Navy plans anti-submarine exercise amid growing N. Korea threats

South Korea's Navy said Thursday it will conduct an exercise in the East Sea to better counter possible missile attacks by North Korean submarines.

The exercise, which will run from Friday through Tuesday, will involve 10 warships, such as the 7,600-ton Aegis-equipped Sejong the Great destroyer, submarines, P-3 maritime patrol aircraft and fighter jets.

It said officials from the US Undersea Warfighting Development Center (UWDC) plan to assess the Korean Navy's capabilities when it comes to operations against submarines, warships and aircraft sent by the communist North.

In 2015, Washington agreed to support Seoul's efforts to bolster its capabilities to detect, trace and attack North Korean submarines in the event of any signs of a conflict on the Korean Peninsula, the statement said. 

Starting in 2017, the two countries' naval forces plan to conduct a joint assessment on the Korean Navy's anti-submarine capabilities, it said.

Earlier in the day, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Um Hyun-seong said in a seminar in Seoul that South Korea is beefing up its fleet forces to respond to North Korea's growing nuclear, missile and submarine-launched ballistic missile threats.

This year alone, Pyongyang has conducted two underground nuclear tests and fired off some two dozen ballistic missiles. Such developments have escalated global fears that the North is approaching its stated goal of developing a nuclear-tipped long-range ballistic missile that can hit parts of the US mainland. (Yonhap)