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US carrier heading for Korea trains with Japanese destroyers

Associated Press
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FILE - In this March 15, 2017, file photo, U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, approaches Busan port in Busan, South Korea, to participate in an annual joint military exercise called Foal Eagle between South Korea and the United States. The American aircraft carrier heading toward the Korean peninsula is conducting a joint exercise with Japanese naval ships in the Philippine Sea. A U.S. Navy news release says that two Japanese destroyers joined the USS Carl Vinson carrier and two other U.S warships on Sunday, April 23, 2017, as they continued their journey north in the western Pacific Ocean. (Jo Jung-ho/Yonhap via AP, File) (The Associated Press)

In this Saturday, April 15, 2017 photo released by the U.S. Navy, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson transits the Sunda Strait between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra as the U.S Navy aircraft carrier strike group is on a scheduled western Pacific deployment. The American aircraft carrier heading toward the Korean Peninsula began joint exercises Sunday, April 23 with Japanese naval ships in the Philippine Sea. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Sean M. Castellano/The U.S. Navy via AP) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this March 15, 2017, file photo, U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, approaches Busan port in Busan, South Korea, to participate in an annual joint military exercise called Foal Eagle between South Korea and the United States. The American aircraft carrier heading toward the Korean peninsula is conducting a joint exercise with Japanese naval ships in the Philippine Sea. A U.S. Navy news release says that two Japanese destroyers joined the USS Carl Vinson carrier and two other U.S warships on Sunday, April 23, 2017, as they continued their journey north in the western Pacific Ocean. (Jo Jung-ho/Yonhap via AP, File) (The Associated Press)

An American aircraft carrier heading toward the Korean Peninsula is conducting a joint exercise with Japanese naval ships in the Philippine Sea.

The U.S. Navy said in a statement that two Japanese destroyers joined the USS Carl Vinson carrier and two other U.S. warships Sunday as they continued their journey north in the western Pacific Ocean.

The Vinson canceled a scheduled visit to Australia to divert toward North Korea in a show of force, though it still conducted a curtailed training exercise with Australia before doing so.

Two Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers left Sasebo port in southern Japan on Friday to join the Vinson strike group. The U.S. group also includes a guided-missile cruiser and a guided-missile destroyer.

The exercise is designed to improve maritime response and defense capabilities.