by WorldTribune Staff, March 14, 2017
The U.S. Navy is sending the elite SEAL Team Six to South Korea to take part in a drill that will “practice incapacitating North Korean leadership in case of conflict,” officials said on March 13.
Seoul’s Defense Ministry confirmed that SEAL Team Six will take part in an exercise simulating a precision North Korean incursion and “the removal of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.”
“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,” a ministry official told Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity.
SEAL Team Six will join the annual Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises between the two allies for the first time, along with the Army’s Rangers, Delta Force and Green Berets.
“It will send a very strong message to North Korea, which is constantly carrying out military provocations,” the official said.
The American unit boarded the USS Carl Vinson, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, last week and is currently training in South Korean waters, the Japan Times reported.
F-35 stealth fighters will also fly from U.S. Navy bases in Japan this month and carry out strike simulations on key North Korean facilities.
A joint amphibious landing operation, which will kick off next month, will see the deployment of support ships the USS Bonhomme Richard, USS Green Bay and USS Ashland.