Busan is good

U.S. aircraft carrier Nimitz arrives for joint exercise

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USS Nimitz, an aircraft carrier from U.S. arriving at Busan Port on Thursday (Feb. 28).

A 97,000-ton U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in Republic of Korea​’s southern port city of Busan Thursday (Feb. 28) for a weeklong exercise that will begin early next week, the public affairs office of the Republic of Korea​-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) said.

The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, USS Nimitz, and its 5,300 crew members will play a key role in the annual joint exercise of Korean and U.S. forces here.

The exercise, Key Resolve, mainly aims to test the combined forces’ ability to host over 600,000 U.S. troops to be deployed here in case of an armed conflict while effectively defending the country from enemy hostilities.

"Key Resolve is a joint/combined command-post exercise designed to provide training for the ROK-US Combined Forces Command in various aspects of Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration of forces from bases outside of the country," CFC said in a press release, referring to Republic of Korea​ by its official name, the Republic of Korea. Key Resolve replaces what was simply called RSO & I.

The joint exercise is to begin Sunday, involving a large portion of Republic of Korea​’s 650,000-strong military and some 27,000 U.S. forces, about 15,000 of whom will come from the United States or other bases of the U.S. Pacific Command. It will end Friday.

The San Diego-based Nimitz is accompanied by five other ships to make up a carrier strike group. Its arrival in Republic of Korea​ follows that of a nuclear-powered U.S. submarine, USS Ohio that arrived here late last week for the annual military drill.

Two U.S. Aegis destroyers, the 8,300-ton USS John S. McCain and 9,200-ton USS Chaffee, also arrived Thursday at the country’s eastern port city of Donghae.

To avoid unnecessarily provoking North Korea, the Republic of Korea​-U.S. CFC has notified the communist nation’s People’s Army of their training schedule and the defensive nature of the joint exercise.

"Key Resolve, as with all other CFC exercises, is a defensive oriented exercise and designed to improve the command’s ability to defend the ROK against external aggression," the CFC said.

Some 28,000 U.S. troops are currently stationed in Republic of Korea​ as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. The two Koreas technically still remain at war as the Korean War ended only with an armistice treaty, not a peace treaty.

The source of news : Korea.net   February 28, 2008