ABOARD THE USS CARL VINSON: As the USS Carl Vinson plowed through seas off South Korea on Tuesday, rival North Korea warned the US of “merciless” attacks if the carrier infringes on its sovereignty or dignity during US-South Korean drills.
F-18 fighter jets took off from the flight deck of the nuclear-powered carrier in a dramatic display of US firepower amid rising tension with the North, which has alarmed its neighbors with two nuclear tests and a series of missile launches since last year.
“While this is a routine deployment for the Carl Vinson strike group, really the centerpiece for us ... is this exercise we’re doing with the ROK navy called ‘Foal Eagle’,” Rear Adm. James W. Kilby, commander of the Carrier Strike Group 1, told reporters, referring to South Korea as the Republic of Korea.
North Korea said the arrival of the US strike group in the seas off the east of the Korean peninsula was part of a “reckless scheme” to attack it.
“If they infringe on the DPRK’s sovereignty and dignity even a bit, its army will launch merciless ultra-precision strikes from ground, air, sea and underwater,” the North’s state news agency KCNA said.
North Korea’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“On March 11 alone, many enemy carrier-based aircraft flew along a course near territorial air and waters of the DPRK to stage drills of dropping bombs and making surprise attacks on the ground targets of its army,” KCNA said.
Last week, North Korea fired four ballistic missiles into the sea off Japan in response to annual US-South Korea military drills, which the North sees as preparation for war.
The murder in Malaysia last month of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s estranged half-brother has added to a sense of urgency to efforts to handle North Korea.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due to make his first visit to South Korea on Friday.
Last week, the US ambassador to the UN said President Donald Trump’s administration was re-evaluating its North Korea strategy and “all options are on the table.”
Chinese opposition
Compounding regional tension, China is vehemently opposed to the deployment in South Korea of an advanced US anti-missile system.
The US and South Korea say the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system is for defense against North Korea, but China fears its powerful radar can probe deep into its territory and compromise its security.
The US began to deploy the system a week ago, a day after North Korea launched its latest four missile tests.
South Korean and US troops began the large-scale joint drills, which are billed as defensive in nature, on March 1.
The exercise last year involved about 17,000 American troops and more than 300,000 South Koreans. South Korea has said this year’s exercise would be of a similar scale.
The US has also started to deploy “Gray Eagle” attack drones to South Korea, a US military spokesman said on Monday.
China says the exercises do nothing to ease tension.
Last week, it called on North Korea to stop its weapons tests and for South Korea and the US to stop their drills.
“We hope the relevant side can respect the security concerns of countries in the region, can take a responsible attitude and do more to benefit the easing of tension, rather than irritating each other,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing, referring to the US.
N. Korea warns of ‘merciless’ strikes as US carrier joins S. Korea drills
N. Korea warns of ‘merciless’ strikes as US carrier joins S. Korea drills
Vance’s message in Minneapolis: Local officials must cooperate with the immigration crackdown
- Vance defended ICE agents who detained a 5-year-old boy as he was arriving home from preschool
MINNEAPOLIS: Insisting that he was in Minnesota to calm tensions, Vice President JD Vance on Thursday blamed “far-left people” and state and local law enforcement officials for the chaos that has unfolded during the White House’s aggressive deportation campaign.
The Republican vice president said, “We’re doing everything that we can to lower the temperature,” adding that Minnesota leaders should “meet us halfway.”
The Justice Department is investigating top Democrats in the state, including Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, over whether they have obstructed or impeded immigration enforcement through their public criticism of the administration. Walz and Frey have described the investigation as an attempt to bully the political opposition.
Federal officers stood in a row behind Vance as he spoke, and there were two US Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles emblazoned with the slogan “Defend the Homeland.”
His visit follows weeks of aggressive rhetoric from the White House, including President Donald Trump, who has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act — and send in military forces — to crack down on unrest. Asked about that option, Vance said, “Right now, we don’t think that we need that.”
