Anchor: A joint South Korea-U.S. exercise has kicked off in the East and Yellow Seas Monday. The exercise comes as reports say U.S. President Donald Trump is set to promise a nuclear umbrella for South Korea and Japan when he visits the region early next month. Despite these moves U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson insists that Trump wants the North Korean issue solved diplomatically.
Alannah Hill has more.
 
Report: South Korea and the U.S. began a joint exercise in the East and Yellow Seas Monday.
 
U.S. strategic military assets, including a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and attack submarines, gathered on Sunday in South Korea for the drill. 
  
South Korean Navy's 76-hundred-ton Sejong the Great destroyer and warships are also taking part. 
 
During the joint exercise, which will involve about 40 naval vessels from the two sides, the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System -- an airborne battle management aircraft -- will also be deployed to monitor North Korea's ground force movements and coastal artillery. 
 
The exercise comes in the wake of reports that U.S President Donald Trump will promise Washington's provision of a nuclear umbrella for South Korea and Japan during his trip to Seoul early next month.
 
Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun daily on Sunday quoted a source as saying that Trump will deliver a major speech during his trip on his North Korea policy and set the issue of the North's nuclear and missile threats as the most important task for his administration.
 
Trump will reportedly press Pyongyang to fully abandon its nuclear development and missile launches, while stressing that Washington is mulling all possible options for North Korea including military action.
  
Despite the show of force, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that Trump ordered him to continue diplomatic efforts to ease tensions with North Korea.
 
Appearing on CNN on Sunday, Tillerson said Trump is not seeking to go to war and those diplomatic efforts will continue until the first bomb drops.
Alannah Hill, KBS World Radio News. 

[Photo : ]