The vice president is on trip to South Korea, the first stop on his Asia visit.
Trump, spending a long weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, had remained silent and largely stayed out of sight Saturday while North Korea staged a huge parade in Pyongyang to showcase its military prowess and later launched a ballistic missile that exploded with seconds.
Mr Pence called on China, which has always been considered North Korea only significant strategic ally, to use its "extraordinary levers" to persuade the isolationist state to give up its nuclear arms.
"But the era of strategic patience is over", Pence declared.
"I think that, as the president's made clear, we're going to abandon the failed policy of "strategic patience" but we're going to redouble our efforts to bring diplomatic and economic pressure to bear on North Korea", Pence told Bash.
Despite global condemnation and U.S. sanctions, North Korea has accelerated its nuclear and missile tests in recent years.
Col. Steve Ganyard, an ABC News contributor and former State Department official, said that North Korea cannot afford weekly tests, but that "they will keep up appearances until things quiet down". "But all options are on the table", he said during a press conference.
The official said that had it been a nuclear test, "other actions would have been taken by the U.S".
It's four kilometers (2.5 miles) wide, stretches 250 kilometers (160 miles) and is dotted with military guard posts, mines and defensive structures. Under rainfall, Pence later stood a few meters from the military demarcation line outside Freedom House, gazing at the North Korean soldiers across the border. "But dialogue for the sake of having dialogue is meaningless".
Pence's visit, full of Cold War symbolism, came amid increasing tensions and heated rhetoric on the Korean Peninsula.
According to the former British foreign secretary, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the missile test likely failed because the US interfered with the workings of the missile's system.
North Korea launched a long-range rocket and conducted two nuclear tests a year ago, including its most powerful to date, and there have been a slew of shorter range missile firings.
"Beijing should make clear to Pyongyang through diplomatic channels: if the DPRK in spite of the opposition of the worldwide community (carry out a sixth nuclear test), China should cut off the vast majority of their oil supply and China should support the Security Council to pass new sanctions including this measure", the paper said, referring to North Korea by its official title, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
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Vice-Foreign Minister Han Song-ryol told the BBC that North Korea believed its nuclear weapons "protect" it from the threat of United States military action.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will meet with Japan's Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso on Tuesday, kicking off talks in Tokyo that the White House hopes will open doors in Japan for U.S. -made products and attract Japanese investment for infrastructure projects in the United States.
No planned response is expected from the Trump administration because the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's initial understanding of the launch, said there was no need for the U.S.to reinforce the failure.
He reiterated United States support for South Korea, telling acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn: "We are with you 100%".
A South Korean defense official said the action took place in Sinpo, a port city in eastern North Korea.
A day after a failed North Korean missile test, U.S. President Donald Trump had a message Monday for the North's ruler: "'Gotta behave".
South Korea, which accuses China or discriminating against some South Korean companies working in China, and the United States say the sole goal of THAAD is to guard against North Korean missiles.
McMaster said the Chinese government will be a key ally in resolving North Korean threat peacefully. Last week, Trump said he would not declare China a currency manipulator, pulling back from a campaign promise, as he looked for help from Beijing, which is the North's dominant trade partner. North Korea officials are exhausted of living with the fear that the psychotic fat kid running the country will kill them and their extended family with an anti-aircraft gun - so we've got that going for us, which is nice.
"We will see what happens!" he added. Trump tweeted on Sunday.
Along with the deployment of the Naval aircraft carrier and other vessels into waters off the Korean Peninsula, thousands of US and South Korean troops, tanks and other weaponry were also deployed last month in their biggest-ever joint military exercises.
McMaster called North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un "unpredictable" and a "grave threat to all people", citing that he's proven his brutality by murdering his own family. While some believe the new weaponry trotted out by the North Koreans during the event may be at least somewhat exaggerated, military analysts believe the country's weapons could include intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Recent satellite images suggest its main nuclear site is "primed and ready", according to specialist United States website 38North.
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