The USS Michigan, a nuclear-powered submarine armed with guided Tomahawk cruise missiles, will join the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier off the Korean peninsula, UPI reports.

The Michigan, which is armed with more than 150 Tomahawks, should arrive in the area on Tuesday, the same day that North Korea will commemorate the 85th anniversary of the founding of its army. The Vinson is also expected to be in the area sometime this week.

Some North Korea watchers speculate that the Kim regime may use this occasion to test a nuclear device, which experts say they could do at any time. 

North Korean media has already reacted harshly to the Vinson's deployment, calling it "an extremely dangerous act by those who plan a nuclear war to invade," adding that "what's only laid for aggressors is dead bodies."

North Korea is the only country to have tested nuclear weapons in the 21st century, and such a step would be seen as a major provocation to US forces in the area and South Koreans, who have placed their military on high alert. North Korea fields a single, antiquated submarine, showed off an advanced submarine-launched ballistic missile at a recent military parade.

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke on the phone about North Korea's "continued belligerence" on Monday. The White House plans to host all members of the Senate for a briefing on North Korea on Wednesday. 

SEE ALSO: A tiny detail from North Korea's military parade may show how close it is to long-range nukes

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NOW WATCH: These are the small, agile new aircraft carriers meant to take F-35s into battle

The Government Accountability Office released a report on Monday warning the Department of Defense against funding further software updates for the already $400 billion F-35 program until the current software becomes operational.

The F-35 is already operational with the Air Force and Marine Corps, but it runs a limited version of its software, called the 3i block, which only provides 89% of the code required for full warfighting potency. 

Meanwhile, as the US keeps buying the jets, Lockheed Martin, the F-35's primary manufacturer, is scrambling to provide 100% of the code with their planned 3F update.

At a conference earlier this year, Lockheed Martin told Business Insider they hoped to have the updated software loaded into the factory and ready to go on new jets by the end of 2017, but the GAO found that claim unlikely.

"Program officials optimistically estimate that the program will need an additional five months to complete developmental testing," the statement reads. But "according to best practices" and "credible estimates," the GAO pegs that number at around 12 months.

And while F-35 program officials admit the delay will cost an additional $532 million, GAO cites $1.7 billion in cost overruns with "approximately $1.3 billion of which will be needed in fiscal year 2018."

One reason the F-35 costs ramp up so quickly, according to the report, is a high level of concurrency between the F-35's development, testing, and procurement. Essentially, all three of those processes take place simultaneously, unlike past defense projects, so a delay in development immediately hurts testing, which then hurts procurement.

Lockheed Martin officials have told Business Insider that the best way to save money on the program would be a large investment allowing them to buy bigger blocks of F-35s at once, thereby leveraging economies of scale.

But the GAO recommends the opposite — essentially saying the F-35 should not put out request for proposals on the even further out block 4 of F-35 software until they can complete the 3F, base their estimates on historical program data, and resubmit a revised budget to Congress.

As many experts and US servicemembers have told Business Insider, the military awaits the full combat potential of the F-35 for national security reasons as adversarial nations like Russia and China field advanced aircraft and threats of their own.

The F-35's block 4 of software promises to open up the full range of combat potential inherent in the F-35, including expanding the jet's arsenal to include nuclear weapons. 

President Donald Trump has already weighed in several times on the F-35, with Lockheed Martin's CEO Marillyn Hewson telling Business Insider in March that his involvement in a previous F-35 buy helped save hundreds of millions of dollars.

SEE ALSO: Here's why the F-35 once lost to F-16s, and how it made a stunning comeback

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NOW WATCH: Watch the Navy's LOCUST launcher fire a swarm of drones

As tensions reach a boiling point between North Korea, the US, and the North's neighbors, Japan's government has issued a guide for its citizens on how to survive a missile attack that would take less than 10 minutes to hit Japan, The Washington Post reports.

The guide warns specifically of nuclear ballistic-missile attacks, as North Korea continues both nuclear and ballistic-missile programs.

The guide instructs people to keep calm, keep roads clear, and maintain communication with the outside world through radio or TV in the event of a nuclear, chemical, or biological attack.

It recommends that in the event of a nuclear explosion, people not look at the flash, which could be blinding, and have the least possible amount of skin exposed to the blast of radiation.

Paranoia or real concern?

North Korea stunned experts by displaying a wide range of new or modified missile types at its April 15 military parade in Pyongyang.

The Kim regime has shown steady improvement in its missile program and remains the only country to test nuclear devices in the 21st century. Experts warn that it could be on the verge of another nuclear device.

Its latest round of missile tests and provocations seems to have worried the people of Japan, where sales of nuclear shelters and air purifiers have skyrocketed.

The Post reports that Japan's civil-defense website is experiencing a huge spike in traffic and features frequently asked questions about North Korean missile strikes.

Japanese guided-missile destroyers joined the USS Carl Vinson aircraft-carrier strike group off the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday, as did the USS Michigan, a special-operations and guided-missile nuclear-powered submarine. Tuesday also marked a military celebration in North Korea on the 85th anniversary of the founding of the country's army.

Though Japan would have virtually no defense against a surprise nuclear attack, experts contacted by Business Insider maintain that a first strike from North Korea seems incredibly unlikely, as the Kim regime would face quick retaliation from a much more certain nuclear power, the US.

On Wednesday, every US senator was invited to a briefing on North Korea at the White House.

SEE ALSO: A nuclear-powered submarine is joining the USS Carl Vinson near North Korea as tensions flare

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NOW WATCH: NASA just sent its $3.26 billion spacecraft on a suicide mission

Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis have all toured Asia less than 100 days into President Donald Trump's administration, but experts still say the US lacks any clear, coherent Asia strategy.

All 100 US Senators were invited to a briefing on North Korea at the White House on Wednesday, with a similar briefing in the works for the 453 members of the House.

Earlier this month, the topic of North Korea reportedly dominated the conversation between China's President Xi Jinping and Trump.

