After a mangled deployment of Trump's aircraft carrier "armada" during which miscommunication between the White House and the Pentagon meant the USS Carl Vinson would arrive off the North Korea coast weeks after what Trump had initially suggested, on Saturday Japan's public broadcaster NHK aired footage of the U.S. aircraft carrier sailing off the coast of Nagasaki prefecture in southern Japan, hours after the latest failed ballistic missile test by North Korea..
NHK said it shot the footage Saturday morning from a helicopter. Nagasaki is in Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's four main islands. On Friday, the Vinson conducted joint training with two Japanese destroyers and two Japanese F-15 fighter jets in waters further south off the Japanese island of Okinawa.
The USS Carl Vinson is heading north toward the Korean peninsula over rising concerns the Kim regime may conduct another nuclear test, one day after Pyongyang provoked not only the US but also China and Russia with its latest failed missile test.
Since Nagasaki is just a few hundred kilometers away from the Korean coast, and less 800 km from Pyongyang (by air), it will likely reach its destination off the Korean coast during the next few hours.
Meanwhile, according to AP, shortly after receiving notice that North Korea had conducted another missile launch, one of Tokyo's major subways systems said it had shut down all lines for 10 minutes early Saturday. Tokyo Metro official Hiroshi Takizawa said service was halted on all nine lines at 6:07 a.m. It resumed at 6:17 a.m. after it was clear there was no threat to Japan; the temporary suspension affected 13,000 passengers. Takizawa says it was the first time service had been stopped in response to a missile launch. Train service is generally suspended in Japan immediately after large earthquakes. Tokyo Metro decided earlier this month to stop for missile launch warnings as well.
Earlier on Satirday, Japan protested the latest missile launch by North Korea: Abe spokesman Yoshihide Suga said that a ballistic missile firing would be a flagrant "violation of U.N. security council resolutions." He added that Japan "cannot accept repeated provocation by North Korea" and had "lodged a strong protest against North Korea." Japan has become increasingly concerned in recent weeks about the possibility of a North Korean missile attack targeting Japan or U.S. forces stationed in Japan.