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U.S. dismisses China's concerns over S. Korea-U.S. joint military exercises
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, July 15 (Yonhap) -- The United States Thursday reiterated that the South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises in the seas off the Korean Peninsula slated to be announced next week are intended for North Korea not China.
"It should not cause alarm from the Chinese or anyone else," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters. "This is about sending a message to the DPRK. This is not about sending a message to the Chinese. It should not be interpreted as such."
Morrell was responding to China's repeated concerns about the upcoming joint exercises set to be announced in Seoul Wednesday when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates meet their South Korean counterparts for the first ever two plus two meeting.
The joint exercises were planned initially for late last month, but have been delayed due to deliberations at the U.N. Security Council, which issued a presidential statement condemning the attack on the South Korean warship Cheonan in the Yellow Sea in March, which killed 46 sailors.
The statement last week fell short of directly blaming North Korea, due to opposition from China, North Korea's major ally and a veto-wielding council member, and focused more on the revival of the six-party nuclear talks.
"This will be exercises that enhance anti-submarine warfare fighting capabilities," Morrell said. "This is also a show of force to the North Koreans and sends a very strong message of deterrence so that we do not see a repeat of the aggression that led to the sinking of the Cheonan and killed nearly 50 South Korean sailors."
The spokesman did not elaborate on where the aircraft carrier USS George Washington would be deployed.
"There is nothing extraordinary if a decision is made to send the George Washington to the Yellow sea or to send it to the East Sea," he said. "But the fact is what assets we use in either sea, the message is going to be the same. We are committed to working with our Korean partners to enhance our collective war fighting capabilities. We are also committed to showing a very clear unified signal of deterrence to the Republic of Korea."
Informed sources in Seoul and Washington have said that the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will be used in the East Sea, amid critics saying that Washington has bowed to Chinese diplomatic pressure.
The sources have argued that the decision was made not under Chinese diplomatic pressure but with technical considerations, noting the Navy planners did not want the Yokosuka, Japan-based aircraft carrier to waste time traveling to the Yellow Sea and that the aircraft carrier has never joined naval drills in the East Sea. The USS George Washington took part in naval drills in the Yellow Sea last October.
Morrell said that a final decision on the USS George Washington will be officially announced soon after Wednesday's two plus two meeting.
Speaking to reporters about the inaugural meeting, a senior defense official said the ministers "will give us an opportunity to assess the progress we are making in putting the new (OPCON) plan together, but it will not be finalized during the two plus two. That's not a plan. It's a complex undertaking we want to make sure we are doing right."
Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Barack Obama agreed last month to delay South Korea's taking back of wartime operational control of its troops to December 2015 from April 2012, citing the need for the sides to prepare more for their joint defense capability in the face of nuclear and other threats from North Korea.
The two plus two meeting, however, should not be the venue solely for discussing the joint military exercises and the OPCON transfer, the official said.
"This involves both the secretary of state and the secretary of defense allowing us to engage in higher-level strategic discussions about the relationship between our two countries cutting across military, diplomatic and political trade issues, the whole range," he said. "This is an outgrowth of the Joint Vision statement President Obama and President Lee had promulgated when they met here in Washington D.C. and an outgrowth of our desire and Korea's desire to force a deeper and broader relationship both in the Korean Peninsula, and regionally and globally.
"We also want to take advantage of this being the 60th anniversary of the commencement of the Korean War and to mark that in an appropriate way," the official said. "That is the genesis of the two plus two."
On the question if the meeting will take place annually, the official said, "We haven't made any decisions about future years."
hdh@yna.co.kr
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