JAPAN will dispatch its biggest warship since World War II to protect a United States supply ship, as tensions mount in the region over North Korea, media reports said today.

The helicopter carrier Izumo will leave the mother port of Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, tomorrow and join the US supply ship to escort it further into the western Pacific, the leading Asahi Shimbun daily and Jiji Press reported citing unnamed government sources.

It will be the first deployment, outside of troop exercises, to protect the US fleet after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expanded the country’s military capabilities in 2015, though they remain restricted under Japan’s pacifist constitution.

The US supply ship is expected to support the American naval fleet in the Pacific, possibly including the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, which remains on high alert over North Korea’s ballistic missile firings, the reports said.

Japanese naval officials declined to comment on the reports.

Earlier this week, the US carrier had joint drills with Japan’s naval forces.

The Carl Vinson arrived in the Sea of Japan and kicked off a joint drill with the South Korean navy yesterday, hours after North Korea launched a ballistic missile in apparent defiance of the US.

North Korea’s state media has said the North’s military is capable of sinking the US aircraft carrier with a single strike. – AFP, April 30, 2017.