But despite repeated threats of military force and attempts to force China's hand against North Korea, the US hasn't defined a clear strategy on North Korea, or anywhere in Asia.

A recent article in the Washington Post quoted high-level Japanese officials as urging the White House to not only clear up a short-term North Korea policy, but also a long-term policy for dealing with China, whose land grabs in the South China Sea originally drew ire from Trump and have long troubled their neighbors in the region.

"The Chinese are very happy this is off the radar for the moment," Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies told Business Insider of the South China Sea. 

"My view is there does need to be regional strategy and North Korea needs to be a part of that," said Glaser, who noted that there is also an upside to the Trump administration's apparently singular focus on North Korea.

"When you approach China, it is a good idea to have a set of priorities. If you throw five different issues at them and you don’t make clear which is your priority, you’re less likely to get any response," said Glaser. "We’ve seen in the past when US comes at China with clear priority, especially when sanctions seem imminent, China gets more motivated to act."

But while the Trump administration may be winning the battle on coercing China to act against North Korea, they may be losing the larger war for influence in the Pacific.

Despite Trump's broad ambitions to reconfigure US-Asia relations, Glaser says she hasn't heard of any policy reviews from the administration.

Requests from Pacific Command to the Pentagon about various freedom of navigation operations (or FONOPs) in the South China Sea "have not gone anywhere," according to Glaser. The US uses FONOPs — where US Navy ships sale next to China's land claims — to assert their presence, reassure US allies, and poke holes in the narrative that China is all powerful in the region.

"Some say [the requests are] sitting at Mattis’ desk, some people say National Security Council," said Glaser. Either way, even within the military, Trump's broad Asia strategy remains a mystery. 

Meanwhile, faith in the US among its Pacific allies has visibly faded. Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines, a historically stalwart US ally, recently signaled just how far the balance of power has shifted.

“We cannot stop China from doing this thing," Duterte said of China's island-building in the South China Sea, where the Philippines territory has been threatened despite them winning a case against China's land grab at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague. "The Americans cannot even stop them from doing so."

“What do you want me to do? Declare war against China? I can’t, we will all lose our military and policemen tomorrow. We are a destroyed nation. We cannot even assert a single sentence of the provision that we signed,” Duterte said, according to the Manilla Times. 

So while Trump has shown he's ready to flex with a powerful armada off Korea's coast "We need to be able to deal with more than one issue at a time," said Glaser.

SEE ALSO: Japan issues guide on how to survive nuclear-missile attack with 10 minutes' notice

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NOW WATCH: Here's what $1 billion worth of cocaine looks like

Ahead of an extraordinary White House briefing for senators, close ally South Korea on Wednesday started installing key parts of a contentious U.S. defense system against missiles from North Korea. And America's Pacific commander said any North Korean missile fired at U.S. forces would be destroyed.

"If it flies, it will die," Adm. Harry Harris Jr., told Congress.

South Korea's trumpeting of progress in setting up the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, comes as high-powered U.S. military vessels converge on the Korean Peninsula and as a combative North Korea signals possible nuclear and missile testing. Harris said the THAAD would be operational within days.

North Korea conducted live-fire artillery drills on Tuesday, the 85th anniversary of the founding of its million-person Korean People's Army. On the same day, a U.S. guided-missile submarine docked in South Korea. The USS Carl Vinson aircraft supercarrier also is headed toward the peninsula for an exercise with South Korea. China, which is urging restraint on all sides, called for the U.S. to halt the maneuvers.

At a House Armed Services Committee, Harris rejected reports that the Carl Vinson group is vulnerable to North Korean attacks. The commander of U.S. Pacific Command said North Korea doesn't have a weapon that can threaten the group.

But Harris also said he expects North Korea to soon be able to develop a long-range missile capable of striking the United States, despite some spectacular failures in its ballistic missile program.

"Just as Thomas Edison is believed to have failed 1,000 times before successfully inventing the electric light bulb, so too, Kim Jong Un will keep trying," Harris said. "One of these days soon, he will succeed."

Harris testified before a pair of Trump administration briefings on the North Korea crisis. All 100 senators have been invited to an unprecedented briefing in a building next to the White House that will include President Donald Trump's secretary of state, defense secretary, top general and national intelligence director. The briefing team will then speak to House members in the Capitol.

The Trump administration has warned that all options, including a military strike, are on the table to block North Korea from developing a nuclear-tipped missile that could reach the U.S. mainland. A U.S. pre-emptive attack isn't likely, American officials have said, and the Trump White House has settled on a strategy of increasing pressure on North Korea with the help of China.

Wednesday's briefings will focus on three key issues related to North Korea's nuclear program: intelligence about the North's capabilities; U.S. response options, including military ones; and how to get China and other countries to enforce existing economic sanctions on Pyongyang, along with ideas for new penalties. The officials weren't authorized to speak publicly about plans for the closed-doors briefings and requested anonymity.

North Korea routinely accuses the United States of readying for an invasion, and threatens pre-emptive strikes to stop it. On Wednesday, its U.N. mission said North Korea would react to "a total war" with the U.S. with a nuclear war and asserted the North would win in a "death-defying struggle against the U.S. imperialists."

A targeted attack to take out North Korea's growing nuclear weapons program could spark a wider war on the Korean peninsula, lawmakers and experts on North Korea have warned. Harris said the U.S. has "a lot of pre-emptive options" that would affect North Korea's "military calculus." But he declined to provide specifics in an open setting.

Washington and Pyongyang have flexed their muscles in recent days. North Korea conducted large-scale, live-fire drills Tuesday near an eastern coastal town to mark its military's founding anniversary and state media reported that Kim personally observed the exercises. At the same time, the USS Michigan, a nuclear-powered submarine armed with 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles, arrived in South Korea.

Unspecified parts of the THAAD defense system also were installed. According to the Yonhap news agency, the parts include two or three launchers, intercept missiles and radar.

