This was announced in a communiqué by the South Korean Navy, after the Japanese Government protested against the exercise and canceled a summit agreed between the two countries for that reason.

The drill, called the East Sea Territorial Protection Exercise, involved the South Korean Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard, and was organized in a way to minimize people-to-people contacts, given the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the official release explained.

Seoul launched the Dokdo drills in 1986, and since 2003 it has generally conducted the training twice a year, in June and December.

As a regular joint exercise, the drills were aimed at responding to threats against our territory, people and properties, the South Korean Navy said in its statement.

In response to the training, Tokyo canceled the talks agreed between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, during the G-7 summit held recently in the United Kingdom, the Foreign Ministry in Seoul reported.

Bilateral relations between the two countries are in one of their worst phases in recent years over historic and diplomatic issues, which have spilled over into the economic and military fields.

Japan has repeatedly made territorial claims over Dokdo, although South Korea has maintained effective control of the islets since its liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945.

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