South Koreans Feeling Cheated After U.S. Carrier Miscue
By CHOE SANG-HUNAPRIL 19, 2017
SEOUL, South Korea — When news broke less than two weeks ago
that the Trump administration was sending the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson to the Korean Peninsula, many South Koreans feared a possible war with North Korea.
North Korea didn’t do a nuclear test last Saturday." Coupled with Mr. Trump’s order to strike a Syrian air base with dozens of missiles, and repeated warnings from his senior aides
that "military options" were not off the table in dealing with North Korea, news of the Carl Vinson rushing back to Korean waters stirred anxiety in South Korea.
The whole episode is a reminder of how fettered South Korea remains to its alliance with the United States." Shin In-kyun, a military expert who runs the civic group Korea Defense Network, said
that Mr. Trump appeared to have used the Carl Vinson as a feint aimed at preventing North Korea from conducting a nuclear test.
Compounding their anger over the Carl Vinson episode, many South Koreans also were riled at Mr. Trump for his assertion in a Wall Street Journal interview last week
that the Korean Peninsula "used to be a part of China." Although Korea was often invaded by China and forced to pay tributes to its giant neighbor, many Koreans say the notion that they were once Chinese subjects is egregiously insulting.
On Wednesday, the South Korean Defense Ministry declined to comment, other than to say
that the United States and South Korea do not discuss the details of their joint strategy to deter North Korean provocations.
Kim said that There is no way for South Korea not to have known that the Carl Vinson would not be in Korean waters last Saturday,