But the system's installation is also upsetting China, the country Trump hopes to work with to rid the North of nuclear weapons. China, which has grown increasingly frustrated with North Korea, its traditional ally, and Russia see the system's powerful radars as a security threat.

In Berlin, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said through an interpreter that all sides had obligations and "we don't want to see any cherry picking."

Pyongyang must suspend its nuclear activities, he said, but "on the other side, the large-scale military maneuvers in Korean waters should be halted."

In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the THAAD system's deployment would "disrupt the regional strategic balance and further aggravate the tension on the peninsula."

"China will firmly be taking necessary measures to defend our own interests," Geng added.

Last year, North Korea conducted two nuclear tests. It also launched a long-range rocket last year that delivered a satellite into orbit, which Washington, Seoul and others saw as a banned test of missile technology.

SEE ALSO: Trump is winning support against North Korea — but losing the war for influence in Asia

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NOW WATCH: Animated map of what Earth would look like if all the ice melted

The US launched an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base on Wednesday.

Though nuclear tensions around the world have been running high, the launch was completely routine, and had been planned three to five years in advance.

The US has dozens of ICBM silos all around the country as part of the nuclear triad, or three types of nuclear forces that guarantee the nation's ability to strike back in the event of nuclear war.

Simply put, even if the entire world decided to attack the US simultaneously, there's no way that every ground-based missile, nuclear bomber, and ballistic missile submarine could be destroyed at once. At least one leg of the triad would survive, meaning the US could strike back with devastating nuclear force.

The ICBM launched on Wednesday flew about 4,800 miles from Vandenberg to a test range near the Marshall Islands in a matter of 30 or so minutes.

While the US's nuclear strategy has been long established, it still has to be tested. In the footage below see how the US makes sure its nuclear weapons are accurate and reliable — and how it would fire back in the event of a nuclear war.

SEE ALSO: Trump is winning support against North Korea — but losing the war for influence in Asia

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NOW WATCH: A Navy SEAL explains how to escape if you've been tied up

Lockheed Martin Corp will announce on Wednesday that the U.S. Air Force and Navy have approved installation of the newest version of the F-35 fighter jet's computer-based logistics system incorporating engine data for the first time, people familiar with the program said.

Lockheed's Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) enables daily operations of the F-35 fleet, ranging from mission planning and flight scheduling to repairs and scheduled maintenance, as well as the tracking and ordering of parts.

Software version 2.0.2 is five months late, but the approval paves the way for the system's deployment across the F-35 Lightning II training and testing program, the two people said on condition of anonymity.

A Pentagon representative declined comment on the software's approval.

This update marks the first time ALIS will take in data from the jet's propulsion system allowing maintenance crews insight into the wear and tear on the engine.

After this milestone, Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed is pursuing further updates to the ALIS system. The long-term goal is to cut maintenance time and facilitate spare parts distribution giving greater efficiency to the F-35 fleet. Future versions of the software will be faster and more fully into the flight bases the warehouses around the world supporting the stealthy jet.

SEE ALSO: Here's why the F-35 once lost to F-16s, and how it made a stunning comeback

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NOW WATCH: These are the small, agile new aircraft carriers meant to take F-35s into battle

South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported on Monday that the USS Michigan, a submarine that sometimes moves special forces like US Navy SEALs, would join the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group off of North Korea's coast.

Sure enough, on Tuesday, the Michigan, a guided-missile, nuclear-powered submarine, appeared in Busan, South Korea, Fox News reported.

But Yonhap also reported on March 13 that SEAL Team 6 was training alongside South Korea's version of the SEALs for "incapacitating" North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un.

The US Navy has refused to comment on the movements of SEAL Team 6, the group of Navy SEALs who took out Osama bin Laden in 2011, to Business Insider, and it normally doesn't advertise the whereabouts of its submarines, as the craft are meant to be secretive.

The Pentagon told Business Insider in March that the US did not train for decapitation strikes of any kind, but it would not confirm or deny the presence of the SEALs in Korea.

There has been a flurry of activity on the peninsula recently. Each March, the US and South Korea conduct Foal Eagle and Key Resolve military drills, which bring a wide range of soldiers and platforms to the region.

North Korea also in April celebrates the anniversary of the birth of its founder, Kim Il Sung, and the founding of its army. This year's military parade unveiled an unexpected bounty of new missile types and modifications in North Korea's inventory, with some of them proving particularly troubling for nonproliferation experts.

Meanwhile, the US has signaled a new confidence in its military options against the Kim regime, with President Donald Trump at one point saying, "If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will."

The Michigan adds a stealth element and an extra set of eyes and ears to the already potent carrier strike group on North Korea's coast, but it doesn't add much firepower — US Navy destroyers accompanying the Vinson already have the kind of Tomahawk missiles the Michigan has.

Though the North Koreans have threatened to sink the Vinson, US Pacific Command's Adm. Harry Harris told Congress on Wednesday that as far as North Korea's missile threats to the Vinson go, "If it flies, it will die."

But experts have repeatedly stressed to Business Insider that no credible military option against the Kim regime exists.

Even if the US somehow managed to decapitate the Kim regime, the country still technically operates under its "forever leader," Kim Il Sung, who died in 1994.

In the decades since the elder Kim's death, North Koreans have remained fiercely loyal to the regime's goals of nuclear aggression toward the outside world, so it's unlikely a single leader's death would upset that.

SEE ALSO: Trump is winning support against North Korea — but losing the war for influence in Asia

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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration hosted senators for an extraordinary White House briefing Wednesday at a perilous moment with North Korea, marked by the unpredictable nation's nuclear threats and stern talk of military action, if necessary, from the United States.

All 100 senators were invited and transported in buses for the unprecedented, classified briefing. President Donald Trump's secretary of state, secretary of defense, top general, and national intelligence director were to outline for them the North's escalating nuclear capabilities and US response options, officials said. The briefing team was to meet later with House members in the Capitol.

