Vice President Mike Pence Warns North Korea By Telling Them 'The Sword Stands Ready' • Now The End Begins

From two continents, Mike Pence and
defense secretary Jim Mattis - who is in the Middle East - warned that
North Korea's latest failed missile launch was a reckless act of
provocation and assured allies in Asia that the US was ready to work to
achieve a peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

by Geoffrey Grider April 19, 2017

Vice
President Mike Pence warned North Korea not to test the resolve of the
US military on Wednesday, promising it would give an ‘overwhelming and
effective’ response to any use of conventional or nuclear weapons.

Pence, who was visiting the US Yokosuka naval base
in Tokyo Bay, announced that President Donald Trump’s administration
would continue to ‘work diligently’ with allies like Japan, China and
other global powers to apply economic and diplomatic pressure on
Pyongyang.

He also said the President Donald Trump was going to
overhaul and simplify the US tax code which ‘will benefit every business
represented here today’. In an address to the US Chamber of Commerce in
Japan, Pence claimed the ‘era of over-regulation was over.’

Mike Pence Warns North Korea Not to Test Trump:

But,
he told the 2,500 sailors aboard the USS Ronald Reagan in a Japanese US
naval base: ‘As all of you know, readiness is the key.

‘The
United States of America will always seek peace – but under President
Trump, the shield stands guard and the sword stands ready.’

‘Those
who would challenge our resolve or readiness should know: We will
defeat any attack and meet any use of conventional or nuclear weapons
with an overwhelming and effective American response,’ Pence said.

He
also said the US would protect freedom of navigation in the South China
Sea, the sea lanes vital to global shipping where China has been
staking claim to disputed territory.

The US Pacific Command
confirmed the USS Carl Vinson strike group will be heading to the Korean
region in response to the growing instability on the Korean peninsula.

A spokesman said the carrier strike group was being deployed to the western Pacific ‘as a prudent measure’.

From
two continents, Pence and defense secretary Jim Mattis – who is in the
Middle East – warned that North Korea’s latest failed missile launch was
a reckless act of provocation and assured allies in Asia that the US
was ready to work to achieve a peaceful denuclearization of the Korean
Peninsula.

Never before seen real life footage inside of North Korea:

Mattis
denounced North Korea’s attempted missile launch as he began a Middle
East tour, telling reporters traveling with him to Saudi Arabia: ‘the
leader of North Korea again recklessly tried to provoke something by
launching a missile.’

The term ‘reckless’ is one the North Koreans
have used to describe ongoing large-scale US and South Korean military
exercises, which the North calls a dress rehearsal for an invasion.

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

Another
official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an intelligence
matter, said the missile was a Scud variant that the US calls a KN-17.

Mattis
credited China with trying to help get the North Korea situation ‘under
control’ with the goal of denuclearizing the peninsula. Pence’s speech
on the aircraft carrier followed meetings Tuesday in Tokyo with Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, where he noted that ‘all options are on the
table.’

Abe said that it was 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.’

Trump and Pence, who stopped at the
Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea on Monday, have
signaled this week a forceful US stance on North Korea’s recent actions.
But it remains unclear what might come next.

Behind the heated
rhetoric, Trump’s strategy in the region looks somewhat similar to
predecessor Barack Obama’s – albeit with the added unpredictability of a
new president who has shown he’s willing to use force.

Pence told
reporters Monday that Trump was hopeful China would use its
‘extraordinary levers’ to pressure the North to abandon its weapons
program.

But the vice president expressed impatience with the
unwillingness of North Korea to move toward ridding itself of nuclear
weapons and ballistic missiles.

The talk of strength was
undermined slightly by the announcement by Pentagon officials on
Wednesday that the USS Carl Vinison, said to have headed to the Korean
Peninsula on April 8, was still languishing in the ocean near Australia.

Mattis
had claimed on April 11 that the aircraft carrier’s strike fleet was on
its way to North Korea as a ‘prudent measure’ to deter further
escalation. But Pentagon officials told CNN on Tuesday that the ships
would finally set sail within 24 hours, and the strike group wouldn’t be
in the region before next week at the earliest.

Meanwhile, other countries have reacted to the US’s forceful stance in the Korean sea.

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 US will follow the line that President Trump repeatedly
voiced during the election campaign.’

China made a plea for a
return to negotiations. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said tensions
need to be eased on the Korean Peninsula to bring the escalating
dispute to a peaceful resolution.

Lu
said Beijing wants to resume the multi-party negotiations that ended in
stalemate in 2009 and suggested that US plans to deploy a missile
defense system in South Korea were damaging its relations with China. source

Vice President Mike Pence Warns North Korea By Telling Them 'The Sword Stands Ready' • Now The End Begins