Story highlights
- CNN gets exclusive access to U.S. aircraft carrier involved in joint military exercises with S. Korea
- U.S. commanders say annual exercise serves as powerful deterrent to North Korea
- But this has not stopped Pyongyang from flexing military muscles
Aboard the USS John C Stennis (CNN)With a deafening roar of jet engines and an explosion of steam, an F-18 Super Hornet catapults off the deck of the aircraft carrier, and veers up into the sky. Seconds later, another fighter jet shoots out down a parallel runway.
The aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis leads a strike group of approximately 8,400 pilots and sailors, three destroyers, a tanker ship as well as dozens of fighter jets, reconnaissance planes and helicopters.
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An F/A-18 Super Hornet descends and lands on USS John C. Stennis, Saturday, March 19, 2016. Dozens of fighter jets and other aircraft are on board the carrier. It's leading a strike group of about 8,400 troops for military drills with North Korea.
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The carrier arrived in the region in mid-March to participate in joint annual exercises between the U.S. and South Korea amid tension in the Korean peninsula.
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North Korea sees the 8-week annual joint drill, Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, as a threat, claiming it's preparation for an invasion of the country by South Korean and U.S. forces.
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On Monday, March 21, North Korea fired five short-range projectiles into the sea off the country's east coast. It follows the strengthening of sanctions against the country after it claimed to have tested a hydrogen bomb earlier this year.
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At a time of great tension on the divided mainland, they are here to train with the South Korean military in choppy, freezing waters to the east of the Korean Peninsula.
This month, North Korea fired salvos of ballistic missiles twice in a period of eight days. In doing so, Pyongyang violated multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions. The launches also alarmed key U.S. allies in the region. Both South Korea and Japan are well within range of North Korea's arsenal.
"Our role here is to hopefully provide deterrence to that sort of activity," says Rear Admiral Ronald Boxall, commander of the carrier strike group.
He speaks while seated on a bridge over-looking the flight deck, as fighter jets continue to blast off the carrier in rapid succession.
"We're also here to ensure that if we can't deter, we're here to defend and support the ironclad commitment we have with the Republic of Korea," he adds, referring to South Korea.
The annual eight-week series of joint exercises performed by the U.S. and South Korean militaries infuriate the North Korean regime.
Photos: South Korea, U.S. hold 'largest ever' drills
South Korean and U.S. troops staged an amphibious assault Saturday, March 12 as U.S. and South Korean military units embarked on eight weeks of annual joint military exercises.
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Photos: South Korea, U.S. hold 'largest ever' drills
Clouds of camouflage smoke obscure amphibious assault vehicles coming into shore as part of military exercises on March 12. South Korea's defense ministry spokesman is calling the maneuvers "the largest scale ever," involving 300,000 South Korean soldiers and at least 17,000 from the U.S.
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Photos: South Korea, U.S. hold 'largest ever' drills
A South Korean Marine looks through a viewfinder on a sniper rifle on March 12. Marines and sailors stormed a beach aboard assault vehicles in a mock amphibious assault.
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Photos: South Korea, U.S. hold 'largest ever' drills
A South Korean Marine looks through his rifle's view finder on March 12 with an amphibious assault vehicle in the background.
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Photos: South Korea, U.S. hold 'largest ever' drills
A South Korea marine holds an assault rifle in the March 12 exercises.
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Photos: South Korea, U.S. hold 'largest ever' drills
Small detachments of forces from Australia and New Zealand also participated in Saturday's maneuvers.
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Photos: South Korea, U.S. hold 'largest ever' drills
South Korean Marines group crouch between two amphibious assault vehicles during the March 12th drill.
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Photos: South Korea, U.S. hold 'largest ever' drills
South Korean Marines points their weapons during the joint military exercises held on March 12.
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Photos: South Korea, U.S. hold 'largest ever' drills
Protesters call for a more peaceful atmosphere on the Korean peninsula as South Korea and U.S. troops hold joint military exercises on March 12.
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Inevitably, the training season leads to saber-rattling on both sides of the Demilitarized Zone.
According to the South Korean defense ministry, North Korea fired around 90 ballistic missiles and rockets throughout the joint military exercise season in 2014.
But the usual tensions between these rival neighbors deteriorated sharply after North Korea claimed to have detonated its first hydrogen bomb last January -- a claim the White House was skeptical of. That nuclear blast scare was followed in February by a rocket launch that put a satellite in orbit.
Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
North Korea has a history of using creative language to express loathing for its enemies. Here are some of the regime's more colorful threats against the West.
March 2016: North Korea warned it would make a "preemptive and offensive nuclear strike" in response to joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises. Pyongyang issued a long statement promising that "time will prove how the crime-woven history of the U.S. imperialists who have grown corpulent through aggression and war will come to an end and how the Park Geun Hye group's disgraceful remaining days will meet a miserable doom as it is keen on the confrontation with the fellow countrymen in the north."
March 2016: North Korea warned it would make a "preemptive and offensive nuclear strike" in response to joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises. Pyongyang issued a long statement promising that "time will prove how the crime-woven history of the U.S. imperialists who have grown corpulent through aggression and war will come to an end and how the Park Geun Hye group's disgraceful remaining days will meet a miserable doom as it is keen on the confrontation with the fellow countrymen in the north."
