[Lower Deck]

But then again, we’ve been cutting our ASW budget for years, and Pyongyang is making these moves at a time when the U.S. does not have a carrier in the region, so most of the battle group’s organic ASW assets aren’t available, either.

How about the South Korean military? Don't you think they have ASW assets? And in the region, too?

[ExNewsExSpook]

They do, but not as robust as ours. Case in point? The sinking of that ROKN corvette five years ago; NK sub got very close before launching the torpedo that sank the surface vessel, killing 46 South Korean sailors.

I would hope that every available P-8 and P-3 is on patrol, seeding the Yellow Sea and Sea of Japan with sonabouys. Between the U.S., ROK and Japan, we should have enough patrol craft and vessels to begin tracking down some of those noisy NK boats. Unfortunately, Zero never wants to take the lead on any sort of military operation, and it takes U.S. leadership to get the ROKs and Japanese to cooperate.