US Vice President Mike Pence said on Monday that in dealing with the ever pressing need to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, "all options are on the table".
The words resonated in Japan and South Korea, both of which share the US' hardline stance on the North Korean issue.
Vice President Mike Pence says the USA commitment to South Korea is "iron-clad and immutable" in the face of North Korea's work to advance its nuclear and ballistic missile program.
"There is an global consensus now, including the Chinese leadership, that this is a situation that just can not continue", McMaster said.
A top White House foreign policy adviser on Sunday became the latest Trump official to warn that while diplomatic pressure was preferable, United States military action is very much on the table.
The Trump administration is hoping that China will help rein in North Korea in exchange for other considerations.
While Trump has employed tough rhetoric in response to North Korea's recent missile tests, the new USA president's options appear limited in dealing with a challenge that has vexed his Oval Office predecessors.
Most options fall into four categories: economic sanctions, covert action, diplomatic negotiations and military force.
Pence also addressed a series of concerns in Seoul since the onset of the US administration, including concerns in Seoul that Washington may unilaterally take military action or even order a pre-emptive strike on North Korea.
One day before the test, North Korea held a military parade, showing off its largest missiles amid increased tensions in the region over its nuclear program. That was the site of a ballistic missile test earlier this month in which the projectile fell into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.
Pence said that the era of USA "strategic patience" in dealing with the North was over, after more than two decades.
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And in an obvious reference to Indian warnings of consequences if Jadhav was hanged, he added: "We will defend our country at all costs".
"Resolving this issue requires all relevant parties, especially parties that bear major responsibility and play a key role in this issue, to work in the same direction and make a joint effort", he said.
Most US dignitaries go even closer to the North Korean side when here - to a set of blue buildings called conference row that spans the MDL and allows them to actually step foot in North Korea. "That the nuclear test did not happen will surely be seen as the pressure working".
North Korea's defiance to carry out missile tests should be of grave concern to the whole world, Mr Richardson chillingly warned.
Pence said he and Trump "have great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea".
"The president has made clear that he will not accept the United States and its allies and partners in the region being under threat from this hostile regime with nuclear weapons", McMaster told ABC.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Britain stands "alongside our worldwide partners" in demanding North Korea starts heeding United Nations resolutions banning its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
"The presence of U.S. forces here in South Korea are a long-standing commitment to the Asia Pacific". Prior to Pyongyang's launch attempt, Foreign Minister Boris Johnson said: "We have been here before but continue to monitor the situation carefully". It has repeatedly called for talks while appearing increasingly frustrated with the North. While the North did not conduct a nuclear test over the weekend, the specter of a potential escalation hung over he start of his 10-day trip to Asia.
Pence said that the US would press ahead with the THAAD deployment and chastised China for its efforts to put pressure on South Korea to change its mind.
Beijing strongly objects to the THAAD system because it worries the USA will use the radar system to snoop on China. Mr Jang's wife had raised Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of Kim Jong Un who was murdered with a chemical agent earlier this year at an airport in Malaysia.
That apparently was too aggressive a characterization for the Trump administration's liking.
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