SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea denounced the international Freedom Edge 2026 drills that got underway Monday around the strategic island of Jeju, off the peninsula’s southwestern coast, with Japanese, South Korean and U.S. forces engaged.
The North Korean statement was widely reported. What passed under the radar was the “red force” focus of the aerial-naval-cyber-missile defense drills, with the allies citing different aims.
While the world mulls the importance of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic location that enables Tehran to defy Washington’s greater military might, a series of East Asian islands and related choke points pass under the radar.
Unlike in the Middle East, the East Asian strategic geographies favor the U.S. and its allies against regional rivals.
Jeju, 50 miles off the Korean Peninsula’s southwestern coast, is one. It offers excellent basing for surveillance and power projection at the junction of the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan.
It is ideally positioned for forward defense of Taiwan, as well as for monitoring and interdicting any North Korean naval assets transiting from the east to the west of the peninsula, or vice versa.
However, up-to-the-minute geopolitics and a deadly Cold War historical episode make discussions about Jeju’s increasing strategic importance sensitive in South Korea.
North Korea bangs the table
Newly appointed North Korean Defense Minister Kim Song-gi stated, via state media Monday, that the drills are moving “instability on the Korean Peninsula and beyond the region to the limit.”
“If the U.S. and its allies attempt to provoke a new military confrontation with [North Korea], the latter will take strong and reflective countermeasures from the standpoint of power,” he said, in statements picked up by South Korean media.
Denunciations of South Korean-U.S. military drills are routine in Pyongyang. This time, there may be additional sensitivities.
North Korea on Monday commissioned a new warship with state leader Kim Jong-un and his daughter and possible successor, Kim Ju-ae, in attendance. The Kang Kon is the second of the 5,000-ton, 450-foot Choe Hyun-class destroyers to be commissioned. They are Mr. Kim’s largest surface assets.
Central to North Korea’s naval expansion, the heavily armed destroyers include 88 vertical-launch cells that can carry nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.
The destroyers, in addition to an under-construction nuclear submarine, appear designed to upgrade Pyongyang’s fleet from a small-vessel, coastal force into a blue-water navy.
The Kang Kon was commissioned in Wonsan, on the country’s east coast. Its sister ship, the Choe Hyun, was commissioned in 2025 in Nampo, on the west coast.
The fact that North Korea is compelled by geography to divide its fleet into eastern and western flotillas underlines Jeju’s strategic importance.
Why Jeju?
Some South Koreans will be relieved that Freedom Edge, which runs until Friday, is underway. Earlier this month, two planned joint exercises with U.S. forces were curtailed.
The first was drastically cut back on the last-minute orders of President Trump, who is seeking to renew his first-term summitry with Mr. Kim. The second was canceled by the U.S. Marine Corps, which cited force overstretch due to the Middle East conflict.
Even though Freedom Edge, now in its fourth edition, is underway, there was mixed messaging from the different parties on its aims.
A press release from U.S. Pacific Command, datelined Hawaii, quoted U.S., Japanese and South Korean officers, none of whom mentioned a specific threat.
The three countries “stand together on common interests, ready to preserve the peace and security we have built and defended for more than eight decades,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Stephen Jost, commander of U.S. Forces Japan.
The drills aim “to enhance trilateral interoperability, including in cross-domain operations,” said Vice Adm. Yoshiyasu Ishimaki, director general of the Operations Department of Japan’s Joint Staff.
“We seek to deepen mutual understanding and trust amongst us,” said Rear Adm. Ji-hoon Kim, director of exercises and training for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs talked up trilateral interoperability. But they also said the drills are “aimed at enhancing deterrence and response capabilities against North Korean nuclear and missile threats, while safeguarding regional peace and stability.”
Jeju’s position in the peninsula’s deep southwest is far from ideal for striking North Korean missiles launched from the mainland toward either Japan or the U.S.
Ballistic missiles are usually hefted into the atmosphere on an eastern trajectory, taking advantage of the earth’s rotation. That delivers a launch boost and reduces fuel consumption.
However, Jeju is ideally placed to interdict North Korean vessels moving between the two coastlines of the peninsula. Those transits have to traverse international waters off South Korea.
“Any major [North Korean] naval asset attempting to move between the east and west coast would have to operate through waters south of the peninsula, and Jeju provides a useful position from which to monitor these movements,” said Yu Ji-hoon, a former South Korean Navy commander. ‘In wartime, it could support surveillance, tracking and potentially, interdiction.”
Jeju is also ideally placed to interdict Chinese naval assets based on China’s eastern Yellow Sea coastline, within the First Island Chain.
When it comes to the First Island Chain, Japan’s Okinawa and the rest of the Ryukyu Chain, which lie southwest of the Japanese main islands, are strongpoints commanding maritime choke points vital for the defense of Taiwan.
Jeju, however, is rarely mentioned in related discussions.
For one thing, the progressive government in Seoul is less florid than the conservative administrations in Tokyo or Washington toward Beijing, and tends to avoid issues surrounding the defense of Taiwan.
“Jeju is well positioned in relation to the East China Sea and approaches to Taiwan,” said Mr. Yu, now a research fellow at the Korea Institute of Defense Analyses. “I do not think Korea would want Jeju to be explicitly designated a base for Taiwan contingency operations because that would immediately raise serious concerns in China and could unnecessarily constrain Seoul’s strategic options.”
Domestically, Jeju, a popular South Korean leisure and tourism destination, noted for its rugged scenery and laid-back vibe, has had conflicted relations with the mainland.
In 1948, a Communist rebellion on the island was suppressed with appalling brutality. As many as 30,000 were killed — many being women, children and the elderly.
The cruel facts of the “Red Hunt” on Jeju, which took place as South Korea was transitioning from U.S. to domestic rule, were suppressed for half a century.
Related sensitivities continue to simmer. Yearslong demonstrations opposed the building of a naval base on the island. It was completed in 2016.
That base expands Seoul’s strategic options
“Its real value comes from combining its geographies with submarines, maritime patrol aircraft, surface ships, unmanned systems and allies’ intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance,” said Mr. Yu. “I think Jeju’s greatest strategic value is not as a strike base but as a hub for maritime surveillance, anti-submarine warfare, sea control and sea lines of communication protection.”
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