North Korea has threatened a series of provocative actions including missile tests after a nuclear-powered US Navy aircraft carrier sailed into South Korea. The threats, however, were slammed by South Korea which warned Pyongyang of an ‘overwhelming’ response.
The US Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) arrived in Busan, South Korea, on March 2 for a scheduled port visit, along with its strike group, which consists of the guided missile cruiser USS Princeton and the Aegis-equipped destroyer USS Sterett.
The visit, expectedly rattled the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), better known as North Korea. Responding to the USS Carl Vinson’s visit, the DPRK leader Kim Jong Un’s influential sister, Kim Yo Jong, lambasted the deployment and called it a “confrontation hysteria of the US and its stooges.”
She further told the state media that her country will “carefully examine the option for increasing the actions threatening the security of the enemy at the strategic level to cope with the fact that the deployment of US strategic assets in the Korean Peninsula has become a vicious habit and adversely affects the security of the DPRK.”
This is the first visit to South Korea by a US aircraft carrier since June 2024 and comes less than two months after Donald Trump, who had a troubled relationship with North Korea in his previous term, took office on January 20. The visit is being seen as a show of force amid rising tensions between North and South Korea.
The South Korean administration asserted that the US carrier’s visit to the port of Busan was intended to demonstrate a strong US-South Korean military partnership in the face of ongoing North Korean threats.
Notably, in a rare retaliation to North Korean threats, the South Korean Ministry of Defense (MoD) warned that the country would have to face consequences if it committed any act of provocation. The MoD said: “Kim Yo-jong’s criticism of the deployment of US strategic assets to provide extended deterrence ahead of the upcoming Freedom Shield (FS) joint military exercise is nothing more than sophistry intended to justify the development of nuclear weapons and missiles, and to create a pretext for provocations.”
South Korea and the US take a strong exception to the North Korean nuclear program and maintain that strong ties between them are aimed at deterring North Korea and its nuclear ambitions. “North Korea’s nuclear weapons can never be tolerated,” it warned.
Further, the MoD reiterated that the US and South Korea are still ready to meet any threat head-on. “Our military, based on a strong joint defense posture, is thoroughly prepared for any provocation by the North. Should North Korea use our legitimate and defensive military activities as an excuse for aggression, we will respond with overwhelming retaliation,” it said.
It is pertinent to note that the visit to South Korea by US aircraft carriers is not rare. The USS Carl Vinson last visited the port of Busan in November 2023. It was the third carrier to sail into South Korean waters that year, after USS Nimitz in March 2023 and USS Ronald Reagan in October. The following year, the USS Theodore Roosevelt docked in the port of Busan in June ahead of a trilateral exercise between the US, South Korea, and Japan.
The latest visit is, nonetheless, significant amid concerns regarding the US policy towards its Asian allies under the Trump administration. In recent months, Trump has questioned the current military relationship between the US and South Korea, emphasizing that Seoul relies on the US “nuclear umbrella” for deterrence and about 28,500 US soldiers stationed in South Korea. He even demanded that South Korea increase its payments to the US for the US troops, just ahead of the election last year.
Thus, the visit validates the ironclad security relationship between the US and South Korea. It also highlights that the camaraderie between the two allies is intact, especially as the North Korean administration is alleged to be defying all warnings related to its expanding nuclear program.
Tensions Continue To Grip The Korean Peninsula
While the North Korean reaction to the US carrier sailing in Busan was aggressive, it was hardly unexpected. For instance, North Korea warned of ‘acute military confrontation’ after a US fast-attack submarine, USS Alexandria, docked in a port in the South Korean city of Busan last month.
Similar statements are made in response to regular US-South Korea military drills in the region. Pyongyang views joint US-South Korean military exercises as a prelude to an invasion of North Korea and claims they pose a threat to peace on the troubled Peninsula.
The recent episode is significant because while the visit of the USS Carl Vinson was planned, it came days after DPRK’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a strategic cruise missile test launch and ordered full readiness to use nuclear attack capability. Thus, raising the stakes, and exacerbating tensions with its estranged neighbor.
According to the state-owned KCNA news agency, the test was intended to show “readiness of its various nuclear operation means” and to alert “enemies, who are seriously violating the security environment of the (country) and fostering and escalating the confrontation environment.”
The statement further underlined that, “It is the responsible mission and duty of the DPRK’s nuclear armed forces to permanently defend the national sovereignty and security with the reliable nuclear shield by getting more thorough battle readiness of nuclear force and full preparedness for their use.”
Moreover, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) chairman recently stated that there were indications that North Korea was running uranium enrichment facilities in two places.
“There are indications that the uranium enrichment plants at Kangson and Yongbyon continue to operate, and there are indications that the light water reactor (LWR) at Yongbyon continues to operate,” said IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi. He added that North Korea’s continued nuclear program development was a “clear” violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Making matters worse, Kim Yo’s latest statement has reportedly given an impression that North Korea might conduct a test of a missile which can reach the United States. This assumption may be based on a previous pattern where Pyongyang retaliates to US military activity in the region with unprecedented missile tests that irk both Washington and Seoul.
Besides, the US and South Korea are also looking to conduct exercise ‘Freedom Shield’ on land, air, and sea, as confirmed by the South Korean Defense Ministry recently.
These developments are expected to further raise tensions between the two Koreas that remain at odds on issues ranging from expanding military activity on either side, North Korea’s development of its nuclear and missile program, and the military aid and troops sent by Pyongyang to its ally Russia in recent months.
- Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari9555 (at) gmail.com
- Follow EurAsian Times on Google News
