A US aircraft carrier-led strike group is heading to the Korean Peninsula in response to recent North Korean provocations as confirmed to CNN by a US defense official. The USS Carl Vinson strike group was directed by Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of US Pacific Command, to sail north to the Western Pacific after departing Singapore April 8, announced Pacific Command. Sending aircrafts and other military assets near that area is not unusual for the U.S. and just recently the Vinson was in South Korea for military exercises.

The strike announcement comes as Kim Jong Un is preparing for North Korea upcoming anniversaries in the next week, as reported by The Washington Post. This includes a military parade to celebrate the 105th birthday of its founding president, Kim Il Sung, and there will be another similar celebration for the 85th anniversary of the creation of the Korean People’s Army April 25.

The decision to send a strike group was made to create a presence in the area, according to NBC News. North Korea recently launched a Scud extended-range missile, that U.S. Officials reported as exploding in flight, there were also several missile engine tests done by North Korea as it works to improve its ballistic missile technology, as reported by CNN. Last September, North Korea had claimed to have successfully tested a nuclear warhead and Pyongyang also says they are looking into nuclear weapons to protect itself from U.S. aggression.

There was also a statement from North Korea saying it did not fear military strikes, like the ones done to Syria last week, saying it could defend its “tremendous military muscle with a nuclear force,” according to The Huffington Post.

The strike force news came soon after a summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, where it was reported that North Korea was one subject of the meeting, as reported by CNN. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that both Trump and Xi agreed on the “urgency of the threat of North Korea’s nuclear weapon program” and also both agreed to work on it together to peacefully solve the issue.

“President Xi clearly understands, and I think agrees, that the situation has intensified and has reached a certain level of threat that action has to be taken,” Tillerson told CBS’s Face the Nation. Tillerson also said given the current situation with the nuclear weapons and missile tests that the Chinese, “do not believe the conditions are right today to engage in discussions with the government in Pyongyang.”

The Vinson, which was suppose to originally go to Australia after leaving Singapore, has a carrier air wing and two guided-missile destroyers, was ordered to travel to the “Western Pacific”, as reported by The Huffington Post. “The U.S. Pacific Command ordered the Carl Vinson Strike Group north as a prudent measure to maintain readiness and presence in the Western Pacific,” said Dave Benham, a spokesman for the Pacific Command, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency. Benham continued with “The number one threat in the region continues to North Korea, due to its reckless, irresponsible and destabilizing program of missile tests and pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability.”