ADMIRAL: The North Korea crisis is the worst I’ve ever seen

South Korea said in a statement Wednesday that unspecified parts of THAAD were installed.

The senior US Navy officer spoke to the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday. But even Harris suggested that a full scale attack against multiple targets on the U.S. West Coast could compromise its ability to protect itself.

A US advanced missile defense system that is being installed in South Korea will be operational in a few days, Harris said on Wednesday.

Though experts thought a nuclear test or ballistic missile launch might happen, the morning came and went without either.

North Korea, technically still at war with the South after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty, regularly threatens to destroy the United States and says it will pursue its nuclear and missile programmes to counter perceived U.S. aggression. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un likely participated in the event, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the THAAD system’s deployment would “disrupt the regional strategic balance and further aggravate the tension on the peninsula”. But a pre-emptive attack isn’t likely, USA officials have said, and the administration is pursuing a strategy of putting pressure on Pyongyang with assistance from China, North Korea’s main trading partner and the country’s economic lifeline.

But if the North launched an attack, military leaders would have to decide “which ones to take out or not”.

Beijing has come under growing US pressure to use its leverage as North Korea’s largest trading partner and main source of food and fuel aid to compel Pyongyang to heed United Nations resolutions.

“(North Korea) will use that as their excuse to continue to build their nuclear program, so there are consequences and real costs to our policies and our actions”, Gabbard said.

They say the USA must also work with other countries to exhaust diplomatic solutions.

The Post reports that Japan’s civil-defense website is experiencing a huge spike in traffic and features frequently asked questions about North Korean missile strikes. He said China will take “necessary measures to defend our own interests”. He said it is committed to realizing the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and upholding stability there and not allowing war to break out.

The system’s deployment is controversial in South Korea, where it has become an issue in the upcoming presidential elections.

However, he said that the most urgent threat at the moment is North Korea.

The Kim regime has shown steady improvement in its missile program and remains the only country to test nuclear devices in the 21st century. China and South Korea are in a mutually beneficial economic relationship; whereas North Korea is dependent on China.

Tillerson said the US does not seek regime change in North Korea, and he signaled American openness to holding direct negotiations with Pyongyang.

But China has started to act in a more muscular fashion against North Korea recently. The Obama administration attempted to resurrect them in 2012, but a deal to provide food aid in exchange for a nuclear freeze soon collapsed. The ultimate goal, he added, would be to resume multilateral discussions known as the six-party talks.

When pressed on the fact that Pyongyang’s track record on nuclear weapons testing has been less than stellar, Adm. Harris replied that Kim Jong-un “is not afraid to fail in public and he fails a lot, but I think Edison failed 1,000 times before he got the light bulb to work – and so here we are”.

North Korea spends 7.5 billion on its entire military per year.

The U.S.is now president of the 15-member Security Council.

Graham responded with a message for North Korea: “In case North Korea’s listening, none of us want to invade your country…”

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is to chair a special meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

The unusual session reflects increased American alarm over the DPRK’s progress in developing a nuclear-tipped missile that could strike the US mainland.

Pyongyang must suspend its nuclear activities, he said, but “on the other side, the large-scale military manoeuvrs in Korean waters should be halted”.