SEOUL: A nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier arrived Saturday in S Korea for a three-way drill stepping up their military training to cope with N Korean threats that escalated with its alignment with Moscow.
The development came a day following S Korea summoned the Russian envoy to protest an agreement reached between Russian leader Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this week that promises mutual defense help in the event of war. Seoul says the agreement poses a threat to its security and warned that it could also consider sending weapons to Kyiv to help fight off the Russian attack as a response — a move that would surely ruin its ties with Moscow.
After a meeting between their defense ministers in Singapore earlier in June, the US, S Korea and Japan announced Freedom Edge. The new multidomain drill is aimed at sharpening the nations’ combined reply in various areas of operation, including sea, air, and cyberspace.
The Theodore Roosevelt strike group will take part in the drill that is likely to start within June. S Korea’s military didn’t confirm specific details and information of the training.
However, S Korea’s navy said that the arrival of Theodore Roosevelt shows the defense position of the allies and “stern readiness to reply to advancing N Korean threats.” The carrier’s trip comes around seven months following another US aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, came to S Korea in a show of strength against N Korea.
The Theodore Roosevelt strike group took part in a three-way drill with S Korean and Japanese naval troops in April in the disputed East China Sea, where worries regarding China’s territorial claims are increasing.
In the face of increasing N Korean threats, the US, S Korea and Japan have also increased their combined training and boosted the visibility of strategic US defense assets in the region, seeking to intimidate the North Korea. Washington and Seoul have also been updating their nuclear deterrence strategies, with South Korea seeking stronger assurances that the US would swiftly and decisively use its nuclear capabilities to protect its ally from a N Korean nuclear strike.
