U.S. sends warships toward North Korea
WASHINGTON — Pivoting off what the White House considers a successful U.S. missile strike in Syria, the Trump administration sent what was seen as a not-so-subtle message Sunday to North Korea: don’t risk being next.
With growing signs that North Korea may be preparing a sixth nuclear test, a U.S. aircraft carrier strike force near Singapore was diverted north toward the Korean peninsula. Also, President Donald Trump spoke to leaders in Tokyo and Seoul, and senior administration officials made pointed note of the “full range of options” available to counter threats to the United States or its allies.
The sudden flurry of action centering on North Korea came after Mr. Trump’s summit in Florida on Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two leaders publicly played down their economic and political disputes and addressed their common interest in reining in North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un.
Administration officials said the strike by 59 cruise missiles on Syria in response to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s alleged use of banned sarin nerve gas might have strengthened Mr. Trump’s hand as he called on the Chinese to put more pressure on North Korea. Although officials noted that North Korea poses different, and in some ways more daunting, challenges than Syria, the parallel of a rogue government that possesses weapons of mass destruction was not lost on the Chinese.
North Korea has repeatedly said it plans to test an intercontinental ballistic missile or conduct another underground nuclear test. Just days ago, Pyongyang tested an intermediaterange missile.
Perhaps mindful of parallels that could be drawn over defiance of international norms, North Korea denounced the U.S. missile strike on Syria as “intolerable,” and reiterated its own right to self-defense.
The U.S. Navy’s Third Fleet, in turn, announced that the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, and a strike force that includes two missile destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser, were being diverted north from scheduled port calls in Australia to “maintain readiness and presence in the western Pacific.”
“The No. 1 threat in the region continues to be North Korea due to its reckless, irresponsible and destabilizing program of missile tests and pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability,” U.S. Pacific Command spokesman Dave Benham said.
Adding to the barrage of cautionary language aimed at North Korea, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — speaking Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” — framed the Syria missile strike as a more general warning against international outliers, even those whose actions did not pose a direct security threat to the U.S.
“If you violate international agreements, if you fail to live up to commitments, if you become a threat to others, at some point a response is likely to be undertaken,” he said.
The White House national security advisor, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, cited a “pattern of provocative behavior” on North Korea’s part.
“This is a rogue regime that is now a nuclear-capable regime,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Gen. McMaster said that Mr. Trump had asked aides to prepare “a full range of options to remove that threat to the American people and to our allies and partners in the region.”