Despite the escalating tension, Seoul's foreign and military officials and private experts dismissed the possibility of a military clash on the peninsula, noting that an attack on North Korea carries much greater risk than the missile strike against Syria.
In an interview with the Financial Times last week, U.S. President Donald Trump said he was willing to go it alone when it came to North Korea.
North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
However, North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, two of them past year, and is working to develop nuclear-tipped missiles that can reach the United States, presenting Trump with perhaps his most pressing security headache.
"North Korea is looking for trouble", Trump wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
Trump has previously threatened unilateral action against Pyongyang if China - the North's sole major ally - fails to help curb its neighbor's nuclear weapons ambitions.
"President Trump indicated to President Xi. that we would be happy to work with them, but we understand it creates unique problems for them and challenges and that we would, and are, prepared to chart our own course if this is something China is just unable to coordinate with us", Tillerson said.
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Instead of going down the military route, Donald Trump encouraged Chinese President Xi Jinping to tighten pressure on the regime during a summit in Flordia last week.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the issue should be resolved through negotiations, and reiterated Beijing's opposition to the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea, Xinhua reported. In that case, Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from two Navy destroyers destroyed Syrian warplanes, air defense systems, fuel and other supplies. "We have no further comment", Tillerson said in the statement.
Japan also has high hopes for the threat implied by the recent US cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base, and believes that the risk of an actual armed conflict is low. North Korea believes that if it's required to strike back at the U.S. naval team it's going to be in self defense which means that it will force the USA to take responsibility for whatever happens to North Korean residents.
South Korea's acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn warned of "greater provocations" by North Korea, including a possible nuclear test, given a meeting of the country's Supreme People's Assembly and upcoming national anniversaries.
It is highly expected that the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will send a message to the United States during the Tuesday session. Inevitably, China and North Korea seem destined for a clash of arms with the United States over North Korea's nuclear weapons whose origin is Chinese. Pyongyang has further compounded the problem by deploying its ballistic missiles on mobile launchers.
North Korea has put on a courageous face, saying it is not deterred by the US move. North Korea is vowing tough counteraction to any military moves that might follow. Ultimately the only remaining option is "double pressure" - in which the United States puts pressure on North Korea not only directly but also through China. Beijing faulted Trump's attack on Syria after Xi's visit and although the two leaders "reaffirmed their commitment to a denuclearized Korean peninsula", per the White House, China has given Trump no commitment to rein in Kim.
Pyongyang, meanwhile, warned of "catastrophic consequences" if Washington tried to follow up its Syria attack in North Korea.
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