Tokyo - US President Donald Trump has hailed China for assisting the US in exerting pressure on North Korea.
On Wednesday, Pence is scheduled to visit the U.S. Navy's Yokosuka base to inspect the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, and to give a lecture in Tokyo.
Mr Trump said he was hopeful that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un wanted peace because that is what the United States wanted, "but we're going to see what happens".
Mattis credited China with trying to help get the North Korea situation "under control" with the goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
After North Korea attempted a missile launch that reportedly failed on Sunday, US vice-president Mike Pence on Monday warned the Kim Jong-un regime not to test Washington's resolve, and warned them that the era of "strategic patience" was over.
The U.S. military's Pacific Command announced on April 18 that the strike group had completed a shorter-than-initially scheduled training with Australia off its northwest coast.
In early March, the North simultaneously fired four ballistic missiles off its east coast, three of which fell provocatively close to Japan, in what it said was a drill for an attack on USA bases in the country.
"Short of launching a shock and awe campaign which would be overwhelming in its breadth and scale there's not a lot else the United States and its allies can do other than tighten the constrictor grip on the North", said Alex Neill, a senior fellow at the Shangri-La Dialogue.
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Mr Trump stoked the fears of military action with a Twitter post: "North Korea is looking for trouble". We're ready to defend our allies in this region.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence assured Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday that the United States stands "100 percent" behind its anchor ally in Asia in working to defuse risks from North Korea's nuclear program.
He also reassured Japan of American commitment to reining in North Korea's nuclear and missile ambitions, after warning on Monday that United States strikes in Syria and Afghanistan showed the strength of its resolve.
On April 14, US media said that US President Donald Trump might order a strike against North Korea in the event Pyongyang chose to carry out another nuclear weapon test.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi repeated China's standard line that the crisis could only be resolved by diplomacy.
The comments dash the hopes of Japanese policymakers, who have said they want to avoid use of the economic dialogue as a forum to discuss a bilateral FTA that may put them under US pressure to open up highly-protected areas like agriculture.
Ms Bishop also repeated Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's call for China to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea.
The new forum for trade talks was launched by Trump and Abe during the Japanese leader's visit to the U.S.in February. Mr Trump has scrapped the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact, a 12-nation trade deal aimed partly at countering China's economic clout.
Both sides said they do not expect the talks in Tokyo this week to delve into sector-by-sector talks on trade. The talks Tuesday did not delve into sector-by-sector issues such as auto exports. "Most concerning is the fact that the US trade deficit with South Korea has more than doubled since KORUS came into effect".
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