According to the officials, Trump's approach is based on a review of the strategies adopted by the previous United States administrations to contain North Korea. None of the USA officials who told Reuters about the heightened level of activity by Chinese bombers suggested alarm or signaled that they knew the precise reason for such activity.
"The United States of America will always seek peace but under President Trump, the shield stands guard and the sword stands ready", he added.
It's unclear whether Trump was quoting Xi or had misunderstood what he was told when he said Korea had been part of China.
Pence also said the United States would protect freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, where Beijing is entangled in territorial rows with several Southeast Asia nations.
US officials said there was a higher-than-usual level of activity by Chinese bombers, signaling a possible heightened state of readiness by Beijing, reclusive North Korea's sole major ally, although the officials played down concerns and left open a range of possible reasons. North Korea routinely labels such exercises preparations for invasion.
A separate critical test in the Pacific region, to be held at the end of May, will examine the ability of the U.S. to shoot down a future North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile that could threaten the US.
In an interview with the New York Times, Robert Litwak of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars described what's unfolding as "the Cuban missile crisis in slow motion".
Both incidents, he said, reinforce a sense among some South Koreans that they don't control their own fates, especially when sandwiched between the interests of the United States and China.
Policeman dead in Champs Élysées shooting
She criticised outgoing Socialist President Francois Hollande as "notoriously feeble" and said France was "worn out by inaction". US President Donald Trump acknowledged the attack during a press conference on Thursday. "What can you say?" It just never ends.
The vice president met Japanese officials, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and reassured them of the U.S. commitment in the face of possible threats posed by North Korea.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, front, waves to U.S. servicemen and Japanese Self-Defense Forces personnel on the flight deck of U.S. navy nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, at the U.S. Navy's Yokosuka base in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, Wednesday, April 19, 2017.
"But at the same time", the prime minister said, "dialogue for the sake of dialogue is valueless and it is necessary for us to exercise pressure North Korea so that it comes forward and engages in this serious dialogue".
China's foreign minister recently likened the US and North Korea to two speeding trains hurtling toward each other, an analogy that would seem to place China in the role of helpless bystander. But it remains unclear what might come next. Trump said on Twitter, recounting what he told Xi while hosting him this month at his Palm Beach, Florida, resort.
Many here assume that Xi fed that ahistorical nugget to Trump, who also admitted that after 10 minutes listening to Xi, he realized that Beijing's influence over North Korea was much less than he had thought.
"Without crossing the red line such as a nuclear test or a test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, until the April 25 anniversary of the Korean People's Army, North Korea is expected to continue to launch mid-range missiles", said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior research fellow at Sejong Institute outside Seoul.
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters he hopes "there will be no unilateral actions like those we saw recently in Syria and that the USA will follow the line that President Trump repeatedly voiced during the election campaign". Council members can also "recommit to implementing all existing and future sanctions to maximize pressure on the DPRK to return to meaningful negotiations on denuclearization", the paper says.
Cho June-hyuck, a spokesman of the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a briefing Thursday, "It is a clear historical fact recognized by the global community, which can not by denied by anyone, that Korea was not a part of China over the past several thousands of years of history of Korea-China relations".
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