US President Donald Trump who is in Florida for the holidays was asked what he will do if North Korea does conduct a long-range missile test.
Trump who was thanking service members from each branch of the military via satellite said that he thinks that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be planning to give him “a nice present” such as a “beautiful vase” for Christmas rather than a missile launch.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had repeatedly warned that they would take unspecified action if sanctions are not eased by the end of the year, and speculation has centred on the possibility of a new missile test, possibly of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. The North has said that its "Christmas gift" to the United States will depend on Washington's actions. "
The US and North Korea haven't discussed nuclear weapons ever since their summit in February fell apart abruptly. Construction of a new structure can be seen in a new satellite image of a factory where North Korea makes military equipment used to launch long-range missiles.
“Diplomatic engagement is the only pathway to sustainable peace and complete denuclearisation and verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula," UN spokesman Stephanie Dujarric said.
With the deadline just a few days away, North Korean diplomat Ri Thae Song said, “What is left to be done now is the US option and it is entirely up to the US what Christmas gift it will select to get."
China host South Korea and Japan for official meeting
Amid talks that North Korean leader could reignite global tensions with another missile test, China hosted the leaders of squabbling neighbours South Korea and Japan for their first official meeting in over a year.
The powerful Asian nation flexed muscle to seek unity on how to deal with a belligerent North Korea.
South Korea's Moon Jae-in and Japan's Shinzo Abe were present in the first bilateral meeting between South Korea and Japan in 15 months.
The leaders had hit rock bottom concerning trade issues and other bitter disputes around Japan's occupation of the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945. One of the major issues from the brutal colonial period includes the use of sex slaves and forced labour by the Japanese military.
The US had urged the pair to bury the hatchet, although it has held off on direct mediation.
"As the region's major power, China hopes to show its diplomatic presence to the world by bringing the Japanese and South Korean leaders to the same table," Haruko Satoh, professor and expert on Chinese politics at Osaka University, said.
Before leaving for China, Abe, who was seen being photographed with Jae-in smiling and shaking hands, said that links with Seoul remained "severe".
Ties between the two nations got worse when a series of South Korean court rulings asked Japanese firms to compensate wartime forced labour victims. Tokyo insisted that the matter had been settled in a 1965 treaty between the two countries.
Post this, Seoul threatened to withdraw from a key military intelligence-sharing pact that it reversed in November Abe said he hoped "to improve the important Japan-South Korea relations and to exchange candid opinions", according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK.
After the meeting with China, both Japan and South Korea urged the resumption of talks between Pyongyang and Washington.
The leaders of the three countries also promised to help promote dialogue to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons.
Also on Tuesday, North Korean state media slammed Tokyo as a "political dwarf", saying its weapons tests "pose no threat" to Japan.
