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The South Korean Ministry of National Defense released the above photo of Vice Defense Minister Shin Beom-chul and others with a B-52 strategic bomber in the background at Joint Base Andrews near Washington, DC, on Sept. 15. (courtesy MND)

The US nuclear-powered supercarrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) is scheduled to arrive in Busan later this week.

The operation appears intended to show off the alliance in the wake of an agreement at a high-level South Korea-US Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group (EDSCG) meeting on Friday to boost the deployment and exercise of US strategic assets.

After arriving in Busan this week, the USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike group plans to engage in joint exercises with South Korea in the East Sea toward the end of September. It is the first US carrier to put in at a South Korean port in nearly five years, the last having arrived in November 2017 shortly after North Korea’s sixth nuclear test.

In addition to the USS Ronald Reagan, the strike group also includes the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG-62) and the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers USS Barry (DDG-52) and USS Benfold (DDG-65). Traveling with around 80 aircraft of various types on board, the USS Ronald Reagan has been called a “floating military base.”

The carrier’s arrival is expected to trigger outcries from North Korea and China.

“Even if the arrival of the USS Ronald Reagan and the joint exercises are ostensibly meant to strengthen deterrence against North Korea, there’s also an element of them being used to keep China in check,” explained University of North Korean Studies professor Yang Moo-jin.

“This in combination with the matter of normalizing THAAD [the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system] is inevitably going to upset China quite a bit,” he predicted.

The US military also posted images on the US Defense Department webpage Friday showing joint military exercises by the South Korean Marines and the 5th Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company (ANGLICO) based in Okinawa. The 5th ANGLICO performs a kind of “watchdog” role providing front-line support to operations by US Navy warships and fighter aircraft. The photographs of the company’s drills were the first to be made public in five years, since 2017.

Experts interpreted the move as meant to send a warning message to North Korea following its legislation on the use of nuclear weapons.

“The disclosing of joint Marines exercises that it had previously opted not to share signifies a definite shift in the US military’s approach to North Korea,” said University of North Korean Studies professor Kim Dong-yup.

“Given the nature of the Marines and their activities infiltrating enemy positions on the front lines, North Korea is definitely going to react sensitively,” he predicted.

In a joint statement issued after the first high-level EDSCG meeting Friday in Washington — the first in four years and eight months — South Korea and the US said they had “made clear that any DPRK nuclear attack would be met with an overwhelming and decisive response.”

“The September 16 dialogue highlighted the commitment by both partners to use all available levers — including diplomatic, informational, military, and economic tools — to [. . .] more broadly counter the DPRK threat,” the statement said.

The two sides also made plans to hold EDSCG meetings annually and organize an expert-level engagement ahead of next year’s meeting. The idea of “extended deterrence” involves the US carrying out retaliatory strikes when its allies without nuclear weapons are victimized by a nuclear attack.

The South Korean government interpreted the outcome as an institutional guarantee on South Korea having a say in the execution of extended deterrence policies related to the deployment and exercise of strategic weapons such as US strategic bombers and aircraft carriers.

But the outcome could also be criticized as merely reaffirming the differences in view between the two sides. While the US did pledge to increase cooperation on the operation of strategic assets, this did not mean it would be basing its operation of strategic weapons such as long-range strategic bombers, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, or nuclear-powered submarines on agreements with South Korea. With the US having based its strategic weapon exercise plan on global threats, it is also very unlikely to alter it purely for Seoul’s benefit.

During the Park Geun-hye presidency, the South Korean and US defense chiefs held a Security Consultative Meeting in October 2016, where they discussed the possibility of ongoing rotational development of US strategic weapons such as strategic bombers and nuclear submarines on the Korean Peninsula — an approach that the US rejected.

By Shin Hyeong-cheol, staff reporter; Kwon Hyuk-chul, staff reporter

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