Saturday morning’s Asahi and Sankei focused on an announcement made by the South Korean Navy on Friday that it will conduct joint exercises with the U.S. Navy in the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea for five days beginning on Oct. 16. The USS Ronald Reagan and numerous warships and aircraft are expected to participate in the training to prepare for further provocations by North Korea.  

In a related development, Sunday’s Asahi took up the disclosure by a military source based in Seoul that spy satellites detected about five mobile platforms loaded with ballistic missiles moving toward multiple undetermined locations near Pyongyang last week. The U.S. and South Korea suspect that the simultaneous movements may have been intended to conceal the actual site for a launch to coincide with the planned start of the U.S.-ROK drill.