Tokyo, Japan. US Vice President Mike Pence has now left Korea and is in Japan reassuring Japanese officials the USA is committed to the security of Japan.
America will not relent until it achieves its objective of ensuring the Korean Peninsula is free of nuclear weapons, Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday while visiting Japan.
Following meetings with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Pence told reporters that President Donald Trump was confident that economic and diplomatic pressure has a chance of compelling North Korea to cooperate.”It is our belief by bringing together the family of nations with diplomatic and economic pressure we have a chance of achieving a freeze on the Korean Peninsula,” Pence said.
“We will not rest and will not relent until we obtain the objective of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula,” he said. The administration has signaled a more forceful US stance toward North Korea’s recent missile tests and threats, including a warning from Trump that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has “gotta behave.”
Pence traveled to the tense Demilitarized Zone on Monday dividing North and South Korea, where he warned North Korea’s leaders that after years of testing the US and South Korea with its nuclear ambitions, “the era of strategic patience is over.”
A senior North Korean official then accused the United States of bringing the countries to the brink of thermonuclear war. Recent announcements from North Korea at the United Nations stated, “we are now at the brink of a nuclear war.”
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made a fresh appeal for calm. Minister Yi told reporters that although US officials have made clear that a military strike remains a possibility, he believes that Washington would still prefer to de-escalate tensions through multi-sided talks.
Japan likewise hopes for peaceful dialogue with Pyongyang, “but at the same time, dialogue for the sake of dialogue is valueless.” Pressure on North Korea is crucial, prime minister Abe said.
For their part, America is putting enough pressure on North Korea to literally split an atom. We can only hope the pressure ends soon or that split, will result in the first Atomic War in world history.