Pence in South Korea Hours After Pyongyangs Failed Missile Test

The U.S. vice president has arrived in South Korea amid the uproar caused by North Korea’s failed missile test launch from the port city of Sinpo.

Mike Pence said Sunday times are “challenging,” but America’s “historic alliance with the courageous people of South Korea has never been stronger.”

Speaking in Seoul at a fellowship dinner for relatives of U.S. troops based in South Korea, the vice president said the willingness of the U.S. military members “to stand firm without fear inspires the nation and inspires the world.”

Before the dinner, the vice president attended Easter Sunday church services with military service members.

The failed missile launch came a day after a massive military parade in the North Korean capital that was widely viewed in world capitals as a show of force by the government of Kim Jong Un.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis issued a terse statement late Saturday: “The president and his military team are aware of North Korea’s most recent unsuccessful missile launch. The president has no further comment.”

Washington has been engaged in a sharp multi-national diplomatic offensive aimed at persuading North Korean leader Kim to end his push to develop nuclear weaponry.

US evaluating launch

A short while after the launch, a statement from the U.S. Pacific Command said the missile blew up almost immediately and that its type was still being assessed.

The statement also reiterated Washington’s full commitment “to working closely with our allies,” particularly South Korea and Japan, to maintain security.

Vice President Pence was briefed on the failed launch during his flight to Seoul and conferred with the president, according to a statement from Pence’s office.

Earlier this past week, as tensions worsened between Washington and Pyongyang, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a U.S. Naval strike group headed by the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier to the Korean peninsula in show of force.

Pyongyang conducted two unauthorized nuclear test explosions last year and nearly two dozen rocket launches in a years-long push to expand its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

Pyongyang boasts of missile prowess

North Korean leader Kim declared in a speech on New Year’s Day that his country’s program to build inter-continental ballistic missiles had “reached its final stage.”

Pyongyang has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006, along with an international arms embargo aimed at slowing its development of its banned nuclear and missile programs.

Since then, Washington and a vast majority of world governments have repeatedly demanded that the North denuclearize the Korean peninsula. Western leaders, however, have yet to devise a plan that would either compel the North to cooperate or create incentives for it to do so.

President Trump has in recent weeks pressed China to persuade its North Korean ally to curb its nuclear ambitions, but results of those efforts are not yet clear.