SEOUL, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. nuclear-powered submarine Ohio arrived in South Korea's southeastern port city of Busan on Wednesday to join the upcoming joint military exercise between South Korea and the United States, the U.S. Force Korea (USFK) said in a news release.[Emphasis mine] So, that last little piece of information is clearly wrong; why would the official Chinese government press agency put it out? There are a few possible explanations:
"The USS Ohio, a U.S. guided missile submarine, is in port Busan. The Ohio is taking part in a routine port visit in conjunction with the Key Resolve/Foal Eagle Exercise 2008," said the news release.
It is the first visit of the U.S. nuclear-powered submarine to South Korea since late 2005.
1) Instead of "the submarine" they meant "a submarine", and they want to make it look to their readers that the U.S. is escalating the pressure on their North Korean allies, laying the groundwork for when the North Korean media puts out their government's inevitable tirade against American aggression that they promise to defeat by use of the "glorious Army-First Policy".
2) They do their research by typing in phrases into Google like "U.S. submarine visit Korea" and just relying on the first link that comes up.
3) They used this Korea Times article as a source, and misunderstood the part about "(i)t is the first trip to South Korea by the USS Ohio since the former Trident-class vessel underwent a near two-year conversion until late 2005..."
Since I subscribe to the axiom that errors are normally due to incompetence rather than intentional planning, I'm going with option #2 or #3.
