South Korea, the United States and Japan began their annual Freedom Edge trilateral exercise on Monday, deploying naval destroyers, maritime patrol aircraft and fighter jets in international waters around Jeju Island (South Korea's southernmost island). The fourth iteration of the drills, which span maritime, air and cyber domains, is explicitly aimed at strengthening deterrence against North Korean nuclear and missile threats. The exercise proceeds at full scale even as the separate bilateral US-South Korea Ulchi Freedom Shield drills were cut by half last month after President Trump ordered a reduction in a reported gesture toward Pyongyang — underscoring the trilateral format's resilience amid shifting US diplomatic signals on the Korean Peninsula.