ID :
50319
Fri, 03/13/2009 - 07:22
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/50319
The shortlink copeid
(Yonhap Feature) U.S. destroyers deploy forward as N. Korea escalates missile tension
By Sam Kim
ABOARD USS CHAFEE, South Korea, March 12 (Yonhap) -- Loaded with missiles capable of intercepting a flying rocket, a pair of argus-eyed U.S. destroyers glided into a South Korean port this week along the east coast where North Korea appears determined to launch what it calls a space satellite.
The USS Chafee and the USS Stetham, docked at Donghae Harbor about 130 kilometers
south of the intensely guarded inter-Korean border, are among at least six U.S.
warships deployed around South Korea as part of the 12-day joint defense exercise
that began Monday.
North Korea blasts the annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercise as a full-scale
war preparation, threatening to retaliate if the allies intrude even a fraction
of a centimeter into its territory.
The routine denouncement came as the communist state has taken measured steps
over weeks to launch what it claims to be a communications satellite as part of
its space development project.
On Thursday, the North said that it has notified international agencies of its
intention to soon go ahead with the launch from a site along its northeastern
shore.
"We would know if it's a satellite or a missile," Lieutenant Commander Choi
Hee-dong, chief of the Aegis-guided USS Chafee, said Thursday in an interview
with Yonhap News Agency.
Showing a set of radars designed to tell a bird from a rocket, Choi, an ethnic
Korean, said his vessel is carrying nearly 100 torpedoes and missiles.
He declined to specify models, but experts say the destroyer normally carries
state-of-the-art SM-3 missile interceptors and Tomahawks that could strike a
target as small as a window of a building hundreds of kilometers away.
The arrival of what Choi described as the most potent U.S. destroyer came amid
mounting speculation that the U.S. and Japan might attempt an interception should
North Korea launch what could be a missile technically capable of reaching
Alasaka.
Choi stressed the deployment of his 9,200-ton vessel is strictly for the drill,
but indicated a contingency such as a missile launch could force "a subtle change
of plan" during the exercise.
"We've been instructed on various scenarios before arriving here," Choi said,
declining to elaborate.
Speaking at the steering house overlooking the peaceful harbor, Choi said simply
that his destroyer has "the capabilities to tell a satellite launch from a
ballistic one."
"We're capable against any threat. We have great sailors. We have great
manpower," Lieutenant Commander Larry Gonzalez, the ship's second highest-ranking
officer, added.
Docked near South Korea's northeasternmost naval base, the USS Chafee is equipped
with the Aegis combat system that can simultaneously detect, track and destroy a
multitude of targets within a range of hundreds of kilometers.
Its checkered silos, installed at both front and back, can be used to fire a
rocket every 1.2 seconds, while its Phalanx vulcan is capable of shooting 4,500
rounds a minute, Choi said, also showing the deep-buried Combat Information
Center where dozens of electronic displays provided the only source of light.
Carrying an anti-submarine Seahawk helicopter, the ship arrived Wednesday in
South Korea along with the nuclear-powered USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier
docked at the southeastern city of Busan.
More than 25,000 U.S. troops, a nuclear-fueled submarine and tens of thousands of
South Korean troops have been mobilized this year for the exercise, based on a
war plan that guarantees the deployment of nearly 700,000 overseas U.S. troops
should Pyongyang provoke war.
The USS Kidd, a destroyer that usually flanks the USS John C. Stennis, has been
deployed to the southwestern city of Mokpo, officers on the aircraft carrier said
Wednesday.
Choi declined to disclose whether the USS Kidd may be conducting an exercise near
the Northern Limit Line, the western sea border where North Korea has repeatedly
warned of an armed clash this year.
Unilaterally drawn by the U.S.-led U.N. Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean
War that culminated in a truce, the boundary has been the site of two bloody
battles between the Koreas in the past decade.
North Korea also said this week that it will not guarantee the safety of South
Korean passenger airplanes flying over its eastern waters during the exercise.
The USS Chafee is one of the most recently built American destroyers,
commissioned in 2003. Operating out of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the vessel has a
crew of about 300 and carries eight "Nulka" missiles rigged with propellers to
stay afloat before striking targets.
The ship is named after a U.S. marine veteran and politician who fought in the
Pacific War and the Korean War.
The Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercise -- two separate drills combined in the
early 2000's -- is aimed at assessing the abilities of the U.S. to quickly
reinforce frontline South Korean troops in case war breaks out on the Korean
Peninsula. It is also aimed at deterring possible rear infiltration.
