Story highlights Aegis destroyers in two days of drills in waters between Japan and Korean Peninsula

North Korean missile launches push South Korea-Japan cooperation, analyst says

(CNN) The US, Japan and South Korea sent a pointed message to North Korea on Tuesday, dispatching high-tech missile defense ships to the same area where Pyongyang fired four missiles just eight days ago.

Aegis warships from the US, South Korea and Japan began exercises Tuesday to improve their capability to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles, the US Navy said in a statement.

The US Navy called the two-day drills "a trilateral missile warning informational link exercise."

"The exercise will employ tactical data link systems to trade communications, intelligence and other data among the ships in the exercise," a statement from the US Navy's 7th Fleet in Japan said.

China's Foreign Ministry reacted sternly Tuesday afternoon, calling on all sides to end "a vicious cycle that could spiral out of control."

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