S.Korea to match any N. Korean provocation

Behind the heated rhetoric, in fact, Trump’s strategy in the region looks somewhat similar to predecessor Barack Obama’s – albeit with the added unpredictability of a new president who has shown he’s willing to use force.

Xi, however, has yet to meet North Korea’s young leader Kim Jong Un since the Chinese president took power in 2012 and ties between the two countries have become more distant since Pyongyang began accelerating its missile and nuclear programs since Kim became leader at the end of 2011.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrives for the official opening of the Ryomyong residential area, Thursday, April 13, 2017, in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Hwang, however, appeared to distance Seoul from talk of an American pre-emptive strike on North Korea, insisting the allies would maintain their defensive position while hoping for support from China in hitting Pyongyang with stronger sanctions.

He said Trump is certain that negotiating trade deals with individual countries was the best way to ensure they yield “win-win” situations for both sides.

“We might see some choppy waters with a progressive administration, but it’s going to take a lot more than one election in South Korea – or, even for that matter, in the United States – to change the relationship that’s lasted for over six decades”, Kim says.

“Our government and the global community will not condone North Korea’s reckless provocations”, Hwang said in comments reported by Yonhap News Agency.

MARGARET WARNER: But at the United Nations, the deputy ambassador from North Korea, officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, was defiant. North Korea says whatever action the USA may take, it will respond in kind.

After 25 years of trying to deal patiently with North Korea over its nuclear programme, Pence said, “all options are on the table” to deal with a threat.

North Korea’s Special Forces unit is on standby to defend the country from elite United States soldiers who are practicing to “remove” Kim Jong-un from power should war arise, an analyst with South Korea’s Yonhap news agency claims.

Several times in recent weeks, President Trump has used his Twitter account to admonish the North Koreans.

“The more they test, the more they fail, the more they learn from their failures will lead them to be more successful in the future”, he said.

“There was a period of strategic patience but the era of strategic patience is over”. However, he also revealed the Trump administration prefers finding a solution “through peaceable means” and “negotiations”.

The White House did not offer a sense of when Trump’s patience might run out.

The Pentagon will conduct two major high-stakes tests in May of its ability to shoot down missiles launched out of North Korea. But Pence expressed impatience with the unwillingness of the regime to move toward ridding itself of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

Amid rising tensions with North Korea, Pence pointed to recent high-profile US military actions in Syria and Afghanistan as evidence of the Trump administration’s “strength and resolve”. North Korea carried out its so-called nuclear test on April 14.

But there are doubts about how much influence China has over its recalcitrant neighbour.

It remains unclear the extent to which China might step up.

Earlier on Monday, National Security Adviser General HR McMaster said the U.S. and its allies agreed that the North Korea “problem is coming to a head”.

Kim went on to clarify that the approach to the Korean peninsula of a USA aircraft carrier strike force, led by the nuclear powered USS Carl Vinson, would not be considered enough to constitute “the slightest movement”.

Another issue arises. Before the US launches any pre-emptive strike on North Korea, Congress should be called back into session to authorize any act of war against the North.