North Korea state media warns of nuclear strike if provoked

The 100,000 ton Nimitz-class vessel is powered by two nuclear reactors and carriers nearly 100 aircraft.

"The U.S.is making up its mind to stop the North from conducting further nuclear tests".

Tensions are high on the divided peninsula. One of a few concrete things that came out of the meeting happened to be the potential for US access to the Chinese market for beef. -South Korea war games, which it sees as an invasion rehearsal, and justifies its nuclear weapons as defensive in nature.

Japan's foreign ministry issued a travel alert this week to citizens residing in or traveling to South Korea, urging them to continue paying attention to developments on the peninsula.

North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, two of them previous year, and is working to develop nuclear-tipped missiles that can reach the United States.

Mattis, however, said at a news conference that the Pentagon does not see "a specific demand signal or specific reason" for sending the aircraft carrier and several other warships toward the peninsula.

"China's best case scenario, what it would really like to happen, would be a liberalized regime in the North, akin to some of the reforms that took place (in China) in the 1980s, so introducing economic reform, removing the concentrated power of the Kim family", Neill said. US defense officials said that didn't mean military action was imminent. But such actions will only raise tensions and make the situation even worse. No one has spoken of shooting down a North Korean missile unless it directly threatens the US or its allies in East Asia. Kim is likely to be undeterred to conduct tests because he has made nuclear weapons development a national priority, seeing them as a guarantee against US -backed efforts that have toppled authoritarian governments in Iraq, Libya and elsewhere.

On Tuesday, a fleet of North Korean cargo ships headed home, mostly fully laden, after China ordered its trading companies to return coal, sources with direct knowledge of the trade said.

Trump also discussed cruise missile strikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government in response to a chemical attack against their own people. The order was issued during Xi's visit.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump tweeted that he tried to persuade Xi to put pressure on North Korea in exchange for a good trade deal with the United States.

"If China decides to help, that would be great", he tweeted.

North Korea is emerging as one of the most pressing foreign policy problems facing the administration of US President Donald Trump. "U.S.A.", Trump had said in a second tweet.

"I don't think we're about to go to war against North Korea", said Ralph Cossa, president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies's Pacific Forum in Honolulu.

Trump had ordered the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group to head to the Korean peninsula in an attempt to deter North Korea's nuclear and long-range missile ambitions, which it is developing in defiance of United Nations resolutions and sanctions. Then, the fear was a conflagration at the heavily militarized border.

"There is a possibility that the North launches more grave provocations such as another nuclear test to mark a number of anniversaries", Hwang Kyo-Ahn said in a cabinet meeting. If Kim and his top aides were killed in a US attempt to decapitate North Korea before it could order a ballistic attack, that might cause the whole government to collapse.

The North fired a liquid-fueled Scud missile this month, the latest in a series of tests that have displayed Pyongyang's ability to launch attacks and use hard-to-detect solid-fuel rockets.

The destroyers and the cruiser are all equipped with the Aegis missile defense system.

That would also alarm allies Japan and South Korea, which also have the Aegis. It is not accidental panic sentiment is on the rise in South Korea. A submarine is also expected to accompany the group.

The strike group - which includes the Nimitz-class aircraft supercarrier USS Carl Vinson - cancelled a planned trip to Australia this weekend to head to the Korean peninsula in a show of force.