US nuclear carrier to dock in Busan next month
The USS Ronald Reagan
By Kang Seung-woo
The USS Ronald Reagan, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, will arrive in Busan next month to participate in a naval parade, a military official said Thursday.
The presence of the carrier in Busan will coincide with the participation of two F-22 stealth fighters in a defense exhibition here, which is expected to serve as a warning against North Korea’s possible provocations, the official said.
“The USS Ronald Reagan will take part in a naval parade that will take place in waters off Busan on Oct. 18 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Korean Navy and the nation’s liberation from the Japanese colonial rule,” the official said.
Along with the 101,400-ton carrier, the U.S. plans to dispatch two destroyers and one cruiser.
The carrier, commissioned in 2003, has more than 80 combat aircraft, including the F/A-18, EA-6B electronic warfare aircraft and E-2C airborne early warning plane.
The warship visited the port city in 2007 and 2008, but its plan to participate in the Foal Eagle exercise in 2011 was cancelled due to its deployment to Japan to provide assistance in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated its east coast.
According to the U.S. Navy, the Ronald Reagan, which had been based in San Diego for 11 years, entered the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations earlier this week on its way to a new homeport in Yokosuka, Japan as part of a three-carrier homeport shift involving the USS George Washington and USS Theodore Roosevelt.
With the aircraft carrier’s visit to Busan, the United States will send two of its strategic assets to Korea next month. The other is the F-22 Raptor.
The two stealth fighters and a Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle will participate in the Seoul International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition 2015, scheduled for Oct. 10 to 25.
Their arrival in Korea comes as Pyongyang is widely expected to test-fire a long-range missile around the 70th anniversary of the foundation day of its ruling Workers’ Party on Oct. 10, raising speculation that the U.S. has decided to do so in order to deter the North’s possible provocation that will ratchet up tensions on the Korean Peninsula. In an interview with CNN, Wednesday, the North’s space agency said that the launch was “imminent.”
“The U.S. sending such strategic weapons is a signal that the ROK-U.S. alliance will not just sit back against the North’s additional provocation,” the official said.
The U.S. has a track record of dispatching its advanced military might to the South in response to the North’s saber-rattling that raises tensions on the peninsula.
In the spring of 2013, when the Kim Jong-un regime threatened to attack the U.S. mainland as well as Seoul, Washington sent nuclear-capable B-52 and B-2 bombers, a nuclear-powered attack submarine and F-22s.
In August, when the two sides exchanged barbs over the North’s landmine attack inside the Demilitarized Zone that maimed two South Korean soldiers, the U.S. considered again deploying the B-52 and B-2 bombers and nuclear submarine.