US rattles sabre in the Sea of Japan
Sunday 25 July 2010
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A South Korean plane takes off from the USS George Washington
The United States and South Korea have launched a major military drill in the Sea of Japan, despite China's concern that the sabre-rattling is exacerbating already acute tensions in the region.
The nuclear-powered USS George Washington aircraft carrier led an armada of warships in the "Invincible Spirit" exercises off the Korean peninsula.
The military drills are to run until Wednesday with 8,000 US and South Korean troops, 20 ships and submarines and 200 aircraft on station.
More than 200 warplanes are being deployed, including F-22 Raptors and F-18 fighter jets.
USS George Washington commanding officer David Lausman said: "We are showing our resolve."
In the wake of the March sinking of a South Korean warship which the US and South Korea have blamed on Pyongyang, the allies slapped new sanctions against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and announced their intention to launch the joint military exercises off the Korean coast.
The DPRK, which has steadfastly denied that it was responsible for the Cheonan sinking, threatened a nuclear response to the Invincible Spirit drill.
A spokesman for the country's national defence commission said it was a "natural option of the army and people" of the DPRK to take "corresponding all-out retaliatory measures."
And at a south-east Asian security forum attended by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Hanoi on Friday, a DPRK official said: "There will be a physical response."
He observed that it is no longer the 19th century, when Western states exercised gunboat diplomacy in the region.
The war games posed a "grave threat to the Korean peninsula, and also the region of Asia as a whole," the DPRK delegate declared.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi called on all parties to "exercise restraint when disputes arise and settle disputes through peaceful means, by making use of multilateral mechanisms like the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, ASEAN regional forum and six-party talks to promote common interests and common security."
China expressed "deep concern" over the US and South Korean sabre-rattling last week.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang declared: "We sternly oppose activities that affect China's security."
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