The unusual sessions don't necessarily presage the use of force along one of the world's most heavily militarized frontiers, and some lawmakers questioned whether the cross-Washington procession was largely show, with Trump expected to drop in on the Eisenhower Executive Office Building gathering of lawmakers.

But it certainly reflected the increased American alarm over North Korea's progress in developing a nuclear-tipped missile that could strike the US mainland. And the recent flurry of military activity on and around the divided Korean Peninsula has put the world at high alert.

Tensions have escalated since Trump took office three months ago, determined to halt Pyongyang's nuclear and missile advances.

In the past two weeks, Trump has ordered high-powered US military vessels, including an aircraft carrier, to the region in a show of force to deter North Korea from more nuclear and missile tests. The North on Tuesday conducted large-scale, live-fire artillery drills, witnessed by national leader Kim Jong Un, as a reminder of its conventional threat to US-allied South Korea.

And on Wednesday, South Korea started installing key parts of a contentious US missile defense system against North Korean missiles that also has sparked Chinese and Russian concerns.

America's Pacific forces commander, Adm. Harry Harris Jr., told Congress on Wednesday the system would be operational within days. He said any North Korean missile fired at US forces would be destroyed.

"If it flies, it will die," Harris said.

The Trump administration has said all options, including a military strike, are on the table. However, a US preemptive attack isn't likely, according to American officials. Instead, they've said the administration's strategy focuses on increasing pressure on North Korea with the help of its main trading partner, China.

Sen. Ben Cardin, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's top-ranking Democrat, said he was hoping to hear the Trump administration's game plan Wednesday.

The US needs a strategy to change North Korea's economic and security calculus for it to freeze and ultimately eliminate its nuclear and missile programs, he said, adding that there was no "pretty military solution."

US officials said Wednesday's briefings would center on three key issues: intelligence about the North's capabilities; US response options, including military ones; and how to get China and other countries to enforce existing economic sanctions on Pyongyang, along with ideas for new penalties. The officials weren't authorized to speak publicly about plans for the closed-door briefings and requested anonymity.

"China is the key to this," said Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona. "The purpose of this briefing is to tell us the situation and the intelligence we have and what are the options we have."

Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, Harris said he expected North Korea, under Kim's autocratic rule, to soon be able to develop a long-range missile capable of striking the United States, despite some spectacular failures in its ballistic-missile program. "One of these days soon, he will succeed," Harris said.

North Korea routinely accuses the United States of readying for an invasion and threatens preemptive strikes to stop the US.

On Wednesday, North Korea's United Nations mission said it would react to "a total war" with the US with nuclear war. It said it would win in a "death-defying struggle against the US imperialists."

A targeted US attack to take out North Korea's nuclear-weapons program could spark a wider war on the Korean peninsula, lawmakers and experts have warned. Harris said the US had "a lot of preemptive options," but he declined to provide specifics in an open setting.

China has been urging restraint by both Pyongyang and Washington. In Berlin, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday that North Korea must suspend its nuclear activities, but "on the other side, the large-scale military maneuvers in Korean waters should be halted."

China opposes the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, being installed in South Korea. The US says it will target only North Korean missiles, but China and Russia see the system's powerful radars as a security threat.

In Beijing, Geng Shuang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said THAAD would upset the "strategic balance" in the region and that China would take "necessary measures to defend our own interests."

SEE ALSO: Trump is winning support against North Korea — but losing the war for influence in Asia

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NOW WATCH: How the US could prevent a North Korean nuclear strike — according to a former Marine and cyberwarfare expert

A joint statement from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates outlined the US's new stance on North Korea on Wednesday.

"Past efforts have failed to halt North Korea's unlawful weapons programs and nuclear and ballistic missile tests," the statement reads.

"North Korea jeopardizes the stability in Northeast Asia and poses a growing threat to our allies and the US Homeland."

President Donald Trump authorized a review of the White House's North Korea policy upon entering office, according to the statement, and has resolved to ramp up pressure on the North Korean regime to deescalate tensions. The statement may also shed some light on the classified briefing Senators received at the White House on Wednesday about the hermit kingdom.

"We are engaging responsible members of the international community to increase pressure on the DPRK," reads the statment, referring to North Korea by it's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The release specifically cites US allies South Korea and Japan as partners in the effort to reel in North Korea. Trump has also been especially vocal about getting China's help in resolving the issue.

China, North Korea's biggest backer, is responsible for about 85% of North Korea's external trade and provides a similar amount of their energy imports. 

At their meeting earlier this month, Trump said he told China's Xi Jinping that "the way you're gonna make a good trade deal [with the US] is to help us with North Korea, otherwise we're just going to go it alone."

The joint statement did break from previous US messaging on North Korea in one small way, saying "we remain open to negotiations" towards denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. But it did not elaborate further.

Experts contacted by Business Insider have stressed that diplomatic engagement with North Korea, an option that hasn't yet been pursued by the Trump administration, could be the key to defusing the crisis.

The statement ends on a familiar note: "We remain prepared to defend ourselves and our allies," it reads. A US aircraft carrier and nuclear submarine are currently stationed off of North Korea's coast.

The full statement is below:

Past efforts have failed to halt North Korea’s unlawful weapons programs and nuclear and ballistic missile tests. With each provocation, North Korea jeopardizes stability in Northeast Asia and poses a growing threat to our Allies and the U.S. homeland.

North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons is an urgent national security threat and top foreign policy priority.  Upon assuming office, President Trump ordered a thorough review of U.S. policy pertaining to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Today, along with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joe Dunford, we briefed Members of Congress on the review.  The President’s approach aims to pressure North Korea into dismantling its nuclear, ballistic missile, and proliferation programs by tightening economic sanctions and pursuing diplomatic measures with our Allies and regional partners.

We are engaging responsible members of the international community to increase pressure on the DPRK in order to convince the regime to de-escalate and return to the path of dialogue.  We will maintain our close coordination and cooperation with our Allies, especially the Republic of Korea and Japan, as we work together to preserve stability and prosperity in the region.

