NUCLEAR TENSIONS
Pacific Command surge irks Pyongyang
The move as a show of force against North Korea will raise tensions and comes hard on the heels of a US missile strike on Syria
Washington — The US Navy said on Saturday it had sent a carrier-led strike group to the Korean peninsula in a show of force against North Korea’s "reckless" nuclear weapons programme. The move will raise tensions in the region and comes hard on the heels of a US missile strike on Syria that was widely interpreted as putting Pyongyang on warning over its refusal to abandon its nuclear ambitions. North Korea denounced Thursday’s strike as an act of "intolerable aggression" and one that justified "a million times over" the North’s push towards a credible nuclear deterrent. "US Pacific Command ordered the Carl Vinson Strike Group north as a prudent measure to maintain readiness and presence in the western Pacific," said US Pacific Command spokesman Com Dave Benham. "The number one threat in the region continues to be North Korea, due to its reckless, irresponsible and destabilising programme of missile tests and pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability," he said. Originally scheduled to ...
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