USS Ronald Reagan Arrives in Busan as US and South Korea Revive Large-Scale Drills Amid North Korean Threats

The USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, pulled into the South Korean port of Busan on Friday, September 23, 2022, escorted into Busan Naval Base. It came to take part in upcoming joint drills with South Korea in the East Sea, an exercise meant to display the allies' strength against growing threats from North Korea.

The drills will be the first involving a U.S. carrier in the region since 2017. That year Washington sent three carriers, the Reagan among them, for naval exercises with South Korea in response to North Korean nuclear and missile tests.

The exercise is part of a wider revival. In previous years the allies downsized or shelved large-scale drills, either to support diplomacy with Pyongyang or because of COVID-19. This year they brought them back, answering North Korea's return to major weapons testing and its increasing threats of nuclear conflict with Seoul and Washington. South Korea's navy said training with the Reagan battle group is meant to raise military readiness and to show "the firm resolve by the Korea-U.S. alliance for the sake of peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula."

The arrival follows a hard line from Pyongyang. This month Kim Jong Un told North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament he would never give up the nuclear weapons and missiles he says he needs to counter perceived U.S. hostility. North Korea also passed a law enshrining its status as a nuclear power and authorizing preemptive use of nuclear weapons across a broad range of scenarios in which the country or its leadership comes under threat.

On Thursday in Seoul, Sung Kim, the Biden administration's special representative for North Korea, met his South Korean counterpart, Kim Gunn. South Korea's Foreign Ministry said they voiced "serious concern" about the escalating nuclear doctrine in the new law. They reaffirmed that the U.S. would defend South Korea with its full range of military capabilities, nuclear included. They also held to their months-old assessment that North Korea is preparing its first nuclear test since 2017, and discussed "stern" countermeasures if it goes ahead.

The pace of testing is a backdrop. North Korea has launched more than 30 ballistic weapons since 2017, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, a record pace for 2022, as it takes advantage of a divide in the U.N. Security Council deepened by Russia's war on Ukraine. ICBMs draw much of Washington's attention because they could threaten the American homeland. But the North has also been building up nuclear-capable shorter-range missiles designed to evade missile defenses in South Korea. That buildup and the threats of preemptive strikes have raised doubts in South Korea about how credible the U.S. "nuclear umbrella" is.

President Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative who took office in May, has promised to strengthen South Korea's conventional missile capabilities and work with the Biden administration on more effective deterrence strategies. Senior officials from both countries met in Washington this month and issued a statement saying any North Korean nuclear attack would meet an "overwhelming and decisive response." Nuclear diplomacy has been stalled since 2019 over disagreements about easing U.S.-led sanctions in exchange for steps toward North Korean disarmament, and Pyongyang has rejected calls to return to talks.

A second friction point is the border. North Korea has sharply criticized Yoon for continuing the exercises and for allowing South Korean civilian activists to send anti-Pyongyang leaflets and other "dirty waste" across by balloon, even dubiously claiming these items caused its COVID-19 outbreak. Activists kept launching balloons after the North warned last month of "deadly" retaliation, prompting worry about a weapons test or even border skirmishes. The Unification Ministry pleaded with them to stop for safety reasons, and spokesperson Lee Hyo-jung said Friday that Seoul was ready to respond sternly to any retaliation.

Next week U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visits South Korea after attending the state funeral in Tokyo of slain former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and the North Korean threat is expected to be a key topic.