US, S Korea Launch Joint Naval Exercises

Local Editor

The Washington-Seoul naval drills Invincible Spirit 2016 which kicked off on Monday will be conducted along the entire length of the coast of South Korea for the very first time, in a show of strength directed against Pyongyang, according to the news agency Yonhap.

The United States and South Korea have started large-scale naval drills. For the first time in the history of the 63-year standoff between North and South, exercises will be held along the entire coast of the peninsular country, in the Yellow and Japan Seas.

The military muscle-flexing is directed at Pyongyang in the wake of continued missile and nuclear testing, the news agency Yonhap reported.

Taking part in the six-day exercises will be the nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, as well as the destroyers Curtis Wilbur [DDG-54], John S. McCain [DDG-56], Fitzgerald [DDG-62], Stethem [DDG-63] and Barry [DDG-52].

Additionally, "the allies' navies plan to mobilize dozens of warships and submarines for the drills", such as Ticonderoga-class Aegis missile cruisers, P-3 and P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, Apache helicopters and FA-18C Hornet fighter jets, according to Yonhap.

"The 'Invincible Spirit' exercise is aimed at showing the allied forces' strong commitment to counter relentless provocations by the North and improve their maritime interoperability," Yonhap quoted a Navy spokesman as saying.

According to the spokesman, "in waters off the southwestern coast of the Korean Peninsula, the aircraft carrier strike group will conduct anti-submarine, anti-aircraft and precision-guided striking operations."

Seoul and Washington staged a massive joint naval exercise also codenamed Invincible Spirit in July 2010, in the wake of the sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan, which Seoul claims was the work of North Korea. Pyongyang vehemently denies all the accusations, which it says hold no water.

Earlier this year, Washington and Seoul held what media outlets described as the largest-ever joint exercises of the two countries amid increased tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

As many as 15,000 US troops and about 290,000 South Korean soldiers took part in Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, two joint US-South Korean military exercises that were held between March and April.

The exercise presupposed dispatching the US overseas forces to the Korean Peninsula and practicing the elimination of Pyongyang's weapons of mass destruction.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team