In immediate response to the launch, four American and four South Korean warplanes dropped bombs on an uninhabited island in the Yellow Sea, while American and Japanese warplanes also flew over the Sea of Japan together.
But in an embarrassing incident early Wednesday, a South Korean ballistic missile malfunctioned and exploded during a live-fire exercise with the United States that was designed as retaliation for North Korea’s launch .
US officials confirmed the carrier’s move to POLITICO after South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reportedly announced the move.
“The carrier battle group’s reshipment to the Korean Peninsula is highly unusual and demonstrates the strong will of the South Korea-US alliance to strengthen the alliance’s preparedness posture against consecutive provocations by North Korea and the United States. respond decisively to any type of provocation and threat from North Korea,” the JCS said.
The Reagan is based in Japan and frequently spends its deployments hitting different parts of the Western Pacific. Before returning to the Sea of Japan, the ship was operating east of northern Japan, according to the US Naval Institute’s fleet tracker.
The United States on Tuesday condemned the missile launch from Pyongyang. National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson called the move a “dangerous and reckless move.”
“This action is destabilizing and shows the DPRK’s blatant disregard for UN Security Council resolutions and international security standards,” she said.
On Tuesday morning, President Joe Biden spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to reinforce “the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of Japan,” the White House said. Later in the day, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also spoke with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts, according to Watson.
