SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA   – The four-day joint U.S.-South Korea naval exercises wrapped up today in the waters off South Korea.
The signal being sent during our U.S. TV exclusive embedment:   Solidarity with South Korea, Deterrence to North Korea.

But from the run-up, to the end, the maneuvers were also marked by some mixed messages.

Those, no doubt, a sign of the tricky balancing act the U.S. has to play between South Korea, North Korea….and China.

First there was the timing.  Following the suspected sinking of the South Korea warship, the Cheonan, by a North Korean submarine, South Korea announced the exercises.

Which were then delayed by the U.S.

The main reason given was diplomacy needed to play out, including efforts in the UN Security Council to come up with a strong resolution against Pyongyang.

Council member and North Korea ally China blocked that and a much weaker “statement” came out.   So it was back to military might.

Next…where to hold the drills?   South Korea apparently pushed for them to be held in the Yellow Sea where the incident occurred.  And the U.S. seemed good with that.

But China wasn’t, complaining loudly about the drill being at its maritime front door.

So, at the last minute, word came from the exercises would happen east of South Korea (and well east of China) in the Sea of Japan.

U.S. officials denied to us there was any cave-in to Beijing.

And then there was the nature of the drills.   The word we got during our embedment was there would be no “live fire” exercises for us to see.

Despite that, Monday night, South Korean military released shots of anti-sub exercises, including torpedoes being shot and depth charges being dropped.

There was more target practice today involving U.S. planes hitting a range south of the DMZ in South Korea.

Not to be one-upped, a Chinese newspaper claimed that its military had staged its own live fire drill….in the Yellow Sea Sunday.

And all the while during this Kim and company up in Pyongyang were threatening “Global War” if the U.S. didn’t cease and desist.

South Korea military officials today declared the maneuvers a success, saying “a strong warning” had been sent to North Korea.

American officials no doubt feel the same way.

Messages sent…with just a little bit of static.   For the U.S., not an easy part of the world to work in.