Pence, on US carrier, pledges to defend Asia

Continuing to play up the idea of a military confrontation on the Korean Peninsula, Vice President Mike Pence today warned North Korea not to "challenge our resolve", insisting that "the sword stands ready" and the United States would meet any challenge with overwhelming force.

From the wind-swept deck of a massive aircraft carrier, Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday warned North Korea not to test the resolve of the USA military, promising it would make an "overwhelming and effective" response to any use of conventional or nuclear weapons.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said he wants to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weaponry.

Japan has tried to convey to the US the importance it places on the Trans-Pacific Partnership multilateral trade agreement, but Pence said at the meeting that the TPP is "a thing of the past".

Shortly after President Donald Trump took office in January, he severed US involvement with the TPP.

Defence officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan, who were in Tokyo for trilateral security talks, said in a statement North Korea should give up its weapons development irrevocably.

"GIs hurled fully armed MPs of the South Korean puppet army into perpetrating such unsafe provocations as aiming at" North Korea's side of the demilitarized zone, said the statement from the Korean Central News Agency, based in Pyongyang, the nation's capital.

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.

He said that while "all options are on the table", Trump was determined to work with Japan, South Korea and other allies in Asia to resolve the problem.

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Pence and Aso agreed on a dialogue framework centering on three pillars: trade and investment, economic cooperation, and improved relations in certain commercial sectors to create jobs.

Meanwhile US Defence Secretary James Mattis, in Saudi Arabia to discuss the invasion of Yemen, denounced North Korea's latest missile test.

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Pence said Trump was hopeful China would use its influence in the region to pressure the North to abandon its weapons program.

The U.S. bond with Japan is strong and growing stronger every day, he said.

The United States had a trade deficit of almost $68.94 billion with Japan in 2016, smaller than the $347.04 billion deficit with China, according to US government data.

Pence pointed to reports of China turning away coal exports from North Korea as an example of the new USA strategy bearing fruit.

A senior North Korean official said in an interview with the BBC this week that North Korea would conduct missile tests "on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis", and any military action against it by the United States would prompt "all-out war".

"I think the path of negotiations with North Korea has been a colossal failure now for more than 25 years", Pence told me. "We're trying to make it very clear to people in this part of the world that we are going to achieve the end of a denuclearization of the Korean peninsula - one way or the other".