A US submarine has arrived in South Korea, to join the USS Carl Vinson in drills near the Korean Peninsula.
Meanwhile in an unusual event, the entire US Senate has been asked to attend a briefing on North Korea on Wednesday at the White House.
The USS Michigan is a nuclear-powered submarine carrying 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles and 60 special operations troops and mini-subs. It is expected to take part in military exercises with the Carl Vinson warship group dispatched by the US in a show of force.
The warships were briefly at the center of some confusion when they did not immediately head to the Korean peninsula, but US Navy officials said it is now proceeding to the region as ordered.
In Seoul, top American military commanders on Tuesday emphasized the strength of the alliance with South Korea, as North Korea's military apparently staged its largest-ever live-fire drills along its east coast on the occasion of the founding anniversary of its armed forces, South Korea's news agency (Yonhap) reported. 
"We just stand ready. That's the only message we have (to North Korea)," Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, the commander of US Forces Korea (USFK), said. "We are committed to the ROK (South Korea)-US alliance. That's the most important thing. That's our duty. That's what we do". He was speaking to Yonhap News Agency shortly after attending a historic statue transition ceremony at a USFK base in central Seoul.
The monument of Gen. Walton H. Walker, a figure symbolic of the US participation in the 1950-53 Korean War, will be moved to the USFK's expanded Camp Humphreys base in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul, as part of a broader base relocation project. 

Source: QNA