“Trump’s lie over the Carl Vinson,” read a headline on the website of the newspaper JoongAng Ilbo on Wednesday. “Xi Jinping and Putin must have had a good jeer over this one.”
“Like North Korea, which is often accused of displaying fake missiles during military parades, is the United States, too, now employing ‘bluffing’ as its North Korea policy?” the article asked.
The episode raised questions about whether major allies of the United States, like South Korea and Japan, had been informed of the carrier’s whereabouts, and whether the misinformation undercut America’s strategy to contain North Korea’s nuclear ambitions by using empty threats.
...
“We’re sending an armada,” President Trump said 10 days ago. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/world/asia/aircraft-carrier-south-korea.html?_r=0
There also is a change:
“Like North Korea, which is often accused of displaying fake missiles during military parades, is the United States, too, now employing ‘bluffing’ as its North Korea policy?” the article asked.
The episode raised questions about whether major allies of the United States, like South Korea and Japan, had been informed of the carrier’s whereabouts, and whether the misinformation undercut America’s strategy to contain North Korea’s nuclear ambitions by using empty threats.
...
“We’re sending an armada,” President Trump said 10 days ago. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/world/asia/aircraft-carrier-south-korea.html?_r=0
There also is a change:
North Korea tension: China 'seriously concerned' about nuclear threats
-BBC
There is a change in the frequency of Chinese expressions of concern, and in their tone. China is REALLY concerned.
"If the US is planning a military attack against us, we will react with a nuclear pre-emptive strike by our own style and method," [DPRK] Vice-Foreign Minister Han Song-ryol told the BBC on Monday.
The BBC's Stephen McDonell in Beijing says the Chinese government appears to be becoming increasingly frustrated with North Korea, its traditional ally.
"I have noted the recent report," Mr Lu said, referring to the BBC interview. [Translated, "We are going batshit crazy in Zhongnanhai with those fucking racist dwarfs."]
"China expresses serious concern with recent trends about North Korea's nuclear and missile development.
"China is unswerving in its commitment to realising the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, maintaining the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula, and continue to solve matters through dialogue and negotiations."
[China, on whom the DPRK is heavily dependent on trade, suspended coal imports after the "Citrus Summit." And then there is that article by Shen Zhihua, published March 22, still up on his university's website and Shen not struggled. Maybe "yet" should be appended to both clauses of that sentence. If it is correct to view DPRK actions over the last 60 years from an anthropological perspective then the DPRK is rational...for a paranoid psychopath. There is a method to their madness. They don't really want to be blown up. They do want to attack the South, again, would love to attack the U.S., but don't want to do those things if the cost is being blown up. China is not taking the recent statements and actions by the DPRK and the U.S. as palimpsest, however. They're taking them at face value. Since the Chinese are themselves masters of misdirection, I pay particular attention when they are direct. Here, they are direct, are sincerely alarmed. Which means: 1. That nuclear war is still "on the table" for both sides and 2. That China wants to end this crisis before anybody gets blown up.]
