North Korea has staged its largest live artillery "bombardment", involving 400 long-range cannons, in the eastern town of Wonsan under the watch of leader Kim Jong-un.
Adding to the tensions, North Korea detained a us citizen on Saturday, bringing the number of Americans being held there to three.
Speculation had mounted that the North could carry out a sixth nuclear test or another missile launch to mark 85 years since the founding of its army.
From left to right, United States special representative for North Korea policy Joseph Yun, Director-General of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Kenji Kanasugi, and special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs at the South Korean Foreign Ministry Kim Hong-kyun, pose for photographers before their meeting about North Korean issues at the Iikura Guesthouse in Tokyo, April 25, 2017.
A statement from the South Korean military said the live-fire exercises were underway in the Wonsan region on Tuesday afternoon, but gave no details on what kinds of weapons and military units took part in the drill.
The Navy said the port visit by the USS Michigan, which is more than 560 feet long and weighs more than 18,000 tons when submerged, was routine and part of a regularly scheduled deployment to the Western Pacific. South Korea's navy said there aren't plans for a joint military drill with the submarine. Pyongyang launched a missile one day after the 105th birthday of late founder Kim Il Sung on April 15.
Washington has sent the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to the Korean peninsula, where it is expected to arrive - after a derision-provoking delay - later this week.
Envoys from the US, Japan and South Korea met in Tokyo, with a senior Chinese official due to arrive later in the day.
South Korea's military said it's maintaining "firm readiness".
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US President Donald Trump has called for renewed sanctions on North Korea amid escalating tensions between the two countries. Adding to the atmosphere of animosity, officials said North Korea has detained a third USA citizen.
"We agreed to warn North Korea to stop any additional strategic provocation and take intolerably strong punitive measures against Pyongyang if it goes ahead with such provocations", Kim Hong-kyun told reporters following his meeting with Joseph Yun of the USA and Japan's Kenji Kanasugi.
WASHINGTON'S WORDSTrump has told ambassadors from U.N. Security Council member countries that they must be prepared to impose additional and stronger sanctions on North Korea.
A North Korean spokesman said the meetings reflected United States pressure that could "ignite a full-out war" on the Korean Peninsula.
The White House said Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the "urgent security challenge" posed by North Korea in a phone call on Monday.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshide Suga told media that China's envoy for Korean affairs, Wu Dawei, would hold talks with Japanese Foreign Ministry officials.
He said an April 28 meeting of the UN Security Council, to be chaired by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and attended by foreign ministers, will be pivotal in dismantling North Korea's nuclear program, Yonhap reported.
In the past, North Korea has generally quickly released any American citizens it detained - waiting at most for a US official or statesman to come and to personally bail out detainees. President Trump has been urging China to do more to pressure Kim Jong Un's regime over its nuclear weapons program. Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim, was teaching at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, a statement from the school said. It also launched a long-range rocket a year ago that delivered a satellite into orbit, which Washington, Seoul and others saw as a banned test of missile technology.
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