The head of the U.S. Pacific Command, Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. ordered the Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, its fighter jets and several other warships toward the peninsula in order to "maintain readiness" in the region, the command said in a statement.
A U.S. official told the Reuters that Carrier Strike Group 1 would leave Singapore and move towards the western Pacific Ocean near the Korean Peninsula.
"Well, it's prudent to do it, isn't it?" he replied.
We're closely watching worldwide fallout from North Korea's unprecedented show of aggression of late; the country's had six missile-launch displays already in 2017.
Reuters reported the carrier will move near the Korean peninsula, citing a US official it did not identify.
The United States is anxious that North Korea is preparing to carry out its sixth nuclear threat during this upcoming weekend, reported ABC News this morning.
The White House had made it clear that the United States is exploring new diplomatic, security and economic options targeting North Korea, which claims to be developing a long-range missile capable of hitting the USA mainland with an atomic warhead.
North Korea warned Monday it would respond to "reckless acts of aggression" by the United States, with "whatever methods the U.S. wants to take", as a USA aircraft carrier strike group headed toward the Korean Peninsula.
In early March, North Korea launched five medium-range Scud missiles, four of which traveled more than 600 miles, the upper limit of their range, before plunging into the Sea of Japan.
Egypt's Christians bury dead after ISIS church bombings
The attacks targeted two Coptic Christian churches with Islamic State claiming responsibility and warning of more attacks to come. During a visit to Egypt last month, Merkel toured a Cairo church that had been the site of a previous bombing in December.
"The U.S.is proving itself that it can really take action if you play with chemical weapons like Syria", Lee said. China has always been North Korea's primary ally, supporting the hermit state with food, energy and most of its economic trade.
The comments were made by a Foreign Ministry official and carried by North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency on Sunday.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday that Beijing understands how risky North Korea's nuclear program has become and agrees action must be taken to stop it, but China hasn't signaled any change in its approach to Pyongyang since a summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last week.
"If we judge that they have perfected that type of delivery system, then that becomes a very serious stage of their further development", he said on ABC's This Week.
"President Xi clearly understands, and I think agrees, that the situation has intensified and has reached a certain level of threat that action has to be taken", Tillerson said.
However, officials in Seoul attempted to play down the move as well and said the deployment does not amount to military confrontation with the Kim Jong-un regime.
He added that the USA and South Korea intend to maintain peace and stability in the region by resolving matters amicably with the North.
"The deployment seems to reflect the [US] perception of the seriousness of the situation on the Korean Peninsula", Moon Sang-gyun said.
The China-US presidential summit, held at Mar-a-Lago in Florida on Thursday and Friday, failed to deliver any concrete agreement on how to rein in North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes between the two nations.
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