South Korea and the US held their first joint military drills featuring an American aircraft carrier in more than four years on Saturday, according to Seoul’s military, amid fears that North Korea was planning a nuclear test.
The maneuvers, which lasted three days and took place in international waters off the coast of Okinawa, Japan, included air defense, anti-ship, anti-submarine, and maritime interdiction operations, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
The drills come as hints emerged that North Korea is preparing to perform its first nuclear test since 2017. Pyongyang has undertaken many testing with a detonation device, according to Seoul officials, in preparation for its sixth subterranean explosion.
According to the JCS, the drills included the USS Ronald Reagan, a 100,000-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, as well as the guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam, the Aegis-equipped USS Benfold destroyer, and the Fleet replenishment oiler USNS Big Horn.
Among the ships dispatched by South Korea were the 14,500-ton Marado amphibious landing ship, the 7,600-ton Sejong the Great destroyer, and the 4,400-ton Munmu the Great destroyer.
It was the allies’ first combined military exercise since President Yoon Suk-yeol took office in South Korea last month, and their first bilateral drills since November 2017.
The drill “confirmed the two countries’ determination to respond firmly to any North Korean provocations while demonstrating the United States’ commitment to provide extended deterrence,” according to a statement from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
As part of steps to enhance the extended deterrent, US President Joe Biden committed at a recent summit with Yoon to deploy “strategic assets,” which normally include aircraft carriers, long-range bomber aircraft, or missile submarines, if necessary to deter North Korea.
Nuclear envoys from the US, South Korea, and Japan gathered in Seoul on Friday to prepare for “all contingencies.”
After North Korea conducted a thorough test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time since 2017, the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier, joined US military exercises in the Yellow Sea in March. In April, the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group also conducted operations off the coast of Korea.
The carriers USS Ronald Reagan, Theodore Roosevelt, and Nimitz, as well as their multi-ship strike groups, deployed near the peninsula during North Korea’s last major flurry of ICBM and nuclear tests in 2017.
North Korea has always viewed joint military drills between the US and South Korea as a war rehearsal.
