Tokyo (CNN) President Donald Trump touched down in Japan late Saturday ahead of a 13-day trek through Asia that he hopes will divert from a bruising political controversy back home. 
 
 During the first set of remarks on his five-nation tour, Trump avoided the incendiary, bellicose rhetoric that has often defined his public stance about the North Korean threat. 
 
 But he nevertheless sent a clear message to North Korea and the rest of the region that American military might and strong US alliances in the region remain a critical deterrent during an appearance at a joint US-Japanese military base just outside of Tokyo. 
 
 "Our brave warriors are the last bulwark against threats to the dreams of people in America and Japan and all across the world," Trump said. "You are the greatest hope for people who desire to live in freedom and harmony and you are the greatest threat to tyrants and dictators who seek to prey on the innocent." 
 
 Trading in his suit jacket for a flight jacket moments after taking the stage at Yokota Air Base, Trump praised the US-Japan military alliance, thanked US troops for keeping "us all safe" and talked up US military prowess in the region. 
 
 The remarks served to help set the tone for the President's Asian tour that will take him next to South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines for nearly two weeks of powerhouse diplomacy, much of which will focus on rallying other regional powers to step up their efforts to pressure North Korea into abandoning its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. 
 
 Trump's remarks were devoid the kinds of direct threats he has previously aimed at the North Korean regime, with the President instead choosing to focus on the US-Japanese alliance and the peaceful aims of US military might in the region. 
 
 "You put hope in every soul that yearns for peace," Trump told the assembled troops. 
 
 Air Force One landed at the US-controlled Yokota Air Base outside Tokyo at about 9:37 p.m. ET Saturday (10:37 a.m. Sunday local time). Trump addressed American servicemen and women stationed at the facility before beginning his official visit with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. 
 
 On his first swing through a continent gripped with tension over a nuclear standoff on its eastern edge, Trump will carry out high-stakes talks with the leaders of Japan, South Korea, and China, and attend days of summits in Vietnam and the Philippines. 
 
 Before arriving in Japan, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he expects to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and hopes to enlist his help in changing North Korea's behavior. He will likely meet with Putin on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam. 
 
 "I think it's expected that we'll meet. We want Putin's help on North Korea," he told reporters. Trump had previously said a meeting with Putin was possible. 
 
 It's a slog of a presidential trip, one that became longer this week after Trump announced he would spend an extra day in Manila to attend the East Asia Summit. The last US President to spend this long in Asia was George H.W. Bush in 1992 -- and he ended the trip by vomiting in the Japanese prime minister's lap. 
 
 On the eight-hour flight from Hawaii, however, Trump dismissed concerns about the length of his trip. 
 
 "It is grueling, they tell me. But fortunately, historically that has not been a problem for me," Trump said. "I'll let you know if I don't stay fresh. If I don't stay fresh, you'll be the first to tell me." 
 
 At his first stop here in Tokyo, Trump enjoyed a round of golf and a steak dinner with Abe -- one of his closest foreign counterparts -- before sitting down for formal talks. The men ate hamburgers inside the clubhouse at Kasumigaseki Country Club overlooking the green before hitting the links. 
 
 Before the food was set down, the two men autographed white baseball caps, in the style of Trump's campaign hats, emblazoned with the worlds "Donald & Shinzo: Make Alliance Even Greater." 
 
 Trump and Abe are expected to confer about North Korea, an area where they are largely in alignment. Abe hopes to adopt a tougher military stance against Pyongyang, altering a decades-long pacifist approach. 
 
 The two are also expected to discuss trade, though they don't see eye-to-eye on the issue. Trump has withdrawn the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership, a decision the Abe has criticized. 
 
 Hopes on the line 
 
 Escaping scandal fever in Washington after indictments of his campaign associates, Trump hopes an authoritative tour through five Asian capitals can help him rise above the controversy. But officials here, and even some of Trump's own aides, worry the Russia cloud could lead the unpredictable and bombastic US leader to lash out. 
 
 As he flew from Washington to an overnight stop in Hawaii, Trump demonstrated the Russia probe was still not far from mind, unleashing a flow of invective on Twitter accusing his own Justice Department of ignoring possible collusion by his former Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. 
 
 It was an inauspicious start to a trip meant to consolidate support in Asia for his combative approach to North Korea and to lay out an assertive approach to negotiate trade agreements. 
 
