US moves aircraft carrier strike group near Korea after North’s missile launches, South Korea says
A US Navy aircraft carrier strike group is moving into waters off the Korean Peninsula as tensions flare after a spate of North Korean missile launches over the past two weeks, South Korean security officials said.
South Korea’s National Security Council (NSC) held an emergency meeting on Thursday after North Korea launched two more short-range ballistic missiles, the sixth such launch in 12 days, the country’s Presidential Office said in a statement.
The NSC warned that North Korea’s provocation will face a stronger response, as demonstrated by the redeployment of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, following Pyongyang’s launch on Tuesday of an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) that flew over Japan.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff also said on Wednesday that the US carrier strike group would be redeployed to the waterway, in what it characterized as a “very unusual” move meant “to demonstrate the resolute will of the SK-US alliance to respond decisively to any provocation or threat from North Korea.”
Asked about the South Korean statement on the Reagan’s movements, a US 7th Fleet spokesperson told CNN, “The Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group is currently operating in the Sea of Japan.” The Navy said it does not comment on future operations.
The South Korean statement on the US Navy strike group’s movements drew a harsh response from Pyongyang.
“The DPRK is watching the US posing a serious threat to the stability of the situation on the Korean peninsula and in its vicinity by redeploying the carrier task force in the waters off the Korean peninsula,” read a statement from the North Korean Foreign Ministry posted on the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
Pyongyang’s missile launches Thursday are the 24th such tests this year, including both ballistic and cruise missiles – the highest annual tally since Kim Jong Un took power in 2012.
It closely followed the highly provocative launch by the isolated country on Tuesday, when North Korea fired a ballistic missile without warning over Japan – the first in five years – prompting Tokyo to urge residents in the north to take shelter.
The United States and South Korea responded with missile launches and exercises around the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Speaking Wednesday during a trip to South America, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that if North Korea continues “down this road” of provocation, “it will only increase the condemnation, increase the isolation and increase the steps that are taken in response to their actions.”
Last month, the US, Japanese and South Korean navies conducted joint anti-submarine exercises in international waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula to improve response capability against North Korean submarine threats.
The Reagan carrier strike group and destroyers from South Korea and Japan were involved in that joint exercise, according to the South Korean Navy.
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