Amid tension over Kim Jong-un’s tests, a US guided missile destroyer has arrived in South Korea

And American guided missile destroyer visited this week the city of Jeju, in the south South Koreaaccording to what local media reported this Sunday, in another apparent demonstration of his abilities in Growing full tension with North Korea.

The destroyer Arleigh Burke-class USS Rafael Peralta arrived in Jeju on Monday, February 27, and left the island on Friday after “a scheduled visit”, according to information provided this weekend by the United States Pacific Command after he left.

The mentioned destroyer, of 9,200 tons, It is one of the main ships of the United States Seventh Fleet and is capable of performing many missions, ranging from intercepting missiles at low and high altitudes to attacking fighter jets or conducting underwater combat with two MH-60 Seahawk helicopters on board.

Your stay in Jeju coincided with the visit the USS Springfield nuclear submarinewhich landed on the same island on February 23 and left on March 1.

“Rafael Peralta’s visit underscores South Korea’s strategic importance in ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific, enabling presence, secure access and defending the commons,” Pacific Command said in a statement. a press release published on its website. .

Visits to South Korea “allow the U.S. Navy to strengthen relations with like-minded allies and improve interoperability between the two countries“, he added.

The passage of this new American strategic asset through the Korean peninsula seems destined to a new show of military force and warning for North Korea.

The United States and South Korea are preparing to carry out from the 13 major maneuvers for more than ten daysto which the North Korean regime usually responds with weapons tests, considering them a threat to its sovereignty.

“(Exercise) freedom shield it is designed to strengthen the defense and response capabilities of the alliance,” he explained during a press conference in Seoul, during which the spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), Lee Sung-jun, and the spokesman for the Korean American forces in Korea (USFK), Isaac Taylor.

Taylor said the premise of the exercise will focus on things like “the changing security environment, aggression from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (the North’s official name) and lessons learned from wars and conflicts.” recent”. During the 11 days that the Freedom Shield will take place, a series of “large scale” maneuvers will also be conducted on the ground that have “regained the scale of Foal Eagle” and will be called Warrior shield.

In addition, on Friday, air forces from Seoul and Washington conducted maneuvers with an American B-1 strategic bomber and South Korean fighter jets at a time marked by enormous tensions on the peninsula.

The exercises were carried out over the Yellow Sea (called the West Sea in both Koreas) and the central region of South Korea and involved, in addition to B-1, F-15 and F-15 from the Asian country, he explained the South Korean Ministry of National Defense in a statement.

Pyongyang has strongly protested the movement of assets to the peninsula with tests of missiles and other weapons, as well as joint maneuvers by Washington and Seoul, which it blamed for the persistent tension in the region.

Just today, a senior North Korean foreign ministry official accused the allies of raising the tension “to an extremely dangerous level” and urged the UN to call for an immediate halt to the maneuvers , which the regime would consider “a first step”. lasting relaxation.

(With information from EFE)

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