The United States seeks stability and the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.  We remain open to negotiations towards that goal.  However, we remain prepared to defend ourselves and our Allies.

SEE ALSO: Trump says he put economic pressure on China's president to help with North Korea

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NOW WATCH: Watch the King of Jordan participate in a military exercise with his armed forces

During his final hours in office, on the same day current President Donald Trump would be inaugurated, Barack Obama authorized the State Department to release about $221 million in withheld funds to Palestinians living in the West Bank — and it looks like it's finally gone through.

Despite a review imposed on the payment by the incoming Trump administration, and the perception that Obama had turned away from supporting Israel towards the end of his term, acting State Department Spokesman Mark Toner confirmed the money had reached the Palestinians last month. 

"So 20 – 220.3 million that was released was for West Bank programs such as water, infrastructure, education, renewable energy, civil society, municipal governance, and the rule of law, as well as Gaza recovery. And a smaller amount was to go directly to Israeli creditors of the Palestinian Authority as well as East Jerusalem hospitals," Toner said at a press briefing in March.

"None of the funding was to go directly to the Palestinian Authority," said Toner, contrary to reports that came out at the time. "It’s my understanding that the money has been released."

Toner's statement fits with the Obama administration's earlier notification to Congress that said the money would go towards promoting the "rule of law," the Associated Press reported at the time.

Obama's move to release the funds came as he closed his presidency with a critical eye toward Israel. In December 2016, the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding that Israel stop building settlements on Palestinian land. The US refused to vote on the resolution, effectively allowing it to pass.

But far from being a slight to Israel, experts say the funds released by Obama, and later approved by Trump, actually promote stability in the region. 

"The Israeli Defense Forces and the Israeli government are the biggest lobbyists of Congress in favor of continuing Palestinian aid," Michael Koplow, a Middle East analyst at the Israel Policy Forum, told Business Insider in January. 

Koplow credits the US and Israel's aid to the West Bank for keeping it from becoming "a haven for terrorism and a launching ground for rocket attacks," as is the case with Gaza, another territory occupied by Palestinians. 

So while Trump has promised to be very pro-Israel, and also gut foreign aid, it seems his administration agreed to this payment to potentially add stability to one of the more conflicted regions on earth.

SEE ALSO: It looks like the end of foreign aid as we know it is coming

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President Donald Trump has a plan to stop North Korea, and it doesn't sound much different from past efforts.

According to a statement from his top officials on Monday, here's the plan:

"The President’s approach aims to pressure North Korea into dismantling its nuclear, ballistic missile, and proliferation programs by tightening economic sanctions and pursuing diplomatic measures with our Allies and regional partners."

While the statement acknowledges that "past efforts have failed" to curb North Korea's nuclear program, it essentially promises to continue the same efforts that have failed.

In fact, this statement from Trump is almost indistinguishable from the Obama-era "strategic patience" that both Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Vice President Mike Pence declared dead on separate trips to Asia.

Senators who attended Wednesday's classified briefing on North Korea at the White House described it as reviewing old, non-specific information, and in one case, as a "dog-and-pony show."

Nowhere in Trump's official statement does he return to the hawkish rhetoric that Secretary of Defense Mattis, Tillerson, and Pence have all espoused about North Korea on separate trips to Asia. The new plan focuses more on sanctions, which have been in place for decades — and just don't work.

But the threat from North Korea has grown, and the past approaches of presidents might not cut it anymore.

On April 15, North Korea rolled out a wide array of new missile types that stunned nonproliferation experts. Some estimate that within two to three years, North Korea will begin testing an intercontinental ballistic missile that could strike Washington, and no current missile defenses could stop such an attack.

Simply put, Trump's strategic patience by another name worked for other presidents, but unfortunately the critical moment that demands action on North Korea may fall during Trump's term.

Omar Lamrani, a senior military analyst at the geopolitical analysis firm Stratfor, previously told Business Insider that if North Korea achieved an ICBM, it would represent a "point of no return" in multilateral relations with the Kim regime.

Essentially, the US would be forced to continue sanctions and hope for a major breakthrough in missile defense, launch an all-out war with an adversary that can level Washington, or cave toNorth Korea, perhaps the world's worst abuser of human rights, and accept them as a legitimate state and a player in Northeast Asia.

All of the options listed above are terrible, and while presidents before Trump could afford to kick the can down the road, Trump may have to be the one to make a terrible choice.

SEE ALSO: How North Korea pays for a nuclear program and lavish parties while under the tightest sanctions on earth

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NOW WATCH: Former CIA director reveals what it was like inside the White House situation room when Bin Laden was killed

Israel received three F-35s from the US on Tuesday, bringing its total inventory of the revolutionary fighter up to five, but according to a French journalist citing French intelligence reports, Israeli F-35s have already carried out combat missions in Syria.

In Air Forces Monthly, Thomas Newdick summarized a report from Georges Malbrunot at the French newspaper Le Figaro that said Israel took its F-35s out on a combat mission one month after getting them from the US.

Malbrunot reported that on January 12, Israeli F-35s took out a Russian-made S-300 air defense system around Syrian President Bashar Assad's palace in Damascus and a Russian-made Pantsir-S1 mobile surface-to-air missile system set for delivery to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel has repeatedly and firmly asserted that its goal to make sure weapons cannot reach Hezbollah, a terror group that has sworn to seek the destruction of Israel.

In March, Israel said it had conducted an airstrike in Syria.

"When we know about an attempt to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah, we do whatever we can to prevent this from happening, provided we have sufficient information and capabilities to react," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, according to Russian state-run media.

However, the other details of the story seem unlikely. The only known S-300 system in Syria is operated by the Russians near their naval base, so hitting that would mean killing Russian service members. There are no reports that this happened.

