SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. strategic bombers conducted drills over South Korea, the U.S. Air Force said, raising tensions with North Korea just days before President Donald Trump visits the region seeking to shut down Pyongyang’s nuclear program. 
 
 A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer assigned to the 37th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, takes-off to fly a bilateral mission with Japanese and South Korea Air Force jets in the vicinity of the Sea of Japan, from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, October 10, 2017. Senior Airman Jacob Skovo-Lane/U.S. Air Force/Handout via REUTERS 
 
 News of the Thursday’s drills was first reported by North Korean state news agency KCNA on Friday, which said the exercises involving South Korean and Japanese fighter jets were a “surprise nuclear strike drill”. 
 
 “The reality clearly shows that the gangster-like U.S. imperialists are the very one who is aggravating the situation of the Korean peninsula and seeking to ignite a nuclear war,” KCNA said. 
 
 Trump arrives in Asia on Sunday, beginning his first trip to the region as president in Japan before heading to South Korea and China, then Vietnam and the Philippines. 
 
 A series of missile tests by North Korea and its sixth and largest nuclear test, defying U.N. Security Council resolutions, have fueled the most critical international challenge of Trump’s presidency. 
 
 China, under U.S. pressure to do more to rein in its ally, on Friday stressed that it had been enforcing U.N. resolutions and reiterated its opposition to the use of force. 
 
 “Over the long term, China has made unremitting efforts to appropriately resolve the peninsula nuclear issue and promote dialogue and negotiation between all parties,” Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang told reporters at a briefing in Beijing. 
 
 “You can say we’ve made our greatest effort.” 
 
 The goal of Trump’s visit will be to increase international support for efforts to deprive North Korea of resources as leverage to coerce it to give up nuclear weapons, U.S. officials said. 
 
 “The president recognizes that we’re running out of time (to deal with North Korea) and will ask all nations to do more,” White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster told reporters at a briefing in Washington. 
 
 McMaster said Trump, who has approved a variety of sanctions against North Korea while pressing China to do more, was at the beginning of his drive for Pyongyang to give up nuclear weapons. Trump has warned he would “totally destroy” North Korea if it threatened the United States. 
 
 “I think we have to be a little patient here for at least a few months to see what more we and others can do, including China,” said McMaster. “I don’t think we need to reassess our strategy now. I think we have to give it a couple of months, a few months, and then see what adjustments we might need to make.” 
 
 SHOW OF FORCE 
 
 While North Korea has not launched any missiles since Sept. 15, the longest such lull this year, a flurry of activity has been detected at its missile research facilities in Pyongyang, pointing to another possible launch, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers on Thursday. 
 
 Seoul held a National Security Council meeting on Friday to discuss possible unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang, and may announce the measures ahead of Trump’s arrival in South Korea, a presidential official said. 
 
 “The United States has wanted the South Korean government to take further steps to sanction the North. Unilateral sanctions by South Korea wouldn’t have much practical impact but have a symbolic importance,” the official said. 
 
 Ahead of Trump’s visit to Asia, the drills involving the U.S. bombers marked the latest show of force by the United States and its allies. 
 
 The planes flew over the Pilsung Range training area in central South Korea, Air Force spokeswoman Captain Victoria Hight said. 
 
 Japanese and South Korean fighter jets carried out sequenced missions with the U.S. bombers but no ordnance was dropped, the Air Force said. 
 
 The drill was staged at a time when three U.S. aircraft carrier groups are in the Asia-Pacific, the first time such a potent projection of force has been together in the region in a decade. 
 
 U.S. officials said earlier this week a decision may be made for the three carriers to carry out a joint exercise to coincide with Trump’s trip. 
 
 KCNA said the combination of the bomber drills with the presence of the carrier groups underscored the gravity of the situation. 
 
 “The U.S. imperialists are making last-ditch efforts to check the dynamic advance of the DPRK by deploying their nuclear strategic assets in succession, but its army and people are never frightened at such moves,” KCNA reported, referring to North Korea by the initials for its official name. 
 
 “The U.S. imperialist warmongers should not act rashly.” ||||| Story highlights Intelligence indicates preparations for a North Korean missile test are underway 
 
 North Korea's nuclear ambitions high on agenda for President Trump's Asia trip 
 
 Seoul, South Korea (CNN) North Korea may be preparing to carry out additional nuclear and missile tests, according to a report based on information from South Korea's spy agency. 
 
 The report was co-written by Rep. Kim Byung-kee and other members of South Korea's parliamentary intelligence committee after a closed-door briefing by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) on Thursday. 
 
 It said another missile test was possible given there had been "active movement of vehicles around a missile research institute in Pyongyang," the North Korean capital. 
 
 The report added that the NIS "predicts that North Korea will continue to carry out additional nuclear tests and push for the development of miniaturized, diversified nuclear warheads." 
 
