USS Ronald Reagan is coming to Busan

Defense

Published: 15 Sep. 2022, 18:03 Updated: 15 Sep. 2022, 19:33

USS Ronald Reagan is coming to Busan

In this photo provided by Korea's Defense Ministry, the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, second from left, and South Korea's landing platform helicopter ship Marado, left, sail during a joint military exercise at an undisclosed location on June 4. [AP/YONHAP]

The USS Ronald Reagan, the American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is set to arrive in Busan next week for joint military training, according to military sources.

The U.S. Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier departed from Yokosuka, Japan, on Monday “to continue promoting peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” according to the U.S. Navy.

“I understand that it will not enter the waters near the Korean Peninsula immediately, but be involved in another operation, before entering an operation base in Busan,” a military official told the JoongAng Ilbo recently.

The aircraft carrier, after anchoring in Busan for a few days, will move to the East Sea for joint training with the Korean Navy for several days, according to the official.

The carrier has a history of participating in joint military drills between the U.S. and its allies in the region, such as Valiant Shield, one of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s largest military exercises held in June in regional waters including the Philippines and Japan.

But it will mark the first time in five years that an American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier enters the Korean Theater of Operation, or an area designated for military operations, for joint training with the Korean Navy.

Three American nuclear-powered aircraft carriers participated in joint military training with South Korea after North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test in November 2017.

The expected arrival of USS Ronald Reagan in Busan may be a signal of other American strategic military assets coming to Korea, according to some experts.

The presidents of the two nations agreed in a meeting in May to revive the U.S.-Korea Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group (EDSCG), which was established for the allies to hold in-depth discussions on strategic and policy issues involving North Korea.

“If two or more aircraft carrier strike groups are deployed around the Korean Peninsula at the same time, it will put considerable pressure on North Korea, and also China,” said Yang Wook, a researcher at the Seoul-based think tank Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

With Pyongyang said to be just a political decision away from its seventh nuclear test, Seoul and Washington engaged in multiple joint military exercises this summer, including their first live-fire exercises in seven years in an area just 18 miles south of the demilitarized zone, and another drill with Tokyo off the coast of Hawaii last month.

The first EDSCG meeting since 2018 is scheduled to take place in Washington on Friday.

Vice Defense Minister Shin Beom-chul and Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong, who flew to the U.S. this week to attend the meeting, met with officials of the Missile Defense Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense on Wednesday.

BY KIM SANG-JIN, ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]