• The US, South Korea, and Japan staged joint naval drills in international waters near the southern Jeju island off the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday, leading to condemnation from North Korea. Reuters (LR: 3 CP: 5)
• South Korea's military stated that the drills were intended to practice tracking, detecting, and sharing information concerning potential North Korean missiles. The US and South Korea also began separate bilateral military drills last week. Al Jazeera (LR: 2 CP: 1)
• The news comes after the three nations met at a summit based at Camp David in the US on Aug. 18th, and two days after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un promised to expand the use of maritime nuclear weapons. Korea Herald
• The leaders of the US, South Korea, and Japan — Joe Biden, Yoon Suk Yeol, and Fumio Kishida, respectively— agreed at the summit to share real-time missile data and increase trilateral defense cooperation. Yahoo News
• Also speaking on Tuesday during North Korea's Navy Day speech, the North Korean leader criticized the drills and warned that the region has been "reduced into the world's biggest war hardware concentration spot" containing the "danger of nuclear war." Dw.Com
• Meanwhile, North Korea has reportedly carried out over 100 weapons tests since the beginning of 2022. North Korea's state news agency, KCNA, also revealed that Kim Jong-un had witnessed the test-firing of strategic cruise missiles the very same day as the US-South Korea drills began on Aug. 21. Independent (LR: 2 CP: 3)

:

• The newfound tripartite bond between the US, South Korea, and Japan must reach its potential in order to deter the current behavior of both North Korea and China. While maintaining peaceful dialogue between all the relevant parties must remain a priority, so too must strengthening economic, technological, and security cooperation in the face of hostile activities.
  Project Syndicate

:

• North Korea continues to be persecuted through regional maritime aggression. Its navy must be strengthened in light of external hostilities that have developed into a conflict of ideologies and morality. Equipment will continue to be modernized, and the navy will respond with practical maneuvers to counter current war tactics being displayed by enemies of the state who wish to provoke North Korea.
  KCNA Watch

Nerd narrative:

• There's a 15% chance of a full-scale war between North Korea and South Korea by 2050, according to the Metaculus prediction community.
  Metaculus (LR: 3 CP: 3)