it was highly likely the North would attack its wealthy neighbor again. China, which said it would not play favorites in the dispute, has proposed emergency talks of the six countries — the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States — involved in North Korean denuclearization negotiations. Only Russia has given its support. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu responded to criticism that China was not doing enough with a thinly disguised slap at the U.S.-South Korea military maneuvers.