The truth about the journey of the US aircraft carrier group approaching North Korea

While Trump threatens to use force against North Korea, a US aircraft carrier strike group is moving in the opposite direction.

The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson transited Indonesia on April 15. Photo: US Navy

A week ago, when US intelligence said there were signs that North Korea was ready for its sixth nuclear test, the White House announced that a US aircraft carrier strike group had been ordered to head to the Sea of ​​Japan instead of Australia as planned.

White House officials said that ordering the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group to approach North Korea would send a strong deterrent message to Pyongyang, giving President Donald Trump more options in dealing with North Korea's provocative behavior. "We are sending a very powerful fleet," Mr. Trump told Fox News on the afternoon of April 11.

The problem was that at that time, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and its three escort ships were moving in the opposite direction to participate in a joint exercise with the Australian navy in the Indian Ocean, more than 5,600 km southwest of the Korean peninsula., according toNYTimes.

But now, a series of newspapers around the world are quoting Mr. Trump and White House spokesman Sean Spicer about a battle group of aircraft carriers "approaching" North Korea. The constant news makes the public feel that this powerful warship force is right at the gateway to North Korea, raising fears that Mr. Trump is considering a preemptive strike against Pyongyang's leadership and its nuclear facilities.

The carrier strike group was also seen as evidence of Trump’s brute-force approach to solving problems, as he had ordered cruise missile strikes on Syria just days earlier. The world seemed to hold its breath in anticipation of a potential armed conflict in East Asia, as the US appeared to be massing its forces to encircle North Korea. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Pyongyang decided not to conduct a nuclear test on the “Day of the Sun” on April 15.

However, on April 17, the US Navy unexpectedly posted on its website a photo of the Carl Vinson moving through the Sunda Strait, located between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra, thousands of kilometers away from North Korea. This photo was taken on April 15, just four days after White House press secretary Spicer described the carrier strike group's mission to "deter North Korea" in the Sea of ​​Japan.

Defense News discovered this photo and published the information, causing public shock when discovering that the US aircraft carrier group was still too far from the location where it could actually threaten North Korea. This information also showed that the statement made by the White House was actually very different from what happened in reality.

The Carl Vinson sailed through Indonesia on April 15, the day North Korea held a large-scale military parade. Graphics: NYTimes

In response to requests for clarification from the press, White House officials yesterday explained that they relied solely on reports provided by the Department of Defense. They also sought to justify the discrepancy between their statements and the actual operations of the Carl Vinson, claiming that this was the result of a series of errors on the military side, asking reporters to meet with representatives of the Pentagon.

The White House has blamed the Pentagon for many of the missteps, from the Pacific Command’s poor timing of the carrier deployment to Secretary of Defense James Mattis’s inadequate explanation, all of which created a false narrative that an armada was heading full steam toward the waters off North Korea.

It all started on April 9, when the US Navy’s Third Fleet issued a press release announcing that Admiral Harry Harris, commander of the Pacific Fleet, had ordered the Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its escort of two destroyers and a cruiser to depart Singapore and head to the Western Pacific. As is customary, the US Navy does not disclose the exact destination or mission of a carrier strike group to maintain military secrecy.

The press release came as Trump wrapped up a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Florida resort, with a key message that the US had run out of patience with North Korea and that if Beijing did not intervene to stop Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, Washington would "deal with it" itself.

Suddenly, the movement of the Carl Vinson carrier group became a vindication of Trump’s claims. That same day, General HR McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser, declared that the deployment of the carrier was a “smart” move, aimed at giving the president “more options” to eliminate the threat from North Korea.

USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group moves at sea

However, the US Navy did not make clear that the Carl Vinson had another mission to complete before heading north: a long-planned joint exercise with the Australian navy in the Indian Ocean. The White House also seemed to be unaware of the plan, leading many to believe that the Carl Vinson was heading “full steam ahead” toward North Korea.

Speaking to the NYTimes, many White House officials expressed anger at the Pentagon's failure to promptly correct information about the Carl Vinson's operating schedule, especially in the context of increasing tensions in the region, as well as the fact that top Trump administration officials have made official statements about its itinerary.

The Carl Vinson is finally on its way to the Korean Peninsula, and is not expected to arrive until next week. "The threats to North Korea from Trump and other US officials based on inaccurate information are not only ineffective, but also harmful to the US. The White House needs to tone down its rhetoric and increase its fact-checking efforts," a reader commented on the NYTimes, receiving the most positive responses.

The US-North Korea tensions. Click to see details. Graphics: Viet Chung

According to VNE