JABAR EKSPRES – A US nuclear powered cruise missile submarine (SSGN) on Friday arrived in South Korea for the first time in six years, the South Korean Defense Ministry said.
The submarine arrived in South Korea amid heightened tensions following North Korea’s launch of two ballistic missiles a day earlier.
The Ohio-class SSGN, USS Michigan, entered the main naval base in Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, after North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Thursday in protest of a massive South Korea-US live-fire drill that ended earlier in the day.
The submarine’s presence marks the first time the US has sent an SSGN to South Korea since October 2017.
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The submarine is scheduled to be in South Korea until next Thursday, an anonymous South Korean defense official told reporters.
The presence of the submarine, a key asset of the US Navy, comes after the US pledged to further enhance “regular visibility” of strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula through the Washington Declaration issued by President Yoon Suk Yeol and US President Joe Biden during their meeting in Washington in April.
“The US SSGN’s visit to the South is aimed at substantively implementing the agreement in the Washington Declaration made in April to enhance the regular visibility of strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula,” said ROK Fleet Vice Commander Admiral Kim Myung-soo.
ROK stands for the South’s official name, the Republic of Korea.
“(It) demonstrates the outstanding capabilities and posture of the South Korea-US alliance to realize ‘peace through strength’,” he continued.
During the submarine’s visit to the country, the South Korean and US navies plan to conduct joint special operations exercises to strengthen their interoperability and capabilities in such operations.
