By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press / OB Rag

If anything can be believed from anyone in the Trump regime, the US “strike group” led by the San Diego-based aircraft carrier Carl Vinson is indeed heading for the Korean Peninsula.

In dealing with North Korea, Trump said that “all options are on the table,” including a military strike. Vice President Mike Pence added to the war fever escalation, stating that the US warships would be in Korean waters “within days.”

On April 23, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Greece, “We need to make peaceful and rational voices….”

He added that China’s stand on the issue of the Korean Peninsula is constant and definite, which means adherence to realizing denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and adherence to maintaining peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula. 

Al Jazeera also reported that two Japanese destroyers, the Samidare and Ashigara, were joining the US armada. And the (South) Korean Herald reported that the US submarine Michigan, which is armed with over 150 Tomahawk cruise missiles, would be arriving in the South Korean port of Busan, with the intention of joining the Vinson warships. The recent US attack in Syria consisted of 60-some cruise missiles.

Those warships accompanying the Vinson, also based in San Diego, carry many cruise missiles as well, while the Vinson’s nearly 100 F-18 jets can function as both fighters and bombers.

On April 25, the Associated Press reported that the US carrier group was “conducting a joint exercise with Japan’s Air Self Defense Forces in waters south of Japan.” This follows a two-day exercise with two Japanese destroyers.

A photo accompanying another AP article on the topic showed the San Diego based destroyer Meyer during joint exercises with the US and South Korea military.

For its part North Korean, officials have been conducting their own military drills, and have threatened to sink the Carl Vinson. But the U.S. and its allies possess overwhelming force, and continue to up the ante, one that is already looks to provoke more death and destruction in a world already aggravated by US military action in Afghanistan, Iraq and across the globe.