And America's Pacific commander said any North Korean missile fired at US forces would be destroyed.
The Commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, Admiral Harry Harris, waits to testify before a House Armed Services Committee hearing on "Military Assessment of the Security Challenges in the Indo-Asia-Pacific Region" on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S, April 26, 2017.
The phone call comes amid threats from North Korea that it will sink a U.S. Navy strike group that's led by the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier; it also follows reports from a North Korean university that one of its lecturers, who holds U.S. and South Korean citizenship, has been detained.
Despite the seemingly straightforward goal, the deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, remains a controversial topic in South Korea and even has become an issue in the upcoming presidential election.
But Seoul's unification ministry said that North Korea does not seem to have any major events planned for the anniversary despite its war rhetoric. And the USS Carl Vinson aircraft supercarrier is also headed toward the peninsula for a joint exercise with South Korea.
"The Chinese side strongly urges the US and South Korea to cancel the deployment and withdraw the equipment", the spokesman noted.
It was not immediately clear how long the Japanese destroyers would sail alongside the USA carrier group.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration hosted senators for an extraordinary White House briefing Wednesday at a perilous moment with North Korea, marked by the unpredictable nation's nuclear threats and stern talk of military action, if necessary, from the United States. A pre-emptive strike, he said, "would be the last one". America has long relied on China to reign in North Korea's excesses, and despite the THAAD opposition, the Trump administration appears to be making some progress in getting China onboard to help this time around.
Democratic Senator Christopher Coons told reporters after the White House briefing that military options were discussed.
Harris said that he takes Kim Jong Un at his word when he threatens US targets.
Wednesday's briefings will focus on three key issues related to North Korea's nuclear program: intelligence about the North's capabilities; USA response options, including military ones; and how to get China and other countries to enforce existing economic sanctions on Pyongyang, along with ideas for new penalties. The officials weren't authorized to speak publicly about plans for the closed-doors briefings and requested anonymity.
On Thursday, after the North Korean state media warned the United States of a "super-mighty preemptive strike", Trump then praised Chinese efforts to rein in "the menace of North Korea".
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Left unsaid by Graham was that a war today could be disastrous for US allies Japan and South Korea.
North Korea maintains that their nuclear program was created for self-defense.
"The world would clearly see how the US' rash, arrogant aircraft carriers turn into a lump of scrap metal and gets buried at sea, and how the country vanishes from the Earth", state-run website Uriminzokkiri said. But he declined to provide specifics in an open setting.
Washington and Pyongyang have flexed their muscles in recent days.
Yonhap, citing an unidentified South Korean government source, said there were signs North Korea's military was carrying out large-scale, live-fire drills in areas around the city of Wonsan on its east coast.
An official from South Korea's navy said Tuesday the USS Michigan is making a routine stop to rest its crews and reload supplies.
China opposes the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, being installed in South Korea. According to the Yonhap news agency, the parts include two or three launchers, intercept missiles and radar.
But the system's installation is also upsetting China, the country Trump hopes to work with to rid the North of nuclear weapons.
Speaking during a visit to Greece, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said there were already enough shows of force and confrontation and appealed for calm. Sanctions haven't forced Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear efforts, but a targeted USA attack to take out its weapons program risks a wider war along a heavily militarized border near where tens of millions of South Koreans live.
In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the THAAD system's deployment would "disrupt the regional strategic balance and further aggravate the tension on the peninsula".
North Korea has conducted five nuclear weapons tests, two of them previous year, and has carried out a stream of ballistic missile tests, in defiance of United Nations sanctions.
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