The vessels are in Korea for Key Resolve/Foal Eagle, an annual combined/joint military exercise to be conducted from Sunday to March 7.

About nine different parts of the military exercise will be open to the media this year. During the Roh Moo-hyun administration, only three to five parts were revealed to the public each year.

On Thursday the CFC invited the media to have a look at the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, currently at anchor at the pier of the Korean Naval Operations Command in Busan.

With its crew of 5,600, the 97,000-ton, 332m-long supercarrier, which was commissioned in 1971, is sometimes called a "floating city." It carries a total of 85 aircraft, including FA-18 fighter jets.

The CFC will also unveil to the media some operational parts of the annual joint military exercise, such as a live fire drill, a field maneuver drill, an emergency rescue drill, and a pontoon bridge-laying drill, which will be conducted in Seoul, and Munsan and Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province next week.

Last weekend the CFC invited journalists to a live fire drill by Stryker Brigade Combat teams, which had rushed to Korea from Alaska.

On Tuesday afternoon, the 18,750-ton USS Ohio, a U.S. Navy nuclear-propelled submarine which carries Tomahawk cruise missiles, was shown to local journalists for the first time.

Earlier that morning, a 46,000-ton maritime prepositioning ship of the U.S. Marines was unveiled to the media at Jinhae Port in South Gyeongsang Province.

A source said, "The Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations prevented the USFK from unveiling past combined/joint military exercises to the public for fear that it would irritate North Korea. With a conservative government being inaugurated in Seoul, the USFK is now unveiling more military exercises and equipment to the public."

Some observers suspect that the U.S. is making a show of force to North Korea.

(englishnews@chosun.com )