The U.S. military says an aircraft carrier participated in curtailed training with Australia before starting its journey north toward the Korean Peninsula.
"The US is coordinating with the South Korean government about a combined drill which the Carl Vinson Strike Group can join", said a government official on the condition of anonymity.
White House officials told the Times that the military's Pacific Command made the announcement prematurely, and the mistake was repeated later by defence secretary Jim Mattis.
The story of the wayward carrier might never have come to light, had the Navy not posted a photo online on Monday of the Carl Vinson sailing south through the Sunda Strait, which separates the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last week said the conflict over North Korea could break out "at any moment" and warned there would be "no winner" in any war. It maintains the stance that it intends to conduct its first nuclear test since September a year ago, which would be its sixth test, and test-launch intercontinental ballistic missiles.
"We are sending an armada, very powerful", to the waters off Korea, President Donald Trump told Fox Business News on April 12.
On the same day, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters that "when you see a carrier group steaming into an area like that, the forward presence of that is clearly, through nearly every instance, a huge deterrence".
Chicago Cubs vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
I think to pick our spots and use him accordingly, and when we do need him, he'll be ready", manager Dave Roberts said. The Cubs raised their 2016 championship banner, a banner that they will see every time they walk onto Wrigley Field .
Lu noted that Beijing and Washington maintained close coordination since the new U.S. administration came to the White House in January.
Joel Wit, a co-founder of the 38 North program of the U.S. -Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, said the matter was "very perplexing" and fed into North Korea's narrative that America is all bluster and doesn't follow through on threats.
"If the U.S.is planning a military attack against us, we will react with a nuclear pre-emptive strike by our own style and method".
While the Pentagon sought to downplay those reports late last week, at no point did it or the White House suggest the Carl Vinson was not, in fact, nearing Korea to give Trump a more robust military option should he decide he needs one. Pacific Command announced April 8 that it was canceling the ships' planned visit to Australia and instead ordering them to "sail north and report on station to the Western Pacific Ocean".
The move prompted a strong rebuke by North Korea, which told CNN in a statement that it would counter the "reckless acts of aggression" with "whatever methods the US wants to take".
The North Korean missile, which was sacked from the Sinpo area, exploded nearly immediately, according to military officials in South Korea and the US.
"Third Fleet ships operate forward with a objective: to safeguard US interests in the Western Pacific.", Benham said.
Comments