A US Navy unit which killed Osama Bin Laden will be taking part in drills simulating removing North Korean despot Kim Jong-un from power.
The Special Warfare Development Group, best known as SEAL Team 6, will carry out drills in South Korea, the country’s Ministry of National Defense has revealed.
It is the team which carried out Operation Neptune Spear, the killing of the Al-Qaeda leader in Pakistan back in May 2011.
An aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, will arrive in South Korea today, The Japan Times reports, along with US Army unit Delta Force, which specialises in counterterrorism operations.
It comes a day after US President Donald Trump said North Korea was “looking for trouble” following missile tests, and vowed the United States would “solve the problem” with or without China’s help.
The US President wrote the extraordinary message on Twitter after revealing he had urged his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to pressure Pyongyang in to stopping its nuclear programme.
His warning came as Russia admitted it is “extremely worried” the US will attack Kim Jong-Un after North Korea warned it has US bases “in its nuclear sights”.
Pyongyang had earlier threatened “catastrophic consequences” after Trump sent an armada of warships to the Korean Peninsula.
At the same time, China has moved 150,000 troops to its border to deal with a possible influx of North Korean refugees amid fears Trump may strike Kim Jong-un following the surprise US missile attack on Syria last week.
Pyongyang has reacted angrily to the impending arrival of the aircraft carrier, warning of “catastrophic consequences”.
A nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea last month for joint military exercises in the latest show of force against the North.
More than 80 aircraft, including the fighter aircraft F/A-18F Super Hornet, the E-2C Hawkeye and the carrier-based EA-18G Growler were on board the supercarrier.
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency claims the heightened military presence is part of a plan to decapitate North Korean leadership.
It claims a military official, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “A bigger number of and more diverse U.S. special operation forces will take part in this year’s Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises to practice missions to infiltrate into the North, remove the North’s war command and demolition of its key military facilities.”
The aircraft carrier and a US destroyer carried out naval drills including an anti-submarine manoeuvre with South Koreans in waters off the Korean peninsula as part of the annual Foal Eagle exercise.
Washington insisted they are purely defensive in nature.
Rear Admiral James Kilby, commander of USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group 1, said: “The importance of the exercise is to continue to build our alliance and our relationship and strengthen that working relationship between our ships.”
The US has also started to deploy “Gray Eagle” attack drones to South Korea, a military spokesman revealed last month.
South Korean and US troops began the large-scale joint drills on March 1.
The spike in tensions concerned Beijing, with China’s Foreign Ministry calling on all sides to end “a vicious cycle that could spiral out of control.”
North Korea, which has alarmed its neighbours with two nuclear tests and a string of missile launches since last year, said the arrival of the US strike group was part of a “reckless scheme” to attack it.
The North Korea’s state KCNA news agency said: “If they infringe on the DPRK’s sovereignty and dignity even a bit, its army will launch merciless ultra-precision strikes from ground, air, sea and underwater.
“On March 11 alone, many enemy carrier-based aircraft flew along a course near territorial air and waters of the DPRK to stage drills of dropping bombs and making surprise attacks on the ground targets of its army.”
Last month, North Korea fired four ballistic missiles into the sea off Japan in response to annual US-South Korea military drills, which the North sees as preparation for war.
The murder in Malaysia last month of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s estranged half-brother has added to the sense of urgency to efforts to get a grip on North Korea.
Visiting the headquarters of an army unit early this month, Kim praised his troops for their “vigilance against the US and South Korean enemy forces that are making frantic efforts for invasion”‘ according to the KCNA news agency.
Kim also ordered the troops to “set up thorough countermeasures of a merciless strike against the enemy’s sudden air assault”, it said.
Navy SEAL Team that Killed Osama bin Laden Training to ‘Incapacitate’ North Korean Leader
ByEditor
Apr 13, 2017
North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un