U.S. sends anti-missile destroyer near North Korean coast.
The United States has positioned near North Korea a destroyer capable of shooting down missiles in the latest military move amid a showdown with the communist state, an official said Monday.
The USS Fitzgerald, which had sailed to South Korea as part of recent exercises, has been sent off the southwestern coast of the Korean peninsula instead of returning to its home port in Japan, a US defense official said.
The U.S. moved a ballistic-missile-defense capable ship into position near the Korean peninsula to counter the threat of a North Korean missile launch, defense officials said Monday.
Meanwhile, South Korea said Monday it would speed up plans to develop missile-defense systems, as President Park Geun-hye called for "strong retaliation" against any provocations by the North, saying that the country's military should "make a strong and swift response in initial combat without any political considerations" to any provocation from the North