Tyler Rogoway of The Drive pointed out that the Pantsir-S1 air defenses would bolster Hezbollah in Lebanon, but Israel wouldn't be under immediate pressure to destroy this system. Its jets have advanced air-defense-suppression and electronic-warfare capabilities that limit the threat posed by the Pantsir-S1 and make it unlikely that Israel would risk F-35s to attack it.

But parts of the French report hold up — there was indeed an airstrike on January 12 at the Mezzeh air base. The Syrian government accused Israel of the strike, according to the BBC.

Jeff Halper, the author of "War Against the People," a book that looks at the military ties between Israel and the US, told Al Jazeera that Israeli pilots may be the first to see combat action in the F-35.

"Israel serves as the test-bed for the development of these kinds of new weapons," Halper said. "The F-35 will be tested in the field, in real time, by Israel. The likelihood is that the first time the plane is used in combat will be with Israeli pilots flying it."

The F-35's stealth abilities remain untested, and only in a heavily contested environment could the F-35 really meet its match. In the past, F-35 pilots have complained that surface-to-air threats are not advanced enough to provide realistic training, and the Air Force has run short on adversary services to provide enough competition to prove the F-35's capabilities.

In the case of the S-300, experts have told Business Insider that it would take a stealth jet like the F-35 to safely take it out.

While the details of the strike remain sketchy and unverifiable, Halper's "test-bed" assertion has in the past been true of US-Israeli defense projects, like missile defenses. Rogoway also said Israel's history of rushing new platforms to the front lines was possible supporting evidence.

On Thursday, the Syrian government again accused Israel of an airstrike, this one near Damascus International Airport.

Short of taking responsibility for the attack, Israeli officials said they supported strikes on Hezbollah targets.

According to the BBC, Israeli's intelligence minister, Israel Katz, told Israeli Army Radio: "I can confirm that the incident in Syria corresponds completely with Israel's policy to act to prevent Iran's smuggling of advanced weapons via Syria to Hezbollah in Iran. Naturally, I don't want to elaborate on this."

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Judge Michael Corriero reveals some simple advice on how you can document a loan in case you ever lend someone money. Judge Corriero served on the bench for 28 years and was elected to the New York State Supreme Court. He's currently the cohost of "Hot Bench" and is the founder of the New York Center for Juvenile Justice. Following is a transcript of the video. 

One of the most common cases that we see are cases involving disputes over whether or not money extended to a friend or neighbor was either a loan or a gift.

If you ask me, "What is important in order to demonstrate whether in fact it was a loan or a gift?" it is a documentation. It is written contracts, written understandings, even though it seems rather artificial to have that kind of an interaction with a friend or a neighbor. 

We live in a very modern world. One way would be to send them a text. If the person who lent the money sent a text to the borrower and said, "Just so that I have this clear for my own personal records, my tax purposes, I lent you $6,000," for example, "and you agreed to pay me back in 3 months. Isn't that true?" or just, "Acknowledge that for me so that I have a record of it."

If you don't get an answer from the person then it could appear as if this was just a self-serving description of the event. And without an acknowledgment of some kind as to the accuracy of truthfulness of what was represented in the text it would still remain problematic. 

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U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters on Thursday he will either renegotiate or terminate what he called a "horrible" free trade deal with South Korea and said Seoul should pay for a U.S. anti-missile system that he priced at $1 billion.

In an interview with Reuters, Trump called the five-year-old trade pact with South Korea "unacceptable" and said it would be targeted for renegotiation after his administration completes a revamp of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico.

He blamed the U.S.-Korean trade deal, known as KORUS, on his 2016 Democratic presidential election opponent, Hillary Clinton, who as secretary of state promoted the final version of the trade pact before its approval by Congress in 2011.

"It is unacceptable, it is a horrible deal made by Hillary," the Republican Trump said. "It's a horrible deal, and we are going to renegotiate that deal or terminate it."

Asked when he would announce his intention to renegotiate the deal, Trump said: "Very soon. I’m announcing it now."

Trump's comments stunned South Korean financial markets, sending Seoul stocks <.KS11> and the won currency <KRW=> into reverse even as the country's economic outlook has started to brighten.

South Korea's foreign ministry said Seoul would continue to explain to the Trump administration the benefits of the free trade deal. Washington had not officially filed a request to Seoul to renegotiate the agreement, it said.

"Our government will keep monitoring the situation and continue our efforts to explain to the United States the mutually reciprocal outcome of the South Korea-U.S. FTA, while preparing for countermeasures," the ministry said.

With global demand improving, exports of goods such as cars and electronics have been leading a recovery in South Korea and a number of other trade-reliant Asian economies such as Japan and Taiwan, boosting their manufacturing sectors.

"Talk and actual policy are different," a high-ranking official at South Korea's finance ministry, who declined to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to the media, told Reuters.

KORUS was initially negotiated by the Republican administration of President George W. Bush in 2007, but that version was scrapped and renegotiated by President Barack Obama's Democratic administration three years later.

The U.S. goods trade deficit with South Korea has more than doubled since KORUS took effect in March 2012, from $13.2 billion in 2011 to $27.7 billion in 2016, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

THAAD payment

Trump said the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system now being deployed in South Korea to defend against a potential missile attack from North Korea would cost about $1 billion and questioned why the United States was paying for it.

"I informed South Korea it would be appropriate if they paid. It's a billion-dollar system," Trump said. "It's phenomenal, shoots missiles right out of the sky."

Asked about the remarks, South Korea's defense ministry said in a statement there was no change to the existing agreement that Seoul provides land for the deployment while Washington shoulders the cost of installing and operating the system.

Moon Jae-in, the South Korean presidential frontrunner, said the new government should given the choice to decide whether to agree to the deployment.

"I'll decide after sufficient public consensus and parliamentary approval," he said at a televised presidential debate ahead of the May 9 election.

His top foreign policy adviser earlier told Reuters that Trump's suggestion would be an "impossible option" because the U.S. military operates the system.

The U.S. military started the deployment of THAAD in early March, despite strong opposition from China, which worries the system's powerful radar can be used to spy into its territory.

