U.S. Army Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, arrives aboard the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, March 1, 2025. (Isaiah Goessl/U.S. Navy)
A U.S. aircraft carrier and two warships arrived at South Korea’s largest port Sunday in a show of force aimed at deterring North Korean provocations, the South Korean navy said.
The USS Carl Vinson pulled into Busan, about 200 miles southeast of Seoul, as part of ongoing efforts by the United States and South Korea to strengthen cooperation and train for threats posed by North Korea, according to a South Korean navy news release.
The aircraft carrier was accompanied by the USS Princeton, a guided-missile cruiser, and the USS Sterett, a guided-missile destroyer, the release said. All three warships are homeported in San Diego.
“Our military will strongly punish any North Korean provocation, and the South Korea-U.S. alliance will support peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the region through close cooperation,” South Korean navy Rear Adm. Lee Nam-gyu said in the release.
While in Busan, sailors from the three warships are scheduled to participate in cultural exchanges, including a visit to the U.N. Memorial Cemetery, where approximately 2,330 Korean War veterans are buried, according to the release.
Lt. Cmdr. Jamie Moroney, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet based at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, said the carrier was making a “scheduled port visit” and declined to comment on its itinerary, citing operational security concerns.
“With almost seven decades of partnership, the U.S. and [South Korean] navies are working more closely and are more integrated than ever before,” she said in an email Sunday. “This port visit highlights our continued cooperation with [South Korea] and our strong support for the region.”
The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson docks in Busan, South Korea, Nov. 22, 2023. (David Choi/Stars and Stripes)
On Saturday, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea toured the Carl Vinson at sea alongside South Korean navy officials, according to a separate news release from the carrier strike group.
“The Carl Vinson’s presence here not only underscores the importance of both the maritime and air domains but also reaffirms our commitment to maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific by integrating these unique capabilities into our comprehensive all-domain approach,” Army Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said in the release.
The Carl Vinson is the first U.S. carrier to visit Busan since the USS Theodore Roosevelt docked there on June 24. Days later, the Theodore Roosevelt and its strike group took part in Freedom Edge, the first major trilateral maritime and aerial exercise involving the United States, South Korea and Japan.
The Carl Vinson last visited Busan on Nov. 21, 2023, before conducting a one-day air-defense and maritime maneuver drill with South Korean and Japanese warships, according to South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense.
The U.S. and South Korean militaries are scheduled to hold Freedom Shield later this month, a two-week air, land and sea exercise expected to involve thousands of troops from both countries.
North Korea routinely denounces the presence of U.S. strategic assets in the South. After the nuclear-powered submarine USS Alexandria docked at Busan on Feb. 10, the state-run Korean Central News Agency called the deployment an “undeniable threat” and warned of an unspecified “counteraction against our rivals.”
On Wednesday, North Korea launched several cruise missiles that flew 990 miles off its western coast in a test to confirm the weapons’ reliability, KCNA reported Friday.