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Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
March 2016: Following the imposition of strict U.N. sanctions, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country's "nuclear warheads need to be ready for use at any time," the North Korean state news agency KCNA reported.
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Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
January 2016: North Korea claimed to have successfully tested a thermonuclear weapon, justifying its right to have an H-bomb on the grounds of "self defense."
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Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
September 2015: In a statement, North Korea said its nuclear arsenal was ready for use "at any time."
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Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
August 2015: As forces from the U.S. and South Korea took part in joint military drills. North Korea's state media referred to the exercises, which started on August 17, as "madcap" and issued a stern warning to America: "If the U.S. ignites a war in the end, far from drawing a lesson taught by its bitter defeat in the history, the DPRK will bring an irrevocable disaster and disgrace to it."
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Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
August 2015: On August 23, as North Korean negotiators were meeting with their South Korean counterparts over current tensions, a KCTV presenter appeared on air repeating North Korea's ambitions to "destroy the warmongering South Korean puppet military."
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Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
December 2014: The FBI said it suspected North Korea was behind a hack of Sony Entertainment, which led executives to initially cancel the theatrical release of "The Interview." The film was a comedy about an American television personality who the CIA asks to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. North Korea threatened "merciless" action against the U.S. if the film was released, accusing the U.S. of retaliating for the hack by shutting down North Korea's Internet access. North Korea's National Defense Commission also called U.S. President Barack Obama "reckless" and a "monkey."
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Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
July 2014: North Korea threatens to hit the White House and Pentagon with nuclear weapons. American "imperialists threaten our sovereignty and survival," North Korean officials reportedly said after the country accused the U.S. of increasing hostilities on the border with South Korea. "Our troops will fire our nuclear-armed rockets at the White House and the Pentagon -- the sources of all evil," North Korean Gen. Hwang Pyong-So said, according to The Telegraph.
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Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
March 2013: Angered by tougher U.N. sanctions and joint military exercises by the United States and South Korea, the Supreme Command of North Korea's military vowed to put "on highest alert" the country's "rocket units" that are assigned to strike "U.S. imperialist aggressor troops in the U.S. mainland and on Hawaii and Guam and other operational zone in the Pacific." Whether Pyongyang has the will to back up such doomsday talk is a perplexing question, but there is evidence that its know-how -- in terms of uranium enrichment, nuclear testing and missile technology -- is progressing.
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Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
February 2013: In a message to the United States and South Korea, North Korea vowed "miserable destruction" if "your side ignites a war of aggression by staging reckless joint military exercises."
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Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
June 2012: Once again, North Korea vowed to be "merciless" in its promised attack on the United States, this time threatening a "sacred war" as it aimed artillery at South Korean media groups. North Korea was mad that South Korean journalists had criticized Pyongyang children's festivals meant to foster allegiance to the Kim family.
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Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
April 2012: North Korea's state-run news agency reported that "the moment of explosion is approaching fast" and promised "merciless" strikes against the United States. "The U.S. had better ponder over the prevailing grave situation," it said. Later that month, Pyongyang launched a long-range rocket that broke apart and fell into the sea. The launch came during preparations for a grand party that celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea.
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Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
November 2011: North Korea's military threatened to turn the capital of South Korea into a "sea of fire," according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.
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Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
2009: After the U.S. pledge to give nuclear defense to South Korea, Pyongyang threatened a "fire shower of nuclear retaliation."
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Photos: North Korea's verbal volleys
2002: U.S. President George W. Bush includes North Korea in an "axis of evil" with Iran and Iraq, which North Korea brushes off as a "little short of a declaration of war." North Korea reportedly threatened to "wipe out the aggressors." That year, North Korea also threatened to kick out international inspectors who were in the country to monitor its compliance with global nuclear nonproliferation agreements.
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South Korea responded by reactivating rows of massive speakers that blast anti-regime propaganda across the demilitarized zone into North Korea. Seoul also announced the closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, a series of factories jointly operated with North Korea located just north of the DMZ -- and a symbol of cooperation between the two Koreas.
Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council imposed a new round of economic sanctions aimed at punishing Pyongyang, followed by unilateral sanctions announced by the U.S. government.
North Korea remains defiant. Neither sanctions, international isolation, nor joint military war games in South Korea have succeeded in convincing Pyongyang to abandon their program to develop nuclear weapons.
Aboard nuclear-powered supercarrier 01:49
Last Tuesday, the country's leader Kim Jong Un issued orders for his scientists and military to carry out a "nuclear warhead explosion test and a test-fire of several kinds of ballistic rockets able to carry nuclear warheads," according to the state news agency KCNA. The government's publicly-stated goal is to enhance nuclear attack capability.
"They're very dedicated to having those capabilities," says Troy University's Daniel Pinkston, who currently teaches international relations in Seoul.
"If [the nuclear weapons] are not reliable today, they're going to keep working so they'll be reliable so that they can use them if they need to use them tomorrow, or next month, or next year."
Inside library dedicated to North Korea 02:33
While pushing forward with efforts to develop an arsenal of ballistic missiles equipped with nuclear warheads, North Korea continues to object to the U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises.
Last week, Pyongyang's ambassador to the U.N. sent an open letter of protest to the Security Council which called the drills "a grave threat" to his country.
"We are always prepared to go and do whatever we need to do to defend and commit to our partnership with the Republic of Korea," says Admiral Boxall, when asked about the North Korean accusations.
