U.S. carrier to visit S.Korea, likely to irk North
SEOUL, July 10 (Reuters) - A U.S. aircraft carrier will make a routine port call in South Korea later this month, U.S. Forces Korea said on Thursday, which should upset a prickly North Korea that has said such moves can hurt nuclear disarmament talks.
The visit of the USS Ronald Reagan from July 14 comes as talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes open on Thursday in Beijing.
The talks are expected to wind down a day or two before the aircraft carrier arrives in the southern city of Busan.
Even before the announcement of the visit, North Korea accused the United States of "double dealing tactics" by trying to pursue diplomacy while also preparing to launch an attack against the communist state.
"It is against this backdrop that the U.S. is holding confabs (meetings) to thrust its dagger into the back of its dialogue partner behind the scene," a North Korean state newspaper said in a commentary carried on its official KCNA news agency on Wednesday.
"Such a practice will only push the above-said denuclearisation process to collapse," it said.
U.S. Forces Korea did not say when the carrier was scheduled to depart.
The United States has about 28,000 troops in South Korea to support the country's 670,000-strong military.
North Korea, which is technically still at war with the South, positions most of its 1.2 million soldiers near the heavily fortified border that divides the peninsula. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Jerry Norton)
