【英语国际】美韩海军军演引发关注

For all the attention given to the joint U.S.-South Korea naval exercise going on this week -- and criticism from North Korea and China about it -- the people actually doing the work on the lead U.S. ship said Monday their drills were routine.

Under clear skies, pilots and flight crews of fighters, surveillance planes and helicopters practiced takeoffs and landings from the aircraft carrier USS George Washington. Below the flight deck, tactical officers used radar and video feeds to watch ship and air traffic over more than 200 miles of sea.

The sailors who pilot the ship kept some new vessels in tow. In addition to the carrier's main battle group, several South Korean ships joined in maneuvers with the George Washington. The leader among them was ROKS Dokdo, an amphibious vessel carrier that is the largest ship in the South Korean fleet.

The U.S. and South Korean navies conceived of the exercise in May after an investigation determined that the sinking of a South Korean patrol boat two months earlier was caused by a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine.

North Korea has repeatedly denied the allegation and sharply criticized this week's exercise, often using the hyperbolic rhetoric for which the propaganda apparatus of its authoritarian government is well known.

The latest salvo came Monday from its defense minister, who said via the state-run news agency that Pyongyang would 'wipe out the aggressors.'

On the George Washington, officers and enlisted sailors said they remained vigilant but not worried. The exercise, dubbed 'Invincible Spirit,' was taking place off South Korea's southeast coast, more than 100 miles south of the inter-Korean maritime border.

'The only extra precaution is that, maybe, we're more observant to what's going on in the area. A little more sensitive to intel reports, what have you,' said Cmdr. Peter Walczak, who runs the ship's Combat Direction Center.

He said none of the ship's operations were working any differently from a normal day. 'This is the same stuff we do day in and day out everywhere we go in the western Pacific. What's unique is we're doing coordinated events with our allies from South Korea,' Cmdr. Walczak added.

Rear Adm. Dan Cloyd, commander of Carrier Strike Group Five and the lead officer of the joint exercise, said that while media attention has focused on antisubmarine drills, the two navies also are working on surface warfare and air operations.

'This exercise is the first of many that will follow over the upcoming months and years in the waters here east of the peninsula and certainly in the waters west of the peninsula as well,' Adm. Cloyd said, touching on a controversy that arose when the U.S. decided to keep the carrier east of the Korean peninsula.

所有关注目光都聚焦在美韩本周举行的联合海军军演上，朝鲜和中国对军演发出了批评，但在乔治•华盛顿号核动力航母（USS George Washington）上工作的人员周一说，他们只是例行军演。

在湛蓝的天空下，飞行员和战斗机机务组人员、侦察机和直升机在乔治•华盛顿号核动力航母上练习着起飞和着陆。在航母的飞行甲板下方，负责技术的军官使用雷达和视频观察着200多海里以外的船只和飞机飞行。

韩国和美国军队周日在韩国东海岸开始了为期四天的海军军演。朝鲜曾警告说，这场演习将使朝鲜半岛的局势更加紧张。驾驶这艘船的船员让一些新船只跟在后面，在乔治•华盛顿号核动力航母的主战斗群之外，还有几艘韩国船只与该航母一道加入了军演。其中的领航船是海陆两栖船只独岛号（ROKS Dokdo），它是韩国舰队中最大的船只。

美韩海军5月计划进行军演，此前调查显示，两个月前韩国一艘巡逻艇被朝鲜潜水艇发射的一枚鱼雷击沉。

Associated Press美国核动力潜艇Tucson在日本海航行朝鲜多次否认这些指控，并强烈批评本周的军演，朝鲜通常使用夸张的措辞，该威权政府宣传工具的这种论调为世人所熟悉。

周一朝鲜国防部长发表了最新强烈措辞，他通过官方新闻机构表示，平壤将“彻底消灭侵略者。”

但在乔治•华盛顿号核动力航母上，军官和海军士兵表示，他们会保持警惕，但不害怕。这次代号名为“不屈的意志”（ Invincible Spirit）的军演在韩国东南沿海举行，在朝韩海上边界以南100多英里处。

该船战斗指控中心负责人司令官瓦尔恰克（Peter Walczak）说，唯一额外的预防措施可能是，我们更注意观察这一区域的情况，对于情报报告更加敏感，等等。

他说，该船只的运行与正常日子没有任何区别，瓦尔恰克补充说，在西太平洋的每个地点，我们天天做着同样的工作。唯一不同的是，我们要做与韩国盟军的协调工作。

海军少将克洛伊德（Dan Cloyd）是华盛顿航母大队（Carrier Strike Group Five）的指控官兼此次联合军演的主要指挥官，他说，尽管媒体一直聚焦反潜艇的军演，但两国海军也在关注水面战和飞机运行。

克洛伊德说这次军演是未来数月和数年即将举行的多次军演的第一次，这些军演将在朝鲜半岛以东水域，当然也在朝鲜半岛以西水域进行，他的这番话触及了美国决定将该航母布署在朝鲜半岛以东所引发的一个具有争议性的话题。