Lockheed Martin Corp <LMT.N> is the prime contractor for the THAAD system.

A former U.S. State Department official estimated the cost of the system at about $1.2 billion but said the United States would not want to sell THAAD to Seoul.

"We want to retain THAAD in our arsenal, consistent with all other U.S. weapons systems deployed on the Korean peninsula. We own them. We retain them. We have the right to redeploy them," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

SEE ALSO: A submarine that carries US Navy SEALs just arrived off the coast of North Korea

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U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will press the United Nations Security Council on Friday to further isolate North Korea by swiftly imposing stronger sanctions in the event of further provocations by the reclusive state, including a long-range missile launch or sixth nuclear test.

Tillerson, in his first visit to the United Nations, will chair a ministerial meeting of the 15-member body. It comes just days after council ambassadors said President Donald Trump made clear - over lunch on Monday at the White House - that he would be the U.S. leader to deal with Pyongyang, ideally peacefully.

"They are now in the phase of working out what the best way to do that is," said a senior council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It was left hanging that there clearly would be a military solution if needed."

The Trump administration is focusing its North Korea strategy on tougher economic sanctions, possibly including an oil embargo, a global ban on its airline, intercepting cargo ships and punishing Chinese banks doing business with Pyongyang, U.S. officials told Reuters earlier this month.

Washington is also stepping up pressure that began under the Obama administration against Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia, which have diplomatic and financial links to Pyongyang, to downgrade or cut diplomatic ties with North Korea.

The United States, which is president of the Security Council for April, urged members - in a note outlining Friday's meeting - to "show their resolve to respond to further provocations with significant new measures."

Diplomats say further provocations are considered a nuclear test or long-range missile launch.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Tillerson would on Friday push the international community to stand up to North Korea.

"Certainly, we've talked a lot about China's role ... that's a key aspect of this new strategy, is putting pressure on China, convincing China they need to do more, but this also needs to be a global effort," Toner told reporters.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is due to brief the Security Council on Friday, which will include foreign ministers from China, Britain and Japan. Tillerson is due to meet with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts before the council meeting and with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, afterwards.

China has long promoted dialogue to resolve the "Korean nuclear issue," and the United States says it is open to talks, but they disagree over the sequence.

"The U.S. require (North Korea) to take some actual action to curtail their nuclear program, which could then be followed by talks, and the Chinese position is talks first, action later," the senior U.N. diplomat said.

Since 2006, North Korea has been subject to U.N. sanctions aimed at impeding the development of its nuclear and missile programs. The council has strengthened sanctions following each of North Korea's five nuclear tests.

Traditionally the United States and China have negotiated new sanctions before involving remaining council members. It took the council three months to act after the last nuclear test, in September, and diplomats said Washington appears to be laying the groundwork with China for faster negotiations next time.

Trump administration officials and Western diplomats say that Beijing is responding to increased pressure from Washington mostly because China has become frustrated with North Korea.

The Security Council has, however, also been split over what is fueling escalating tensions with North Korea. Western powers say Pyongyang's repeated nuclear and missile tests are purely to blame, while Russia and China also rebuke the United States for deploying an anti-missile defense system in South Korea.

SEE ALSO: Congressman says North Korea could smuggle a nuke into the US in a bale of marijuana

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A maritime code of conduct between Southeast Asia and China must be legally binding to put a stop to "unilateral actions" in the South China Sea, because a previous commitment to play fair had been ignored, the ASEAN secretary general said on Friday.

The Association of South East Asian Nations had not received any guarantees from China in discussions to create a framework for the code within this year, but ASEAN was hopeful a set of rules could be agreed to ward off disputes and militarization, Le Luong Minh told Reuters.

"For ASEAN, such a framework must have substantial elements, and such a code of conduct must be legally binding," he said in an interview.

Signing China up to a code that it must abide by, and can be enforced, has long been a goal for ASEAN's claimant members: Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia.

China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea.

China's recent decision to work with ASEAN to draw up a framework for a code, 15 years after they agreed to one, has been met with a mix of optimism and scepticism, coming at a time when Beijing races ahead with development of its seven artificial islands in the Spratlys.

It has put radar, runways, hangars and missiles on some of those features, causing alarm in the region and concern about its long-term intentions.

The framework, which all sides hope to finish this year, seeks to advance a 2002 Declaration of Conduct (DOC) of Parties in the South China Sea, which commits to following international law, ensuring freedom of navigation and not putting people on uninhabited islands and features.

Militarization activites

"It's important ... because of the complex developments in the South China Sea, especially the reclamation and militarization activities and all those unilateral actions," Minh said of the code.

"In that context, the need for an instrument which is legally binding, which is capable of not only preventing but also managing such incidents, is very important."

Making demands of China is something ASEAN states have long been reluctant to do, wary of their economic dependence on their giant neighbor.

ASEAN leaders are meeting in Manila for a summit this week. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday it was pointless discussing Beijing's contentious activities and no one dared to pressure it anyway.

Experts doubt China would tie itself to a set of rules in a waterway central to its geostrategic ambitions and expect it to drag the process out until ASEAN accepts a weaker code than it wants.

Asked if China had made any assurances it would stick to whatever code was agreed, Minh said: "We don't have any guarantee, we just have to try our best."

Minh said the code needed to be more comprehensive than the 2002 DOC, which was only a political declaration.

"It was good if all parties were implementing what was agreed, but that's not what is happening. The COC (code of conduct), we need a legally binding instrument."

Minh also urged de-escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula, and said North Korea's foreign minister had sent a letter to him two weeks ago asking for ASEAN's support. He did not say what Pyongyang had asked ASEAN to do.

"They expressed concern over what they (perceive) to be the threat to their security," he said. "They especially mentioned the joint exercises between the U.S. and South Korea."

SEE ALSO: Trump is winning support against North Korea — but losing the war for influence in Asia

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U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Friday the threat of an attack by Pyongyang against Japan and South Korea is real and urged the U.N. Security Council to act "before North Korea does."

