Pence says US stands by ally Japan on North Korea problem

(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, Pool). U.S. Vice President Mike Pence talks with members of the American Chamber of Commerce at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, April 18, 2017.

The official said Tuesday that Japan still hopes to bring the USA back into a multilateral framework such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the 12-country trade agreement after his inauguration in January.

And a self-centered, narcissistic USA president who goes ballistic and sends out insulting tweets whenever he feels insulted and who also has nukes.

"Got to behave", said Trump.

As tensions rise, threats of military action have flowed from both sides, but Mr Strother said tough talk from the North is mostly bluster.

It's Tokyo's oldest temple, and a highly popular tourist site that attracts crowds from around the world.

Pence is on a 10-day Asia trip that will also take him to Indonesia and Australia.

Pence's Asia tour came amid increasing tensions and heated rhetoric on the Korean Peninsula.

At the outset of his meeting with Abe, Pence said that "While all options are on the table", Trump was determined to work with Japan, South Korea and other allies in the region to resolve the problem. "But all options are on the table".

US intelligence officials and private experts are trying to make sense of the missiles they saw displayed in Pyongyang Saturday during a parade to honor the 105th anniversary of the birth of the country's founder.

China has recently shown "tangible indications" that it is cooperating with the U.S.to turn up the pressure on Pyongyang, a senior State Department official said Monday.

"We had made a pretty big point of making it clear that we weren't willing to sacrifice our domestic economic interests for the sake of some foreign policy issue", said Michael Froman, the US Trade Representative under Obama.

The unannounced visit at the start of his 10-day trip to Asia was a US show of force that allowed the vice president to gaze at North Korean soldiers from afar and stare directly across a border marked by razor wire.

"My understanding is that our talks are premised not on friction but on cooperation", Aso told reporters before Pence's arrival.

South Korea's Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Monday warned that North Korea would face a "corresponding consequence" should it stage yet another provocation.

Concluding a visit to South Korea, Pence told business leaders in Seoul the administration is taking a fresh look at trade agreements as part of its "America First" policy.

In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, speaking to a parliamentary session Monday, said: "Needless to say, diplomatic effort is important to maintain peace".

"For dollar/yen, the main focus will be on what kind of pressure the United States could apply on Japan as basically US trade policy is linked with a policy for a weaker dollar", said Junichi Ishikawa, senior forex strategist at IG Securities in Tokyo.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would not tolerate any "nuclear missile adventures" by North Korea.

The dollar pulled away from five-month lows versus the yen early on Tuesday, with comments from U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and higher debt yields giving the bruised greenback some breathing space.

Former South Korea nuclear envoy Chun Yung-woo, who later served as vice foreign minister, gave a less flattering assessment, calling Wu China's "most incompetent official", citing his lack of English and stalwart adherence to China's party line, according to a 2010 USA diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks.