BEIJING/SEOUL – Chinese President Xi Jinping called for all sides to exercise restraint on Monday in a call about North Korea with US President Donald Trump, as Japan conducted joint drills with a US aircraft carrier strike group headed for Korean waters. Current top breaking Philippine…
BEIJING\/SEOUL – Chinese President Xi Jinping called for all sides to exercise restraint on Monday in a call about North Korea with US President Donald Trump, as Japan conducted joint drills with a US aircraft carrier strike group headed for Korean waters. The carrier group was sent by Trump for exercises in waters off the Korean peninsula as a warning, amid growing fears North Korea could conduct another nuclear test soon in defiance of United Nations sanctions. Angered by the approach of the US carrier group, a defiant North Korea said on Monday the deployment of the USS Carl Vinson was « an extremely dangerous act by those who plan a nuclear war to invade the North. » « The United States should not run amok and should consider carefully any catastrophic consequence from its foolish military provocative act, » Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, said in a commentary on Monday. « What’s only laid for aggressors [are] dead bodies and deaths, » the newspaper said. Two Japanese destroyers have already joined the carrier group for drills in the western Pacific, and South Korea said on Monday it was also in talks about holding joint naval exercises. Washington and its allies fear Pyongyang could be preparing to conduct another nuclear missile test or launch more ballistic missiles. China is increasingly worried the situation could spin out of control, leading to war and a chaotic collapse of its isolated and poverty-struck neighbor.
