US 'showing its resolve' as nuclear supercarrier leads Korean exercise

Published on Sunday 25 July 2010 17:48

Fighter jets cut through the skies and submarines cruised underwater yesterday as a flotilla of American and South Korean warships led by a nuclear- powered United States supercarrier began exercises that have enraged North Korea.

US officials denied North Korea's claims that the manoeuvres off Korea's east coast were a provocation, but said they were meant to send a strong message over the sinking of a South Korean warship in March that left 46 sailors dead.

The drills, set to run until Wednesday, involve about 8,000 US and South Korean troops, 20 ships and submarines and 200 aircraft. The USS George Washington, with several thousand sailors and dozens of fighter jets aboard, was deployed from Japan.

"We are showing our resolve," said Captain David Lausman, the carrier's commanding officer.

The exercises will be the first in a series of joint manoeuvres conducted in the East Sea off Korea and in the Yellow Sea closer to China's shores in international waters.

The exercises also are the first to employ the F-22 stealth fighter - which can evade North Korean air defences - in South Korea.North Korea has denounced the drills as an "unpardonable provocation" and threatened to retaliate with "nuclear deterrence" and "sacred war".

The North routinely threatens attacks whenever South Korea and the US hold joint military drills, which Pyongyang sees as a rehearsal for an invasion.

Still, the North's latest rhetoric carries extra weight following the sinking of the Cheonan warship in late March.

Washington and Seoul blame Pyongyang for the sinking of the 1,200-ton Cheonan warship near the Koreas' maritime border. A five-nation team of investigators concluded a North Korean torpedo sank the Cheonan, considered the worst military attack on the South since the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korea, which denies any involvement in the sinking, has warned the United States against attempting to punish it.

"Our military and people will squarely respond to the nuclear war preparation by the American imperialists and the South Korean puppet regime with our powerful nuclear deterrent," the North's government-run Minju Joson newspaper said in a commentary yesterday headlined: "We also have nuclear weapons." The North's powerful National Defence Commission issued a similar threat on Saturday, warning that the country "will start a retaliatory sacred war".

Pyongyang's rhetoric was seen by most as bluster, but its angry response to the manoeuvres underscores the rising tension in the region.

Captain Ross Myers, commander of the George Washington's air wing, said the exercises were not intended to raise tensions. But the George Washington, one of the biggest ships in the US Navy, is a potent symbol of American military power, with about 5,000 sailors and aviators and the capacity to carry up to 70 planes.

The carrier had been expected to join in exercises - code-named "Invincible Spirit" - sooner, but the Navy delayed as the United Nations Security Council deliberated what action it should take over the Cheonan sinking.

"North Korea may contend it is a provocation, but I would say the opposite," Cpt Myers said.

"It is a provocation to those who don't want peace and stability. North Korea doesn't want this. They know that one of South Korea's strengths is its alliance with the United States."

Cpt Myers said North Korea's threats to retaliate are being taken seriously, however, and described the county as "a credible threat".

US concession

WASHINGTON has made an unprecedented concession to Chinese sensitivities over another naval exercise planned for later this summer in the Yellow Sea off the Korean peninsular's west coast, by promising not to deploy the USS George Washington during the manoeuvres.

It had earlier been proposed the giant vessel would join US and South Korean forces on the exercise. A number of senior Chinese military officials voiced their concern last week about such a powerful ship being in a sea that has been dubbed "China's lake."

One Chinese general pointed out that Beijing and a heavily industrialised coastal area would both be within striking range of the Nimitz-class carrier's F/A-18 aircraft if the vessel was operating in the Yellow Sea.

The same carrier led a strike group during a tour of the Yellow Sea in 2009, however the area is not a usual one for the US navy to patrol.

Rear Admiral Daniel Cloyd, the senior US official with the carrier strike group, said the vessel may be back.

"We reserve the right to exercise in international waters anywhere in the world," he said.