 On his longest foreign swing to date, Trump hopes to convince Asian leaders to put up a united front against Pyongyang, which has scaled up its provocations since Trump took office. 
 
 The friendliest stop is likely to be the first here in Japan, where Trump finds a leader eager to fuel a budding friendship. South Korea's new leader has shown more of a willingness to break with the US President, chastising some of his bellicose rhetoric about North Korea while encouraging talks with Pyongyang. 
 
 China 
 
 And while he's developed friendly ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping , their talks are fraught after Trump lambasted China ceaselessly on the campaign trail for its trade practices. So far, though, he hasn't taken action to label Beijing a currency manipulator. 
 
 At a moment of political weakness amid the Russia investigation, he faces leaders who themselves are enjoying new political muscle. In Japan, Abe saw decisive wins for his party in snap elections last month, and Xi emerged from a critical Communist Party Congress having consolidated power in historic fashion. 
 
 That's left Trump anxious about his negotiating power as the FBI and congressional investigators continue probing his campaign's ties to Russia. While Trump is abroad, the office led by special counsel Robert Mueller is expected to interview key White House aides as part of its investigation. 
 
 While Trump may divert attention through his high-level diplomacy, the issue is likely to arise in dramatic fashion in Vietnam, where he will face Putin for only the second time face-to-face. ||||| SEOUL — President Trump asserted Tuesday that his administration is making “a lot of progress” on North Korea, and he urged dictator Kim Jong Un to “make a deal” at the negotiating table on the rogue nation’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. 
 
 “I believe it makes sense for North Korea to do the right thing, not only for North Korea but for humanity all over the world,” Trump said during a joint news conference with South Korean President Moon Jae-in after a bilateral meeting at the Blue House. 
 
 “I do see certain movement, yes, but we’ll see what happens,” he added, without offering any details. 
 
 Trump’s remarks came as he prepared to deliver an address to the South Korean National Assembly on Wednesday in which advisers said he intends to call on countries to rally against the growing threat from Pyongyang. On Tuesday, he praised Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he will meet in Beijing for a three-day summit starting Wednesday, for being “very helpful” and added that China is “trying very hard to solve the problem.” He offered hope that Russia will “likewise be helpful.” Trump has said he expects to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin at a regional summit later in the week in either Vietnam or the Philippines. 
 
 “This is not the right time to be doing it, but that’s what I got,” Trump said, complaining that his predecessors at the White House had failed to solve the issue. “This is a problem that should have been taken care of a long time ago.” 
 
 The president avoided the type of heated rhetoric he has employed in the past while talking about North Korea, but he emphasized that the United States is “showing great strength.” 
 
 North Korea “knows we have unparalleled strength,” Trump said. “There’s never been strength like this.” He cited the presence of three aircraft carriers and a nuclear submarine in the region. 
 
 Trump appeared to touch on the themes of his upcoming speech to the South Korean parliament when he urged “people all across the globe" to come together to "confront North Korea's actions and prevent the North Korean dictator from threatening millions of innocent lives." Trump added, "He is threatening millions and millions of lives so needlessly.” 
 
 Before the news conference, the president toured Camp Humphreys, the third military base he has visited since leaving Washington on a 12-day trip to the Asia-Pacific region that began last Friday. 
 
 Trump landed at the $11 billion base, 40 miles south of Seoul, on Marine One and, after saluting several commanding officers on the tarmac, went to the mess hall to have lunch with troops. He sat down on a bench at a long table in between soldiers dressed in green military fatigues. Trump was accompanied by Moon, as well as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and national security adviser H.R. McMaster. 
 
 Wearing a navy-blue suit and bright solid blue tie, Trump smiled and waved at reporters. 
 
 “Ultimately, it will all work out. It always works out. It has to work out,” Trump said at the start of a briefing with military commanders at the base. 
 
 The tour of Camp Humphreys comes on the heels of Trump’s visits to Yokota Air Base outside Tokyo and Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. 
 
 [As North Korea intensifies its missile program, the U.S. opens an $11 billion base in the South] 
 
 “The United States remains committed to the complete, verifiable and permanent denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” McMaster said last week. “President Trump will reiterate the plain fact that North Korea threatens not just our allies, South Korea and Japan, and the United States — North Korea is a threat to the entire world. So all nations of the world must do more to counter that threat.” 
 
