This time it was only an exercise. One of the two pretend culprits was cheekily flying the skull and crossbones. But the nine coastguard and naval ships from Japan, the United States, Australia and France that assembled in Sagami Bay, south-west of Tokyo, on October 26th to track and board the miscreant vessels were otherwise in deadly earnest. Though it was the first such drill to be held in East Asia, "Team Samurai" is one of a dozen dress-rehearsals around the globe over the past 18 months to practise ways of halting the illicit trade in materials for weapons of mass destruction. It also caused outrage in North Korea, which condemned the whole exercise as an "ultimate war action".
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