North Korea 'can sink United States aircraft carrier in one strike'

"The United States should not run amok and should consider carefully any catastrophic effect from its foolish military provocative act", Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North's ruling Workers' Party, said in a commentary on Monday.

April 2017: An EA-18G Growler from the Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 136 "Guantlets" takes off from the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) flight deck.

Tensions are elevated on the Korean Peninsula, with the Trump administration saying that all options are on the table, and indications Kim Jong-un may be preparing to test a nuclear weapon or long-range missile.

"The number one threat in the region", Benham said April 8, "continues to be North Korea, due to its reckless, irresponsible, and destabilizing program of missile tests and pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability".

Pyongyang, considering the deployment an act of provocation, said on Sunday that it was ready to show its own military might by sinking the "nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with a single strike".

US Vice President Mike Pence's remarks that the USS Carl Vinson will reach the East Sea by the end of the month marked the first time that a senior US government official had revealed the timing of the carrier's arrival in the East Sea since a controversy broke out about the carrier's direction last week.

Abe told reporters on Monday that he and Trump had agreed to keep close contact on North Korea.

The USS Carl Vinson will be joined by the Ashigara and Samidare destroyers in "tactical training" drills near the Philippines, the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force said.

North Korea 'can sink United States aircraft carrier in one strike'

U.S. -North Korea tensions have skyrocketed in recent days as the paranoid military empire conducts nuclear and missile tests and tries its hardest to intimidate the West.

Pyongyang's rhetoric intensifies every spring, when the United States and South Korea hold joint exercises it sees as rehearsals for an attack on the North.

The carrier group was sent by Trump for exercises in waters off the Korean peninsula as a warning, amid growing fears, North Korea could conduct another nuclear test soon in defiance of United Nations sanctions. He has vowed to prevent the North from being able to hit the USA with a nuclear missile and has said "all options are on the table" - including a military strike.

A senior United States administration official said Trump is expected to speak later on Sunday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

North Korea conducted two nuclear tests a year ago alone, which would have improved its knowledge on making nuclear weapons small enough to fit on long-range missiles.

Japan's navy, which is mostly a destroyer fleet, is the second largest in Asia after China's.

The man, Tony Kim, had been in North Korea for a month teaching accounting at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), the institution's chancellor, Chan-Mo Park, told Reuters.

US and South Korean officials have been saying for weeks the North could soon stage another nuclear test, something the United States, China and others have warned against.