U.S., Japan to enhance trilateral military cooperation with South Korea

The U.S. and Japan on Thursday agreed to enhance trilateral military cooperation with South Korea against North Korea following Pyongyang's failed military spy satellite launch.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada in Tokyo and discussed bolstering military cooperation, Tokyo-based Kyodo News reported.

Austin arrived in Japan on the first leg of a four-nation tour-he will also visit India, France and Singapore.

The two defense officials agreed to deepen their cooperation with South Korea and Australia and further boost their deterrence and response abilities, including the ability to strike targets in enemy territory, according to the report.

"The United States will take all necessary measures" to safeguard the security of itself and its security allies," the agency quoted Austin as saying during a joint press conference with his counterpart.

Hamada said that Japan and the U.S. will not tolerate "any unilateral attempts to change the status quo."

Japan and South Korea are close allies of the U.S. in the region.

On Wednesday, North Korea launched its new-type satellite carrier rocket "Chollima-1" which crashed into the West Sea of Korea.

The U.S., Japan, and South Korea strongly condemned the North Korean latest launch and called it a grave violation of the UN Security Council resolutions.

'U.S. COERCION'

Reacting to the military cooperation between the U.S. and Japan that refers to "China's coercion," the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Thursday that it's not China's coercion but the U.S.' coercion.

"China always believes that state-to-state military cooperation should be conducive to regional peace and stability and should not be targeted at a third party or harm the interests of a third party," Global Times quoted the spokesperson as saying.