WASHINGTON (AP) – The Trump administration hosted senators for an extraordinary White House briefing Wednesday at a perilous moment with North Korea, marked by the unpredictable nation’s nuclear threats and stern talk of military action, if necessary, from the United States. And America’s Pacific commander said any North Korean missile fired at U.S. forces would be destroyed. But the U.S.' Pacific forces commander, Adm. Harry Harris Jr., told Congress on Wednesday that the system would be operational within days. Although such an explosion hasn't yet occurred, Trump has sent high-powered U.S. military vessels and an aircraft carrier to the region in a show of force, while North Korea conducted large-scale, live-fire artillery drills earlier this week. In a fresh stage of escalation between the US and North Korea, President Donald Trump early in April promised to send a “very powerful armada,” led by the aircraft carrier ‘USS Carl Vinson,’ to press Pyongyang into abandoning its nuclear and missile programs. “The purpose of this briefing is to tell us the situation and the intelligence we have and what (are) the options we have.”

Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, Harris said he expects North Korea, under Kim’s autocratic rule, to soon be able to develop a long-range missile capable of striking the United States, despite some spectacular failures in its ballistic missile program. “One of these days soon, he will succeed.”

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 same team also met with House members at the Capitol to outline North Korea's escalating nuclear capabilities and the U.S.' options in responding to what they called an "urgent national security threat." The unprecedented meeting with the entire Senate in a building adjacent to the White House reflected the increased alarm over North Korea's progress in developing a nuclear-tipped missile that could strike 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. The U.S. needs a strategy to change North Korea’s economic and security calculus for it to freeze and ultimately eliminate its nuclear and missile programs, he said, adding: There’s no “pretty military solution.”

U.S. officials said Wednesday’s briefings will center on three key issues: 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. North Korea routinely accuses the United States of readying for an invasion, and threatens pre-emptive strikes to stop the U.S.

On Wednesday, North Korea’s U.N. mission said it would react to “a total war” with the U.S. with nuclear war. It said it would win in a “death-defying struggle against the U.S. imperialists.”

A targeted U.S. attack to take out North Korea’s nuclear weapons program could spark a wider war on the Korean peninsula, lawmakers and experts have warned. The Maeil Business Daily said Tuesday that Trump not calling South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, the country’s acting leader, showed that the relations between the allies are “not normal.”

The newspaper also mentioned that Washington has yet to name its new ambassador to Seoul three months after the departure of Mark Lippert and questioned whether Trump has “entirely left out South Korea in his picture for the Korean Peninsula.”

The JoongAng Ilbo daily said in an editorial that South Korea shouldn’t be excluded from critical discussions surrounding North Korea, because “the destiny of our nation could be at stake.”

Seoul has long worried about losing its voice in international efforts to deal with North Korea’s nuclear threat — something local media have termed “Korea Passing.”

Maeil Business wrote: “When a military clash happens in the Korean Peninsula, South Korea will be the first target of North Korea and its military will hold joint operations with U.S. troops to fight back. Washington and Pyongyang have flexed their muscles in recent days. South Korea’s military says it’s closely watching North Korean troop movement around an eastern coastal town where the North reportedly conducted a huge live-fire drill to mark the founding anniversary of its military. The jubilee was marked by massive – yet conventional – drills, which featured some 300-400 long-range artillery pieces and were supervised by North Korean leader Kin Jong-un, according to Yonhap News agency citing South Korean Army sources. China, which has grown increasingly frustrated with North Korea, its ally, and Russia see the system’s powerful radars as a security threat. In Berlin, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said through an interpreter that all sides had obligations and “we don’t want to see any cherry picking.”

Pyongyang must suspend its nuclear activities, he said, but “on the other side, the large-scale military manoeuvrs in Korean waters should be halted.”

In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the THAAD system’s deployment would “disrupt the regional strategic balance and further aggravate the tension on the peninsula.”

“China will firmly be taking necessary measures to defend our own interests,” Geng added. In the past two weeks, Trump has ordered high-powered U.S. military vessels, including an aircraft carrier, to the region in a show of force to deter North Korea from more nuclear and missile tests.
The United States deploys parts of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense in South Korea amidst high tension caused by North Korea's escalation of its missile and nuclear weapons programs.