USS Abraham Lincoln sent to waters off South Korea

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USS Abraham Lincoln sent to waters off South Korea

The USS Abraham Lincoln deploys from the San Diego Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, California on January 3, 2022. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

The USS Abraham Lincoln deploys from the San Diego Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, California on January 3, 2022. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

 
The USS Abraham Lincoln, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is operating in the eastern waters off the Korean Peninsula to ward off possible North Korean provocations, according to a U.S. military spokesman.
 
Speaking to Yonhap on condition of anonymity on Monday, a South Korean official said the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group is in the East Sea for three to five days to carry out joint exercises with Japanese forces in the region and to reassure allies and partners in the region.  
 
The presence of the aircraft carrier and attendant strike group was confirmed by a spokesman for U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) on Tuesday after South Korean media publicized their operations.
 
The U.S. Naval Institute said Monday that the strike group had entered waters between South Korea and Japan.
 
The ship’s appearance near the peninsula comes as U.S. officials expressed concerns that North Korea could carry out an intercontinental ballistic missile launch or an underground nuclear test in the coming days to celebrate the 110th birth anniversary of its founding leader Kim Il-sung on Friday and the founding anniversary of the North’s armed forces on April 25.
 
Satellite imagery in recent months showed that North Korea could be working to repair the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in North Hamgyong Province, with construction work focused on repairing access to a tunnel demolished in 2018.
 
The Punggye-ri nuclear test site has remained almost inactive since May 2018, when North Korea demolished all four portals or tunnels in a highly-publicized event witnessed by foreign media allowed into the country. 
 
The arrival of the USS Abraham Lincoln marks the first time since 2017 that a carrier group has been deployed to the waters between South Korea and Japan.  
 
At that time, the USS Ronald Reagan, Theodore Roosevelt and Nimitz, and their multi-ship strike groups, were dispatched to the region to warn North Korea over its mounting missile and nuclear weapons tests.
 
During talks held in Washington last week, advisors to South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol requested that the United States deploy strategic assets — which would include aircraft carriers, nuclear bombers and submarines — to the Korean Peninsula.
 
Seoul’s Defense Ministry said while it was aware that the carrier group is in international waters nearby, comments would be inappropriate because it is a U.S. military asset.
 
On Tuesday, South Korea and the United States kicked off Crisis Management Staff Training, a preliminary exercise ahead of a full-scale joint allied military drill.
 
The exercise will last for four days until Friday.
 
The two countries will likely hold the main drill, or “computer-simulated Combined Command Post Training,” from April 18 to 28.
 
North Korea has previously criticized U.S. military drills as a rehearsal for war.
 
 

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]
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