Photo: ReutersNorth Korea is likely to be on the agenda as Foreign Minister Murray McCully meets with senior US military officials in Hawaii this week. North Korea has been escalating its weapons programme and the Trump administration has warned its patience with the country is running out. One of those aircraft carriers, the USS Carl Vinson, was deployed in the waters off the Korean Peninsula this week, in a move described by North Korea as an "aggressive war drill". Last month, Mr McCully condemned North Korea "in the strongest terms" after it carried out multiple missile tests. North Korea has launched more than 20 missiles since last year, in breach of United Nations Security Council resolutions which ban all such missile tests by the country.

Source: Otago Daily Times April 18, 2017 03:45 UTC