Japanese media report that China and Russia have dispatched intelligence-gathering vessels to shadow a US aircraft carrier group that is heading to North Korean waters
The USS Carl Vinson nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is heading toward the Korean Peninsula amid rising tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear provocations.
Russia has also reportedly moved military forces into Vladivostok, a city just eight miles from the border with North Korea as the world edges closer to war.
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On Sunday a North Korean missile “blew up almost immediately” on its test launch US officials said.
The Telegraph reports
Beijing sought Russian help in averting a crisis over North Korea last week, as concerns grow in China that Donald Trump is seeking to confront North Korea over its weapon’s program.
The US president sent a navy group led by the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson into the region, in what is being seen as a signal to Pyongyang.
Mr Trump described the force as an “armada” and said that submarines were being sent which were “far more powerful than the aircraft carrier.”
Our military is building and is rapidly becoming stronger than ever before. Frankly, we have no choice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017
The Yomiuri Shimbun, citing “multiple sources of the Japanese government”, said China and Russia had “dispatched intelligence-gathering vessels from their navies to chase the USS Carl Vinson”.
The ships are “strengthening warning and surveillance activities in the waters and airspace around the area,” Japan’s largest daily newspaper said, according to its English language sister publication, The Japan News.
