U.S. Sub Arrives Near N Korea, Tillerson To Chair Special UNSC Meeting On N Korea

US submarine arrives near North Korea amid nuke test fears

• The USS Michigan arrived on Monday ahead of a possible Tuesday nuke trial
• Tuesday is the 85th anniversary of the start of the North's Korean People's Army
• The US, Japan and South Korea are meeting in Tokyo to discuss North Korea
• Trump has also invited the entire Senate to the White House on Wednesday
• And the UN Security Council on North Korea will also meet on Friday
• Japan and China are to meet too; China is an unhappy ally of the hermit state 
• North Korea has refused to stop its nuclear tests and is threatening more trials 
• The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group is also heading to the peninsula

A nuclear-powered US submarine arrived in a South Korean port on Tuesday in a show of force amid concerns that North Korea may attempt another missile launch or nuclear test on Tuesday.

The port call in Busan by the USS Michigan came as an American aircraft carrier strike group continued steaming towards Korean waters.

And as tensions in the area continued to rise, the top nuclear envoys from South Korea, Japan, and the US met in Tokyo to discuss North Korea's refusal to give up its nuclear program.  

Tillerson to chair special UNSC meeting on N. Korea

 U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will chair a special meeting of the U.N. Security Council to be convened later this week to discuss North Korea, the State Department announced Monday.

The ministerial meeting, set for Friday at the U.N. headquarters in New York, represents a U.S. effort to drum up international support for its push to increase pressure on North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs.

"The DPRK poses one of the gravest threats to international peace and security through its pursuit of nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, and other weapons of mass destruction as well as its other prohibited activities," the department said in a statement.

"The meeting will give Security Council members an opportunity to discuss ways to maximize the impact of existing Security Council measures and show their resolve to respond to further provocations with appropriate new measures," the statement said.

State Department acting spokesman Mark Toner said that Friday's meeting as well as a lunch meeting President Donald Trump hosted at the White House for ambassadors of U.N. Security Council member countries underscores concerns about the North's nuclear and missile programs.

"What the Secretary is going to be looking at and conveying to the other members of the Security Council on Friday ... is that there are already very strong sanctions in place against North Korea and it is incumbent on every member of the U.N. to carry out there to enforce those sanctions to the utmost," Toner said.

"And by doing that, we believe that we can significantly augment the pressure that North Korea," he said.

Toner said the North's acquisition of nuclear missile capabilities would be a "game changer."

   "It's one of the reasons why you've seen administration officials talking so candidly about our concerns and about the fact that the time for strategic patience and that policy is over," he said.

Reports of N.Korea Artillery Drill as US Sub Arrives

North Korea conducted a big live-fire exercise on Tuesday to mark the foundation of its military, media reported, as a U.S. submarine docked in South Korea in a show of force amid growing concern over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs.

The port call by the USS Michigan came as a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group steamed towards Korean waters and as the top envoys for North Korea policy from South Korea, Japan, and the United States met in Tokyo.

Fears have risen in recent weeks that North Korea could conduct another nuclear test or long-range missile launch in defiance of U.N. sanctions, perhaps on the Tuesday anniversary of the founding of its military.

South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported that the North appeared to have deployed a large number of long-range artillery units in the region of Wonsan on its east coast on Tuesday, for a live-fire drill.

The report, citing an unidentified South Korean government source, said the exercise was possibly supervised by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

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