US aircraft carrier ups pressure on North Korea

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100725/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_us_military_drills

US aircraft carrier ups pressure on North Korea

By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Writer Talmadge, Associated Press Writer

– 22 mins ago

ABOARD USS GEORGE WASHINGTON – A massive nuclear-powered U.S. supercarrier began

maneuvers Sunday with ally South Korea in a potent show of force, four months

after the sinking of a South Korean warship. North Korea threatened the

exercises could lead to nuclear war.

The military drills, set to run through Wednesday, involve about 8,000 U.S. and

South Korean troops, 20 ships and submarines and 200 aircraft. The USS

Washington, with several thousand sailors and dozens of fighter jets aboard, was

deployed from Japan.

The exercises will be the first in a series of U.S.-South Korean maneuvers

conducted in the East Sea off South Korea's east coast, and in the Yellow Sea

closer to China's shores in international waters. The exercises also are the

first to employ the F-22 stealth fighter — which can evade North Korean air

defenses — in South Korea.

The American and South Korean defense chiefs announced last Tuesday in Seoul

they would stage the military drills to send a clear message to North Korea to

stop its " aggressive " behavior.

Washington and Seoul blame Pyongyang for the sinking of the 1,200-ton Cheonan

warship in late March near the Koreas' maritime border. A five-nation team of

investigators concluded a North Korean torpedo sank the Cheonan, considered the

worst military attack on the South since the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korea, which denies any involvement in the sinking, has warned the United

States against attempting to punish it. The regime called the drills an

" unpardonable military provocation " aimed at preparing an invasion.

" Our military and people will squarely respond to the nuclear war preparation by

the American imperialists and the South Korean puppet regime with our powerful

nuclear deterrent, " the North's government-run Minju Joson newspaper said in a

commentary headlined, " We also have nuclear weapons. "

The commentary was carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The North's powerful National Defense Commission issued a similar threat

Saturday, saying the country " will start a retaliatory sacred war ... based on

nuclear deterrent any time necessary in order to counter the U.S. "

Pyongyang's rhetoric regarding using nuclear deterrence was seen by most as

bluster, but its angry response to the maneuvers underscores the rising tension

in the region.

The North routinely threatens attacks whenever South Korea and the U.S. hold

joint military drills, which Pyongyang sees as a rehearsal for an invasion. The

U.S. keeps 28,500 troops in South Korea and another 50,000 in Japan, but says it

has no intention of invading the North.

South Korea was closely monitoring North Korea's military but spotted no unusual

activity Sunday, the Defense Ministry said.

Though the impoverished North has a large conventional military and the

capability to build nuclear weapons, it is not believed to have the technology

needed to use nuclear devices as warheads.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Wednesday, after

visiting the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, the U.S. would slap new

sanctions on the North to stifle its nuclear ambitions and punish it for the

Cheonan sinking.

On Friday, the European Union said it, too, would consider new sanctions on

North Korea.

In an apparent bow to China, the Washington will participate in the

exercise in the East Sea, but there are no plans for it to enter the Yellow Sea

for subsequent exercises.

China, a traditional North Korean ally, has voiced concerns that military drills

in the Yellow Sea could inflame tensions on the Korean peninsula and also fears

exercises too close to its own shores could breach Chinese security.

The Nimitz-class Washington had been expected to join in exercises —

code-named " Invincible Spirit " — off South Korea sooner, but the Navy delayed

those plans as the United Nations Security Council met to deliberate what action

it should take over the Cheonan sinking.

The council eventually condemned the incident, but stopped short of naming North

Korea as the perpetrator.

___

Associated Press writers Kwang-tae Kim and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul contributed to

this report.