[Yang Nak-gyu's Defence Club] Incoming US Strategic Assets

Deployment of Aircraft Carrier and Others on Korean Peninsula Linked to ROK-US Joint Exercises
Possible Additional Deployment to Counter North Korean Military Provocations

As South Korea and the United States begin their joint military exercises this week, a large number of U.S. strategic assets are expected to converge on the Korean Peninsula. The South Korean and U.S. authorities are discussing the possibility of the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68) entering South Korean waters. There is also talk of deploying other strategic assets such as U.S. strategic bombers and nuclear-powered submarines to the Korean Peninsula.

According to military authorities on the 6th, South Korea and the U.S. will conduct a Crisis Management Exercise (CMX), a preliminary exercise for the first half of this year’s joint exercise “Freedom Shield” (FS), from this week. The CMX will be held from today until the 9th, during which they will review a list of major crisis scenarios.

US strategic assets deployed on the Korean Peninsula are a hot topic. The photo shows the specifications of the USS Ronald Reagan and the USS Michigan. Graphic by Jin-kyung Lee, Designer

Specifications and performance of U.S. strategic assets deployed on the Korean Peninsula. Graphic by Jin-kyung Lee, Designer

This CMX will simulate crisis situations by spreading alerts based on North Korea’s localized provocations and terrorist acts targeting key domestic facilities and rear areas. The main exercise, FS, will be conducted for 11 days starting from the 13th. Linked with FS, the two countries plan to expand the Ssangryong amphibious landing exercise involving their marine corps to a division-level scale and conduct over 20 large-scale outdoor field training exercises (FTX) at a level comparable to the past “Foal Eagle” (FE) exercises. This marks the revival of theater-level joint exercises, which were suspended in 2018 amid inter-Korean reconciliation efforts. The name of this joint FTX has been designated as “Warrior Shield” (WS) FTX.

A large deployment of U.S. strategic assets is also expected. The South Korean and U.S. authorities are discussing the possibility of the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68) entering South Korean waters, which means that the U.S. Navy’s underwater, surface, and air forces are likely to be deployed simultaneously on the Korean Peninsula around the same time.

Recently, the Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Springfield (SSN 761, approximately 6,000 tons) stayed at the Busan operational base. Following that, one of the U.S. Navy’s latest destroyers, USS Rafael Peralta (DDG-115), called at Jeju Island on the 27th of last month and departed on the 3rd.

During last year’s South Korea-U.S. joint exercises, the U.S. high-altitude unmanned reconnaissance aircraft Global Hawk took off from a U.S. base in Japan and flew over the East Sea and the airspace above the Seoul metropolitan area, exposing its flight path.

The simultaneous presence of U.S. strategic assets such as nuclear submarines and Aegis destroyers on the Korean Peninsula is interpreted as a measure to counter North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats and to check China. Given North Korea’s strong opposition to South Korea-U.S. joint exercises and the deployment of U.S. strategic assets in the past, there are concerns about the possibility of intensified provocations by North Korea around the time of this FS exercise.

There is also speculation that South Korea and the U.S. are demonstrating their resolve to respond firmly to North Korea’s violations of the September 19 military agreement. Last year, North Korea fired artillery and multiple rocket launchers 13 times into the maritime buffer zone, and in November, it launched missiles south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), violating the September 19 military agreement. In response, the South Korean military sent warning messages through South Korea-U.S. joint exercises as a show of force but did not retaliate with artillery fire.