"Today we are beginning a process of economic dialogue, the end of which may result in bilateral trade negotiations in the future", Pence told a news conference with Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, his counterpart at Tuesday's talks.
"We've moved beyond failed dialogues of the past and now we've moved into an era where President Trump is absolutely committed to marshaling the energy of the world community, of countries in the Asian-Pacific, to use economic and diplomatic power to isolate North Korea and achieve the goal of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula", he said.
Over in South Korea, analysts said the North Korean leadership may adopt a wait-and-see approach as its neighbor prepares to elect a new president on May 9.
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters he hopes "there will be no unilateral actions like those we saw recently in Syria and that the USA will follow the line that President Trump repeatedly voiced during the election campaign".
He also said North Korea believed its nuclear weapons protect it from the threat of military action by the US. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said tensions need to be eased on the Korean Peninsula to bring the escalating dispute there to a peaceful resolution. Lu said Beijing wants to resume the multi-party negotiations that ended in stalemate in 2009 and suggested that US plans to deploy a missile defence system in South Korea were damaging its relations with China.
Pence on Monday had travelled to the tense zone dividing North and South Korea, where he warned North Korea's leaders that after years of testing the USA and South Korea with its nuclear ambitions, "the era of strategic patience is over".
The vice president earlier visited a military installation near the DMZ, Camp Bonifas, for a briefing with military leaders at the joint U.S.
Guentzel tallies hat trick in Penguins' win
The rookie with the lightning-quick release buried the puck for the game-winning goal in the Penguins' 5-4 overtime victory. But when Crosby spun left to get away from Savard, the defenseman didn't follow, instead staying to the right of the goal.
The money given to North Korea forms part of the UK's commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of GDP on foreign aid.
In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, speaking to a parliamentary session Monday, said: "Needless to say, diplomatic effort is important to maintain peace".
Pence's Asia tour came amid increasing tensions and heated rhetoric on the Korean Peninsula.
Pence struck a stern tone after arriving at a USA naval base in Japan from South Korea.
"They are trying to build a nuclear missile to hit the United States, they are destabilising the entire region".
Zhongnanhai sells the trucks to a dealer in the border city of Dandong before they are resold to North Korea, he said. "The problem will be taken care of", President Trump insisted. "If they are used by North Korea for military objective, they must have been modified by the North Korean side", said the sales manager, who would give only his surname, Wang. China remains North Korea's chief source of fuel and food imports, but Pyongyang seems to have calculated that Beijing's fears of a collapse of Kim Jong Un's hard-line communist regime override any such snubs.





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