ABOARD USS CHAFEE, South Korea, March 12 (Yonhap) -- Loaded with missiles capable of intercepting a flying rocket, a pair of argus-eyed U.S. destroyers glided into a South Korean port this week along the east coast where North Korea appears determined to launch what it calls a space satellite.
The USS Chafee and the USS Stetham, docked at Donghae Harbor about 130 kilometers
south of the intensely guarded inter-Korean border, are among at least six U.S.
warships deployed around South Korea as part of the 12-day joint defense exercise
that began Monday.
North Korea blasts the annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercise as a full-scale
war preparation, threatening to retaliate if the allies intrude even a fraction
of a centimeter into its territory.
The routine denouncement came as the communist state has taken measured steps
over weeks to launch what it claims to be a communications satellite as part of
its space development project.
On Thursday, the North said that it has notified international agencies of its
intention to soon go ahead with the launch from a site along its northeastern
shore.
"We would know if it's a satellite or a missile," Lieutenant Commander Choi
Hee-dong, chief of the Aegis-guided USS Chafee, said Thursday in an interview
with Yonhap News Agency.
Showing a set of radars designed to tell a bird from a rocket, Choi, an ethnic
Korean, said his vessel is carrying nearly 100 torpedoes and missiles.
He declined to specify models, but experts say the destroyer normally carries
state-of-the-art SM-3 missile interceptors and Tomahawks that could strike a
target as small as a window of a building hundreds of kilometers away.
The arrival of what Choi described as the most potent U.S. destroyer came amid
mounting speculation that the U.S. and Japan might attempt an interception should
North Korea launch what could be a missile technically capable of reaching
Alasaka.
Choi stressed the deployment of his 9,200-ton vessel is strictly for the drill,
but indicated a contingency such as a missile launch could force "a subtle change
of plan" during the exercise.
"We've been instructed on various scenarios before arriving here," Choi said,
declining to elaborate.
Speaking at the steering house overlooking the peaceful harbor, Choi said simply
that his destroyer has "the capabilities to tell a satellite launch from a
ballistic one."
"We're capable against any threat. We have great sailors. We have great
manpower," Lieutenant Commander Larry Gonzalez, the ship's second highest-ranking
officer, added.
Docked near South Korea's northeasternmost naval base, the USS Chafee is equipped
with the Aegis combat system that can simultaneously detect, track and destroy a
multitude of targets within a range of hundreds of kilometers.
Its checkered silos, installed at both front and back, can be used to fire a
rocket every 1.2 seconds, while its Phalanx vulcan is capable of shooting 4,500
rounds a minute, Choi said, also showing the deep-buried Combat Information
Center where dozens of electronic displays provided the only source of light.
Carrying an anti-submarine Seahawk helicopter, the ship arrived Wednesday in
South Korea along with the nuclear-powered USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier
docked at the southeastern city of Busan.
More than 25,000 U.S. troops, a nuclear-fueled submarine and tens of thousands of
South Korean troops have been mobilized this year for the exercise, based on a
war plan that guarantees the deployment of nearly 700,000 overseas U.S. troops
should Pyongyang provoke war.
The USS Kidd, a destroyer that usually flanks the USS John C. Stennis, has been
deployed to the southwestern city of Mokpo, officers on the aircraft carrier said
Wednesday.
Choi declined to disclose whether the USS Kidd may be conducting an exercise near
the Northern Limit Line, the western sea border where North Korea has repeatedly
warned of an armed clash this year.
Unilaterally drawn by the U.S.-led U.N. Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean
War that culminated in a truce, the boundary has been the site of two bloody
battles between the Koreas in the past decade.
North Korea also said this week that it will not guarantee the safety of South
Korean passenger airplanes flying over its eastern waters during the exercise.
The USS Chafee is one of the most recently built American destroyers,
commissioned in 2003. Operating out of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the vessel has a
crew of about 300 and carries eight "Nulka" missiles rigged with propellers to
stay afloat before striking targets.
The ship is named after a U.S. marine veteran and politician who fought in the
Pacific War and the Korean War.
The Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercise -- two separate drills combined in the
early 2000's -- is aimed at assessing the abilities of the U.S. to quickly
reinforce frontline South Korean troops in case war breaks out on the Korean
Peninsula. It is also aimed at deterring possible rear infiltration.
