After U.S. Vice President Mike Pence visited the demilitarized zone in South Korea on Monday and warned that "all options are on the table", a senior North Korean official responded by accusing the United States of bringing the countries to the brink of thermonuclear war.
Vice President Mike Pence said on a visit to South Korea today that the US "era of strategic patience is over" regarding North Korea and its nuclear and ballistic missile program.
"The era of strategic patience is over and while all options are on the table, President (Donald) Trump is determined to work closely with Japan, with South Korea, with all our allies in the region and with China to achieve a peaceable resolution and the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula" Pence said in Tokyo before lunch with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Pence said after meeting with South Korea's acting president that the US and its allies have attempted to "peacefully dismantle North Korea's nuclear program" for more than two decades.
"If the U.S. is planning a military attack against us, we will react with a nuclear pre-emptive strike by our own style and method", Han said. Pence warned North Korea not to test the resolve of the United States "or the strength of our military forces".
Abe also suggested that during his visit to Russia scheduled for later this month, he plans to urge Russian President Vladimir Putin to play a constructive role in efforts to resolve North Korean issues. When pressed further on what America's next response would be to further missile tests conducted, Trump only said, "You'll see". "But at every step of the way, North Korea answered our overtures with willful deception, broken promises and nuclear and missile tests".
Mr Turnbull meanwhile said he was "optimistic but not unduly so" that the crisis could be resolved peacefully.
US Vice President Mike Pence has told business leaders in Seoul that the Trump administration will review and reform the five-year-old free trade agreement between the two countries.
Pence to North Korea: 'Era of strategic patience is over'
Now while issues like that remain, the president and I have great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea. When asked for his message to North Korea after its failed missile launch on Sunday, Trump responded, "They gotta behave".
"The South Korean public in general has come out and said, 'We support these more hardline measures to deal with these problems, '" he says. "How can we have any dialogue to get any result with anyone who has this kind of approach?"
The North's Foreign Ministry said the missile launches are as part of a normal process of building up the country's defenses and economy.
Kim called the press conference to "categorically reject" the U.S. decision to hold an open meeting of the Security Council on April 28 on North Korea's nuclear program which is scheduled to be chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
South Korea's acting president, Hwang Kyo-ahn, on Monday said his government is speeding up deployment of the United States anti-ballistic missile system known as "THAAD".
Meanwhile, China's once-thriving relationship with South Korea has hit the rocks over Beijing's strenuous objections to Seoul's deploying of an advanced US anti-missile system.
On Sunday, the rogue nation launched another failed missile test, and later threatened to conduct missile tests weekly.
In the past, Mr Trump has taken to Twitter to say North Korea was "behaving very badly" and "playing" with the US.
"The alliance between South Korea and the United States is the lynchpin of peace and security on the Korean peninsula and indeed through the Asia-Pacific".
Comments