 But South Koreans are on edge for Trump's visit, and police have worked to keep protesters at bay. Trump has low public approval numbers here amid concerns that his heated rhetoric toward Kim Jong Un’s regime could lead to a military confrontation. The president has emphasized that military options remain on the table, although he has declined to be specific. 
 
 Foreign policy analysts said the stakes are high for Trump to deliver a speech on Wednesday that clearly spells out his administration’s North Korea policy. The administration has made progress in ramping up pressure on the North, but analysts said many in Seoul, as well as Tokyo and Beijing, remain confused because Trump and his senior aides have offered mixed messages. 
 
 “People want clarification,” said a former State Department official who worked on Asian affairs during the Obama administration. He spoke on condition of anonymity because his current job outside government does not allow him to speak on the record. “There’s a lot of nervousness in South Korea.” 
 
 Camp Humphreys is located in Pyeongtaek, a sleepy rural city that was chosen because it is outside the range of much of the North’s heavy artillery trained on Seoul, where the previous base was located. Recent U.S. presidents have visited the heavily guarded Korean demilitarized zone, but Trump aides said Moon invited the president to tour Camp Humphreys instead. The move was made in part over concerns that a DMZ visit would ratchet up tensions with the North at a time when the Moon government is preparing to host the Winter Olympics early next year. 
 
 A senior administration official said Trump will use his speech to highlight the North Korean regime's long history of human rights abuses — against its own people and abroad. Trump lashed out at Kim after the North released Otto Warmbier, an American college student who had been detained for 17 months, comatose. Warmbier died shortly after arriving home in Ohio. 
 
 In the speech, there will be “some focus on the often overlooked question of the human rights conditions of North Korea,” said the administration official, who was not authorized to speak on the record in a briefing for reporters in Tokyo on Sunday. “I heard one journalist recently described it as the most totalitarian state in the history of humankind. I don’t think that’s an overstatement.” 
 
 The official added that “whether it’s bombing airliners or terrorist attacks abroad, or the hundreds of attacks that have taken place over the decades against U.S. and South Korean personnel, or the abductions of Japanese citizens and, of course, South Koreans who have been abducted over the years as well — it would take a lifetime to be able to meet with all of the people who have been victimized by that regime and are still alive to talk about it." 
 
 In Tokyo on Monday, Trump met with the families of Japanese citizens who were abducted by North Korean agents four decades ago to help the regime learn the Japanese language and culture. Five abductees were released more than a decade ago but at least a dozen remain in the North, according to the Japanese government. 
 
 In a news conference Monday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump dismissed suggestions that his rhetoric has created more risk for the United States and its allies. Trump vowed during a United Nations address in September that his administration is prepared to “totally destroy” North Korea if necessary, and he has dubbed Kim the “Little Rocket Man” in a series of tweets. 
 
 “Some people said that my rhetoric is very strong, but look what’s happened with very weak rhetoric over the last 25 years,” Trump said. “Look where we are right now.” 
 
 Yet as he has traveled to the region, Trump also has offered notes of encouragement for North Korean citizens, calling them “great people.” 
 
 “They’re under a very repressive regime, and I really think that, ultimately, I hope it all works out,” he said.
– Donald Trump is in Asia this week to talk trade and the threat of a nuclear North Korea, and at his first stop, Yokota Air Base in Tokyo, on Sunday morning he told the American troops gathered to hear him speak that things are going "really, really well" back in the United States "since a very very special day—it's called Election Day." Wearing a leather bomber jacket, Trump talked about the success of the stock market and continued low levels of unemployment, the New York Times reports. He also talked about dealing ISIS "one brutal defeat after another." Trump called American troops "the greatest threat to tyrants and dictators who seek to prey on the innocent.” Tokyo is the first stop on Trump's 12-day tour of Asia, during which he'll meet with the leaders of Japan, South Korea, and China and attend summits in Vietnam and the Philippines. Arguably the biggest issue facing the region is North Korea, and Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he will likely meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam to discuss the rogue nation, CNN reports. Trump's arrival in Japan came on the same day a report in the Japan Times claimed the president questioned the country's decision not to shoot down North Korean missiles earlier this year. The source said Trump, while speaking on the phone with South Asian leaders, expressed disbelief that a country of "samurai warriors" didn't strike back.