The Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group will arrive in South Korea on Friday in preparation for large-scale joint naval exercises with Seoul amid concerns mount over North Korea’s likely resumption of nuclear weapons testing, according to local reports.
“By conducting combined drills, the navies of the two countries plan to strengthen their military readiness and demonstrate the firm resolve of the South Korea-U.S. alliance for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula,” the Republic of Korea Navy said in a statement.
USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) and other American vessels will make a port stop in Busan in southeastern Korea, American officials confirmed to USNI News on Monday.
The joint naval exercise next month will be the largest in five years and comes a few weeks after the nations’ ground and air forces concluded their most extensive Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise across the Korean Peninsula. The military drills are the most exetnsive since 2017, when tensions with Pyongyang over nuclear weapons testing were high as Washington dispatched three carrier strike groups to the waters off the peninsula.
At the Pentagon on Friday, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks met with Republic of Korea Vice Minister of National Defense Shin Beomchul to reaffirm the importance of the U.S.-ROK Alliance, according to a DoD news release. The meeting came as the administration changed in Seoul, with new priorities for defense spending, relations with North Korea and the security on the peninsula.
This increased show of allied military strength and cooperation comes in the wake of North Korea’s parliament this month authorizing the preemptive use of nuclear weapons to defend the regime if it feels its survival threatened.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un followed the parliamentary vote up with a speech declaring Pyongyang would never give up its nuclear weapons. He ruled out any negotiations with Washington and Seoul over denuclearization of the peninsula.
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