Pence to open Asian trip amid tensions with North Korea

The second lady is heading to South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Australia and Hawaii beginning Saturday to “highlight her initiative, art therapy, meet with military service members and spouses, and participate in cultural activities”, according to a statement from the office of the second lady. -China Summit at Mar-e-Lago last weekend.

In 1996 a North Korean sub landed three troops to spy on South Korea’s navy near Jeongdongjin, but the vessel ran aground when it tried to collect the team.

But Trump has also shown willingness to link trade to other issues, saying he would cut a better trade deal with China if it exerts influence on North Korea.

The USS Carl Vinson aircraft super-carrier and its accompanying warships were approaching the peninsula.

Deputy national adviser K.T. McFarland briefed the president on the failed missile launch.

Washington sees North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles as a threat to world security and to its Asian allies, Japan and South Korea. This could in turn lead to North Korean adventurism against the South. The fundamental question is how Beijing will react to Trump’s gambit. China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tension had escalated sharply in the region amid concerns that the reclusive North may soon conduct a sixth nuclear test or a ballistic missile test launch timed with the April 15 anniversary it calls the “Day of the Sun”. “I mean we have a very credible adversary”. Yet when the U.S. They say greater Chinese cooperation is vital.

A day after a failed North Korean missile test, U.S. President Donald Trump had a message Monday for the North’s ruler: “‘Gotta behave”. That launch came shortly before Trump’s first meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration’s initial understanding of the launch, said there was no expected response from the Trump administration because there was no need for the U.S.to reinforce the failure.

Trump may have little time to act. Thornberry said the United States should also increase its military presence in the region.

The incident is likely to escalate the rising tensions between the United States and North Korea over Pyongyang’s rogue nuclear weapons ambitions.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it was analyzing exactly how the North Korean launch failed.

A smirking Kim Jong-Un watched a fervent military parade just hours after telling America: “We’re ready for war”.

He indicated Trump was not considering military action for now, despite the dispatch the carrier group. The danger is, of course, that it acts pre-emptively, as befitting a military and negotiating culture that has been honed under vast pressure. There will be no progress as long as China, which has supported North Korea, merely calls for Pyongyang and Washington to avoid a collision. The News Lens has been authorized to republish this article.