While Trump Threatened North Korea, His 'Armada' Was Headed Towards Australia

The revelation that USS Carl Vinson was nowhere near North Korea at the time will hit the US administration's credibility at a time of potential conflict.

Phil Stewart

The revelation that USS Carl Vinson was nowhere near North Korea at the time will hit the US administration's credibility at a time of potential conflict.

while trump threatened north korea his armada was headed towards australia

DAY 80 / APRIL 9: A US navy strike group will be moving toward the western Pacific Ocean near the Korean peninsula as a show of force, a US official told Reuters, as concerns grow about North Korea's advancing weapons program. Earlier this month North Korea tested a liquid-fueled Scud missile which only traveled a fraction of its range. The strike group, called Carl Vinson, includes an aircraft carrier and will make its way from Singapore toward the Korean peninsula, according to the official, who was not authorized to speak to the media and requested anonymity. "We feel the increased presence is necessary," the official said, citing North Korea's worrisome behavior. U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Tom Tonthat/Handout via Reuters

$DAY 80 / APRIL 9: A US navy strike group will be moving toward the western Pacific Ocean near the Korean peninsula as a show of force, a US official told Reuters, as concerns grow about North Korea's advancing weapons program. Earlier this month North Korea tested a liquid-fueled Scud missile which only traveled a fraction of its range. The strike group, called Carl Vinson, includes an aircraft carrier and will make its way from Singapore toward the Korean peninsula, according to the official, who was not authorized to speak to the media and requested anonymity.$

A US navy strike group will be moving toward the western Pacific Ocean near the Korean peninsula as a show of force. Credit: US navy photo by mass communication specialist 3rd class Tom Tonthat/Handout via Reuters

Washington: When US President Donald Trump boasted early last week that he had sent an "armada" as a warning to North Korea, the aircraft carrier strike group he spoke of was still far from the Korean peninsula and headed in the opposite direction.

It was even farther away over the weekend, moving through the Sunda Strait and then into the Indian Ocean, as North Korea displayed what appeared to be new missiles at a parade and staged a failed missile test.

The US military's Pacific Command explained on Tuesday, April 18, that the strike group first had to complete a shorter-than-initially planned period of training with Australia. But it was now "proceeding to the Western Pacific as ordered," it said.

The perceived communications mix-up has raised eyebrows among Korea experts, who wonder whether it erodes the Trump administration's credibility at a time when US rhetoric about the North's advancing nuclear and missile capabilities are raising concerns about a potential conflict.

"If you threaten them and your threat is not credible, it's only going to undermine whatever your policy towards them is. And that could be a logical conclusion from what's just happened," said North Korea expert Joel Wit at the 38 North monitoring group, run by Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.

The US military initially said in a statement dated April 10 that Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of Pacific Command, directed the Carl Vinson strike group "to sail north and report on station in the Western Pacific."

Reuters and other news outlets reported on April 11 that the movement would take more than a week. The navy, for security reasons, says it does not report future operational locations of its ships.

Defence secretary Jim Mattis initially appeared to play down the deployment on April 11, saying the Vinson was "just on her way up there because that's where we thought it was most prudent to have her at this time."

"There's not a specific demand signal or specific reason why we're sending her up there," he said.

But even Mattis initially misspoke about the strike group's itinerary, telling a news conference that the Vinson had pulled out of an exercise with Australia.

The Pentagon has since corrected the record, saying the ship's planned port visit to Fremantle, Australia, was cancelled – not the exercise with Australia's navy.

On April 15, the US navy even published a photo showing the Vinson transiting the Sunda Strait.

From April 16-18, the website www.gonavy.jp/CVLocation.html reported that the Vinson was in the Indian Ocean.

A US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Vinson carried out the exercises after passing through the Sunda Strait and wrapped them up this week.

(Reuters)

This article went live on April nineteenth, two thousand seventeen, at zero minutes past one in the afternoon.

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