Sabers rattle amid Korean standoff

WASHINGTON (AP) — North Korea conducted live-fire artillery drills and a U.S. guided-missile submarine arrived in South Korea on Tuesday, as the Trump administration prepared an extraordinary White House briefing for senators on the escalating nuclear threat.

Fears North Korea could mark the 85th anniversary of its military’s founding with a nuclear test or a missile launch proved unfounded. But the unpredictable nation rattled its saber all the same, with drills that served as a reminder of the threat it poses to U.S.-allied South Korea.

The exercise in the area of east coast city of Wonsan involved 300 to 400 artillery pieces, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said. Seoul lies only 40 kilometres from the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas — well within artillery range.

President Donald Trump has sent more U.S. military assets to the region in a show of force while leaning on China to exert economic pressure on its wayward ally. Chinese President Xi Jinping, who spoke to Trump on Monday, is urging restraint from Pyongyang and Washington.

A rapid tempo of weapons testing in the past year has pushed North Korea closer to developing a nuclear-tipped missile that could reach the U.S. mainland.

“We are probably in one of the most challenging situations since the Cuban missile crisis,” Sen. John McCain told a congressional hearing Tuesday, referring to the 1962 standoff with the Soviet Union that pushed the superpowers close to nuclear confrontation. McCain said a North Korean nuclear missile capable of striking an American city was “an imminent danger.”