Things getting hairier in North Korea

North Korea retaliated by saying it would "hit the us first" if the USA planned a strike. Most analysts believe North Korea is still at least several years away from that capacity, but Pyongyang already has weapons that pose a serious threat to USA allies South Korea and Japan, and US troops based in those countries. "If the USA comes with reckless military maneuvers, then we will confront it with the DPRK's pre-emptive strike". Han added, "We've got a powerful nuclear deterrent already in our hands, and we certainly will not keep our arms crossed in the face of a USA preemptive strike".

But a USA military official, who requested anonymity to discuss planning, said the US doesn't intend to use military force against North Korea in response to either a nuclear test or a missile launch.

Adding to Chinese unease, President Donald Trump said on Thursday that "the problem of North Korea" would be "taken care of".

North Korea showed two new kinds of ICBM enclosed in canister launchers mounted on the back of trucks, suggesting Pyongyang was working towards a "new concept" of ICBM, said Melissa Hanham, a senior research associate at the US-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California.

After North Korea's third nuclear test in 2013, the most talked-about term on South Korean web portals and social media networks was "Innisfree", a popular cosmetics brand which had just announced big discounts.

North Korea has said that it would launch a missile that can strike the mainland United States but officials and experts believe that the country is some time away from mastering all the necessary technology.

As is the case with the Trump administration's broader foreign policy, how exactly the president plans to handle the growing North Korean nuclear threat remains maddeningly-if purposefully-unclear.

"That is something that our headquarters decides", Han said of another nuclear test.

On the same day, there was also a rather mercantile Twitter musing from the president: "I explained to the President of China that a trade deal with the USA will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!"

"Once a war really happens, the result will be nothing but multiple-loss".

"We will respond to an all-out war with an all-out war and a nuclear war with our style of a nuclear attack", Choe said. Will it be North Korea next for the trigger-happy president who has found his mojo after "successful missions" in Syria and Afghanistan?

"We call on all parties to refrain from provoking and threatening each other, whether in words or actions, and not let the situation get to an irreversible and unmanageable stage", Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Beijing. It's unclear exactly what capabilities the country has, but military officials have said in recent months that if long range capabilities don't yet exist, they're not far off.

Wang's comments were full of criticism of both countries, which he said are "engaging in tit for tat, with swords drawn and bows bent". "No matter who it is, if it wants to make war or trouble on the Korean Peninsula, it must take the historical responsibility and pay the due price".

The extended-range Scud missile in that earlier launch suffered an in-flight failure and fell into the sea off North Korea's east coast, according to USA imagery and assessments.

China, North Korea's most important ally and key provider of food and fuel aid, has sought to cool tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and missile programs, repeatedly calling for dialogue.

Tracy sought to clarify Han's remark; "So you are saying if you feel North Korea is going to be attacked, you will use nuclear weapons?"

The Saturday anniversary may provide the world with a look at some of its arsenal.

Another big military holiday comes on April 25, when its army marks its anniversary.