Candidates worry over naval move

Pyongyang vows strong response if US strike group threatens country

SEOUL - Presidential candidates of the Republic of Korea expressed worry about the redeployment of a nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier and its accompanying battleships near the Korean Peninsula, local media reports said on Tuesday.

The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its accompanying destroyers and cruisers moved again to the waters near the peninsula, after departing from it last month. The Nimitz-class aircraft supercarrier had participated in the US-ROK joint military exercises, code-named Foal Eagle, from March 19 to March 25. The joint annual war game would last by the end of this month.

The redeployment of the Carl Vinson strike group, which canceled a planned port visit to Australia and diverted to the Western Pacific, escalated tensions on the peninsula.

Two key ROK presidential candidates expressed worries about the mounted tensions in the region.

Moon Jae-in of the biggest Minjoo Party said in a statement that any military action on the peninsula must never be conducted without the country's consent.

Moon said that if he takes power, he will visit the US rapidly to discuss ways to resolve the issue of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

A spokesman with Ahn Cheol-soo of the center-right People's Party, Moon's archrival, said the redeployment of the US aircraft carrier near the peninsula was viewed as a strong show of force against the DPRK's nuclear program.

Escalated tensions

He expressed worry about the escalated military tensions on the peninsula, adding that the DPRK's nuclear issue must be resolved in a peaceful way.

Lee Duk-haeong, spokesman for ROK's Unification Ministry, said on Monday that there was nothing to worry much about the redeployment as the US had supported Seoul's DPRK policies which aim to resolve all issues peacefully.

On Monday, a spokesman for the DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs was quoted by the Korean Central News Agency as saying that the US dispatching of the Carl Vinson carrier task group to waters off the peninsula "all of a sudden" has proved that Washington's "reckless moves of invading the DPRK have reached a serious phase of its scenario".

"If the United States dares opt for a military action, crying out for 'pre-emptive attack' and 'removal of the headquarters', the DPRK is ready to react to any mode of war desired by the US," the spokesman said.

He stressed that "the prevailing grave situation proves once again that the DPRK was entirely justified for increasing in every way its military capabilities for self-defense with pre-emptive attack with a nuclear force as a pivot".

Due to the unusual US action, ungrounded rumors spread on the internet that the US military could stage a pre-emptive strike against nuclear and missile facilities of the DPRK.

Seoul's Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck told a news conference that the authorities of the ROK and the US are closely cooperating on the DPRK issues, saying those rumors are groundless.

The nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier is expected to arrive in waters near the ROK this weekend, Yonhap news agency reported on Tuesday. A ROK military official was quoted as saying that it is forecast to enter the waters near the peninsula around April 15.