The truth about the US aircraft carrier group's journey towards North Korea

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

The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson moved through 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 divert 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 move closer to 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 at this time, a series of newspapers around the world quoted Mr. Trump and White House spokesman Sean Spicer about a group of aircraft carriers "approaching" North Korea. The continuous news made the public feel that this powerful warship force was right at the gateway to North Korea, raising fears that Mr. Trump was 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, waiting for the risk of armed conflict in East Asia, as the US seemed to be concentrating its forces to form a siege of 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 suddenly 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 mission of the aircraft carrier strike group in the Sea of ​​Japan to "deter North Korea".

Defense News discovered this photo and published the information, shocking the public when they discovered that the US aircraft carrier strike group was still too far from the location where it could actually threaten North Korea. This information also shows that the statement made by the White House is actually very different from what is happening in reality.

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

In response to requests for verification from the press, White House officials yesterday explained that they were only relying on reports provided by the Department of Defense. They also tried to justify the difference 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 multiple missteps in the incident, from the Pacific Command’s poor timing of the carrier deployment to Defense Secretary James Mattis’s inadequate explanation, all of which created a false narrative that an armada was heading full steam toward 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 aircraft carrier Carl Vinson and its escort of two destroyers and a cruiser to leave 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.

This press release was issued at the same time that Mr. Trump had just concluded a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a resort in Florida, with an important message that the US had run out of patience with North Korea and if Beijing did not intervene to stop Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, Washington would "handle it" itself.

Suddenly, the movement of the Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group became a vindication of Trump’s statements. That same day, General HR McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser, declared that the deployment of this aircraft 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 before heading north: a long-planned joint exercise with the Australian navy in the Indian Ocean. The White House also seemed unaware of the plan, leading many to mistakenly believe that the Carl Vinson was heading “full speed 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 expected to arrive next week. "The threats to North Korea made by 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 tit-for-tat between the US and North Korea. Click to see details. Graphics: Viet Chung

According to VNE