Bottom line, at some point, three US carrier strike groups will converge NEAR the Korean peninsula, as well as a WEALTH of US aircraft located on bases in the Western Pacific.
If the North Korean dictator wants to act STUPID, fine. I believe our show of force may be partially aimed at Russia and China.
And to make it easy for China and Russia to shadow US Naval Forces is not something the Pentagon nor Trump wants.
Looks like the Pentagon and Trump are holding their cards close their vests.
When VP Mike Pence visited South Korea, he mentioned that the US had 1000 aircraft in the area. This might be a combination of: F15's, F18's, F117's, F22's, possibly some F35's, A10's, B1B's, B2's, as well as support tankers and AWAC's, and electronic jammers.
These aircraft can do the job if necessary along with the US Naval ships in the area...
Re: F-117s
“Since its retirement from active flying status in 2008, the Air Force’s cadre of F-117 Nighthawks have been maintained at their original, climate-friendly hangars at the Tonopah Test Range Airport in Nevada.
Per Congressional direction within the FY07 National Defense Authorization Act the aircraft were placed in Type 1000, flyable storage for potential recall to future service. In order to confirm the effectiveness of the flyable storage program, some F-117 aircraft are occasionally flown.”
http://intercepts.defensenews.com/2014/11/we-now-know-why-the-f-117-is-still-flying/
I would add that between them, the South Koreans and the Japanese should be able to field at least 500 combat aircraft.
Given that in the event of major hostilities, the defense of Seoul would have to be a very high priority, the immediate area to the north of Seoul could be rather crowded!
Assuming some of the Norks’ planes would be taken out pretty quickly by cruise missiles and such, I’ll assume 500 planes would establish air superiority, leaving 1000 planes (plus a number of attack helicopters and such, PLUS fairly formidable South Korean* and US artillery and missiles) available to clobber any Nork artillery or missile launchers poking their heads out to bombard Seoul, or attacking Nork ground forces.
How long does it take 1000 planes to take out 10,000 artillery and launchers? Hmmm...
*Note that S. Korea spends 3 to 4 times as much on defense as does N. Korea. Of course some of that is spent on pricey US weapons, but, most of those are darn good systems.