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The flight deck of the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan

A US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier advanced to within 92 km of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the East Sea on Nov. 13 for military exercises. North Korea sent a written message of strong protest to the UN in response.

The US announced the maneuvers by the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), one of three aircraft carriers, to the South Korean press that day. While the US military did not disclose its location, it reportedly engaged in exercises at a location 92 km south of the NLL and 92 km northeast of Ulleung Island. This was the first-ever report of a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier traveling as far north as the vicinity of the NLL. The other aircraft carriers participating in the exercises were the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) and the USS Nimitz (CVN-68). Rear Admiral Marc Dalton, Commander of Carrier Strike Group 5, said the US military would conduct joint exercises with the three aircraft carriers at every available opportunity.

The Ronald Reagan has been called a “floating military base,” measuring 333m in length, 77m in width, and 63m in height with a deck the size of three football fields (18,210 square meters). It carries 67 aircraft, including two EA-18G Growlers, electronic warfare aircraft capable of disrupting enemy radar; the E-2C Hawkeye, an airborne early warning aircraft with precision reconnaissance and command/control capabilities; and the F/A18 Super Hornet, a multipurpose US Navy combat jet. Its systems reportedly allow jets to be scrambled within a one-minute time frame.

Meanwhile, North Korean UN Ambassador Ja Song-nam sternly denounced the exercises in a Nov. 13 letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. In the letter, Ja said the US was conducting joint military exercises with South Korea in the waters off the Korean Peninsula using three nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and various destroyers and submarines.

Calling this the “the worst ever situation prevailing in and around the Korean peninsula,” Ja warned of the threat of nuclear war erupting at some point.

“The large-scale nuclear war exercises and blackmails, which the US staged for a whole year without a break in collaboration with its followers to stifle our republic, make one conclude that the option we have taken was the right one and we should go all the way to the conclusion,” he said.

By Noh Ji-won, staff reporter and Yi Yong-in, Washington correspondent

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