North Korea says ready to strike US aircraft carrier
North Korea said on Sunday it was ready to sink a US aircraft carrier to demonstrate its military might, as two Japanese navy ships joined a US carrier group for exercises in the western Pacific.
US President Donald Trump ordered the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group to sail to waters off the Korean peninsula in response to rising tension over the North’s nuclear and missile tests, and its threats to attack the United States and its Asian allies.
The US has not specified where the carrier strike group is as it approaches the area. US Vice President Mike Pence said on Saturday it would arrive “within days” but gave no other details.
North Korea remained defiant.
“Our revolutionary forces are combat- ready to sink a US nuclear- powered aircraft carrier with a single strike,” the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, said in a commentary.
The paper likened the aircraft carrier to a “gross animal” and said a strike on it would be “an actual example to show our military’s force.”
The commentary was carried on page three of the newspaper, after a two- page feature about leader Kim Jong- un inspecting a pig farm.
North Korea detained a Korean- American man in his fifties on Friday, South Korea’s Yonhapnews agency reported, bringing the total number of US citizens held by Pyongyang to three.
The man, identified only by his surname Kim, had been in North Korea for a month to discuss relief activities, Yonhap said. He was arrested at Pyongyang International Airport on his way out of the country.
North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, two of them last year, and is working to develop nuclear- tipped missiles
can reach the US.
The Korean Central News Agency ( KCNA) published a commentary on Friday criticizing China, although without naming it, for “dancing to the tune of” the US’ North Korean policy. Some emotional statements in the article expressed Pyongyang’s determination to go down the nuclear path. The most provocative sentence that attracted worldwide attention in the commentary is that “if the country keeps applying economic sanctions on the DPRK … it should get itself ready to face the catastrophic consequences in the relations with the DPRK.”
This is the second time North Korean state media has criticized Beijing without mentioning names. On February 23, KCNA published a critique accusing China’s “mean behavior” for “totally blocking foreign trade related to the improvement of people’s living standard,” which is “tantamount to the enemies’ moves to bring down the social system in the DPRK.”
KCNA’s latest broadside followed the same pattern of its critique two months ago, which not only vented its dissatisfaction toward Beijing’s action of imposing sanctions against Pyongyang by following the UN Security Council resolution, but also conveyed North Korea’s will to keep going its own way on nuclear and missile tests. It attempted to pile pressure on China, trying to influence Beijing’s future attitude toward Pyongyang’s next nuclear activity.
However, such a move will not have any effect apart from further isolating Pyongyang itself. If North Korea conducts its sixth nuclear test, Beijing will undoubtedly support the UN in adopting tougher sanctions against it, includ- ing oil embargo, although its sanctions will not target the North Korean people or regime.
Perhaps Pyongyang needs to revise its understanding that North Korea is a sentinel and on guard duty for China, therefore, whatever it does, Beijing has no other alternative except to endorse Pyongyang.
If North Korea really thinks this, it is making a mistake. Its nuclear program has severely impacted peace and stability in Northeast Asia, jeopardizing China’s major national interests. Preventing Pyongyang from continuing to develop nuclear weapons has already become Beijing’s priority in its Northeast Asian policies.
The fundamental problem in the North Korean nuclear crisis is the contradictions between North Korea and the US. China does not have the key to resolve it. Beijing has made its contributions by strictly following the resolutions of the UN Security Council. Washington and Seoul must also make joint efforts with China to let Pyongyang see that it can still safeguard its country and regime without nuclear weapons.
Although North Korea is subject to international sanctions, Pyongyang is not the only one to have caused tension on the Korean Peninsula. Washington should also reflect on its wrongdoing. US President Donald Trump always said that the White House’s previous North Korean policy was a mistake, but what he is doing now is no different from his predecessor Barack Obama. Trump won’t reach the right destination if he only changes a pair of shoes while continuing along the same old path.