SLOW BOAT TO KOREA: The Pentagon was scrambling yesterday to explain why the much ballyhooed dispatch of the USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group to Korea — touted by President Trump as a powerful armada and strong signal of resolve to North Korea — was in fact thousands of miles away and in no apparent hurry to get the the waters off the peninsula.
It all began with a press release issued this month from the commander of the U.S. 3rd Fleet, which said, “Admiral Harry Harris, Commander U.S. Pacific Command, has directed the Carl Vinson strike group to sail north and report on station in the Western Pacific Ocean after departing Singapore April 8.” Two days later, national security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, asked about the rerouting of the carrier and its escort ships, told Fox News Sunday that it was only prudent given North Korea’s provocations.
