U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that North Korea's "provocation" underscored the risks faced by American and South Korean service members, hours after the North conducted a failed missile launch shortly before Pence's arrival.
A White House foreign policy adviser traveling with Pence said no US response to the missile launch was expected because there was no need for the U.S.to reinforce the failure.
The North Koreans use Sinpo shipyard for their submarine activity, and U.S. satellites have observed increased activity there in April, a United States official said at the time of the previous test.
Pence told reporters near the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea that President Donald Trump is hopeful that China will use its "extraordinary levers" to pressure the North to abandon its weapons.
They launched a long-range rocket and conducted two nuclear tests previous year, including its most powerful to date, as well as carrying out a slew of shorter range missile firings.
Amid concerns the U.S. might launch a preemptive strike on North Korea, Pence said Washington would "closely consult" with Seoul "as we make decisions moving forward". Trump does not want to say negative things about China now especially, considering the help of China is crucial to stopping North Korea due to the fact that China is North Korea's biggest economic partner.
The high-profile failure came as the North tried to showcase its nuclear and missile capabilities around the birth anniversary of the North's late founder and as a US aircraft carrier neared the Korean Peninsula.
In February, Trump told China's President Xi Jinping that the U.S. would, in fact, honor the decades-old policy. Recent satellite imagery suggests the country could conduct another underground nuclear test at any time.
N Korea missile blows up, Pence in S Korea
The vice president earlier visited a military installation near the DMZ, Camp Bonifas, for a briefing with military leaders. Pence said Monday Trump was "very hopeful that China will take actions to bring about a change of policy in North Korea".
The North regularly launches short-range missiles, but is also developing mid-range and long-range missiles meant to target USA troops in Asia and, eventually, the US mainland.
Pointing to the quarter-century since North Korea first obtained nuclear weapons, the vice president said a period of patience followed.
The left-wing Democratic United Party has been critical of the deployment of THAAD and called for more engagement with North Korea to prevent further nuclearization. He noted to the soldiers that his late father, Edward, served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and was awarded the Bronze Star on April 15, 1953 - 64 years to the day of the vice president's departure for South Korea.
Deputy national adviser K.T. McFarland briefed the president on the failed missile launch.
Tensions have risen as Mr Trump takes a hard rhetorical line with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has rebuffed admonitions from China and proceeded with nuclear and missile programmes seen by Washington as a direct threat. "The North doesn't seem to be quite at the place to test an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile)", he said.
Tensions on the peninsula have ratcheted up in recent weeks, amid tit-for-tat saber-rattling from the USA and North Korea and analysts' warnings that North Korea was preparing for a sixth nuclear test.
On Friday, North Korea said the unsafe security situation was due to the "Trump administration's reckless military provocation".
"There is no change in the basic position of South Korea and the USA to proceed, as planned, with the preparations for the early operation of the THAAD system against North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile threats", Moon Sang-gyun, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said at a press briefing.
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