PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea is vowing tough counteraction to any military moves that might follow the U.S. Navy’s decision to send the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its battle group to waters off the Korean Peninsula.

The statement from Pyongyang comes as tensions on the divided peninsula are already high because of U.S.-South Korea wargames now underway and recent ballistic missile tests by the North. Pyongyang sees the annual maneuvers as a dress rehearsal for invasion, while the North’s long-range missile launches are a violation of U.N. resolutions.

“We will hold the U.S. wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its outrageous actions,” a spokesman for its Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying by the state-run Korean Central News Agency in a report late Monday.</s>SEOUL, April 10 (Reuters) - A Chinese envoy arrives in South Korea on Monday to discuss North Korea's increasingly defiant weapons programme as a U.S. Navy strike group heads to the region amid concerns Pyongyang may be readying a fresh nuclear test.

The following is a timeline of North's Korea's nuclear and missile tests.

Aug. 1998: North Korea fires a multistage, long-range missile called Taepodong-I over Japan into the Pacific Ocean. North Korea called it a satellite launch.

July 2006: North Korea test-fires a Taepodong-2 missile, which the United States says failed after launch. Oct. 2006: North Korea conducts first nuclear test. April 2009: North Korea says it successfully launches three-stage Unha-2 rocket carrying satellite. Washington says it failed. May 2009: North Korea explodes a nuclear device underground.

April 2012: A slightly modified Unha-3 rocket explodes just after take-off. The North concedes failure.

Dec. 2012: North Korea again launches a Unha-3 rocket, saying it successfully put a satellite into orbit. U.S. officials confirm an object in orbit, but no signal is detected.

Feb. 7, 2016: North Korea launches a long-range rocket, which it says put a satellite into orbit

June 22, 2016: North Korea conducts two tests of an intermediate range Musudan missile after four failed launches of the same kind. July 18, 2016: North Korea fires three ballistic missiles off its east coast with a 500 km-600 km range.

Aug. 3, 2016: North Korea fires two missiles, one of them landing in Japan's economic exclusion zone.

Sept. 5, 2016: North Korea fires three ballistic missiles about 1,000 kms (620 miles), one of which enters Japan´s air defence zone

Sept. 20, 2016: North Korea says it complete ground test of a new rocket engine, which South Korea says is likely to be used for a long-range missile.

March 6, 2017: North Korea fires four ballistic missiles, three of them falling into Japan´s exclusive economic zone.

March 19, 2017: North Korea announces rocket engine test, saying it will help country achieve "world-class satellite launch capability"

March 22, 2017: A North Korean missile appears to explode just after launch. April 5, 2017: North Korea fires ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast. U.S. officials say it appears to be a liquid-fueled, extended-range Scud missile. (Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Bill Tarrant and Lincoln Feast)</s>American warships based in the Pacific were ordered to reroute toward the Korean Peninsula, days after North Korea tested another intermediate range missile. Last Wednesday, the North test-fired a missile from its eastern port of Sinpo that landed in the Sea of Japan. The head of the U.S. Pacific Command, Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. ordered…</s>The U.S. Navy has canceled planned port calls in Australia for the USS Carl Vinson and is instead sending the aircraft carrier toward the Korean Peninsula amid concerns about possible new weapons tests by North Korea, military officials said.

Speaking on Fox News on Sunday, U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said the president has ordered him to prepare “a full range of options” to the nuclear and missile threats North...</s>North Korea has vowed to bolster its defenses to protect itself against airstrikes like the ones President Donald Trump ordered against an air base in Syria.The comments were made by a Foreign Ministry official and carried Sunday by North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency. The report did not name the official, which is common in KCNA reports.The airstrikes, announced shortly after Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up dinner at a two-day summit in Florida last week, were retaliation against Syrian President Bashar Assad for a chemical weapons attack against civilians caught up in his country's long civil war."Some forces are loud-mouthed that the recent U.S. military attack on Syria is an action of warning us but we are not frightened by it," the report said, adding that the North's "tremendous military muscle with a nuclear force as its pivot" will foil any aggression by the U.S."We will bolster up in every way our capability for self-defense to cope with the U.S. evermore reckless moves for a war and defend ourselves with our own force," it said.North Korea has long claimed that the United States is preparing to conduct similar precision strikes against its territory or even launch an all-out invasion. It claims its nuclear weapons are a necessary deterrent to the U.S. military threat.Washington denies it has any intention of invading the North.Tensions have been even higher than usual over the past few weeks because annual war games between the U.S. and South Korean militaries are underway. The exercises this year are the biggest ever and have included stealth fighter training and other maneuvers that are particularly sensitive to North Korea.For its part, the North test-launched a ballistic missile just ahead of the Trump-Xi meeting and has been rumored to be preparing for a possible nuclear test.The Korean Peninsula remains technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with an armistice, not a formal peace treaty.North Korea considers Syria an ally. But unlike Syria, experts warn that North Korea has a means of striking back if provoked.Along with its rapidly advancing nuclear and long-range missile capabilities, the North has its artillery and short-range missiles trained on Seoul, the capital of U.S. ally South Korea and a city of more than 10 million people.</s>(PYONGYANG, North Korea) — North Korea is vowing tough counteraction to any military moves that might follow the U.S. move to send the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its battle group to waters off the Korean Peninsula.

