The revelation that the Pentagon didn’t send the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, as U.S. officials had said, directly toward North Korea as a stern message to Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs sparked ridicule in some corners of Asia and wariness in others.

In North Korea, the U.S. Navy’s admission that the Carl Vinson was actually thousands of miles away on exercises off Australia’s coast and won’t arrive at the Korean Peninsula until next week prompted the state-run news service to say Washington “now bluffs...