South Korea, the United States and Japan will conduct their trilateral military exercise off South Korea's southern coast early next month, the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Friday. The multi-domain Freedom Edge exercise will take place from Sept. 7-11 in international waters east and south of Jeju Island, the JCS said in a message to media. "The exercise is defensive in nature, which is held by the three nations annually to counter North Korea's nuclear and missile threats and to safeguard regional peace and stability," the JCS said.