U.S. to Send Aircraft Carrier Into Waters Off China for Drills
USS George Washington
Adam K. Thomas/Navy Visual News Service (NVNS) via Bloomberg
Aircraft carrier USS George Washington departs Busan, South Korea, on Sunday, July 25, 2010.
Aircraft carrier USS George Washington departs Busan, South Korea, on Sunday, July 25, 2010. Photographer: Adam K. Thomas/Navy Visual News Service (NVNS) via Bloomberg
The U.S. will send a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to South Korea’s west coast in the coming months for more joint drills that have sparked opposition from China.
“Part of the sequence of exercises that we conduct will be a return of the George Washington, including exercising in the Yellow Sea,” Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters yesterday in Washington, referring to the strip of water between the Korean peninsula and China. There will be more joint maneuvers over the “next several months,” both in the peninsula’s western and eastern waters, he said.
The USS George Washington took part in July 25-28 exercises off South Korea’s eastern coast designed to deter North Korea from further provocations after the communist country was accused of sinking the South Korean warship Cheonan in March. China says it is “firmly opposed” to any threatening foreign military activities near its shores as it resists a U.S. push to scale down China’s presence in the South China Sea.
China, North Korea’s largest trading partner and political ally, has resisted blaming Kim Jong Il’s regime for attacking the Cheonan, an incident that claimed the lives of 46 sailors. South Korea remains technically at war with North Korea after their 1950-1953 civil war ended in a cease-fire.
North Korea has repeatedly threatened “physical retaliation” against the U.S.-South Korean military maneuvers since U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the plans last month during a visit to Seoul.
No Threat
North Korea “should not feel in any way threatened by these exercises, while at the same time it should be very, very clear that further military action will not be tolerated,” Morrell said yesterday. “We’re going to hit all the various kinds of exercises that can be conducted,” including anti- submarine and bombing exercises, he added.
South Korea yesterday began its own anti-submarine drills in its western waters that are set to last for five days. Its annual joint Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise with the U.S. will take place between Aug. 16 and 26.
Tensions between the U.S. and China over the seas between Korea and Vietnam have intensified this year. China cut off military ties with the U.S. to protest planned arms sales to Taiwan. Last month, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi sparred over China’s claims to sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea.
At a meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, Clinton signaled her intent to intercede in the disputes in the region.
Yesterday, the U.S. confirmed it is in talks with Vietnam to share nuclear fuel and civilian nuclear technology, provoking an angry reaction from China.
The nuclear discussions with Vietnam underline “double standards” by the U.S. as it promotes denuclearization, the China Daily newspaper cited Teng Jianqun, deputy-director of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, as saying yesterday.
To contact the reporter on this story: Bomi Lim in Seoul at blim30@bloomberg.net
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