The United States and South Korea began their largest joint war games in years on Sunday, with a nuclear powered American aircraft carrier prowling off the east coast of South Korea while North Korea threatened to retaliate and reportedly put its military on alert for war.
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The rising tensions demonstrated just how tenuous peace has been on the divided peninsula since the Korean War was halted, 57 years ago on Tuesday, by a cease-fire between the United States-led forces of the United Nations and the Communist troops of North Korea and China.
The latest escalation of tensions began in March when a South Korean warship was sunk and 46 sailors died. A team of investigators from South Korea, the United States and several other countries determined in May that North Korea had torpedoed the ship.
North Korea denied the allegation and called the investigation a "fake." China, North Korea's main ally, also rejected it.
The United States and South Korea announced new sanctions against North Korea last week when their foreign and defense ministers traveled together to the inter-Korean border in a gesture of confronting the North.
On Sunday, in a show of the allies' military power, a fleet of American
and South Korean ships and submarines sailed into waters off the east
coast of South Korea, led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George
Washington, one of the biggest ships in the United States Navy.
Japan, a historical rival of Korea but an ally of South Korea and the
United States in their confrontation with the North, sent observers to
the four-day exercise.
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Source: Choe Sang-Hun, The New York Times
