US warship begins navy drills with Japan in Phillipine Sea

Tokyo, April 23: The US aircraft carrier Carl Vinson and other warships started joint exercises with Japan on Sunday, the American navy said, as regional tensions rise over North Korea’s missile and nuclear programmes.

The exercises — also involving a US guidedmissile cruiser and guided-missile destroyer — are being held in the Philippine Sea, the navy said, as the naval strike group “continued its northern transit in the Western Pacific”.

Confusion has clouded the carrier group's whereabouts in recent days after President Donald Trump suggested the “armada” was steaming towards North Korea when in fact it was sent towards Australia. Pyongyang reacted defiantly.

State newspaper Minju Joson quoted what it called military sources as saying Washington plans to station “several nuclear carrier task forces” off the Korean peninsula this week.

“The army of the DPRK (North Korea) already declared it will deal merciless destructive blows at the enemies so that they would not come back to life again should they make reckless provocation,” the paper said.

The Carl Vinson carrier strike group and the Japanese navy “commenced an at-sea bilateral exercise in the Philippine Sea” on Sunday, the US Navy posted on its Facebook page. The joint drill is designed to “ensure maritime forces remain ready to defend the region”, it said. “Seeing the threats we are facing now, it is no surprise that Japan and the US conduct joint exercises,” Toshimitsu Motegi, a senior ruling party lawmaker, said. — AFP Seoul, April 23: A US citizen has been arrested as he tried to fly out of North Korea, becoming the third American to be detained there, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported Sunday.

There was no immediate official confirmation of the reported arrest, which would come at a tense time in relations between Pyongyang and Washington.

Yonhap quoted sources as saying the man, identified only by his surname Kim, was arrested last Friday at Pyongyang International Airport on his way out of the country. It said Kim, aged in his late 50s and a former professor at China's Yanbian University of Science and Technology, had been involved in aid programmes for the North. He reportedly was in the North for about a month to discuss relief activities, Yonhap said. The reason for his arrest was unclear.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service said they could not confirm the report. But the director of a Seoul-based group called the World North Korea Research Centre said his sources in Pyongyang had confirmed the arrest. “The reason North Korea is not saying anything yet is because it is not done with the investigations,” Ahn Chan-il, a former defector, said. — AFP