US flexes muscles off Korean peninsula (USS Kitty Hawk deployed)

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | January 24 2003 | Shane Green, Herald Correspondent in Seoul

[dead]

The United States yesterday deployed an aircraft carrier from Japan to the Korean peninsula, as a Washington envoy warned that "all options" were available to deal with the nuclear stand-off with Pyongyang.

The day after it was revealed that Japan was drawing up plans to evacuate its nationals if war threatened on the Korean peninsula, USS Kitty Hawk left its home port of Yokosuka.

Quoting navy sources, Japan's Kyodo news service said the Kitty Hawk was being deployed to stand in waters off Japan and monitor the Korean peninsula.

The move came as the US arms control chief, John Bolton, arrived in Tokyo to try to win Japanese backing for referral of the nuclear crisis to the United Nations Security Council.

At his previous stop in Seoul, Mr Bolton raised the temperature by declaring, when asked about military action, that "all options are on the table" to deal with the North's nuclear arms program.

While South Korean military officials are preparing for the "worst case scenario" of war on the peninsula, a North Korean official in Seoul for bilateral talks has reportedly tried to ease South Korea's concerns.

A Seoul daily reported that the unnamed official told a South Korean counterpart: "You don't have to worry too much."

South Korea's Defence Minister, Lee Jun, recently warned that a US strike on North Korean nuclear facilities would mean that war would be inevitable, and that the South's military was moving to the "highest level of defence posture".

After his meetings in Seoul, Mr Bolton claimed to have the support of the South Korean Government for the matter's referral to the Security Council. But signs of division appeared with the administration of the president-elect, Roh Moo-hyun, which takes over late next month.

The head of Mr Roh's transition team said the conflict should not immediately go before the council.

Doubts also emerged over Mr Bolton's confidence that the council would consider the matter within days. The International Atomic Energy Agency, whose inspectors Pyongyang has expelled, must refer the crisis to the council, and its members are apparently divided on whether to allow more time for a diplomatic solution.

If the Security Council deals with the crisis, it appears unlikely that the US will immediately push for economic sanctions against North Korea. Pyongyang has said it would regard sanctions as an "act of war".

[Dog]

Speak softly but carry a big stick...

[Brett66]

When we get done with Iraq, you better watch out NK.

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[Dog]

ping!

[Dog]

Ping!

[TexasGunLover]

It's about dang time...

[Paulie]

Message to Kim Jong il: You would do well to realize that President Treason is no longer in the White House. The wimps you're accustomed to intimidating aren't there anymore.

Wise up before it's too late.

[DoughtyOne]

North Korea thought they were the supreme negotiators. I suspect that if we park three or four carriers off their coast, we'd see a direct about face in their madness. Their leadership would last about thirty seconds after hostilities broke out.

[hchutch]

How do you know when the U.S. is interested in what you're up to?

A carrier task force appears off your coast.

How do you know the U.S. DOESN'T like what you are doing?

When said carrier task force goes to work.

[bert]

Is the Kitty Hawk a full sized carrier battle group? ie same size as those nuclear carriers deployed to the Gulf?

[Centurion2000]

If the Security Council deals with the crisis, it appears unlikely that the US will immediately push for economic sanctions against North Korea. Pyongyang has said it would regard sanctions as an "act of war".

I think Kim Jon ill or whatever his name is will drop a pantload when he sees 3 or 4 carrier groups sitting in his backyard.

[concerned about politics]

The move came as the US arms control chief, John Bolton, arrived in Tokyo to try to win Japanese backing for referral of the nuclear crisis to the United Nations Security Council.

So what's the UN security council for if not this kind of crap? Let the UN deal with it. NK can cry to them.

[BlueLancer]

"The meek shall inherit the Earth."

Yup .. a little plot seven by three by six.

[richardtavor]

Or a big aircraft carrier.

[toddst]

10-4. This is a case where we need to make a pre-emptive strike on Pyongyang, the nuclear reactors and their missle facilities, then "negotiate." Send a clear message to the other dictator type wackos out there that we won't be intimidated. Play a bluffing game at your own risk.

[OldFriend]

If Richardson and bubba told this madman that he could talk his way into blackmailing THIS president, they and he are WRONG WRONG WRONG.

[First_Salute]

re: all said before --- logistics, bases, equipment, "we need more carriers," etc.

We should not go to war because we are not prepared.

This is enough of a shock to many, that it seems easier for them to think unilaterally.

When we must be ready to be hit in the flank; and when, already, we are hit in the rear by the one-world nationalizing socialists [celebrating diversity and other incongruities while trying to preserve trees through personal computer utilization].

FR has been educational if only to reveal the incredible numbers of people who are not hawks, but rather will stumble into a bear trap out of furious curiosity.

Not to mention how there's a disconnect between Red China and North Korea in many minds, which in fact is non-existant; North Korea is the left hook, Southeast Asia is the right hook, and Southwest Asia is the tail hook ... all of the Red Chinese.

To whom we delivered a P3 with all kinds of great updates (Aegis) so that they could be up to speed on what's Wright.

And thereupon the North Koreans could be more easily convinced to do something nuclear.

For Red China, it's about energy and industrial manipulation; while agitating North Korea's worries that the "first option" against North Korea, by the United Nations forces, is nuclear.

It's a nuclear crisis, the North Koreans figure to stand pat unless both they and the U.N. step back --- meaning no more nuclear "first option" for stopping a North Korean invasion of the South.

[Dog]

This could also mean the endgame in Iraq has begun.

[concerned about politics]

Socialism has always failed, yet these socialist/communist countries keep doing it. The non-socialists bust their butts to produce, and the failing socialist countries demand part of it as "their fare share" even though they did nothing to earn it!
We help them out, hoping they'll some day learn that their commie ways are failing, but instead they just keep demanding more!
Liberals here in America, and other commies around the world are using productive people and nations as ther slave labor.
It's time these losers wake up and smell the coffee. Socialism is a lie. It's a failing system, and it always has been.
Just say no to the worlds leeches. Make them get their own jobs! Enough already!