“Well, there you go again.” Those iconic words were spoken by Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential campaign. With the North Korean dictator threatening the USS Ronald Reagan, it seems only fitting to echo them here.
Just when you cannot imagine anyone doing anything to make the tensions between the United States and North Korea any worse, Kim Jong-un throws more fuel on the fire.
The official news agency of North Korea (KCNA) said, “The US is running amok by introducing under our nose the targets we have set as primary ones. The US should expect that it would face an unimaginable strike at an unimaginable time.” The statement went on to describe
The latest threat on Thursday came amid massive joint US-South Korean naval exercises off the peninsula involving the American aircraft carrier the USS Ronald Reagan.
The USS Ronald Reagan, a 100,000-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, patrolled in waters east of the Korean Peninsula on Thursday in a show of sea and air power. The USS Ronald Reagan is the US Navy’s largest warship in Asia, with a crew of 5,000 sailors, and is capable of launching almost 90 F-18 Super Hornet sorties from its deck, all in sight of Korean islands.
The Ronald Reagan is conducting drills with the South Korean navy involving 40 warships deployed in a line stretching from the Yellow Sea west of the peninsula into the East Sea.
As has become customary, North Korea condemned South Korea and the United States’ move to deploy strategic nuclear assets near the volatile peninsula. North Korea has characterized the naval maneuvers as a “rehearsal for war.”
Tensions have skyrocketed because of North Korea’s recent nuclear and missile tests and exchanges of heated rhetoric between the US president and North Korea’s leadership.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo told a national security forum in Washington, “They are close enough now in their capabilities that from a US policy perspective we ought to behave as if we are on the cusp of them achieving [their objective of being able to strike the United States].” He said that with the caveat that there is a difference between having the ability to fire a single nuclear missile and the capability of producing large amounts of missile material and developing an arsenal of such weapons.
Also speaking at the same event, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said, “We are in a race to resolve this short of military action. We are not out of time, but we are running out of time.”
“The dangerous and aggressive behavior by North Korea concerns everybody in the world,” Rear Admiral Marc Dalton, commander of the USS Reagan’s strike group, said as warplanes taxied on the flight deck above. “We have made it clear with this exercise, and many others, that we are ready to defend the Republic of Korea.”
North Korea continues provocation with its ballistic missile and nuclear tests. The isolated nation fired two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July, and just last month, North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test.
Regardless of all the posturing by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, President Trump is preparing for a 12-day tour of Asia next month, and the White House is debating if the president will visit the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea.
Daniel Russel, who served as assistant secretary of state of East Asian and Pacific affairs under former President Barack Obama, and now a senior fellow at the Asia Society, told the Daily News that presidential visits to the DMZ accomplish two objectives. They allow the president a chance to thank the soldiers stationed on the border, and they show solidarity with the US and South Korean service members who guard one of the most dangerous borders in the world. Both of those objectives remain important and should be factored into the decision by the White House whether to visit the DMZ or not.
