Kim Jong-un Threatens to Sink US Carrier with One Missile

Hitting the U.S. mainland with some from of weapon of mass destruction would be the ultimate accomplishment for Kim Jong-un. If our military knows whether the can do this, perhaps from a submarine off the coast of California, they aren’t saying — and for good reason. Just the knowledge that North Korea could lob a nuclear or chemical warhead on top of one of our coastal cities would surely raise tensions.

If he can’t do that, perhaps he could sink the USS Carl Vinson, one of our nuclear aircraft carriers that is currently cruising off the shores of the Korean peninsula. In fact, he has claimed that intends to do just that — with just one bomb.

DELUDED despot Kim Jong-un has threatened to blow a US Navy flagship out of the water with “a single missile” as an American war fleet sailed to the Korean peninsula.

How deluded Mr. Kim is remains open to debate. Yet it’s hard to find a nation that makes more threats against the U.S. than North Korea. Iran might be a close second, but its military capabilities do not equal those of Mr. Kim’s.

USS Carl Vinson joined the USS Michigan, a guided missile submarine, just hours after North Korea’s ballistic missile flop last night.

Squaring up to the trigger-happy dictator, the supercarrier riddled with jets and missiles quickly kicked off a joint drill with the South Korean Navy.

An American defence ministry spokesman said: “Immediately after the aircraft carrier arrived in the Sea of Japan, South Korea and the US strike forces launched a drill from 6pm Saturday.”

Hours earlier North launched a medium range ballistic missile despite Donald Trump warning of a “major, major conflict” if the US doesn’t fall into line.

There’s a lot to be said here.

In the first place, there is no guarantee that North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile was a “flop.” There is now speculation that is was a test to determine if the warhead would separate from the missile itself, in which case perhaps the explosion was intended. In any event, that test moves them closer to their goal.

The other point is that while it’s obvious that the USS Michigan is on station, we have no idea how many other US nuclear submarines are in the waters around the Carl Vinson. Aircraft carriers don’t travel without submarines. And we’re not going to know about this either. After all, this is the “Silent Service.”

But North Korea’s state media — a megaphone for tubby tyrant Kim Jong-un — said the its military is capable of sinking the aircraft carrier with a single strike.

Despite the threat, the allied drill was carried out to verify capabilities in tracking and intercepting enemy ballistic missiles, a US military spokesman said.

He declined to clarify how long the drill would last, but Yonhap news agency said it was expected to continue until sometime next week.

It marks the USS Carl Vinson’s second operation in South Korean waters in less than two months amid boiling-point military tensions in Korea.

Earlier this week, the US carrier had joint drills with Japan’s naval forces.

What we’ve got going on here are shows of force by both North Korea and the U.S. with its allies Japan and South Korea.

What remains to be determined is if Mr. Kim will attempt to make good on one of his many threats, or whether President Trump will conclude from the intelligence he has received that he has no choice but to launch a preemptive attack before the North develops a nuclear weapon with a reliable missile system.

On the other hand, we’ve so often been brought to what seems like the brink of hostilities with North Korea only to see things ease back off after some sabre-rattling, that we’ve come to expect just that scenario.

We can only wait, and hold our breath as millions of lives hang in the balance.

Source: The Sun