News Focus) U.S. carrier leads vigil in East Sea as tension boils over N.K. rocket

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By Sam Kim
ON THE EAST SEA, March 17 (Yonhap) -- Catapulted off a nuclear-powered U.S.
aircraft carrier, bands of F/A-18 Hornets soared this week with a deafening roar
over the East Sea, where Japanese and South Korean warships intensified their
lookout ahead of North Korea's planned rocket launch.

The twin nuclear-engined USS John C. Stennis carrier is leading the second half
of the joint South Korea-U.S. military exercise that will end Friday, amid
relentless allegations by North Korea that it amounts to preparation for war.
The annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercise kicked off last Monday, involving
over 25,000 American troops, a nuclear-powered submarine, at least six U.S.
destroyers and tens of thousands of South Korean soldiers.
Seoul and Washington dismiss the North Korean accusation that the allies are
conducting a massive war game to invade Pyongyang, defending the March 9-20
exercise as "purely defensive."
They also warn Pyongyang not to blame them for the heightening tension in the
East Sea, over which North Korea has notified international organizations of its
plan to launch a satellite between April 4-8.
The exercise "is not focused on what's going on in North Korea. It is part of a
normal annual exercise," U.S. Rear Admiral Mark Vance, commander of Carrier
Strike Group Three that oversees the carrier, said recently after arriving in
South Korea.
A scheduled press meeting Monday afternoon with Vance and Captain Joseph Kuzmick,
who heads the carrier, was canceled an hour before it was set to take place on
board.
Lieutenant Commander Cindy Fields cited "operational reasons," declining to
elaborate. Fields dismissed the idea the exercise could irritate Pyongyang,
saying her unit only seeks "to work together to defend against North Korean
aggression, to protect the region and maintain stability."
Pyongyang vowed last week it will take "every possible measure" to retaliate
against anyone who interferes with the launch of what it calls a communications
satellite designed for peaceful purposes.
The communist state has also said it cannot guarantee the safety of South Korean
passenger planes flying near its airspace during the exercise, forcing airlines
to divert their flights further south.
During its four-day training that will continue until Thursday, the USS John C.
Stennis will launch dozens of aircraft daily for takeoff and landing drills,
according to Lieutenant Commander Charles Villagas who oversees the flight deck
control.
The carrier -- the size of three American football fields combined -- is home to
roughly 70 aircraft, including F/A-18 Super Hornets, E-2C Hawkeyes with early
warning systems, EA-6B Prowlers with radar-jamming equipment, and anti-submarine
Seahawk helicopters.
Four catapults were used to rocket its aircraft off the deck every tens of
seconds, while dozens of crewmen worked amid the ensuing smoke and earsplitting
roar to install wires for the landing aircraft to latch their tail hooks onto.
Two destroyers and a cruiser -- all equipped with guided missiles -- flanked the
carrier, which is scheduled to also conduct gun-firing and mine-plotting drills.
Fields said no training for missile interception has been scheduled.
The carrier, which has a crew of 5,000, departed from the southeastern South
Korean port city of Busan on Sunday.
Its officers declined to give exact coordinates, simply saying the carrier has
traveled northeast since and is located approximately 300 kilometers off the
Korean Peninsula. It took slightly more than an hour to reach the carrier by a
C-2A Greyhound from U.S. Osan Air Base, about 40 kilometers south of Seoul.
U.S. aircraft carriers routinely arrive in South Korea during joint annual
exercises with the Asian ally. The USS John C. Stennis arrived here last week
along with the USS Blue Ridge, which carries the 7th Fleet commander who oversees
the western Pacific.
The USS Kidd, one of the destroyers forming the carrier group, was dispatched to
South Korea's western coast last week and has returned, the officers said.
Tension persists in the Yellow Sea as North Korea warned earlier this year of an
armed clash with South Korea near their western sea border where naval battles
turned deadly in 1999 and 2002.
Unilaterally drawn by the U.S.-led U.N. Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean
War that ended in a truce, the boundary has been the site of two bloody battles
between the Koreas in the past decade.
The Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercise -- two separate drills combined into one
starting 2002 -- 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 rear infiltration.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are regularly stationed in South Korea as a deterrent
against North Korea.
Commissioned in 1995, the USS John C. Stennis has a service plan of 50 years and
operates a fighter wing that has a history of deployment in the Korean War.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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