The Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Annapolis and South Korean submarine Yi Sun-sin conduct a joint anti-submarine drill south of Jeju Island, South Korea, July 29, 2023. (South Korean Ministry of National Defense)
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — U.S. and South Korean warships conducted an anti-submarine drill south of the Korean Peninsula over the weekend in response to North Korea’s “escalating” missile tests.
The USS Annapolis, a Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine, joined South Korea’s Aegis-equipped Yulgok Yi destroyer and the Yi Sun-sin submarine south of Jeju Island to strengthen their response to the North Korean missiles and underwater threats, the ministry said in a news release Saturday.
The Annapolis arrived at Jeju Naval Base, about 50 miles south of the mainland, on July 24 to replenish its ordnance, South Korean navy spokesman Jang Do-young told reporters that day.
It is one of three U.S. submarines to visit South Korea so far this year, including the Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine USS Kentucky, which arrived in Busan on July 18 as a show of force against the North.
In addition to the recent naval exercise, the two militaries carried out a joint air drill on Friday.
An unspecified number of U.S. F-16 Fighting Falcons and South Korean F-35 Lightning IIs and KF-16s took to the skies near the peninsula’s west coast for a demonstration of their “rapid and flexible response options,” 7th Air Force said in a news release Friday.
The command did not immediately respond to a request for comment by phone Monday.
Pyongyang has fired 17 ballistic missiles in 12 separate days of testing so far this year. The communist regime last fired two short-range ballistic missiles that flew into the Sea of Japan, or East Sea, on July 19.
Pyongyang's nuclear policy may allow the regime to conduct a preemptive nuclear strike due to the Kentucky’s port call, North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun-nam said in a statement released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency on July 20.
The North on Thursday held its Victory Day parade at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of Korean War hostilities.
The parade was attended by leader Kim Jong Un, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese politburo member Li Hongzhong and included thousands of marching soldiers, several ballistic missiles and drones, according to a KCNA report on Friday.
North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun-nam, in a speech during the parade, described the U.S. and South Korea as warmongers and said their military drills amounted to “[playing] dangerous war games,” KCNA reported Friday.