The statement from Pyongyang comes as tensions on the divided peninsula are high because of U.S.-South Korea wargames now underway and recent ballistic missile launches by the North. Pyongyang sees the annual maneuvers as a dress rehearsal for invasion, while the North's missile launches violate U.N. resolutions.

"We will hold the U.S. wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its outrageous actions," a spokesman for its Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying by the state-run Korean Central News Agency late Monday.

The statement comes just after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said U.S. missile strikes against a Syrian air base in retaliation for a chemical weapon attack carry a message for any nation operating outside of international norms.

He didn't specify North Korea, but the context was clear enough.

"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," Tillerson told ABC's "This Week."

The North has long claimed the U.S. is preparing some kind of assault against it and justifies its nuclear weapons as defensive in nature.

"This goes to prove that the U.S. reckless moves for invading the DPRK have reached a serious phase of its scenario," the North's statement said. "If the U.S. dares opt for a military action, crying out for 'preemptive attack' and 'removal of the headquarters,' the DPRK is ready to react to any mode of war desired by the U.S."

North Korea's formal name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

U.S. Navy ships are a common presence in the Korean region and are in part a show of force. On Saturday night, the Pentagon said a Navy carrier strike group was moving toward the western Pacific Ocean to provide more of a physical presence in the region.

President Donald Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, described the decision to send the carrier group as "prudent."</s>The Trump administration’s threats to ratchet up pressure on North Korea over its nuclear weapons program could face a major setback next month if South Korea elects a more progressive president who has argued for a less confrontational approach to Pyongyang.

The imminent political shift in Seoul, after a decade of close alignment with Washington, will require a deft diplomatic touch from a White House that has so far shown a preference for improvising policy and military operations on the fly, and which has yet to name an ambassador to South Korea or fill key senior posts overseeing Asia policy at the State Department and the Pentagon.

“There is definitely a risk of more disagreement between Seoul and Washington,” said Ely Ratner, who served as deputy national security advisor to former Vice President Joe Biden.

The two leading candidates for the May 9 vote are both to the left of the former conservative president Park Geun-hye, who was impeached and forced out of office last month for her alleged role in a multi-million dollar bribery scandal linked to major Korean conglomerates.

Former human rights lawyer Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party, who is leading in most polls in a suddenly tight race, is a disciple of the so-called Sunshine policy of engagement pursued by previous liberal presidents between 1998 to 2008, which conservative critics argue failed to stop the North’s nuclear and missile programs. Software tycoon Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party, who also favors reaching out to the North, is running a close second and is threatening to overtake Moon, while two conservative candidates trail far behind.

For the past ten years, Park’s conservative party had been in lock-step with Washington, favoring a tough approach to the North and showing skepticism of diplomatic outreach or other initiatives designed to persuade Pyongyang to come in from the cold and abandon its nuclear weapons.

Moon, in contrast, has long advocated a softer line on North Korea, backing investment, aid, and diplomacy along with sanctions to try to coax Pyongyang to back off of its belligerent stance. Moon has also expressed caution on the introduction of the U.S.-made THAAD radar system meant to defend South Korea against missile attacks, saying the deployment should be postponed until after the election to allow the next president to assess the risks and benefits. China has expressed outrage over the radar system and retaliated against the South with commercial boycotts.

