Japan, U.S. and South Korea will hold anti-missile exercise in June, being their first joint military training exercise with the focus on cooperation to detect signs of missile launches by North Korea, a Seoul defense official said to the press just recently.

This is the first such agreement among the three countries.

The international standoff over North Korea has recently re-surfaced after Pyongyang carried out its fourth nuclear test, in January, and a long-range rocket launch in February.

The peninsula was divided into a U.S.-backed South Korea and a Soviet-supported, socialist North Korea at the end of the Japanese occupation. The two Koreas fought a devastating three-year war in the early 1950s, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

South Korea’s taking part in military exercises on missiles is not welcome by China, ever wary of Japan and the United States expanding their military influence in the region.

“The voice of reason was heard following the Workers’ Party Congress in Pyongyang that ended recently. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stated his country would not use nuclear weapons unless its sovereignty was infringed by others with nuclear arms,” quote from my Pressenza article: “North Korea’s east wind, strong but warming” at http://www.pressenza.com/2016/05/313021/

Another good sign for a more agreeable future between these belligerents is that North Korea’s newly-appointed Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho is reputedly relatively open-minded, and his appointment could signal the communist country’s willingness to open dialogue with the United States, says a US commentator.

Two interesting related developments over recent days.

Power-house Donald Trump of the USA says he is OK to meet North Korea’s Kim to try and convince him to cease his nuclear weapons-missiles programme – should he gain the Whitehouse seat. This is a worthy stance.

Further, president-elect Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines announced he would lessen military ties with the USA and Australia and develop those same ties with China, seeking arbitration instead of nationalistic flag waving over the South China Seas/Philippine seas issue.

Also a worthy more deeply-thought-out stance between Asian neighbours.

Interesting how strong men can naturally display a certain wisdom, is it their lack of fear?