South Korea, US drill begins under North Korea nuclear test cloud
South Korea and the United States launched a joint naval exercise involving a US nuclear submarine on Monday, as tensions rise on the Korean peninsula ahead of an expected nuclear test by North Korea.
A defence ministry spokesman confirmed the three-day drill -- condemned as a “warmongering” exercise by North Korea -- was underway in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) off the southeastern South Korean port of Pohang.
Although South Korean military officials stressed the drill was scheduled before the North threatened to detonate its third nuclear device, the presence of the submarine has been seen as a warning to Pyongyang.
The USS San Francisco, armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles, is joined in the drill by a 9,800-tonnes Aegis destroyer, the USS Shiloh.
“The exercise includes at-sea operating training, detecting and tracking a submarine, anti-air and anti-ship live fire training and anti-missile training,” a military official said.
The drill comes as the North has ramped up daily threats of a nuclear test in response to expanded UN sanctions imposed after its long-range rocket launch in December.
The North insists the launch was a purely scientific mission aimed at putting a satellite in orbit.
But most of the world viewed it as a disguised ballistic missile test that violated UN resolutions triggered by the North's previous nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.
Seoul's defence ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok told reporters today that the North had completed all technical preparations for another nuclear test.
“The only thing left to make is a political judgment,” Kim said, calling on Pyongyang to
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