Moon “has taken a number of positions that are potentially troubling to the U.S. administration,” said Bruce Bennett, a fellow at the RAND Corp. who has advised the Defense Department on North Korea.

“The bottom line this is a very different political environment than we’ve been working in the last ten years,” he said.

Moon’s appeals for dialogue offer a stark contrast to the Trump administration’s emerging policy on North Korea. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said Washington will no longer pursue a policy of “strategic patience,” and after Pyongyang’s latest missile test, Tillerson said the United States had nothing further to say. Meanwhile, White House officials, led by Trump, have pledged to prod China to squeeze Pyongyang further.

With tensions rising after the North test-fired another ballistic missile last week, the administration over the weekend ordered an aircraft carrier strike group, led by the USS Carl Vinson, to cancel a planned port visit in Australia and instead head to the Korean Peninsula in a show of force.

But Moon, who seemed the front-runner until his rival surged ahead over the past week, argues for both carrots and sticks instead of solely coercive measures against North Korea.

“We need to have two tracks of measures here. We need to be able to apply some pressure and coercion on North Korea, but on the other hand we should also start discussions and dialogue with North Korea,” Moon said.

One clear indicator of that desire: Moon has called for reopening and massively expanding the Kaesong Industrial Complex, a joint venture on the North Korean border that was meant to foster North-South economic ties on the peninsula, but which was closed in 2016 amid suspicions that wages paid to North Korean workers were flowing to Pyongyang’s military.

In calling to expand the Kaesong Industrial Complex twenty times from its current size, Moon has argued that cutting off all contact with the North made the regime more dependent on China and undercut Seoul’s leverage. “We can’t resolve the North Korean nuclear issue by completely severing exchange,” he said.

Moon’s main rival, Ahn, who has surged in recent polls, has staked out a more centrist position and favors installing the THAAD system. But he, too, supports a more nuanced policy on North Korea, and backs talks between Seoul and Pyongyang.

Asked about the prospect of a potentially more progressive government in Seoul, the State Department said it looked forward to working with the next president.

The U.S.-South Korea “alliance will continue to be a linchpin of regional stability and security, and we will continue to meet all our alliance commitments, especially with respect to defending against the threat from North Korea,” Katina Adams, a State Department spokesperson, told FP.

Current and former U.S. officials worry that a bid for renewed dialogue with North Korea could end in failure, as Pyongyang appears to have ruled out ever relinquishing its nuclear arms. And trying to engage with the Pyongyang regime could give dictator Kim Jong Un more breathing room to build longer-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Under Kim, the North pressed ahead with its nuclear weapons program and built up a formidable arsenal of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles threatening Japan and U.S. bases, while also working on an intercontinental ballistic missile that could put the United States itself within reach. The North raised alarms across the region in February when it successfully launched the Pukguksong-2 missile, which uses solid-fuel technology and could allow the regime to hide its missiles in tunnels and launch them on short notice.

“South Korea could try negotiations, and the North just plays for time,” said a former senior U.S. official who worked on Korea policy. “It could cost you time, and we don’t have a lot of time right now.”

Any daylight between Washington and Seoul could have knock-on effects, said Ratner, the former White House official now at the Council on Foreign Relations. He said he could see a potential “troubling scenario” unfolding where Seoul rejects Washington’s proposals for more punitive measures against Pyongyang, thus giving China an excuse to ease off any effort to squeeze the regime.

“It’s not a good combination. And then how does Trump respond to a South Korean ally not supporting his policy approach with tens of thousands of U.S. troops forward deployed to defend their country?” Ratner said. “It’s easy to imagine him asking why our troops are there at all.”

While U.S. officials and senior officers worry about shifting political winds in South Korea, it’s unlikely the country will return to the kind of policies that prevailed in the early 2000s, when anti-American sentiment was running hotter, and the danger presented by the North appeared less dramatic, experts said.

The North’s weapons advances, belligerent rhetoric, and provocative acts such as the sinking of a South Korean naval ship and an artillery attack on a border island, have left their mark on public opinion in the South, which has become more conservative about policy toward Pyongyang over the past several years. As a result, experts said, there are political limits to engagement with the North, and both leading presidential candidates have tempered their rhetoric to reflect that.

Alan Romberg, director of the East Asia program at the Stimson Center, said a new South Korean government will have a “somewhat greater inclination to see if there is a way to reach out to the North to calm things down.”

