The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has dismissed China's objections to the U.S. sending its USS George Washington nuclear supercarrier to the Yellow Sea for joint military drills with South Korea.

Mullen on Monday told U.S. soldiers that the carrier operated in the Yellow Sea last October and that it will operate there again, stressing that the Yellow Sea is in international waters.

The JCS chief added that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il remains very unpredictable and that it is impossible to determine what moves he might make in the future.