A conflict between North Korea and the United States would not remain between the two of them alone but would affect the whole world. Trump said. Of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump added: "He's been pushing the world around for a long time". "OPLAN 5027", as it's known, is a compendium of logistical details, but the basic premise is simple: The U.S. will fight alongside South Korea to gain control of the peninsula, and the Pentagon will need almost two months to transport needed soldiers and equipment.

Suh again highlighted doubts about North Korea's claims about its military capability. Southeast Asian states also are concerned about Kim Jong Un, but do not generally share Washington's prioritization of the issue because they are concerned it de-emphasizes other critical topics such as South China Sea tensions.

Meanwhile, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe used a telephone call on Tuesday to praise Mr Trump's commitment to protect United States allies in the region and halt missile launches from Pyongyang. If tensions with Pyongyang continue to grow, a risk is that the stand-off in the Korean peninsula will suck up much of the administration's foreign policy focus in coming months.

Trump's bluster, however, stands in stark contrast to an ongoing back channel for negotiations between the United States and North Korea, which came to light Friday. But it wasn't known until now that the contacts have continued, or that they have broached matters other than US detainees.

"Any second Korean War would have no choice but to spread into a nuclear war", it said in a commentary.

Meanwhile, a Pentagon spokesman said a joint military exercise between the USA and South Korea was expected to start, as planned, on 21 August. North Korea's latest achievements in weapons of mass destruction make the situation even more risky and yet, as with the past, manageable.

Two days after North Korea laid out its plans to strike near Guam with unsettling specificity, there was no observable march toward combat.

"He has seen leaders like Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi scale back their nuclear programs only to be overthrown either by the USA or their own people and die gruesome deaths", Oliver said.

Fred Bell, the vice chairman of the Palm Springs Air Museum, has been analyzing USA and North Korea relations for decades. Pyongyang is trying to deter strikes by aircraft stationed at Guam by threatening to destroy the island's air force base with nuclear weapons. Any order by the president could be executed quickly.

On Tuesday, a news report said North Korea could now Wednesday nuclear warheads with its missiles, including its longest-range ones that might be able to hit the continental US. The plan would be sent to Kim for approval just before or as the U.S.

Earlier this week, Korean Central Television, a media outlet of the North, reported that North Korean youths and students were holding a string of rallies nationwide to make public their wish to enter the military.

All the while, as the US conducts this 45-to-60-day buildup, Seoul and its 10 million residents would be vulnerable to the North's pre-emptive attack. North Korea sees these exercises and larger ones held every spring as a rehearsal for invasion.

The line passed through Japan and apparently showed the flight route of four ballistic missiles Pyongyang has threatened to fire at Guam, which is 3,200 km (2,000 miles) from North Korea's capital. Trump's comments, however, do not appear to be backed by significant military mobilization on either side of the Pacific, and an important, quiet diplomatic channel remains open.

U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron have agreed to work together on the tense situation on the Korean Peninsula, with the aim of "getting North Korea to conform to its global obligations".