Kang Seung-woo is the Business Desk editor at The Korea Times. Prior to this position, he covered politics, national affairs, finance and sports.
Nuclear sub joins ROK-US joint naval drill
The USS Cheyenne, a nuclear-powered attack submarine is docked at the Navy Operations Command in Busan, Wednesday. The submarine, armed with Tomahawk missiles, is taking part in the annual Foal Eagle exercise, involving armed forces from South Korea and the United States. / Yonhap
By Kang Seung-woo
By Kang Seung-woo
A nuclear-powered attack submarine joined the annual Korea-United States joint military exercise Foal Eagle on Wednesday, another strong indication of U.S. determination regarding North Korea amid escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) announced that the USS Cheyenne arrived in Busan in the morning of the day to take part in the military maneuvers.
USS Cheyenne was commissioned in 1996 and is the last Los Angeles-class submarine. It was the first vessel to launch Tomahawk missiles during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Although the submarine is not armed with nuclear missiles, it is equipped with Tomahawk missiles capable of reaching land targets at long range.
The submarine arrived in the port city one day after the United States flew a B-52 bomber capable of carrying nuclear weapons over South Korea as part of the joint exercise. The strategic warplane was also used for a drill on March 8, the Pentagon said.
“The submarine is on mission with the Korean Navy in the East and South Seas,” a military official told Yonhap News.
USS San Francisco (SSN-711), another nuclear submarine, participated in a highly-publicized joint drill with the Korean Navy in early February as part of a show of force to deter North Korea from conducting its third nuclear test.
Along with the Cheyenne, Aegis destroyers USS John S. McCain and USS McCampbell also took part in the drill.
The Korean Navy deployed an Aegis destroyer, corvettes and submarines as well as anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft to take part in the maneuver aimed at detecting submerged threats, officials added.
Meanwhile, in response to the U.S. flight trainings involving a B-52 bomber, Pyongyang warned Wednesday that it will take military action should hardware capable of launching nuclear-armed cruise missiles fly over the peninsula again.
“We are keeping close tabs on the activity of the B-52 strategic bomber,” a spokesperson for the North’s foreign ministry said via the state-media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“If the bomber appears again over the Korean Peninsula, it will not be able to avoid a strong military response.”