Today, North Korea spends more than any other country on military spending relative to GDP.
The vessel will take part in joint naval drills with the South's forces to "demonstrate Seoul and Washington's strong determination to punish North Korean provocations", the South Korean Navy said in a statement.
North Korea conducted a big live-fire exercise on Tuesday to mark the foundation of its military as a USA submarine docked in South Korea in a show of force amid growing concern over the North's nuclear and missile programs.
Kim Jong Un's regime marked the 85th anniversary of the founding of North Korea's army Tuesday with its typical bluster.
"The situation prevailing on the Korean Peninsula is so tense that a nuclear war may break out due to the frantic war drills of the USA imperialists and their vassal forces for aggression", Gen. Pak Yong Sik told a meeting of thousands of senior military and civilian officials.
Trump's admonition on Monday came as the White House scheduled high-level meetings on North Korea amid concerns about a sixth nuclear test and as tensions escalated over the weekend with the arrest of an American citizen. North Korea did launch a missile on April 16, but it exploded within seconds. The meeting - announced last week and requested by Senate leadership - comes amid the U.S. Navy's bilateral military exercises with South Korea and Japan, and North Korea's live-fire drills to celebrate the anniversary of its military's founding.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff on Tuesday did not directly confirm a report by South Korea's Yonhap news agency, which cited a government source claiming that the North carried out an exercise involving 300 to 400 artillery pieces in an area around Wonsan.
North Korea often also marks significant dates by displaying its military capability. "The council must be prepared to impose additional and stronger sanctions on North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile programmes."The official China Daily said it was time for Pyongyang and Washington to take a step back from harsh rhetoric and heed calls for a peaceful resolution."Judging from their recent words and deeds, policymakers in Pyongyang have seriously misread the United Nations sanctions, which are aimed at its nuclear/missile provocations, not its system or leadership", the newspaper said in an editorial".
Almost 100 Days In, 'Trumpism' Is Still Not Clearly Defined
A day later, however, he announced he would host a "big" rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to celebrate the 100-day milestone. April 29 will mark Trump's 100th day in office. "We keep the government open this week and work together to get that done".
Yun met with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in Tokyo Tuesday, and China's main point man on North Korea was also in town, in a sign that diplomacy is not entirely dead.
Kim said they discussed ways to get more cooperation from China and Russian Federation, which they agreed is crucial to applying effective pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. "But we will take strong punitive action that the North could not bear if it pushes ahead with one despite the warning".
All 100 US senators will gather Wednesday for a White House briefing on the volatility in North Korea.
The U.S. navy destroyer, the USS Wayne E. Meyer, began maritime exercises with a South Korean destroyer in the Yellow Sea, west of the Korean Peninsula, Tuesday. Both will continue Wednesday.
According to the US Navy's Submarine Force Pacific website, the USS Michigan carries more than 150 Tomahawk cruise missiles.
The United States has ordered the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group to sail to waters off the Korean peninsula, prompting Pyongyang to say it was ready to sink the carrier.
On Monday, Trump called North Korea a global threat and "a problem that we have to finally solve" and said the U.N. Security Council must be prepared to impose new sanctions. It later transpired that the group had in fact headed in the opposite direction, to the Indian Ocean, causing consternation in South Korea in particular.
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