The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and its strike group will arrive in the East Sea "within days" to warn nuclear-armed North Korea against further acts of provocation, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said Saturday.
"We are sending an armada".
Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said the Vinson was "on her way up".
The two Japanese warships, the Samidare and Ashigara, left western Japan on Friday to join the Carl Vinson and will "practice a variety of tactics" with the USA strike group, the Japan Maritime Self Defence Force said in a statement.
But photos posted to the U.S. Navy's website on April 15 showed the carrier transiting the Sunda Strait, the passage between the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java - some 5,600 km from South Korea.
"They are crying out for the settling of the ... aircraft carrier strike groups in the waters off the Korean Peninsula", the official said, using the acronym for the country's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Pence told the news conference, which was livestreamed online, that the decision to dispatch the Vinson to the waters off the Korean Peninsula "was set into motion some time ago".
A US Navy pilot ejected safely from his fighter jet while attempting to land on aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in Celebes Sea in southern Philippines.
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North Korea will mark the founding of its military on April 25, less than two weeks after staging a massive military parade in Pyongyang to celebrate the 105th anniversary of founder Kim Il Sung's birth.
North Korea's latest missile test failed last weekend, but the country conducted two nuclear test explosions and 24 ballistic missile tests past year.
Pence, former governor of IN, said that all options are on the table, and China is the key to influence North Korea, adding that if Beijing is unable to "deal" with Pyongyang, the US and its allies will step up.
Mr Turnbull said China has the leverage to influence North Korea, adding: "The eyes of the world are on Beijing".
He said Washington believed that a nuclear-free Korean peninsula could be achieved peacefully because of the Trump administration's new engagement with China.
The Carl Vinson drills are expected to last several days and involve two Japanese warships, Japan's defence ministry said.
North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, two of them a year ago, and is working to develop nuclear-tipped missiles that can reach the United States.
It has also renewed threats against regional USA allies, including Japan and South Korea, which both host large American military contingents. Analysts say that the growing nuclear and missile threat of North Korea is perhaps the most serious security challenge confronting Trump.
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