The Latest: Abe says pressure must be exerted on NKorea
PANMUNJOM, South Korea (AP) — The Latest on U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in South Korea (all times local):
1:00 p.m.
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has reiterated that pressure, not only dialogue, is necessary in dealing with North Korea's missile and nuclear threat.
Abe, speaking to a parliamentary session Monday following North Korea's massive military parade and botched missile launch, said: "Needless to say, diplomatic effort is important to maintain peace. But dialogue for the sake of having dialogue is meaningless."
Abe said that "we need to apply pressure on North Korea so they seriously respond to a dialogue" with the international community. He urged China and Russia to play more constructive roles on the issue.
Tension in the area has risen under as the administration of President Donald Trump in the United States has said that all options are on the table, which Abe said Japan supports.
12:02 p.m.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence says the "era of strategic patience is over" with North Korea, expressing impatience with the unwillingness of the North Korean regime to move toward ridding itself of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
Pence tells reporters near the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea that President Donald Trump is hopeful that China will use their "extraordinary levers" to pressure the North to abandon their weapons.
He says there was a "period of patience" over the years but "the era of strategic patience is over." He says the Trump administration hopes their clarity will be received in North Korea, adding the U.S. and its allies will achieve its objectives through "peaceable means or ultimately by whatever means are necessary" to protect South Korea and stabilize the region.
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11:50 a.m.
Vice President Mike Pence is warning in a visit to the Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea that the North Korean people and military "should not mistake the resolve of the United States of America to stand with our allies."
Pence tells reporters near the DMZ that the alliance between South Korea and the U.S. is "ironclad" and is reiterating that "all options are on the table" to pressure North Korea to get rid of its nuclear weapons and missile program.
Pence visited a military base near the DMZ, Camp Bonifas, for a briefing with military leaders and to meet with American troops stationed there.
His 10-day tour of Asia comes as tensions grow in the wake of North Korea's latest missile test.
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9:35 a.m.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is visiting a military base near the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea a day after the North conducted a failed missile launch.
Pence arrived at Camp Bonifas on Monday morning for a briefing with military leaders and to meet with American troops stationed there. He is in South Korea as part of a 10-day tour of Asia.
The joint U.S.-South Korean military camp is just outside the 2.5-mile-wide DMZ. Pence's visit, full of Cold War symbolism, comes amid increasing tensions and heated rhetoric on the Korean Peninsula.
Pence has called North Korea's failed missile launch a "provocation," and President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday that China is working with the U.S. on the "North Korea problem."
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8 a.m.
President Donald Trump is asserting that China is working with the United States on "the North Korea problem."
His vice president, Mike Pence, is telling American and South Korea service members that the North's latest "provocation," a failed missile launch shortly before his arrival in Seoul, has laid bare the risks they face.
While the North did not conduct a nuclear test, the specter of a potential escalated U.S. response is trailing Pence as he undertakes a 10-day trip to Asia amid increasing tensions and heated rhetoric.
Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, is citing Trump's recent decision to order missile strikes in Syria after a chemical attack blamed on the Assad government as a sign that the president "is clearly comfortable making tough decisions."
