Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
The first international air and naval exercise in a U.S.-led plan to stamp out global trade in weapons of mass destruction began Saturday off Australia’s northeast coast. North Korea branded the drill a “military provocation.”
The 11-nation operation, dubbed Exercise Pacific Protector, is the first by the signatories to the Proliferation Security Initiative proposed by President Bush in May to stop illegal shipments by air, land or sea.
About 800 military and security personnel from Australia, the United States, Japan and France are involved in the Coral Sea maneuvers.
Seven other nations–Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Britain — are observing.
