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The USS Theodore Roosevelt, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier belonging to US Carrier Strike Group Nine, enters port in Busan, South Korea, on June 22, 2024. (courtesy of the ROK Navy) 

The nuclear-powered USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier arrived at a naval base in Busan for joint drills on Saturday at a time when the relationship between North Korea and Russia seems to be growing ever closer.
 
The carrier will be participating in the “Freedom Edge” exercises, the first joint multi-domain exercise to be held by South Korea, Japan and the US. While the US has said that the exercise is not a response to the outcome of the recent North Korea-Russia summit, all eyes are on how North Korea and Russia will respond.
 
As part of the drills, the Roosevelt will conduct ballistic missile defense exercises, anti-submarine warfare training, and more.
 
Freedom Edge is a multi-domain exercise that includes maritime, underwater, air and cyberspace operations. The exercise takes operations beyond the traditional battlefield divisions of land, sea and air to meet the trends of modern warfare.
 
Chinese and Russian warships gathered in the East Sea ahead of the South Korea-US-Japan naval drills. The Russian navy started holding exercises in the East Sea on June 18 and will wrap up on June 28, while a Chinese spy ship entered the East Sea through the Korea Strait on Friday. In January, North Korea tested an underwater nuclear weapons system in the East Sea in response to the South Korea-US-Japanese naval drills.
 
During the Roosevelt’s arrival ceremony on Saturday, Rear Admiral Christopher Alexander of the US Navy and commander of Carrier Strike Group Nine stated that the exercises were planned months in advance and were nothing more than regular military drills, underscoring that the exercise was not a response to the growing closeness between North Korea and Russia.
 
Meanwhile, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, who is visiting the US, said on Friday (local time) that South Korea, the US and Japan have decided to closely coordinate through timely consultations in response to North Korea and Russia’s growing cooperation.
 
“I had a series of phone calls with the foreign ministers of the US and Japan and intensively discussed how to respond to the North Korea-Russia summit,” Cho said at a meeting with reporters at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the UN in New York.
 
“We decided to work closely together to lead the international community’s resolute response to the danger North Korea represents while strengthening the strong South Korea-US alliance and trilateral security cooperation between South Korea, the US and Japan,” Cho stated. “I think it is meaningful that we sent a strong message under close cooperation through timely consultation with our friends, the US and Japan.”

By Kwon Hyuk-chul, staff reporter

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