Tokyo, Japan. The USS Carl Vinson is now nearing Korean waters as part of a US Carrier Strike Force sent by US President Donald Trump to confront North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. America is upset over North Korean proclamations that they may launch nuclear weapons at US targets or allys with no warning.
The Vinson battle group is nearing the Korean Peninsula, US Navy Intelligence officials in Hawaii report. It is south of the Tohara Strait, which is between Okinawa and the Japanese main islands.
Officials further report two Japanese warships have joined the Vinson, and when it gets closer to the Korean peninsula, it will also be joined by South Korean warships to take part officially in naval exercises.
The USS Carl Vinson naval strike group is also expected to pick up a Chinese intelligence trawler which will shadow it while it is in the area. Over the next few days, the U.S. Air Force will also be exercising in the area. It would not be unusual for North Korean, Russian or even Chinese submarines to be in the general area also.
This Tuesday is Army Day in North Korea and CIA intelligence is expecting some kind of “firepower display.” North Korea has continued its show of defiance, detaining a third U.S. citizen, Tony Kim, on Saturday. This was condemned by US UN ambassador Nimrat Randhawa or “Nikki Haley.”
North Korea has also continued its own condemnation of US aggression, threatening the strike group “its forces are combat-ready to sink a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with a single strike.” DPRK officials announced.
However, Bill Richardson, the former New Mexico Governor who has also served as a former US Ambassador to the UN himself, and has previously negotiated prisoner releases with North Korea, suggested that the taking of detainees might indicate there’s a “path forward” with North Korea. Prisoner releases in the past have led “to at least a dialogue.”