US build-up in Korean waters
Show of force comes as North expected to carry out latest test
North Korea conducted a big live-fire exercise yesterday to mark the foundation of its military, media reported, as a United States submarine docked in South Korea in a show of force amid growing concern over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes.
The port call by the USS Michigan came as a US aircraft carrier strike group steamed toward Korean waters and as the top envoys for North Korea policy from South Korea, Japan, and the US met in Tokyo.
Fears have risen in recent weeks that North Korea could conduct another nuclear test or long-range missile launch in defiance of United Nations sanctions, perhaps to mark yesterday’s anniversary of the founding of its military.
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported that the North appeared to have deployed a large number of long-range artillery units in the region of Wonsan on its east coast yesterday, for a live-fire drill.
The report, citing an unidentified South Korean government source, said the exercise was possibly supervised by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
South Korea’s Defence Ministry said it could not immediately confirm the report.
North Korea’s state media was defiant in a commentary marking the 85th anniversary of the foundation of the Korean People’s Army, saying its military was prepared “to bring to closure the history of US scheming and nuclear blackmail”.
“There is no limit to the strike power of the People’s Army armed with our style of cutting-edge military equipment including various precision and miniaturised nuclear weapons and submarine-launched ballistic missiles,” the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a frontpage editorial.
North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threat is perhaps the most serious security challenge confronting US President Donald Trump. Trump has vowed to prevent North Korea from being able to hit the US with a nuclear missile and has said all options are on the table, including a military strike.
He sent the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group for exercises in waters off the Korean peninsula as a warning to North Korea and a show of solidarity with US allies.
Meanwhile, top Trump Administration officials will hold a rare briefing tomorrow at the White House for the entire US Senate on the situation in North Korea. All 100 senators have been asked to the White House for the briefing by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
While Administration officials routinely travel to Capitol Hill to address members of Congress on foreign policy matters, it is unusual for the entire Senate to go to the White House, and for all four of those officials to be involved.
The briefing was originally scheduled for a secure room at the Capitol, but President Donald Trump suggested a shift to the White House, congressional aides said.