[11] Though talks there broke down, a third summit took place in the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on 30 June 2019, with Trump becoming the first sitting US president to visit North Korea.

[12] In his New Year's Day speech on January 2, 2017, Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, said that the country was in the "last stage" of preparations to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

[5] Since North Korea's first nuclear test in 2006, the UN Security Council had passed a number of resolutions that imposed various sanctions on the DPRK, including restrictions on economic activity.

[26] In July 2017, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson authorized a "Geographical Travel Restriction" which banned Americans from entering North Korea.

"[40] In reality on April 18, Carl Vinson and its escorts were 5,600 kilometres (3,500 mi) from Korea engaged in scheduled joint Royal Australian Navy exercises in the Indian Ocean.

[39][41][42] On April 24 the Japanese destroyers Ashigara and Samidare participated with Carl Vinson in tactical training drills near the Philippines; North Korea threatened to sink her with a single strike.

[5] According to New York Times correspondent Michael S. Schmidt, Trump proposed using a nuclear weapon against North Korea and blaming the attack on another country, but was dissuaded by John F.

The North Korean governmental news agency KCNA reported that Kim Jong Un's military was considering a plan to fire four ICBMs, type Hwasong-12, into the Philippine Sea just 30–40 kilometers away from the island Guam.

Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton and former U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta stated that the standoff between the U.S. and North Korea over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program was comparable to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

[62][63] Bob Woodward, in his 2020 book Rage, quoted Mike Pompeo as saying the national security team "never knew whether it was real, or whether it was a bluff", and reported that Jim Mattis slept fully dressed due to concerns about a North Korean attack.

Dave Benham of US Pacific Command, one of the missiles exploded on launch while the other two suffered critical failures in flight, splashing down in the Sea of Japan after flying a distance of 250 kilometers (160 mi).

[73][74] The launch was scheduled on the 107th anniversary of the Japan-Korea annexation treaty, and KCNA said that it was "a bold plan to make the cruel Japanese islanders insensible on bloody August 29.

[81] On September 3, at 3:31 am UTC, the United States Geological Survey reported that it had detected a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in North Korea near the Punggye-ri test site.

[86] On the same day, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis speaking on behalf of the White House, warned there would be "a massive military response" to any threat from North Korea against the United States, including Guam, or its allies.

The state news agency Yonhap said the South's military had carried out a live-fire exercise simulating an attack on the North's nuclear site, hitting "designated targets in the East Sea".

"[94] President Vladimir Putin speaking to the Chinese press on September 5, 2017, described U.S. proposals for further sanctions on Pyongyang as "useless"; he said, "Ramping up military hysteria in such conditions is senseless; it's a dead end.

"[96] A plan proposed by both China and Russia calls for a joint freeze (freeze-for-freeze) – of North's missile tests, and U.S. and South Korean military exercises; the next step would be starting talks.

[98][failed verification] On September 6, Donald Trump, after a telephone conversation with China's Xi Jinping, said that the United States would not tolerate North Korea's provocations, although military action was not his "first choice".

[91] On September 10, the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with BBC television: "The reckless behavior of North Korea is a global threat and requires a global response and that of course also includes NATO"; when asked whether an attack on the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam would trigger NATO's Article 5, he said: "I will not speculate about whether Article 5 will be applied in such a situation.

[100] The next day, an IRBM was fired from near Pyongyang and flew over Hokkaido, Japan before splashing down in the western Pacific about two thousand kilometers off Cape Erimo at about 7:16 am local time.

"[104][105] Also, without mentioning it by name, Donald Trump criticized China for maintaining relations with NK, calling it "an outrage that some nations would not only trade with such a regime, but would arm, supply, and financially support a country that imperils the world with nuclear conflict".

[105][104] On September 20, U.S. president Donald Trump signed an executive order that further toughened U.S. sanctions against North Korea: the U.S. Treasury was thereby authorized to target firms and financial institutions conducting business with NK.

[106][107] Commenting on the executive order, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, "Foreign financial institutions are now on notice that going forward they can choose to do business with the United States or North Korea, but not both.

[120] Former CIA Director John O. Brennan, during a Q&A session at Fordham University on October 18, remarked that "I think the prospects of military conflict in the Korean peninsula are greater than they have been in several decades...

"[121] An argument emerged in both South Korea and Japan about the nuclear option, driven by worry that the United States might hesitate to defend the countries if doing so might provoke a missile launched from the North at major U.S.

Initial assessments made by the Pentagon and subsequent analysis suggested that it was an ICBM judging by the height it traveled and, if fired on a normal trajectory, would more than be able to reach anywhere in the continental United States.

"[152] Residents and tourists in the U.S. state of Hawaii were briefly thrown into a panic when an emergency alert was issued January 13, 2018, advising of an imminent ballistic missile threat.

[158] In mid-February, as the Olympics were ongoing, after previous media reports,[159] the Trump administration denied considering a so-called preemptive "bloody nose" attack on North Korea's nuclear program.

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton confirmed that the administration's policy remains one of "maximum pressure" via economic sanctions in order to get North Korea to negotiate on eliminating its nuclear weapons.

[171] Satellite images obtained by CNN in December 2018 show that the Yeongjeo-dong long-range missile base (the existence of which was already public knowledge) remains active.