US-Korea Naval Drill Canceled To Safeguard G20 Summit
A US-South Korea naval exercise in the Yellow Sea, originally scheduled for this week, is canceled in view of the G-20 summit, scheduled to be held in Seoul November 11 and 12, said local media Sunday, citing a senior government source.
Also, the two countries decided to postpone a large-scale landing maneuver in the Yellow Sea, until after the G20 summit.
South Korean government sources reportedly said that the decision to cancel the drill was made to avoid causing tensions with China and North Korea ahead of the summit. Beijing opposed the deployment of the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered super-aircraft-carrier USS George Washington.
The two allies originally sought to stage a joint exercise involving the U.S. aircraft-carrier late this month as part of a response to North Korea’s torpedoing of a South Korean war vessel in late March that drowned 46 sailors.
However, a high-level government official reportedly said that it was realistically difficult for the two countries to stage another large-scale naval drill following the anti-submarine training from September 20 to October 1.
At the G20 meeting the leaders will discuss an agreement to reform the International Monetary Fund (IMF) so that emerging economies, including Brazil, China, India and Russia have more say in the decision-making process.
An agreement to this effect was announced Saturday by finance ministers and central bank governors from the 20 nations on the last day of their conference in South Korean coastal city of Gyeongju.
Source: http://www.rttnews.com/Content/GeneralNews.aspx?Id=1454435&SM=1