On Sunday, March 2nd, an American aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea, showcasing military deterrence power at a time when North Korea was conducting a cruise missile test to demonstrate its retaliatory capabilities.
According to a statement released by the South Korean Navy, the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its strike group entered the port of Busan, South Korea, to demonstrate the strong military alliance between the United States and South Korea and to strengthen the combined operational capabilities of the allies.
This is the first time since June last year that the United States has dispatched an aircraft carrier to South Korea.
It is uncertain whether North Korea will respond angrily, as North Korea has always considered such short-term deployments of powerful U.S. military forces as a major security threat.
In the past, North Korea has strongly reacted to the deployment of U.S. aircraft carriers, long-range bombers, and nuclear submarines, often responding with missile tests.
Since taking office on January 20, 2025, President Trump has expressed his willingness to engage with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un again in an attempt to revive diplomatic negotiations between the two countries.
However, North Korea has not directly responded to Trump’s proposal, accusing the United States of leading hostile actions that have intensified since Trump took office.
Last Friday, North Korea announced that it had conducted a test of a “strategic cruise missile” earlier in the week to convey its military retaliatory capabilities and nuclear readiness. This is the fourth missile test by North Korea this year. Kim Jong-un personally observed the launch process and emphasized that the military must be prepared to use nuclear weapons at any time.
Some experts analyze that Kim Jong-un is unlikely to accept Trump’s diplomatic proposal in the near future because he is currently focusing on military cooperation with Russia, including providing weapons to Russian forces and deploying troops to support the Russia-Ukraine war. Experts point out that Kim Jong-un will consider restarting negotiations with the United States only when he can no longer maintain the current partnership with Russia.
During Trump’s first term, he met with Kim Jong-un three times to discuss the future of North Korea’s nuclear program. However, the two sides had differences in lifting economic sanctions and denuclearization steps, leading to the collapse of the negotiations.
Kim Jong-un originally hoped to exchange partial sanctions relief through negotiations to ease domestic economic pressure. However, the U.S. side wanted North Korea to take more comprehensive denuclearization measures, resulting in a deadlock in the negotiations.
At the Hanoi summit in February 2019, Kim Jong-un expressed willingness to close the Yongbyon nuclear facility, but the U.S. demanded more concessions, including the closure of uranium enrichment facilities, ultimately leading to no agreement. As a result, relations between the U.S. and North Korea quickly cooled.
By the end of Trump’s first term, contacts between North Korea and the United States were almost completely severed. In late 2020, Kim Jong-un declared the U.S. as the “number one enemy” and vowed to develop more powerful nuclear and missile technologies, including hypersonic missiles and intercontinental ballistic missiles, leading to a long-term standoff between the U.S. and North Korea.
(This article was partially referenced from related reports by the Associated Press)