President Donald Trump opened the door to a future meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, offering unusual praise for the globally ostracized leader at a time of surging nuclear tensions.Although the White House played down near-term prospects for such a meeting, Trump’s conciliatory comments Monday marked a departure from his more unforgiving tone toward the North in recent weeks. Tensions high as US forces in South Korea announce activation of missile defence system while Kim regime condemns ‘aggression and hysteria’

North Korea has vowed to accelerate its nuclear weapons programme to “maximum pace” and test a nuclear device “at any time” in response to Donald Trump’s aggressive stance towards the regime. "The US aggression hysteria has never reached such a height and the situation on the Korean Peninsula has never inched close to the brink of nuclear war as in the period of the recent drills.”

"The DPRK is fully ready to respond to any option taken by the US… [it] will continue to bolster its military capabilities for self-defence and preemptive nuclear attack with the nuclear force as a pivot.” According to the North Korean official, Pyongyang has been developing its nuclear capabilities to fight off any US aggression. Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been running high for weeks, with signs that the North might be preparing a long-range missile launch or a sixth nuclear test — and with Washington refusing to rule out a military strike in response. Trump’s musings about a potential meeting with Kim were reminiscent of Obama’s declaration during his 2008 campaign that he’d be willing to meet without pre-condition with the leaders of North Korea, Iran, Cuba and other nations long at odds with the U.S. Republicans and Obama’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, criticized Obama for that statement. In Washington, White House spokesman Sean Spicer played down the prospect of a meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un after the president said in an interview with Bloomberg that he would be “honoured” to hold talks with the North Korean leader under the right circumstances. In a show of force, the United States has sent the nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group to waters off the Korean peninsula to join drills with South Korea to counter a series of threats of destruction from North Korea, formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Trump also sparked a small international misunderstanding when he suggested South Korea, instead of the U.S., should pay for its $1 billion missile-defense system (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD), which is being installed and should be operational soon in South Korea, says the New York Times.
North Korea vows to accelerate its nuclear weapons programme to “maximum pace” and test a nuclear device “at any time” in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's aggressive stance towards the regime.