“But I do think they will place a lot of weight on the alliance and won’t want to strike out on their own without close consultation and coordination” with Washington, he said.</s>(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.

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."

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.

Intercepting a long-range rocket test passing overhead would send a clear message to Kim and would be justifiable as the rockets would possibly be on course to pass over Japan, according to Peter Layton, a visiting fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute in Brisbane, Australia.

"The Carl Vinson group is commanded from Hawaii, rather than the US military base in Japan, so it's a clear American initiative not a Japanese or South Korea one," Layton told CNN. "That may defuse attempts to link Japan and South Korea and thus limit the possibility of any North Korean aggression against them."

While the carrier group has been deployed to the Korean Peninsula in the past, lawmakers are wondering how the US warships will be directed to respond to another North Korean missile test.

"Are we going to try to shoot that intercontinental ballistic missile down? Are we going to let the test go on unpaid on unimpeded? Republican Rep. Will Hurd asked on CNN's "New Day." "These are questions that should be asked of Congress."

The Trump administration has floated the idea of carrying out preemptive strikes against North Korea, but the scope and method of potential offensive actions remain unclear.

The Vinson's air wing, made up of more than 40 F/A-18 Hornets, provides the offensive capability to attack enemy targets with bombs or missiles while the carrier's F/A-18G Growler aircraft have the ability to jam enemy radars, disrupt enemy electronic surveillance and provide "cover" for attacking aircraft.

"A potential US strike, using aircraft from the Vinson, could range from a small-scale strike against a single target, like a missile on a launch pad or the support equipment that makes a missile launch possible, to a broader set of military targets if the US meant to 'send a message' that an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) or atomic device test was not going to be tolerated," Dakota Wood, an analyst at the DC-based Heritage Foundation, told CNN.

But the aircraft aboard the Vinson are not optimally equipped with the weaponry needed for a strike against Pyongyang's nuclear program, something analysts consider highly unlikely.

"Because North Korea places most of its assets underground, it will be difficult for the Vinson group to do a lot of damage to North Korea on its own," Bennett said.</s>North Korea denounced Washington's deployment of a naval strike group to the Korean peninsula Tuesday, warning it was ready for "war" in a further escalation of tensions.

The Carl Vinson strike group cancelled a planned trip to Australia this weekend to head to the region, in a show of force as Washington signalled it may act to shut down Pyongyang's nuclear capabilities.

"This goes to prove that the US reckless moves for invading the DPRK have reached a serious phase," a spokesman for the North's foreign ministry said according to state news agency KCNA.

"The DPRK is ready to react to any mode of war desired by the US," he said, using the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

President Donald Trump, fresh from ordering a missile strike on Syria that was widely interpreted as a warning to North Korea, has asked his advisors for a range of options to rein in Pyongyang, a top US official said Sunday.

Trump has previously threatened unilateral action against Pyongyang if China -- the North's sole major ally -- fails to help curb its neighbour's nuclear weapons ambitions.

But Pyongyang's response suggested the reclusive state is determined to continue on its current path, despite repeated rounds of United Nations sanctions.

"We will take the toughest counteraction against the provocateurs in order to defend ourselves by powerful force of arms," the foreign ministry spokesman said.

"We will hold the US wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its outrageous actions."

Speculation over an imminent nuclear test is brewing as the North marks anniversaries including the 105th birthday of its founding leader on Saturday -- sometimes celebrated with a demonstration of military might.

Pyongyang is on a quest to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead, and has so far staged five nuclear tests, two of them last year.

Satellite imagery analysis suggests it could be preparing for a sixth, with intelligence officials warning it could be less than two years away from achieving the ability to strike the continental United States.

Seoul and Washington are also currently conducting joint military drills, an annual exercise which is seen by the North as a preparation for invasion.

South Korea's top nuclear envoy said Monday after talks with his Chinese counterpart that the two nations had agreed to "strong" new measures to punish Pyongyang if it carried out another nuclear test.

The talks came shortly after Trump hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a summit at which he pressed Beijing to do more to curb the North's nuclear ambitions.

"(We) are prepared to chart our own course if this is something China is just unable to coordinate with us," US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after the summit.

US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster on Sunday criticised North Korea as a rogue nation engaged in provocative behaviour and said denuclearisation of the peninsula "must happen".

