N. Korea Vows to Boost Defenses After Syrian Airstrike, U.S. Carrier Strike Group Moves Toward Korean Peninsula

‘The Strike Group Will Provide a Show of Presence in the Region’

Following Donald Trump’s decision to use 59 Tomahawk missiles to destroy a now-operational Syrian military base, North Korea has vowed to bolster its defenses.

“We will bolster up in every way our capability for self-defense to cope with the U.S. evermore reckless moves for a war and defend ourselves with our own force,” a North Korean foreign ministry official reportedly said, calling the Syrian airstrikes “absolutely unpardonable.”

As The Hill reported, the official, whose comments were carried on North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency, continued that “some forces are loud-mouthed that the recent U.S. military attack on Syria is an action of warning us, but we are not frightened by it.”

North Korea’s vow also came within hours of a U.S. announcement that the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group would travel closer to the Korean Peninsula. As NBC reported, a U.S. official said “the strike group will provide a show of presence in the region.”

“The number one threat in the region continues to be North Korea,” a spokesman for U.S. Pacific Command said, “due to its reckless, irresponsible, and destabilizing program of missile tests and pursuit of nuclear weapons capability.”

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said today that he believes Chinese President Xi Jinping, who visited Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago this weekend, agrees the North Korean ‘situation’ has “intensified and has reached a certain level of threat that action has to be taken.”

“I think there’s a shared view and no disagreement as to how dangerous the situation has become,” Tillerson said.

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Image by Official U.S. Navy Page via Flickr