China stages navy drills after North Korea launch

Aug. 8 (UPI) -- China may have staged live-fire exercises to warn North Korea following the launch of its latest intercontinental ballistic missile.

Beijing's People's Liberation Army navy conducted more than 10 kinds of drills near the Korean peninsula that include dozens of missile tests, state media reported.

The drills ended Tuesday.

Surface ships, submarines, air support and coastguard forces took part in the drills, according to CCTV.

Aerial interception and assaults by land and sea, the simulation of real combat conditions, were all part of the drills, according to Chinese media.

Drills took place in waters between coastal Shandong province and Jiangsu province in the Yellow Sea, the Chinese navy said.

The exercises may have been held as a "response" to Pyongyang's latest provocation, the launch of an ICBM that dropped in the Sea of Japan July 28.

Collin Koh, a maritime security expert at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, said the exercises were intended to discourage both North Korea and the United States from stepping up military activity, the South China Morning Post reported.

"States do this because they want to send a signal," Koh said. "It's not just targeted at North Korea."

In April, China conducted multiple training exercises in Bohai Bay and the Yellow Sea.

Chinese state news service People's Daily Online reported at the time the Nanchang Q-5, a Chinese-built ground-attack aircraft, practiced hitting simulated targets in Bohai Bay.