 |
| Photo Credit: AP. |
BUSAN, South Korea (AP) — The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan arrived in the South Korean port of Busan on Friday ahead of the two countries’ joint military exercise that aims to show their strength against growing North Korean threats.
The joint
drills will be the first involving a U.S. aircraft carrier in the region since
2017, when the U.S. sent three aircraft carriers including the Reagan for naval
drills with South Korea in response to North Korean nuclear and missile tests.
The allies
this year have revived their large-scale military drills that were downsized or
shelved in previous years to support diplomacy with Pyongyang or because of
COVID-19, responding to North Korea’s resumption of major weapons testing and
increasing threats of nuclear conflicts with Seoul and Washington.
The South
Korean navy said the training is meant to boost the allies’ military readiness
and show “the firm resolve by the Korea-U.S. alliance for the sake of peace and
stability on the Korean Peninsula.”
“The commitment of the U.S. carrier strike
group operating in and around the peninsula illustrates our commitment to stand
together and our desire and focus ensuring that we are interoperable and
integrated to face any challenge or threat whenever we are required,” Rear Adm.
Michael Donnelly, commander of the carrier strike group, said in a news
conference.
The North
Korean threat is also expected to be a key agenda when U.S. Vice President
Kamala Harris visits South Korea next week after attending the state funeral in
Tokyo of slain former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The Reagan’s
arrival in South Korea comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told
Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament this month he would never abandon his
nuclear weapons and missiles he needs to counter what he perceives as U.S.
hostility.
North Korea
also passed a new law that enshrined its status as a nuclear power and
authorized the preemptive use of nuclear weapons over a broad range of
scenarios where the country or its leadership comes under threat.
Sung Kim,
the Biden administration’s special representative for North Korea, met with
South Korean counterpart Kim Gunn on Thursday in Seoul, where they expressed
“serious concern” over the North’s escalating nuclear doctrine spelled out in
the new law, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said.
The
diplomats reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea in the event of
a nuclear war with the full range of its military capabilities, including
nuclear. The allies also maintained their months-old assessment that North
Korea is gearing up to conduct its first nuclear test since 2017 and discussed
“stern” countermeasures to such an action, the ministry said.
North Korea
has dialed up weapons testing to a record pace in 2022, launching more than 30
ballistic weapons including its intercontinental ballistic missiles since 2017,
as it exploits a divide in the U.N. Security Council deepened over Russia’s war
on Ukraine.
While North
Korea’s ICBMs garner much of U.S. attention because they pose a potential
threat to the American homeland, the North has also been expanding its arsenal
of nuclear-capable, shorter-range missiles designed to evade missile defenses
in South Korea.
North
Korea’s expanding arsenal and threats of preemptive nuclear attacks have
triggered concerns in South Korea over the credibility of the U.S. “nuclear
umbrella” protecting its allies in the event of war.
South Korean
President Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative who took office in May, has vowed to
enhance South Korea’s conventional missile capabilities and work with the Biden
administration to develop more effective strategies to deter North Korean
attacks.
Senior U.S.
and South Korean officials met in Washington this month for discussions on the
allies’ deterrence strategies and issued a statement reaffirming that “any
(North Korean) nuclear attack would be met with an overwhelming and decisive
response.” The statement said the United States reiterated “its ironclad and
unwavering commitment to draw on the full range of its military capabilities,
including nuclear (one)” to provide extended deterrence to South Korea.
North Korea
has so far rejected U.S. and South Korean calls to return to nuclear diplomacy,
which have been stalled since 2019 over disagreements in exchanging the release
of U.S.-led sanctions against the North and the North’s disarmament steps.
North Korea
has harshly criticized Yoon for continuing military exercises with the U.S. and
also for letting South Korean civilian activists fly anti-Pyongyang propaganda
leaflets and other “dirty waste” across the border by balloon, even dubiously
claiming the items caused its COVID-19 outbreak.
South Korean
activists have continued to launch balloons after North Korea last month warned
of “deadly” retaliation, triggering concern North Korea may react with a
weapons test or even border skirmishes.
South
Korea’s Unification Ministry, which deals with inter-Korean affairs, pleaded
for activists to stop, citing safety reasons. Lee Hyo-jung, the ministry’s
spokesperson, also said Friday that South Korea was prepared to sternly respond
to any North Korean retaliation over leafletting.
AP video
journalist Yong Jun Chang contributed. Kim Tong-hyung reported from Seoul.