Japan, US test anti-missile ships during joint military exercises

Worldwide concern has grown that the country is preparing for its sixth atomic test or a major missile launch.

Along with sending USA military assets to the region in a show of force, President Donald Trump is leaning on China to exert economic pressure on North Korea.

"People have put blindfolds on for decades, and now it's time to solve the problem", he added. Envoys from the US, South Korea and Japan are also due to meet in Japan on Tuesday to discuss the current crisis. Defense Secretary James Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, and General Joseph Dunford of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, prompting further speculation that the US could be on the brink of war.

The entire U.S. Senate is invited to the White House on Wednesday for a briefing on threats from Pyongyang.

"The North Korean nuclear and missile problem is an extremely serious security threat to not only the global community but also our country", the Japanese leader told reporters in Tokyo afterward.

"We're not going to do anything unless he gives us a reason to do something".

But a Reuters analysis of data collected by Daily NK, a website run by defectors who collect prices via phone calls with North Korean fuel traders, said the price of gasoline sold by private dealers in Pyongyang and the northern border cities of Sinuiju and Hyesan had remained relatively stable since late previous year at around $1 per kg (about $1.34 per liter).

"Both exercises demonstrate a shared commitment to security and stability in Northeast Asia", the U.S. Seventh Fleet said in a statement, "as well as the U.S. Navy's inherent flexibility to combine with allied naval forces in response to a broad range of situations".

"If you see him attack a military base, if you see some sort of intercontinental ballistic missile".

"This is a real threat to the world, whether we want to talk about it or not".

Experts fear Pyongyang could be planning more tests - it has marked some key anniversaries in the past with nuclear tests or missile launches.

The exercise took place in an area around the North's eastern coastal town of Wonsan, according to the South Korean military, as a United States guided-missile submarine arrived in South Korea amid rising tensions over Kim Jong Un's regime.

It is thought that between 300 and 400 artillery pieces were used in the demonstration, held near the eastern port city of Wonsan.

Some observers had anticipated the regime would test an atomic bomb on the occasion.

It highlights Chinese fears that tensions between the U.S. and North Korea could erupt into conflict. North Korea separately fired what US officials said were a Scud-type missile and a midrange missile earlier this month, but the launches were analyzed as failures. North Korea did launch a missile on April 16, but it exploded within seconds.

After the three countries representatives' meeting in Tokyo, South Korean diplomat Kim Hong-kyun, said all three parties agreed to take strong punitive action if Pyongyang continues to conduct nuclear tests.

Trump has said the U.S. was sending an "armada" to the Korean peninsula, including submarines.

"The status quo in North Korea is also unacceptable", he told 15 U.N. Security Council ambassadors at a meeting at the White House.

That meeting is widely seen as an effort to drum up support for increased pressure on the North.

Neill said nuclear and chemical weapons could also be delivered via artillery strikes.

In a statement released late Friday, North Korea's Foreign Ministry accused Trump of driving the region into an "extremely risky phase" with the dispatch of the aircraft carrier and said the North was ready to stand up against any threat posed by the United States.

"Cooperation with China and Russian Federation is the most important for effective pressure on North Korea", he said.