USS Carl Vinson Sent as Warning to North Korea

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plunges this week into the increasingly volatile situation in North Asia with visits to Japan, South Korea and China.

So far, China’s anger has largely been directed at the Chinese operation of South Korean retail giant Lotte Group, which has agreed to give up its golf course in South Korea’s southeastern town of Seongju so it can become the home of the new USA air defense system in a land-swap deal.

Compounding regional tension, China is vehemently opposed to the deployment in South Korea of an advanced USA anti-missile system.

“‘To decapitate the North Korean leadership”, and to punish “the South’s imperialist running dogs, with nuclear weapons, ‘ are both the craziest threat Pyongyang and Seoul have sent to each other”. Both conservative interim officials echo the USA on the need to increase North Korean sanctions to pressure the Kim Jong Un government to dismantle its’ nuclear arsenal in return for security guarantees and economic aid.

For some advocates, THAAD has become an issue of maintaining national sovereignty in the face of Chinese pressure, as much as it is a needed defensive measure.

During the South Korea leg of the trip, Tillerson will hold talks with Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn.

Lawmakers in Washington are focused on North Korea following the country’s latest missile tests.

The U.S. added its USS Curtis Wilbur, a high-powered guided missile destroyer, to the global fleet of ships participating in essentially a show of force against the reclusive North Korean regime. North Korea could be preparing for its next nuclear test, but it could lead to a disaster that precipitates the collapse of the Kim Jong Un regime, a North Korean defector said Tuesday.

“THAAD is non-negotiable”, the official told Reuters.

State Department acting spokesperson Mark Toner did not rule out on Tuesday that the USA secretary of state would discuss climate issues with Chinese authorities.

Even China threatened suspending coal imports from North Korea for the rest of the year in response to the test.

Tillerson will arrive in Japan on March 15, Republic of Korea on March 17 and China on March 18 to meet bilaterally with the leaders of the three nations.

Some are anxious about the relationship the new administration will have with China.

“You can only fight on so many fronts at once and given that the North Korean threat is accelerating, there is an opportunity for us to prioritize Chinese assistance there, and perhaps not prioritize areas of disagreement we might otherwise be very vocal about”. The upcoming summit between Xi and Trump in Mar-a-Lago in April will offer such an opportunity. Eunjung Lim, a Korea studies professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, says a U.S. Japanese Prime Minister Abe also underscored the strength of U.S. -Japan’s “unshakable” alliance during his subsequent visit to the United States.

A Wall Street Journal article cited sources as saying the USA may be considering military action against the Kim regime, and Japanese defense officials told Reuters they would seek to develop their own first strike capability to cripple North Korea’s nuclear infrastructure before the Hermit Kingdom could fire a shot.

Officials have sought to play down the military option, given the risk of North Korean retaliation.

“I don’t understand why South Korea exclusively takes the hit from the Chinese economic retaliation”, said Hong Hyun-ik, a senior researcher at Sejong Institute in Seoul, at a seminar on diplomacy, security and unification organized by the Seoul-based think tank.