Laura Zhou
A US supercarrier is set to make a port call in Hong Kong this week before heading to waters near the Korean peninsula for a joint naval drill amid heightened tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.
The visit by the USS Ronald Reagan, the biggest US warship based in Asia, will be the first by an American carrier in two years – Beijing turned down a Hong Kong port call request from another US aircraft carrier in April last year.
The USS Reagan is expected to take part in exercises with the South Korean navy around October 15,Yonhap News Agency cited a Seoul defence official as saying.
Concerns have grown over the possibility of the US warship crossing the Northern Limit Line, a de-facto inter-Korean maritime boundary established in the Yellow Sea after the Korean war.
South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo last week quoted a South Korean government official as saying the US was considering “a wide range of options” against North Korea, including “a US aircraft carrier group crossing over the Northern Limit Line
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2113544/us-aircraft-carrier-watched-chinese-frigates-carries