In remarks to the U.N. Security Council, Tillerson called on the international community to fully implement U.N. sanctions and to suspend or downgrade diplomatic relations with Pyongyang.

"With each successive detonation and missile test North Korea pushes northeast Asia and the world closer to instability and broader conflict," Tillerson told the 15-member council. "The threat of a North Korean attack on Seoul or Tokyo is real."

SEE ALSO: Here's how Trump plans to stop North Korea — and what's wrong with his approach

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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson signaled on Friday that the Trump administration may have finally accepted the one course of action that could stop North Korea's nuclear threat to the world: direct talks.

After months of US military posturing and shows of force met by North Korean nuclear threats, Tillerson said in an interview with NPR that direct talks with the Kim regime "would be the way we would like to solve this."

This is a bit of a reversal from Vice President Mike Pence's statement just over a week ago that the US would not consider talks with the North Koreans.

However, the US's and China's shared goal of denuclearizing North Korea may be dead on arrival.

"Denuclearization is probably a nonstarter for a dialogue," Yun Sun, a senior associate at the Stimson Center, told Business Insider.

In 2003, the Bush administration engaged in the six-party talks with North Korea, but in 2009, when the time came for North Korea to implement the verifiable and irreversible destruction of its nuclear capabilities, the Kim regime backed out.

The experience proved a searing moment for US diplomats and created lasting doubts about the North Koreans' sincerity in diplomacy, according to Sun. Since then, North Korea has written its possession of nuclear weapons into its constitution as a guarantor of its security.

So while the US demands North Korea denuclearize and North Korea clings to its weapons for security, the question since 2009, according to Sun, has been: "If we are going to talk to North Korea, what are we going to talk about?"

At this point, the only way to eliminate the Kim regime's nuclear program would be a large-scale, bloody military campaign in which the North Koreans would do their best to hit US and South Korean forces with nuclear weapons.

But short of complete denuclearization, there is hope for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula without bloodshed.

"A more realistic goal would be denuclearization in time," said Sun, who said a moratorium or freeze on North Korea's nuclear and ballistic-missile programs would present a much more fruitful place to begin talks.

"If we can engage North Korea and have a deal about them freezing their nuclear development in exchange for some sort of security guarantee, then the US and South Korea could suspend their military exercises on the peninsula," he said.

North Korea has in the past offered such a deal, but the US has refused, saying its regularly scheduled, peaceful military exercises pose nowhere near the threat that nuclear proliferation does.

But halting the military drills could demonstrate that dialogue, not military threats or action, represents the way forward. If the US started a program with North Korea similar to the Iran nuclear deal, it could begin to trade and normalize relations with the Hermit Kingdom.

In time, as North Korea benefits from exposure to the outside world, denuclearization would become much more likely, and the US would have a freer hand to pressure the Kim regime in that direction.

For now, "the realistic agenda is not denuclearization," Sun said, "but a halt of their nuclear program." And only through diplomacy can the US reasonably hope to achieve this.

SEE ALSO: Here's how Trump plans to stop North Korea — and what's wrong with his approach

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Montenegro's parliament on Friday supported the Balkan country's membership in NATO in a historic turn toward the West amid protests by Russia and the pro-Russia opposition.

Lawmakers voted 46-0 in the capital of Cetinje to ratify the accession treaty with the Western military alliance. They then stood up and applauded the decision.

The parliament has 81 members, but pro-Russia opposition lawmakers boycotted the session. Several hundred opposition supporters gathered outside the hall before the vote.

Montenegro has a small military of around 2,000 troops, but it is strategically positioned to give NATO full control over the Adriatic Sea. The other Adriatic nations — Albania, Croatia and Italy — already are in the alliance.

Russia has been angered by NATO's expansion to Montenegro, which is in Moscow's traditional area of interest. Montenegro has accused Russia of being behind a foiled Election Day coup in October allegedly designed to throw the country off its path toward NATO. Russia has denied the accusation.

Prime Minister Dusko Markovic told lawmakers that NATO membership was a guarantee for Montenegro's future security, economic progress and regional stability.

"This assembly and its members have a historic privilege to make a decision that will be remembered as long as there is Montenegro and Montenegrins," Markovic said. "This day will be marked among the brightest in our history."

Markovic's predecessor, Milo Djukanovic, who was the head of government during the alleged coup attempt that reportedly included plans for his assassination, said joining NATO was the most important decision in recent history.

"After long suffering and roaming through history, (Montenegro) is finally in the position where it logically, historically, civilization-wise and culturally belongs," Djukanovic said.

Anti-NATO demonstrators chanted "Treason!" and "Thieves!" and burned a NATO flag during the protest outside parliament before peacefully dispersing. A banner read: "NATO murderers, your hands are bloody!"

"I feel humiliated because others are making a decision in my name," former Montenegrin President Momir Bulatovic said. "What is happening now is triumph by force and lies!"

Opposition leaders said they don't recognize the parliamentary ratification of the NATO accession and will call a referendum on the issue, if they come to power in the future.

The country of 620,000 has been historically divided between pursuing pro-Western policies and sticking to an alliance with Orthodox Christian allies Serbia and Russia.

Both Russia and the pro-Russia opposition in Montenegro also have evoked the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 —which included Serbia and Montenegro at the time — as a reason to stay out of the alliance.

Markovic said Montenegro was drawn into Serbia's war with NATO and that membership in the alliance would help prevent anything like that from happening again.

"NATO and the EU have always been and remain a guarantee of stability and security and cooperation and the main basis for peace in Europe," Markovic said. "It is about what kind of future we choose for us and generations to come," he said.

Montenegro was formally invited to join NATO in December 2015. Markovic said 27 out of 28 NATO member states have ratified Montenegro's entry protocol and Spain would do so in the coming weeks.

Montenegro gained independence from Serbia in 2006.

SEE ALSO: Secretary of State Tillerson: The UN must act 'before North Korea does'

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