You cannot see this page without javascript.

조회 수 977 추천 수 0 댓글 0

Story highlights

  • Pyongyang warned it is 'ready to react to any mode of war desired by the US'
  • Trump has indicated that he wants to keep all options on the table

(CNN)North Korea warned Monday it would respond to "reckless acts of aggression" by the United States, with "whatever methods the US wants to take," as a US aircraft carrier strike group headed toward the Korean Peninsula.

The Pentagon is sending the 97,000-ton USS Carl Vinson with an escort of a guided-missile cruiser and two destroyers following another missile test by North Korea last week.
According to a statement provided to CNN by officials in Pyongyang, the "current grim situation" justifies Pyongyang's "self-defensive and pre-emptive strike capabilities with the nuclear force at the core."
"We will make the US fully accountable for the catastrophic consequences that may be brought about by its high-handed and outrageous acts," the statement said.
On Tuesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is expected to attend the country's Supreme People's Assembly, a high-profile gathering of the nation's leading political figures.
The meeting comes days before North Korea celebrates the April 15 birthday of deceased leader Kim Il Sung, Kim's grandfather -- amid speculation that Pyongyang will mark the occasion with by testing missiles or possibly a nuclear device.

Capability of US strike group

Carrying more than 5,000 sailors and 60 aircraft, the USS Carl Vinson is escorted by guided-missile destroyers USS Wayne E. Meyer and USS Michael Murphy and the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain.
The group's ships and air wing provide significant firepower and strike capability, but balancing the available military options with the potential of retaliation from North Korea presents a complicated scenario for US President Donald Trump.
China -- North Korea's closest ally -- has pressed the US to engage in direct diplomatic negotiations with North Korea.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday that Beijing understands how dangerous North Korea's nuclear program has become and agrees action must be taken to stop it, but China hasn't signaled any change in its approach to Pyongyang since a summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last week.
The White House faces a tough task in convincing North Korea to give up its nuclear program, retired Gen. Michael Hayden, a former head of the CIA and National Security Agency told CNN's "New Day."
"No matter what we do there is this move by North Korea to build missiles and put weapons on top of missiles," Hayden said.
"This is what they count on for regime survival. ... The best we can do is box it where it is right now," he said. "I don't think we can make them give up the program."

Missile intercept

Many analysts believe the movement of US warships is likely defensive in nature, setting the stage for a scenario in which the Vinson strike group could be called upon to perform a missile intercept.
The three escort warships traveling with the Vinson have more than 300 combined missile tubes and are outfitted with the Aegis anti-missile system, according to Bruce Bennett, senior defense analyst at the think tank Rand Corp.
"If North Korea were to test some number of ballistic missiles by firing them into the East Sea/Sea of Japan, these warships would have the potential of intercepting the North Korean test missile," Bennett said.
 

Tillerson: China agrees on 'action' on North Korea as navy strike group sails

  • Secretary of state: ‘President Xi understands the situation has intensified’
  • Syria missile strike described by North as ‘intolerable act of aggression’

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and other US ships, seen in the Philippine Sea in March.

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and other US ships, seen in the Philippine Sea in March. Photograph: MCS 3rd Class Matt Brown/AFP/Getty Images

 

As the US navy deployed a strike group towards the western Pacific Ocean,

to provide a presence near the Korean peninsula,

the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, said China agreed with the Trump administration

that “action has to be taken” regarding North Korea.

   

Tillerson told CBS’s Face the Nation, in an interview broadcast on Sunday,

that when Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping met at the Mar-a-Lago resort this week,

they “had extensive discussions around the dangerous situation in North Korea”.

 

“President Xi clearly understands, and I think agrees,

that the situation has intensified and has reached a certain level of threat that action has to be taken,” Tillerson said. 

 

Tillerson described a “shared view and no disagreement as to how dangerous the situation has become”.

 

In view of the regional threat now posed by North Korean missile tests and nuclear ambitions,

he said, the Chinese “do not believe the conditions are right today

to engage in discussions with the government in Pyongyang”.

 

“We’re hopeful,” he added, “that we can work together with the Chinese

to change the conditions in the minds of the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] leadership.

And then, at that point, perhaps discussions may be useful.

 

“But I think there’s a shared view and no disagreement as to how dangerous the situation has become.

And I think even China is beginning to recognise that this presents a threat to even to China’s interests as well.”

 

The Carl Vinson strike group, which includes an aircraft carrier, was first scheduled to make port calls in Australia

but was redirected from Singapore to the western Pacific. 

 

“US Pacific Command ordered the Carl Vinson strike group north as a prudent신중 measure

to maintain readiness and presence in the western Pacific,”

said Commander Dave Benham, spokesman at US Pacific Command. 

 

“The No 1 threat in the region continues to be North Korea,

due to its reckless, irresponsible and destabilising programme of missile tests and

pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability,” he said, in an unusually forceful statement.

 

On Sunday, Trump’s national security adviser HR McMaster told Fox News Sunday

the strike group had been moved because “it is prudent to do it”.

 

The news followed a Friday report by NBC that the National Security Council had included

the return of nuclear weapons to South Korea in options presented to Trump for dealing with North Korea.

Killing North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, was also presented as an option, NBC reported.

 

Discussing that report on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday,

the Massachusetts senator Ed Markey, a Democratic member of the Senate’s foreign relations committee, said

such moves would cause “an escalation of tension that could lead to nuclear war”.

The US, Markey said, should work with China to establish direct talks with Kim,

as the best way to tackle “this boiling, bubbling cauldron”.

 

On Saturday the White House said

Trump had spoken to the acting president of South Korea, Hwang Kyo-ahn.

North Korea, meanwhile, called the US missile strike on Syria on Thursday night

“an intolerable act of aggression”.

 

Analysts have said the Syria strike, launched after the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime,

contained a clear message for Pyongyang that the US is not afraid to exercise the military option.

Appearing on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Tillerson strongly suggested as much, saying of Syria:

“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.”

 

Trump has recently threatened unilateral action against Pyongyang

if Beijing fails to help curb its neighbour’s nuclear weapons programme.

Pyongyang’s response on Saturday suggested it was determined to continue.

 

“Swaggering as a superpower, the US has been picking only on countries without nuclear weapons

and the Trump administration is no exception,”

a foreign ministry spokesman said, according to the KCNA news agency.

 

The comments were Pyongyang’s first since Trump ordered the strikes on Syria.

 

“The US missile attack against Syria is a clear and intolerable act of aggression against a sovereign state

and we strongly condemn it,” KCNA quoted the spokesman as saying.

 

“The reality of today shows that we must stand against power with power and

it proves a million times over that our decision to strengthen our nuclear deterrence has been the right choice.

 

“The Syria attack thoroughly reminds us the fact that it is absolutely dangerous to have any illusions

about imperialism and only military power of our own will protect us from imperialistic aggression.

 

“We will keep bolstering our self-defensive military might in various ways

in order to cope with the ever-intensifying US acts of aggression.”

 

The North has carried out five nuclear tests – two last year –

and expert satellite imagery analysis suggests it could well be preparing for a sixth.

Pyongyang has shown no sign of reining in a missile testing programme

ultimately aimed at securing the capability to deliver a nuclear warhead to the continental US.

 

Asked on ABC if North Korean development of an intercontinental missile would be

a “red line” for Trump, Tillerson said:

“If we judge that they have perfected that type of delivery system,

then that becomes a very serious stage of their further development.”

 

He added: “With no further testing, their programme does not progress and

that’s what we’ve asked for before we can begin to have further talks with them.”