Trump dispatched thousands of federal agents to Minnesota earlier this month after reports of child care fraud by Somali immigrants. Minneapolis-area officials, including Frey, as well as the police, religious leaders and the business community have pushed back, and outrage grew after an agent fatally shot Renee Good, a mother of three, during a confrontation this month.
After Vance’s visit, Walz said the federal government was to blame for the turmoil.
“Take the show of force off the streets and partner with the state on targeted enforcement of violent offenders instead of random, aggressive confrontation,” he wrote on social media.
Vance defends actions by ICE agents
Vance has played a leading role in defending the agent who killed Good, and he previously said her death was “a tragedy of her own making.” On Thursday, he repeated claims that Good “rammed” an agent with her car, an account that has been disputed based on videos of the incident.
Minnesota faith leaders, backed by labor unions and hundreds of Minneapolis-area businesses, are planning a day of protests on Friday. Nearly 600 local businesses have announced plans to shut down, while hundreds of “solidarity events” are expected across the country, according to MoveOn spokesperson Britt Jacovich.
Vance defended ICE agents who detained a 5-year-old boy as he was arriving home from preschool.
“When they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran,” Vance said. “So the story is that ICE detained a 5-year-old. Well, what are they supposed to do?”
The boy, who was taken by federal agents along with his father to a detention facility in Texas, was the fourth student from his Minneapolis suburb to be detained by immigration officers in recent weeks.
Asked about reporting that federal authorities are asserting sweeping power to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant, Vance said warrants would still be part of immigration enforcement. But Vance did not specify which kind of warrant he was referring to.
“Nobody is talking about doing immigration enforcement without a warrant,” Vance said. “We’re never going to enter somebody’s house without some kind of warrant, unless of course somebody is firing at an officer and they have to protect themselves.”
The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that federal immigration officers were asserting sweeping power to forcibly enter houses without a judicial warrant, according to an internal ICE memo, in what is a reversal of long-standing guidance meant to respect constitutional limits on government searches.
Instead, the officers can use administrative warrants. Those are issued by ICE officials, as opposed to warrants signed off on by an independent judge.
Vance visited Ohio earlier in the day
During a stop in Toledo, Ohio, on Thursday morning, Vance acknowledged that immigration agents have made mistakes, while declining to be specific.
“Of course there have been mistakes made, because you’re always going to have mistakes made in law enforcement,” he said when asked about Trump’s comments earlier this week that ICE “is going to make mistakes sometimes.”
But Vance said the blame didn’t lie with the federal government.
“The number one way where we could lower the mistakes that are happening, at least with our immigration enforcement, is to have local jurisdictions that are cooperating with us,” he said.
Vance also praised the arrest of protesters who disrupted a church service in Minnesota on Sunday and said he expects more prosecutions to come. The protesters entered the church chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good.”
“They’re scaring little kids who are there to worship God on a Sunday morning,” Vance said. He added, “Just as you have the right to protest, they have a right to worship God as they choose. And when you interrupt that, that is a violation of the law.”
Vance took the opportunity to criticize hometown Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur while he was in her Toledo-centered district. A crowded slate of Republicans — including former ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan — is vying to take on the longest-serving woman in Congress this fall.
Vance’s stop in Ohio was focused primarily on bolstering the administration’s positive economic message on the heels of Trump’s appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and he showed support for Republicans like gubernatorial contender Vivek Ramaswamy and US Sen. Jon Husted.
Convincing voters that the nation is in rosy financial shape has been a persistent challenge for Trump during the first year of his second term. Polling has shown that the public is unconvinced that the economy is in good condition and majorities disapprove of Trump’s handling of foreign policy.
Vance urged voters to be patient with the economy, saying Trump had inherited a bad situation from Democratic President Joe Biden.
“You don’t turn the Titanic around overnight,” Vance said. “It takes time to fix what is broken.”
