Weeks of speculation that the USA is about to attack North Korea are again accelerating, with the White House announcing that they intend to play host to the entire Senate on Wednesday for an official briefing on the situation, with virtually the entire cabinet.
The briefing will be conducted by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joe Dunford.
A senior Trump administration official said the meeting with senators will take place in the auditorium at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the building next to the White House that houses most of the National Security Council.
North Korea has made repeated nuclear threats against the United States and has carried out controversial missile tests that have only increased tensions in the area.
The White House invitation to about 30 conservative reporters, editors, columnists and radio personalities was originally billed as a background briefing with the president, meaning that they couldn't attribute quotes to individual sources in the room.
There are also plans for a similar briefing for members of the House of Representatives.
North Korea, meanwhile, held live-fire military drills to mark the anniversary of the founding of its military.
"They'll print what they want anyways, so we may as well have fun", a White House employee reportedly told the conservative activist in Ben Schreckinger and Hadas Gold's account of the administration's misinformation games.
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Despite an awkward first encounter in which he referenced phone tapping and didn't shake her hand, Trump claimed the pair had "unbelievable chemistry".
Trump warned that the world has "put blindfolds on for decades" on North Korea and should place tougher sanctions on the isolated Stalinist nation.
The US is also sending a flotilla, led by the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, to the the peninsula where it will join two Japanese navy ships, the Samidare and Ashigara, to conduct exercises in the western Pacific, Reuters reported.
"The reality of today again proves the decision to strengthen nuclear power in quality and quantity under the banner of pursuing economic development and nuclear power was the correct one", the unidentified spokesman said in a statement issued by the North's state media.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer on April 24 announced that the White House will host a meeting on North Korea for all senators.
"These briefings are always, always, always done in the SCIF up here", one Senate aide, who was not authorised to talk on the record, said on Monday (local time).
The White House reported that Trump decried North Korea's "continued belligerence" in his call with Xi.
North Korea is still believed to be preparing for its sixth nuclear test.
In recent weeks, Washington has expressed mounting concerns at Kim Jong-un's ambitions to develop nuclear warheads capable of striking the United States mainland. "You'd have Russia, China, Japan and South Korea and ourselves all involved in something that could get way out of hand".
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