Rumors

[Boats]

Navy: No movement on N. Korea front

By Andrew Scutro
Staff writer


The Navy is denying rumors that a carrier strike group is lurking near North Korea.

The Navy has not moved any ships towards North Korean in response to that country?s claim Monday that it had conducted a nuclear test.


?There is no strike group off the coast of Korea,? said Lt. Bashon Mann, a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon, who added that the nearest aircraft carrier, Kitty Hawk, is in its home port of Yokosuka, Japan.

North Korea?s detonation of an explosive device on Oct. 8 and claim it was a nuclear test sent a jolt through Asia and across the Pacific.

But President Bush said Wednesday the U.S. has no intention of attacking North Korea, and recent reports cast doubt on the claim that a nuclear device was, in fact, detonated.

Mann said the amphibious ships Boxer, Dubuque and Comstock are in port in Singapore. Other ships forward deployed in Japan have not moved toward Korea.

?There?s nothing close,? he said.

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group departed Norfolk, Va., on Oct. 3 en route to the Mediterranean Sea. The carrier Enterprise is currently on station in the Arabian Sea, while the carrier Nimitz is underway off the coast of California and the carrier John C. Stennis is in port in San Diego.