While the United States and South Korea stepped up joint military exercises close to the North Korean border after the isolated country's latest show of force, the top US commander in the Asia-Pacific was telling Congress in Washington he's preparing to use the best technology on the planet to counter any threats by North Korea of a pre-emptive nuclear strike.
Admiral Harry Harris says the joint South Korea-US Terminal High-Altitude Defence System, known as THAAD, will be operational within days.
He says it's just one of many measures being taken to counter North Korean provocations.
"That's why the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group is back on patrol in northeast Asia. That's why we must continue to debut America's newest and best military platforms in the Indo-Asia Pacific. That's why we continue to emphasise trilateral cooperation between Japan, South Korea and the United States: a partnership with a purpose, if there ever was one."
But Chinese Foreign Affairs ministry spokesman Geng Shuang says setting up the anti-missile system on South Korean soil will only escalate tensions.
"The deployment of the THAAD system by the US and South Korea in South Korean soil will disrupt regional strategic equilibrium and further aggravate the already tense situation in the Korean peninsula. The move does not help the process of denuclearisation on the peninsula nor regional peace and stability. We urge the stopping of the deployment of the THAAD system, and removal of related facilities. China will be taking firm measures to defend our own interests."
Many South Koreans, too, are unhappy about the US military starting to truck in parts of the THAAD system.
Villagers living on the deployment site about 250 kilometres south of the capital, Seoul, have rallied against the earlier-than-expected move.
"Stop the deployment" protesters chant, while waving placards bearing the words: "Illegally brought in THAAD equipment! Immediately remove!"
But addressing Congress leaders, Admiral Harry Harris made no apology for the US taking seriously the threats from unpredicatable North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
"First off sir, I don't share your confidence that North Korea is not going to attack either South Korea or Japan or the United States once they have the capability. I won't say that they will but I don't share your confidence that they won't. He has threatened by name Manhattan, Washington, Colorado, Australia, Hawaii and there's a capability gap probably in whether he can or not. When he threatens the United States then that's one level, but when he threatens the United States with the capability of realising that threat that's a different place and when that happens that's an inflection point and we're going to have to deal with that, I believe."
As the North Korea standoff escalated, President Donald Trump invited all 100 members of the Senate to a meeting with the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and national intelligence officials.
In an unusual move, the senators were taken by bus to the White House for the briefing.
Traditionally administration officials travel to Capitol Hill to brief politicians on national secuirty issues.
But the tough-talking from the US hasn't silenced North Korea.
Its foreign ministry describes attempts to make North Korea give up nuclear weapons through military threats and sanctions "a wild dream" and like sweeping the sea with a broom.
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