A file picture shows the USS Carl Vinson in the southern port city of Busan.[Yonhap News Photo]
US and South Korea troops will hold a major joint sea drill in a show of force against North Korea next week when an American aircraft carrier strike group arrives in waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan, a report said Monday.
The drill involving US and South Korea warships led by the USS Carl Vinson will be staged at around April 25, when the North's military marks the 85th anniversary of its creation, Yonhap news agency said, citing a government source.
Unlike his predecessor, Barak Obama, who advocated "strategic patience", US President Donald Trump has favored a more aggressive and hard-line stance to North Korean provocations.
On Monday, Vice President Mike Pence visited Camp Bonifas, an American front-line post just south of the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, before inspecting Panmunjom, a truce village in the middle of the heavily fortified border.
Pence arrived in Seoul Sunday as part of his Asia trip that would also take him to Japan, Indonesia and Australia. His late father, Edward Pence, fought alongside South Korean troops during the 1950-53 Korean War.
Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
