Mattis, Pence assure allies on N. Korea

VP pushes trade to S. Korea, Japan; defense chief on visit to Saudi royals

Vice President Mike Pence and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe meet Tuesday in Tokyo. Pence said the United States “will stand strongly with Japan” and other allies against North Korea.
Vice President Mike Pence and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe meet Tuesday in Tokyo. Pence said the United States “will stand strongly with Japan” and other allies against North Korea.

TOKYO -- Top officials in President Donald Trump's administration, speaking from thousands of miles apart, warned on Tuesday that North Korea's latest failed missile launch was a reckless act of provocation and assured allies in Asia that the United States was ready to work to achieve a peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

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While Defense Secretary James Mattis denounced North Korea's weapons test as he began a Mideast tour, Vice President Mike Pence offered support to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo amid a trip dominated by concerns about the rogue state's nuclear intentions.

Even as he affirmed U.S. support for its Asian allies in dealing with North Korea, Pence pressed South Korea and Japan for better trade terms.

"We appreciate the challenging times in which the people of Japan live with increasing provocations from across the Sea of Japan," Pence said after arriving from Seoul for talks with Abe. "We are with you 100 percent."

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At the outset of their meeting, Pence reiterated to Abe his statement in South Korea that the United States has run out of patience with Pyongyang's moves.

"While all options are on the table," Pence said, "President Trump is determined to work closely with Japan, with South Korea, with all our allies in the region, and with China" to resolve the problem.

"We seek peace always as a country, as does Japan, but as you know and the United States knows, peace comes through strength and we will stand strongly with Japan and strongly with our allies for a peace and security in this region," Pence added.

Said Abe, "It goes without saying that it is a matter of paramount importance for us to seek diplomatic efforts as well peaceable settlements of the issue."

"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 on North Korea so that it comes forward and engages in this serious dialogue."

Pence repeated the message today during a visit to the USS Ronald Reagan at the U.S. Yokosuka naval base in Tokyo Bay.

"The United States of America will always seek peace, but under President Trump, the shield stands guard and the sword stands ready," Pence told 2,500 sailors aboard the carrier.

Pence talks trade

On the third day of a swing through Asia, Pence told a business group in Seoul that the U.S.' trade relationship with South Korea is "falling short" and that a trade agreement between the nations is under review. Later in Tokyo, he stressed the need for quick results as he helmed a new economic dialogue arranged by Trump and Abe.

"When President Trump agreed to this dialogue, he envisioned this as a mechanism for enhancing bilateral commercial relations between the U.S. and Japan and achieving results in the near future," Pence said before meeting his counterpart, Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso. "And I share that vision and that impatience."

Trump has accused both Japan and South Korea of imposing barriers on U.S. automobile exports and keeping their currencies weak, hurting jobs for Americans and fueling trade imbalances. Pence repeated that the U.S. would no longer focus on the Trans-Pacific Partnership -- an agreement Abe strongly backed -- and instead will explore bilateral deals based on fairness.

"The U.S. seeks stronger and more balanced bilateral trade agreements with every country, including Japan," he said.

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. They will meet again this year to ensure the project achieves "concrete economic results in the near term," Pence said.

Aso said the dialogue turned a "new page" in economic relations between the countries, adding that he had a good discussion with Pence based on a "win-win" outlook.

In Seoul, Pence said he was concerned that the U.S. trade deficit with South Korea has "more than doubled" in the five years since their free-trade agreement took effect. He called the trade gap with South Korea a "hard truth," with "too many" barriers to entry for U.S. businesses.

Pence's comments come just days after South Korea and Japan avoided being tagged currency manipulators by the U.S. Treasury. They remain on a watch list of nations deemed at risk of engaging in unfair conduct.

Mattis in Saudi Arabia

Mattis struck an even tougher tone on North Korea in an interview with reporters traveling with him to Saudi Arabia. His language was stronger than in a written statement he issued shortly after the failed missile launch, in which he simply said he was aware of the failure.

The visit marks the first time he has visited Saudi Arabia as Pentagon chief.

"The leader of North Korea again recklessly tried to provoke something by launching a missile," he said. The term "reckless" is one the North Koreans have used to describe ongoing large-scale U.S. and South Korean military exercises, which the North calls a dress rehearsal for an invasion.

Mattis did not identify the type of missile but said it was not of intercontinental range, meaning it could not reach U.S. territory. He did not comment on what might have caused the missile to fail.

Mattis credited China with trying to help get the North Korea situation "under control" with the goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

During the trip to Saudi Arabia, Mattis will meet with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, as well as the defense minister, Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Al Saud, and the interior minister, deputy crown prince Mohammed Bin Nayef. Mattis said he plans to discuss the current security situation in the region and how the United States can "deepen and broaden" its relationship with Saudi Arabia.

Mattis will also likely address U.S. operations against the Islamic State in Syria, according to defense officials.

China urges calm

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made a new appeal for calm on the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday and said he believes the United States would prefer a diplomatic resolution to the standoff.

Wang told reporters that although U.S. officials have made clear that a military strike remains on the table, he believes that Washington would still prefer to de-escalate tensions through multisided talks.

Wang's comments came amid a mounting war of words between Washington and Pyongyang. After Pence visited the Demilitarized Zone in South Korea on Monday and warned that "all options are on the table," a senior North Korean official responded by accusing the United States of bringing the countries to the brink of thermonuclear war.

In Wisconsin on Tuesday, Trump said that how much North Korea's leader desires peace will be a deciding factor in easing tensions.

In an interview with TMJ4-TV, Trump said the U.S. wants peace and that he hopes North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un does, too. Trump said that will be "the end determination."

Pence told reporters Monday that Trump was hopeful China would use its "extraordinary levers" to pressure the North to abandon its weapons program. But Pence expressed impatience with the unwillingness of the regime to move toward ridding itself of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

"We know the situation is tense," Wang said. "The more tense things are, the more calm we need to be to find the opportunities and possibilities for dialogue."

China has called for a return to multisided talks that ended in a stalemate in 2009, during the rule of North Korea's previous leader, Kim Jong Il.

Since entering office, Trump has pressed China to use its political and economic leverage over North Korea.

China has recently shown "tangible indications" that it is cooperating with the U.S. to turn up the pressure on Pyongyang, a senior State Department official said Monday.

Australia's prime minister also urged China to do more, saying Beijing has the "greatest obligation and responsibility" to de-escalate the threat from North Korea.

"The Chinese often express frustration with North Korea, and disappointment. But the fact is that they have the overwhelming leverage over the North Korea regime," Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters Tuesday in Canberra, Australia's capital.

North Korea has repeatedly ignored China's calls for denuclearization and other steps to calm tensions on the peninsula, and relations between the two are believed to have sunk to their lowest level in years. China remains North Korea's chief source of fuel and food imports, but Pyongyang seems to have calculated that Beijing's fears of a collapse of Kim Jong Un's hard-line communist regime override any such snubs.

Information for this article was contributed by Ken Thomas, Robert Burns, Jonathan Lemire, Gerry Shih and staff members of The Associated Press; by Justin Sink, Kanga Kong, Maiko Takahashi and staff members of Bloomberg News; and by Thomas Gibbons-Neff of The Washington Post.

A Section on 04/19/2017

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