North Korea has denounced the United States for bringing "huge nuclear strategic assets" to the Korean peninsula, as the USA aircraft carrier group heads for the region.
Abe was responding to a question about Japan's readiness at a time of increased regional tension.
"North Korea is a problem, the problem will be taken care of", Trump said defiantly, amid reports of activity at a North Korean nuclear test site ahead of Saturday's 105th anniversary of the birth of the country's founder Kim Il-Sung. Its stockpile reportedly has 25 types of agents, including sarin.
Chinese experts see little immediate possibility of hostilities breaking out between the US and North Korea, but say Beijing will respond harshly to any further North Korean nuclear tests.
Alternative supplies are not really an option: although Russian Federation and some Middle Eastern producers have from time to time sent crude North Korea's way, they are unreliable suppliers, the outlet noted, especially now, when U.S. But recently, Abe's ruling party has proposed that Japan should bolster its missile defense, including upgrading the capability to shoot down an enemy missile and acquiring the capacity to attack the base it was sacked from.
In remarks given to the media on Thursday, President Donald Trump said he did not know whether or not if the use of the "mother of all bombs" on an ISIS stronghold in Afghanistan would send a message to North Korea.
Calling the the Trump administration's actions in Syria "absolutely unpardonable", the North Korean foreign ministry said that while some observers suspect the strikes were a "warning", the North is "not frightened".
North Korea's vice foreign minister says, "We will go to war" if the USA chooses to provoke it.
Wang says China would be willing to help facilitate efforts by the sides to reach out to each other in whatever form that takes.
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OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro called for the regional organisation's permanent council to hold crisis talks on the situation. On Wednesday the Supreme Court seized power from the National Assembly, allowing it to write laws itself.
Trump has also said the United States is prepared to tackle the crisis without China, if necessary.
In February, North Korea fired test missiles into the Sea of Japan while Abe was in the USA meeting with Trump. "Whatever comes from USA politicians, if their words are created to overthrow the DPRK system and government, we will categorically reject them".
On Thursday, China, North Korea's sole major ally and benefactor, urged the reclusive state to halt its nuclear program exchange for protection and security.
In this undated photo distributed on Friday, April 14, 2017, by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, watches a military drill at an undisclosed location.
Trump has threatened that if Beijing isn't willing to do more to squeeze the North, the US might take the matter into its own hands.
Trump has also been pressing China to do more to rein in North Korea.
The ministry issued a statement saying North Korea will face strong punishment it will find hard to withstand if it makes a significant provocation, such as another nuclear test or an ICBM launch.
Discussion this week about possible USA military action against the North has referred to the cruise missile strike against a Syrian airbase that Trump ordered last week, and the mammoth single bomb airstrike an American warplane carried out Thursday against an Islamic State bunker complex in northeastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border.
Many experts believe North Korea could have a viable nuclear warhead and a ballistic missile capable of hitting the US mainland within the next few years.
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