Sending a carrier strike group to North Korea, 70-year-old President Donald Trump doubled down after hitting Syria’s Shayrat airfield April 6 with 59 Cruise missiles. Trump’s pinpoint strike in Syria was designed to send an even louder message to North Korea’s 33-year-old Leader Kim Jong-un. Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago golf resort with Chinese President Xi Jinping April 7, Trump asked the Chinese leader to do more to rein in Kim’s nuclear and ballistic missile program. With Kim threatening a nuclear attack on the U.S. and its allies, Trump pleaded with Xi to take more decisive action to rein in North Korea. Sending the Carl Vinson strike group to North Korea, Kim threatened that any provocation would be met with a nuclear attack. Trump said Kim was “looking for trouble” threatening the United States with nuclear war, calling Kim’s bluff in the Korean Peninsula.
Trump put Kim on notice that when you threaten the U.S. you’re putting your own country at risk. With a $10 billion annual defense budget with 1.19 million active soldiers, North Korea’s rated as the 4th largest military, just behind India with 1,325 million Korea’s strength under Kim involves more spoke-blowing, threatening to wipe Seoul off the map, well within Kim’s ballistic missile range. “Our revolutionary strong army is keenly watch every move by enemy elements with our nuclear sight focused on the U.S. invasionary bases no only in South Korea and the Pacific operation threatre but als in the U.S. mainland,” said North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper. Sending the Vinson strike group to North Korea, Trump wants Kim to understand the consequences of threatening the U.S. Trump and his national security team won’t sit idly by while Kim threatens nuclear war.
Defense Secretary 66-year-old James “Mad Dog” Mattis agreed the deployments was necessary to Korean Peninsula. “ She is just on her way up there because that is where we thought is was most prudent to have her at this time,” Mattis told a Pentagon news conference. Speaking at his daily briefing, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer dismissed North Korea’s nuclear threats. “I think there is no evidence that North Korea has that capability at this time,” said Spicer. “Threatening something that you don’t have the capability of isn’t really a threat,” trying to reassure the press that there’s no imminent confrontation with North Korea. South Korean President Hwang Kyo-ahn warned that Kim could detonate another nuclear test, similar to the Jan. 6, 2016 H-bomb test that rattled the world. Working feverishly on nuclear-armed ballistic missiles, Kim sees nukes as the only way to neutralize the U.S.
Celebrating North Korea’s founder Kim Il-Sung’s 105 the birthday Saturday, April 15, Kim is expected to put North Korea’s military on full display. South Korea’s lived in fear of a North Korean attack since signing the June 27, 1953 armistice, ending hostilities between the U.S. and North Korea, but no peace treaty. “If China decided to help, that would be great,” Trump tweeted April 11. “If not, we will solve the problem without them. North Korea used China’s Red Army in 1953 to battle the U.S. to loggerheads. China’s Xi Jinping knows the history of protecting North Korea, unlikely to back the U.S. in any conflict. China’s U.N. Amb. Lin Jieyi urged North Korea to go toward “denuclearization.” With Trump sending the Carl Vinson to North Korea, China wants a peaceful resolution to the crisis. “We believe that its is highly important to move toward denuclearization . . .” said Jieyi.
Promising Xi improved trade arrangements with U.S. if they contain North Korea, Trump wants to use U.S. leverage to get Beijing involved. “We need to look at the situation on the Korean Peninsula as something that we should work together on,” said the Chinese U.S. ambassador. China wants peace on the North Korean frontier, fearing a refugee crisis should war break out on the Peninsula. South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-Kyun urged the U.S. and North Korea to “not get blinded by exaggerate assessment about the security situation. China wants U.S. backing for creating military installations on shallow islands in the South China Sea. Trump’s willing to look at the overall relations with China, in exchange Beijing reining in North Korea’s atomic program. China wants improved trade relations with the U.S. but not at the expense of its security.
Threatening the U.S. with nuclear attacks, North Korea vaulted to top the U.S. rogue-nations’ list. Sending the Carol Vinson strike group to North Korea, Trump wants to send U.S. adversaries a message that he won’t sit idly by while threatened with nuclear war. With Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meeting with Russian Amb. Sergei Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Tump’s message reverberates from the Kremlin to Damascus, from North Korea to Beijing. With Russia and Syria denying any poison gas attack, Trump’s doctrine stands firm: Use poison gas and brace for the wrath of the U.S. military. Despite denials, U.S. officials have convincing intel of Syria use of Sarin nerve gas. China stepped up banning North Korean coal exports, telling Trump to give the situation more time before acting alone. China knows the U.S. can’t let North Korea’s nuclear threats go unnoticed.
