Instead the South's Yonhap news agency cited an unnamed government source saying Pyongyang marked the anniversary with its "largest ever firing drill", carried out in the eastern port city of Wonsan and presumed to have been overseen by leader Kim Jong-Un.
With typical rhetorical flourish, the ministry said North Korea "will react to a total war with an all-out war, a nuclear war with nuclear strikes of its own style and surely win a victory in the death-defying struggle against the US imperialists".
Xi told Trump that China strongly opposes North Korea's nuclear weapons program, which violates U.N. Security Council resolutions, and hopes "all parties will exercise restraint and avoid aggravating the situation" on the Korean Peninsula, China's official broadcaster CCTV said.
North Korea often also marks significant dates by displaying its military capability.
Trailer trucks carrying parts of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system entered the site on what had been a golf course in the county of Seongju in a southern region of South Korea, Yonhap news agency and YTN television reported.
A White House readout of the call said Trump criticized North Korea's "continued belligerence" and the leaders "reaffirmed the urgency of the threat".
On April 15, North Korea offered a fresh look at its advancing nuclear weapons and missiles program in a massive military parade in Pyongyang honoring late state founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of the current ruler.
It is loaded with nuclear missiles as part of the US' strategy to contain North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes, CNN noted.
President Donald Trump's upcoming meeting with all 100 senators at the White House is important so they can learn what is at stake where North Korea is concerned, former ambassador John Bolton said Tuesday.
Crude rebounds on OPEC comments
Oil prices now hover just over $50 per barrel after shedding around half of their value since mid-2014, AFP added. Brent crude futures were at US$53.07 (RM233.54) per barrel at 0113 GMT, up eight cents from their last close.
Trump told ambassadors from U.N. Security Council members that the status quo in North Korea is "unacceptable" and the council must be prepared to impose additional and stronger sanctions. "North Korea is a big world problem and it's a problem that we have to finally solve", he added.
U.S. special representative Joseph Yun said he discussed American policy to "enhance pressure" on Pyongyang "because we really do not believe that North Korea is ready to engage us towards denuclearisation".
"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", he told the gathering. South Korea's navy is planning to hold joint naval drills with US aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson battle group, which has trained with Japanese destroyers in recent days, around the weekend.
"If you see him attack a military base, if you see some sort of intercontinental ballistic missile".
Earlier in April, the Pentagon sent the naval group from Singapore toward North Korea.
Under the watch of Kim, North Korea has been aggressively pursuing a decades-long goal of putting a nuclear warhead on an ICBM capable of reaching the USA mainland.
China's state-owned airline will resume flights from Beijing to North Korea that had been suspended because of poor ticket sales.
The Michigan's visit to Busan comes after North Korea on Sunday threatened to sink the American aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, which is beginning joint drills with two Japanese destroyers in the western Pacific Ocean. He said they also recognized China's recent steps toward that goal. North Korean Kim Jong-un was reported to attend the event. The nuclear-powered submarine is built to carry and launch ballistic missiles and Tomahawk cruise missiles.
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