"The president has asked them to be prepared to give us a full range of options to remove that threat," he said on Fox News, apparently referring to Trump's advisers.

South Korea's Unification Minister Hong Yong-Pyo said Monday that the repercussions of a potential military response were worrying.

"Pre-emptive strikes may be aimed at resolving North Korea's nuclear problems, but for us, it is also related to defending the safety of the public," he told reporters.

While a US unilateral strike on North Korea from a shorter range might be more effective, it would likely endanger many civilians in the South and risk triggering a broader military conflict, experts warn.</s>China and South Korea agreed on Monday to slap tougher sanctions on North Korea if it carries out nuclear or long-range missile tests, a senior official in Seoul said, as a US Navy strike group headed to the region in a show of force. North Korea marks several major anniversaries this month and often marks the occasions with major tests of military hardware.

The possibility of US military action against North Korea in response to such tests gained traction following last week’s strikes against Syria. Previously, Washington has leaned toward sanctions and pressure to deter North Korea, but comments from US President Donald Trump’s top aides at the weekend suggest that position may be hardening.

However, South Korea’s chief nuclear envoy Kim Hong-kyun said there was no mention of any military option in his talks with China’s Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs, Wu Dawei. The two also did not discuss any possible strike against the North by the Trump administration, he said.

“Both sides agreed that despite the international community’s warnings, if North Korea makes strategic provocations such as a nuclear test or an ICBM launch, there should be strong additional measures in accordance with U.N. security council resolutions,” Kim told reporters.

Kim added the two sides agreed “an even stronger UN resolution” will have to be adopted in the event of additional weapons test by North Korea.

Wu did not speak to reporters.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said the U.S. military strike against Syria over its alleged use of chemical weapons was a warning to other countries including North Korea that “a response is likely” if they pose a danger.

“(Chinese) President Xi (Jinping) 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 on CBS’s Face the Nation.

The US Navy strike group Carl Vinson canceled a planned trip to Australia and was moving toward the western Pacific Ocean near the Korean peninsula as a show of force, a U.S. official told Reuters over the weekend. “We feel the increased presence is necessary,” the official said.

Trump and China’s Xi held a summit meeting in Florida last week, where Trump pressed his counterpart to do more to curb North Korea’s nuclear programme. China is North Korea’s main diplomatic and economic ally.

Wu’s trip was the first visit to South Korea by a senior Chinese official since the planned deployment of the U.S. THAAD missile defence system led to a diplomatic row between Beijing and Seoul.

Kim said Wu repeated China’s position on the THAAD deployment but did not give details. China has previously said the system would destabilise the regional security balance and that its radar’s reach would be intruding into Chinese territory.

North Korea has sounded a note of defiance against the United States, calling the strikes against Syria on Friday “an unforgivable act of aggression” that showed Pyongyang’s decision to develop nuclear weapons was “the right choice.”

In Tokyo, the feasibility of U.S. military action was downplayed, while South Korea said the focus remained on deterrence and readiness.

“It probably is not realistic for the U.S. to attack North Korea,” a Japanese defence ministry source said. “If America says it is going to attack, both Japan and South Korea will probably put a stop to it,” said the source, who declined to be identified.

A senior Japanese military source added: “If the US military was to attack, there could be a request to Japan for rear-guard logistics support but there has been no talk of such preparations.” South Korean and US forces are also involved in annual joint military drills that run until the end of April. The North calls the drills preparations for war against it.

Several North Korean anniversaries in April could be an opportunity for Pyongyang to conduct nuclear or missile tests, South Korean defence ministry spokesman Moon Sang-kyun said.

North Korea has invited a large number of foreign media representatives to Pyongyang this week, likely to cover the so-called “Day of the Sun” birth anniversary on April 15 of the state founder Kim Il Sung.

North Korea launched a ballistic missile on Wednesday that flew a short distance before spinning out of control and crashing into the sea, the latest of a number of missile tests defying UN sanctions. The North is also seen to be ready to conduct its sixth nuclear test at any time, with movements detected by satellites at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site.
The United States Pacific Command deploys warships, including the USS Carl Vinson, to move towards the Korean Peninsula following North Korea's recent tests with weapons of mass destruction and opposition to the Sharyat missile strike. North Korea is also reclassified as a state sponsor of terrorism.