British Royal Marines have deployed to the Korean peninsula for the first time since the Korean War in the 1950s amid rising tensions with China.
Taunton-based Bravo Company of 40 Commando trained alongside South Korean and US marines.
The exercises involved amphibious landings, coastal defence, crisis response and disaster relief.
More Royal Marines are due to deploy to the Indo-Pacific, including exercises in Australia this summer.
The Royal Navy’s off-shore patrol ships HMS Tamar and HMS Spey have been on a long-term deployment in the region since late 2021.
Tensions have been rising between the West and China under president Xi Jinping’s authoritarian premiership and as Beijing seeks to impose an increasingly expansionist foreign policy.
During the Korean War, Royal Marines of 41 Independent Commando saw action as far north as Lake Chosin and carried out amphibious raids behind North Korean lines between 1950 and 1951.
Around 28,000 Korean and US sailors and marines took part in the recent Exercise Ssangyong which also involved some 30 warships, 70 aircraft and 50 amphibious assault vehicles.
The Ministry of Defence in London stressed it was the largest amphibious activity for five years in the area.
It took place near Pohang, around 160 miles from South Korea’s capital Seoul.
Major Aran Sandiford RM, in command of the British Commando Forces on the exercise, said: “Regional security in the Indo-Pacific matters to all of us, including the UK, and this deployment of Commando Forces has provided an opportunity to reaffirm our shared values with two key regional allies.”
