South Korea and the United States have begun joint naval maneuvers on Monday, with a nuclear submarine, amid heightened tension on the Korean peninsula where North Korea should conduct a nuclear test shortly.
A spokesman for the South Korean Ministry of Defense confirmed that the military exercises, which will last three days, had begun in the Sea of Japan, off the port of Pohang (southeast of South Korea).
These exercises were planned before North Korea announced its intention to conduct a nuclear test, the third after those of 2006 and 2009, military officials said. But the presence of a nuclear submarine is interpreted as a warning towards the North.
Apart from the submarine USS San Francisco, armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles, is also a destroyer of 9800 tons, USS Shiloh.
Exercises include training operations at sea, the detection and tracking of a submarine, drives live firing anti-missile, anti-aircraft and anti-ship, a military source told the agency south Korean Yonhap.
According to experts and sources within foreign intelligence, North Korea is ready to make his third attempt nuclaire retaliatory sanctions widened passed by the Security Council of the UN after the rocket launch in December.
This shot is considered by Washington and its allies as a new test of ballistic missile violating international sanctions.
According to the South Korean Ministry of Defense, Pyongyang has completed the technical preparations.The only thing left to do is a political decision, said ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok, calling North restraint.
South Korean experts believe that the trial will take place before the Chinese New Year on February 10.Others expect rather on February 16, the anniversary of the birth of Kim Jong-Il (d. 2011), father of current leader Kim Jong-Un.
On Friday, a government official said Seoul had said, on condition of anonymity, that the North had covered the entrance to an underground tunnel in the north-east of the country, to defeat satellite surveillance of foreign powers, trying to guess the timing of the next nuclear test.
Special Advisor to the South Korean nuclear Sunday went to Beijing to meet with his Chinese counterpart. China is the only ally of Pyongyang and is thus regarded as the only country able to influence decisions in North Korea.
The young North Korean leader recently chaired a military meeting devoted to the preparation of a major turning point for the country's defense had official media reported on Sunday in a probable allusion to an imminent nuclear test.
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