A US Navy aircraft carrier strike group is moving in waters off the Korean Peninsula as tensions flare after a series 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 would face a stronger response, as evidenced by the redeployment of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group to the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, after Pyongyang on Tuesday launched an intermediate -A short-range ballistic missile (IRBM) that flew over Japan.
South Korea’s General Staff also said Wednesday that the US carrier strike group would redeploy to the waterway, in what it described as a “highly unusual” move meant to “demonstrate the SK-US alliance’s resolute will to respond decisively to any provocation or threat from North Korea.”
Asked about South Korea’s statement about Reagan’s moves, a spokesman for the US 7th Fleet 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.
South Korea’s statement about the US Navy strike group’s movements prompted a harsh response from Pyongyang.
“The DPRK is watching the US pose a serious threat to the stability of the situation on the Korean Peninsula and its neighborhood by redeploying the carrier task force to the waters off the Korean Peninsula,” North Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement posted. on the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
Pyongyang’s missile launches on Thursday are 24 such tests this year, including ballistic and cruise missiles – the highest annual tally since Kim Jong Un took power in 2012.
It followed a highly provocative launch by the reclusive country on Tuesday, when North Korea fired a ballistic missile without warning over Japan – its first in five years – prompting Tokyo to urge residents in the north to evacuate.
The United States and South Korea responded with missile launches and drills 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 “on this path” of provocation, “it will only increase condemnation, increase isolation and increase steps taken in response to their actions’.
Last month, the US, Japanese and South Korean navies held joint anti-submarine drills in international waters off the east coast of the Korean peninsula to improve the ability to respond to North Korean submarine threats.
The Reagan strike group and destroyers from South Korea and Japan took part in this joint exercise, according to the South Korean Navy.
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North Korea’s latest launch came hours after the Security Council was briefed at United Nations headquarters in New York on Pyongyang’s weapons program.
Speaking at the council, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia and China, without naming them, of enabling North Korea.
North Korea “enjoys the full protection of two members of this council. These two members did everything to justify the DPRK’s repeated provocations and block any attempt to update the sanctions regime,” he said.
Referring to Russia and China, Thomas-Greenfield said: “Two permanent members of the Security Council have allowed (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un” to continue these “provocations”.
But China countered that Washington was escalating tensions.
“The US has recently strengthened its military alliances in the Asia-Pacific region and is intensifying the risk of military confrontation over the nuclear issue,” Chinese Deputy UN Ambassador Geng Shuang said during the Security Council meeting.
The US is “poisoning the regional security environment,” he added.
Russia also blamed Washington.
“It is obvious that Pyongyang’s missile launches were a response to the US’s short-sighted confrontational military activities,” said Anna Evstigneva, Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the UN.
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Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul, said military demonstrations by the US and its allies have no effect on the North Korean weapons program.
“Yes, American strategic assets are being deployed, but does it make a difference?” Lankov asked.
“It doesn’t make any difference where an American aircraft carrier is … They’re just testing their missiles,” he said of the North Koreans.
Experts have warned that North Korea’s recent tests suggest an even greater escalation in weapons testing could be on the horizon.
“North Korea will continue to conduct missile tests until the current round of modernization is complete,” Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, told CNN earlier this week.
Carl Schuster, former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center in Hawaii, said North Korean leader Kim has both domestic and regional audiences in mind with the tests.
Kim is telling his own people, “We can deal with any threat that the West, the US and South Korea can face,” Shuster said.
He also tells the South Koreans that if they go too far, he can destroy them. He also signals to Japan, “I can reach you and I’m not afraid to do it.”
Shuster also said Kim could be expected to escalate soon by testing a nuclear weapon.
Lewis agreed, saying that a nuclear test could happen “at any time.”
South Korean and US officials have warned since May that North Korea may be preparing for a nuclear test, with satellite images showing activity at its underground nuclear test site.
If North Korea conducts a test, it will be the country’s seventh underground nuclear test and the first in nearly five years.
