U. S. bolsters its South Korean defences

North Korea holds artillery drills, China urges restraint from all sides

Ahead of an extraordinary White House briefing for senators, close ally South Korea on Wednesday started installing key parts of a contentious U.S. defence system against missiles from North Korea. And America’s Pacific commander said any North Korean missile fired at U.S. forces would be destroyed.

“If it flies, it will die,” Adm. Harry Harris Jr., told Congress.

South Korea’s trumpeting of progress in setting up the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence system, or THAAD, comes as high-powered U.S. military vessels converge on the Korean Peninsula and as a combative North Korea signals possible nuclear and missile testing. Harris said the THAAD would be operational within days.

North Korea conducted livefire artillery drills on Tuesday, the 85th anniversary of the founding of its million-person Korean People’s Army. On the same day, a U.S. guided-missile submarine docked in South Korea. The USS Carl Vinson aircraft supercarrier also is headed toward the peninsula for an exercise with South Korea. China, which is urging restraint on all sides, called for the U.S. to halt the manoeuvers.

At a House Armed Services Committee, Harris rejected reports that the Carl Vinson group is vulnerable to North Korean attacks. The commander of U.S. Pacific Command said North Korea doesn’t have a weapon that can threaten the group.

But Harris also said he expects North Korea to soon be able to develop a long-range missile capable of striking the United States.

“Just as Thomas Edison is believed to have failed 1,000 times before successfully inventing the electric light bulb, so too, Kim Jong Un will keep trying,” Harris said.

Harris testified before a pair of Trump administration briefings on the North Korea crisis. All 100 senators have been invited to an unprecedented briefing in a building next to the White House that will include President Donald Trump’s secretary of state, defence secretary, top general and national intelligence director. The briefing team will then speak to House members in the Capitol.

The Trump administration has warned all options, including a military strike, are on the table to block North Korea from developing a nuclear missile that could reach the U.S. mainland. A U.S. pre-emptive attack isn’t likely, American officials have said, and the Trump White House has settled on a strategy of increasing pressure on North Korea with the help of China.

Wednesday’s briefings will focus on three key issues related to North Korea’s nuclear program: intelligence about the North’s capabilities; U.S. 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 closeddoors briefings and requested anonymity.

North Korea routinely accuses the United States of readying for an invasion, and threatens preemptive strikes to stop it. On Wednesday, its UN mission said North Korea would react to “a total war” with the U.S. with a nuclear war.

Washington and Pyongyang have flexed their muscles in recent days. North Korea conducted large-scale, live-fire drills Tuesday near an eastern coastal town to mark its military’s founding anniversary and state media reported that Kim personally observed the exercises. At the same time, the USS Michigan, a nuclear-powered submarine armed with 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles, arrived in South Korea.