North Korea’s "provocation" underscored the risks faced by American and South Korean service members, hours after the North conducted a failed missile launch shortly before his arrival.Pence landed in South Korea at the start of a 10-day trip to Asia and was quickly confronted with the stakes facing the US as Pyongyang seeks to flex its muscles around the birth anniversary of the country’s late founder and advance the government’s nuclear and missile capabilities.
While Pence was aboard Air Force Two flying over the Bering Sea, a North Korean missile went
kaboom!on launch, US and South Korean officials said, representing a high-profile failure that came as a powerful US aircraft carrier approaches the Korean Peninsula.
After arriving in Seoul, the vice-president placed a wreath at Seoul National Cemetery and then worshipped with military personnel at an Easter church service at the US Army Garrison Yongsan. During a meal after the services, he said the tensions on the Korean peninsula had put into sharp focus the importance of the joint US-South Korean mission.
