&ldquo North Korea is a problem,&rdquo Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday. &ldquo The problem will be taken care of.&rdquo

Which prompted  North Korea' s rebuke of US President Trump' s " aggressive words,"   overnight.

 

Both China (&ldquo The situation now is similar to the time before a storm, and this kind of dangerous situation worth of our attention and we must be alert,&rdquo )  and Russia (watching the developments around North Korea with " great concern" ) have weighed in on the increasingly tense saber-rattling occurring between the two nations.



As Bloomberg reports, China warned that a war on the Korean Peninsula would have devastating consequences and  " one has the feeling that a war could break out at any moment."

 

 

  Chinese Foreign Minister  Wang Yi  urged all parties &ldquo to stop provoking and threatening each other and not to make the situation irretrievable,"   seemingly fearful that the next step could make war (world-inclusive) inevitable.

 

&ldquo No matter who the nation is, if it continues to provoke wars in the Peninsula, it has to bear this historical responsibility and pay its price.&rdquo

 

&ldquo Once a war really happens, the result will be nothing but losing all round and no one could become a winner,&rdquo   Wang told reporters in Beijing on Friday, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

These concerns were echoed by a senior Russian lawmaker who,  as AP reports, says the US is a greater threat to global peace than North Korea...

 

 

Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the upper house of Russian parliament, said Friday  " the most alarming thing about the current U.S. administration is that you can' t be sure if it is bluffing or really going to implement its threats."

 

He says  " America objectively poses a greater threat to peace than North Korea," adding that " the entire world is scared and left guessing if it strikes or not."

 

Kosachev says there is a  " small hope" that President Donald Trump' s administration would listen to warnings  from Russia and China not to use military force against nuclear-armed Pyongyang.

U.S. Vice President  Mike Pence  heads to Asia on a 10-day trip that will include South Korea. Pence plans to celebrate Easter with U.S. and Korean troops on Sunday before talks on Monday with acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn.

 

 

" We' re going to consult with the Republic of Korea on North Korea' s efforts to advance its ballistic missile and its nuclear program,"   a White House foreign policy adviser told reporters, previewing Pence' s trip. Pence will land in Seoul the day after North Korea' s biggest national day, the " Day of the Sun."

 

The White House has contingency plans for Pence' s trip should it coincide with a another North Korean nuclear test by its leader Kim Jong Un, the adviser said.  " Unfortunately, it' s not a new surprise for us. He continues to develop this program, he continues to launch missiles into the Sea of Japan,"   the adviser said.

 

" With the regime it' s not a matter of if - it' s when. We are well prepared to counter that,"   the adviser said.

But, with Trump' s pre-emptive strike looming Damocles sword-like overhead, the world is watching North Korea as speculation mounts that  Kim Jong Un&rsquo s regime will carry out a ballistic missile or nuclear test this weekend to mark the 105th birth anniversary of his grandfather Kim Il Sung, the nation&rsquo s founder, on Saturday.