S. Korea, Japan hold biennial joint naval exercise

South Korea and Japan will hold a biennial joint naval exercise this weekend to promote military exchanges and friendship, ROK Navy said Monday. ROK Navy and Japan''s Maritime Self-Defense Force will hold this weekend their seventh annual Search and Rescue Exercise (SAREX) off the east coast of Busan, some 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, according to Yonhap news agency. "The exercise is designed to develop the joint response between the Navy and the Self-Maritime Defense Force to maritime incidents," the Navy said in a statement. "This exercise also helps bolster bilateral cooperation and is held in a peaceful and humanitarian manner." The Navy will dispatch a 4,200-ton destroyer named Wang Geon, honoring the founder of the ancient kingdom of Goryeo, a Lynx maritime operation helicopter and a Lockheed P-3 maritime patrol aircraft. Japan will send destroyers named Hamayuki and Matsuyuki, plus two SH-60J Seahawk choppers and a P-3. The first SAREX was held in 1999.