US sends aircraft carrier to pressure North Korea

The United States will send one of its aircraft carriers close to the Korean peninsula in yet another show of force after Pyongyang carried out a provocative ballistic missile test that put Japan on high alert.

The USS Ronald Reagan was returning to its base in Japan’s Yokosuka, after exercises with the navies in Tokyo and Seoul. “It will return to the Sea of ​​Japan in response to Tuesday’s firing,” the Pentagon said.

That day, North Korea carried out one of its most symbolic tests of nuclear-capable missiles, firing an intermediate-range Hwasong-12 model on a trajectory that flew over northern Japan and crashed into the sea 4,600 km after the launch point.

It was the farthest a North Korean missile had ever flown — in previous ballistic tests, the weapon was fired at an angle where it flew at high altitudes and then descended, thus making it possible to estimate how far it could go. Now it’s for real, and the American base on the island of Guam is within reach.

Panic broke out in towns on the island of Hokkaido, where residents were alerted via cellphone messages to seek shelter as a missile was in the air. The new Japanese government is following the assassinated Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s line of increasing confrontation and militarism.

On Tuesday itself there was a first reaction, with the US flying in attack formation of its and Japan’s fighter jets in the Yellow Sea, and with South Korea test-bombing with fighter planes and firing four missiles along with US forces.

Here there was a defect embarrassment in one of the missiles, which landed on an air base without hurting anyone. Images on social media, however, showed neighbors in the area frightened by the burning wreckage on the ground.

Now, 1 of 12 US aircraft carriers, the most powerful instruments of US global power projection, will be on patrol in waters not far from the two Koreas. “It’s a highly unusual sign of allied resolve,” the Seoul Armed Forces command said.

Over the course of the year, Kim Jong-un’s Stalinist dictatorship has stepped up missile tests to a level not seen since 2017, when it demonstrated to the world its ability to hit US targets in the rival’s Pacific and east coast.

He eventually managed to get Donald Trump to the negotiating table, giving Kim respectable actor status. The relationship soured and talks to lift sanctions from Pyangyong in exchange for some guarantee of denuclearization of the peninsula divided since the Korean War ceasefire in 1953 have failed.

Analysts see the testing rounds as an attempt by Kim to force the reopening of talks. There are even fears that the dictator will carry out a new nuclear test, as in 2017, to attract the attention of the West.

This is due to the timing of one of its guarantors, China, where leader Xi Jinping is preparing for the Communist Party Congress that will anoint his unprecedented third term, starting on the 16th. Xi would not like to see his show overshadowed. by a crisis involving a rebel regional ally.