 The tests are conducted deep underground in a series of tunnels at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, in North Hamgyong Province. ||||| National security adviser H.R. McMaster gestures as he answers questions from members of the media during the daily briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017.... (Associated Press) 
 
 National security adviser H.R. McMaster gestures as he answers questions from members of the media during the daily briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) (Associated Press) 
 
 National security adviser H.R. McMaster gestures as he answers questions from members of the media during the daily briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) (Associated Press) National security adviser H.R. McMaster gestures as he answers questions from members of the media during the daily briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017.... (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's national security adviser says North Korea could be returned to the list of countries the U.S. believes sponsor terrorism, as part of Trump's strategy to counter the North's growing nuclear threat. 
 
 "You'll hear more about that soon, I think," the adviser, H.R. McMaster, said at a briefing on the eve of Trump's five-nation tour of Asia, which starts Friday. North Korea's nuclear and missile weapons threat will be a key focus of Trump's meetings with the leaders of Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines during the 12-day trip, the president's first official visit to the region. 
 
 McMaster cited the killing in a Malaysian airport earlier this year of the estranged half-brother of North Korea's leader as an act of terrorism that could lead to the North's being added back to a list that includes only Iran, Sudan and Syria. 
 
 While Malaysia has not directly accused North Korea, South Korea's spy agency has claimed the attack was part of a plot by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to kill his brother, Kim Jong Nam. 
 
 "A regime who murders someone in a public airport using nerve agent, and a despotic leader who murders his brother in that manner, I mean, that's clearly an act of terrorism that fits in with a range of other actions," McMaster said. He said returning North Korea to the state sponsors of terrorism list "is something that's under consideration." 
 
 Kim Jong Nam died in February after two women rubbed his face with a liquid later identified as VX nerve agent as he passed through the airport in Kuala Lumpur. 
 
 Under legislation enacted Aug. 2, the State Department was required to determine within 90 days — or around Thursday — whether North Korea meets the criteria for being designated as a state sponsor of terrorism. 
 
 Secretary of State Rex Tillerson "continues to evaluate whether or not to designate DPRK as a state sponsor of terror," an official said Thursday. "The Department has informed Members of Congress that he expects to conclude his review and announce a decision within the month." 
 
 Trump's trip comes amid escalating tensions with North Korea, which has continued to pursue its missile and nuclear programs and ramped up its missile testing. In a recent speech at the United Nations, Trump said he would "totally destroy" the nation, if necessary. He has also derided the North Korean leader as "little Rocket Man." Kim has returned the favor, calling Trump a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard." 
 
 McMaster said the president would not temper his rhetoric against North Korea while on tour. 
 
 "The president will use whatever language he wants to use," he said. "That's been of great reassurance to our allies, partners and others in the region who are literally under the gun of this regime." 
 
 McMaster said a denuclearized Korean peninsula "is the only plausible outcome" and he called on other nations, including China — North Korea's chief benefactor in the region — to do more to help make that a reality. 
 
 The national security adviser said Trump would address North Korea's human rights record during the trip. 
 
 The U.S. kept North Korea on its terrorism blacklist for two decades after the 1987 bombing of a South Korean airliner that killed 115 people. But President George W. Bush lifted the designation in 2008 to smooth the way for aid-for-disarmament negotiations. 
 
 Re-designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism would be largely of symbolic significance. North Korea is heavily and increasingly sanctioned for its nuclear and missile activity in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions. Sanctions from a terror designation are unlikely to inflict significant, additional economic punishment. 
 
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 Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Matthew Lee and Matthew Pennington contributed to this report. 
 
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 Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap
– The North Korea situation is heating up again—just in time for President Trump's visit to the region. On Thursday, two Guam-based American B-1B Lancer strategic bombers joined Japanese and South Korean jets for drills near the Korean Peninsula, Reuters reports. American authorities describe the exercises as a routine mission, but Pyongyang called it a "surprise nuclear strike drill." The move "clearly shows that the gangster-like US imperialists are the very one who is aggravating the situation of the Korean Peninsula and seeking to ignite a nuclear war," North Korea said in a statement, per NBC News. The US military says the bombers were reconfigured decades ago to carry conventional weapons, not nuclear ones. According to South Korea's spy agency, there has been "active movement of vehicles around a missile research institute in Pyongyang," suggesting more missile or nuclear tests could be imminent, CNN reports. North Korean authorities said Thursday that a report hundreds of people died in a tunnel collapse at a nuclear site was "fake news." The AP reports that later Thursday, National Security Adviser HR McMaster told reporters that North Korea will be a main focus of talks with the leaders of Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam, and the Philippines during Trump's 12-day trip to Asia, which begins Friday. He added that the president "will use whatever language he wants to use" when discussing North Korea. (White House officials say Trump will not be visiting the DMZ.)