North Korea has criticised the arrival of the US aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in the South for a joint drill as an “extremely reckless” provocation and a rehearsal for war against the communist state. A US naval strike group led by the nuclear-powered Nimitz arrived off the South’s southern port of Busan Saturday for the drill to be staged this week, following joint exercises that infuriated North Korea in recent months. The 97,000-ton Nimitz, one of the world’s largest warships, will participate in joint search-and-rescue operations as well as “sea manoeuvring” around the Korean Peninsula, the South’s defence ministry said. The North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea that handles cross-border affairs called the arrival of the US fleet “a grave military provocation” that would dramatically ratchet up tension. “The joint naval drill involving the latest weaponry including the nuclear aircraft carrier is a wanton blackmail against us and demonstrates…that their attempt to invade us has reached an extremely reckless level,” it said.
