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The newest and most advanced US aircraft carrier arrived Thursday in South Korea to take part in major annual exercises which have been denounced by North Korea as a preparation for war.
The USS Ronald Reagan, plus a cruiser and two destroyers, will join hundreds of thousands of South Korean troops and tens of thousands of US soldiers in the exercises, which the allies say are purely defensive in nature.
The carrier group's visit to South Korea and involvement in the drills “is a sign of the depth of commitment on the part of the US to the peace and security and stability of the Korean peninsula and the region,” said Rear Admiral Charlie Martoglio, commander of the carrier group.
North Korea has denounced the manoeuvres, which start Sunday, as aimed at poisoning the atmosphere of current six-party nuclear disarmament talks and at bringing the Korean peninsula “to the brink of war.”
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The exercises are “a preliminary war, a nuclear test war, designed to make a surprise preemptive attack” on North Korea, the ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said last Sunday, repeating its customary criticism of the annual drills.
The US military says the week-long exercises, RSOI (Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration) and Foal Eagle, are purely designed to test the ability of allied forces to defend South Korea against attack and to receive reinforcements from overseas.
The US forces say they have told North Korea that “this is a defensive military readiness exercise, and that it is not meant to be provocative in any way.”
The US has stationed tens of thousands of troops in the South since the Korean war began in June 1950 with an invasion by the North.
Currently some 29,500 US troops are stationed here to help 680,000 South Korean forces face up to North Korea's 1.1-million-strong military.
The USS Ronald Reagan commander, Captain Terry Kraft, declined to give details of the exercises during a visit Wednesday by journalists to the ship.
But he said his ship will “be exercising a broad range of missions.”
The carrier, commissioned in July 2003, is almost as long as the Empire State Building is tall (over 330 metres or 1,090 feet) and carries more than 5,000 crew.
Its two nuclear reactors give it a top speed of more than 30 knots. Its air wing includes the F18 Super Hornet, the F18 Sea Hornet, EA6B Prowler radar-jamming aircraft, E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft and helicopters
