Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect on tensions in the region of military exercises in which the UK has (a) participated and (b) not participated as a result of nuclear tests by North Korea.

We support South Korea and its allies' right to defend themselves in the face of escalating aggression from North Korea. We do not accept that there is any equivalence between the regular, defensive and legal military exercises held by South Korea and the United States, and the aggressive and illegal ballistic missile tests and nuclear testing being conducted by North Korea, which are the cause of the raised tensions on the Korean peninsula.

The UK is a sending state to the UN Command in Seoul. Alongside other nations, we routinely send military and civilian personnel to participate in two large scale military exercises conducted each year in South Korea.