By Jung Sung-ki
The USS George Washington aircraft carrier could take part in future joint naval exercises with the South Korean Navy in the West Sea, a spokesman for the U.S. Defense Department said Thursday.
The 97,000-ton nuclear-powered carrier participated in massive air and naval readiness exercises by South Korea and U.S. forces in the East Sea last month, in a show of force against North Korea, which is blamed for the sinking of South Korea’s Cheonan warship in March in western waters of the Korean Peninsula.
South Korean armed forces are holding independent naval maneuvers in the West Sea for a five-day run through Monday.
“The USS George Washington will exercise in the Yellow Sea, in the West Sea,” Geoff Morrell told reporters in Washington, D.C. “But I don’t have for you yet dates when that exercise involving that aircraft carrier will take place... Part of the sequence of exercises that we conduct will be a return of the George Washington, including exercising in the Yellow Sea.”
The spokesman’s remarks come amid a war of nerves between Washington and Beijing over naval drills around the peninsula in recent weeks.
China has warned the U.S. and South Korea against holding war games near its waters, urging them not to worsen tensions with its ally North Korea.
Some within the Obama administration argue that dispatching the nuclear-powered carrier to the West Sea could anger China or cause North Korea to react violently, the Washington Post reported, quoting unidentified U.S. government officials.
Others say the United States needs to send a clear message to its allies and to North Korea and China that the United States is firmly standing behind South Korea, it said.
A spokesman for Seoul’s Ministry of National Defense said he hasn’t heard of a plan to dispatch the George Washington to the West Sea but noted the idea is a matter of discussions between Seoul and Washington.
“What exercise the U.S. aircraft carrier will participate in again is a matter of consultation with the U.S.,” the spokesman told reporters. “Detailed plans, including the date and location, have yet to be fixed.”
Washington’s dilemma over China’s opposition was reflected Thursday as it didn’t approve a planned press meeting by Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK).
Sharp, who concurrently serves as chief of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command and the United Nations Command, was originally planning to hold a news conference with Korean journalists Thursday, but the commander abruptly cancelled the meeting without giving any specific reason.
A senior USFK official told The Korea Times that the Pentagon prevented Sharp from holding the conference amid internal debate over whether such an event could provoke China at a sensitive time when South Korea was holding a massive naval drill in the West Sea.
Some Pentagon officials insisted that any sensitive comment by Sharp regarding China could stir up controversy, the source said.