“Now, more than ever, your commander in chief is depending on you to be ready,” Vice President Mike Pence said Friday. Pence is pictured during a fundraising event on Thursday, Oct. 26, in Colorado. | David Zalubowski/AP Photo Pence to U.S. troops on North Korea: 'Be ready' North Korea’s nuclear threat has become the central foreign policy concern of the Trump administration.

Vice President Mike Pence visited an Air Force base critical to American nuclear capabilities on Friday to deliver a stark warning to North Korea in the face of escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

“Our enemies should never doubt the capabilities of the Armed Forces of the United States of America,” Pence told servicemen and women at North Dakota’s Minot Air Force Base, home to 26 B-52 bombers and 150 intercontinental ballistic missile sites.


“Anyone who would threaten our nation should know that America always seeks peace, but if we are forced to defend ourselves or our allies, we will do so with military power that is effective and overwhelming,” Pence went on — though he also described the arsenal at Minot as “that credible deterrent that has assured the security of the American people for generations.”

“Now, more than ever, your commander in chief is depending on you to be ready,” Pence said.

The remarks come just days before President Donald Trump is set to take a trip to Asia that will include a visit to South Korea, where Defense Secretary James Mattis traveled Friday to visit the DMZ. While there, he reaffirmed American support for diplomatic efforts to resolve tensions with North Korea over its efforts to expand its nuclear capabilities.

North Korea’s nuclear threat has become the central foreign policy concern of the Trump administration. North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test in September, and rhetoric has been heated on both sides. Trump has frequently taken to Twitter to mock North Korea’s leader, calling him “little rocket man.”

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The administration successfully pushed for a new round of sanctions on the regime of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, and top administration officials including Pence have traveled to the region to show solidarity with allies. Mattis will be joined on Saturday in South Korea by Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for consultations with South Korean counterparts.

Pence delivered his remarks after participating in a combined mission briefing with Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson and other military leaders about aspects of military preparedness, including nuclear preparedness, according to an administration official.

The trip to Minot comes on the heels of a series of highly classified briefings Pence has participated in in the last two months with the National Geospatial Intelligence, the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office and the DNI, according to an official familiar with the briefings who spoke on condition of anonymity. Those briefings also focused on the North Korean threat.

