US Submarine Makes South Korea Port Call, North Korea Remains Defiant

South Korea’s Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a brief statement that the North Korean exercise was under way on Tuesday afternoon.

It is assumed that North Korea’s conventional firing drill on Tuesday to mark the 85th anniversary of its army was overseen by leader Kim Jong-Un.

Xi told Trump that China resolutely opposed any actions that ran counter to UN Security Council resolutions, China’s foreign ministry said.

Confusion had clouded the carrier’s whereabouts earlier this month after United States officials indicated it was sailing towards North Korea when in fact it was heading south.

Emerging from talks with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, the USA envoy for North Korea policy, Joseph Yun, said: “As we discuss these things all our steps and every part of them will be in coordination and consultation with our partners”. Graham, a defence hawk who dined with Trump on Monday night, said the North should not underestimate the president’s resolve.

North Korea watchers were surprised earlier in the month when another set of photographs picked up that people were playing volleyball games at three different locations on Punggye-ri.

Essentially, Jackson is saying, North Korea sees an offensive nature as crucial to its survival. It also desires more robust participation in sanctions by China, including cutting off oil supplies to the isolated regime. South Korea is also considering whether to conduct drills with the USA naval flotilla, which embarked for the Korean Peninsula after initial confusion about an itinerary that first saw it bound for joint exercises with Australia.

Earlier Tuesday, a United States submarine made a port call in South Korea in what U.S. officials said was a show of force amid mounting tensions in the region.

“The joint exercise is to show US and South Korea’s strong will to retaliate and its firm defense posture against North Korea’s provocative threat”, it added.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry has said the North appears ready to conduct such “strategic provocations” at any time.

The US government has not specified where the carrier strike group is but US Vice President Mike Pence said on Saturday it would arrive “within days”.

North Korea may have resumed work at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site, according to analysis of satellite imagery by 38 North, a program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies that studies the nation’s nuclear activities. North Korea conducted two nuclear tests a year ago alone, which would have improved its knowledge on making nuclear weapons small enough to fit on long-range missiles.

In February, China banned all coal imports from North Korea.

The entire Senate has been invited to the White House for a briefing Wednesday on the situation in North Korea.

On April 15, North Korea offered a look at its advancing nuclear weapon and missile programs in a massive military parade in Pyongyang honoring late state founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of the current ruler.

It said Beijing and Washington had to join forces in bringing about a peaceful resolution to the tensions involving North Korea.

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