By DPA,
Seoul : The US and South Korea are to launch a joint naval exercise at the weekend, officials said Wednesday, amid heightened tensions after North Korea shelled a South Korean island.
“The USS George Washington carrier strike group will join Republic of Korea naval forces in the waters west of the Korean Peninsula from November 28 to December 1 to conduct the next exercise,” the US Forces Korea (USFK) said in a statement posted on its website.
The drill was planned before Tuesday’s attack by North Korea, which left two South Korean soldiers dead. But the manoeuvres would demonstrate the US commitment to its South Korean ally, the statement said.
Beijing, which has previously voiced its objection to exercises involving the nuclear-powered George Washington off its coast, has been informed of the drill, officials at the USFK were quoted as saying by the Yonhap news agency.
US President Barack Obama assured his South Korean counterpart Lee Myung Bak that Washington stood firmly with its “close friend and ally”.
The two leaders in a phone call agreed to hold joint military drills in the “days ahead”.