North Korea Should Not 'Test Trump's Resolve': US Vice President Mike Pence

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He said rolling back the hostile US policy toward the DPRK "is the precondition to solving all the problems in the Korean Peninsula".

During a visit to the Demilitarised Zone between North and South Korea on Monday, Pence pointed to the new president's recent strikes on a Syrian airbase and an Islamic State complex in Afghanistan as a warning to Pyongyang not to underestimate the administration's resolve.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence visits the border village of Panmunjom which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, South Korea, Monday, April 17, 2017, a day after the North conducted a failed missile launch. He already has shown the willingness to use the US military.

Pence, inspecting the DMZ, warned Pyongyang that after years of testing the US and South Korea with its nuclear ambitions, "the era of strategic patience is over".

This morning, Vice President Mike Pence stood 100 feet from North Korean soldiers in the Demilitarized Zone to declare his administration's newest departure from established American foreign policy.

"We hope to achieve this objective through peaceful means, but all options are on the table", said Pence.

"The South Korean public in general has come out and said, 'We support these more hardline measures to deal with these problems, '" he says.

Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland declined to comment on "Fox News Sunday" about reports that the USA might have used a cyberattack to down the medium-range missile.

North Korea is upset that the UN Security Council will hold a meeting on the situation later this month, with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson presiding. TURKEY Trump calls Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan to congratulate him on winning a referendum expanding his authority, sources in Erdogan's palace say.

McMaster cited Trump's recent decision to order missile strikes in Syria after a chemical attack blamed on the Assad government, as a sign that the president "is clearly comfortable making tough decisions".

The North Koreans just issued their own warning too.

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Grande. "The enemy has intensified their exploitation of civilians by moving them in large numbers into harm's way", he said.

The envoy criticised the USA missile strikes that hit an air base in Syria last week, saying Washington was resorting to a "gangster-like logic", that its military action was proportionate and could apply to the Korean peninsula as well.

In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, speaking to a parliamentary session Monday, said: "Needless to say, diplomatic effort is important to maintain peace". In 2013, South Korea's defense minister balked at the idea of joining the US missile defense system, citing costs and logistics.

The concerns were exacerbated after a North Korean missile exploded during launch on Sunday, U.S. and South Korean officials said.

The interview was one of several in the last week in which Trump has suggested China could win United States concessions on trade in exchange for action on North Korea.

The White House is signaling that it is leaning on China to help ramp down North Korea, but holding all options open. Reuters recently reported that the latest calls from Chinese diplomats to North Korea had gone unanswered. Trump tweeted on Sunday. "I think we're going to continue to urge China to continue to exert that influence to get better results".

The USS Carl Vinson carrier-led Navy strike group was sent to the Korean Peninsula.

Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, said on Sunday that the United States, its allies and China were working on a range of responses to North Korea's latest missile test, citing what he called an global consensus to act.

Pyongyang is seeking to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the USA mainland with a nuclear warhead, and has so far staged five nuclear tests, two of them previous year.

The missile test came a day after the national celebration of the birth of Kim Il-Sung, the founder of North Korea and the grandfather of the country's current leader, Kim Jung-Un.

"As far as nuclear test is concerned, it was already announced to the public".

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