Meanwhile, the real skinny was being given over at the House Armed Services Committee by the Navy, along with, as usual, a request for new toys like Russia and China has:

Top Admiral Says Not Looking at Regime Change in North Korea

By Paul McLeary @ ForeignPolicy.com, April 26, 2017 - 12:55 pm

The head of the U.S. Pacific Command warned on Wednesday that North Korea directly threatens American interests and allies in the Pacific region, but tempered his dour assessment of the secretive country’s motivations by saying regime change is not the policy of the United States.

“We want to bring Kim Jong Un to his senses, not to his knees,” Adm Harry Harris,  commander of the U.S. Pacific Command told the House Armed Services Committee.
But Harris was blunt when it comes to the threat that Kim represents. North Korea “is clearly in a position to threaten Hawaii today” with missiles, he said, calling for the United States to send more submarines and radar systems to Hawaii, and to build missile interceptors there to meet the threats from North Korea and in increasingly powerful China and Russia.

The calls for more hardware came hours before the White House was slated to host the entire U.S. Senate to deliver a classified briefing on the situation, as U.S. ships are conducting drills with the Japanese and Korean navies near the peninsula in a show of force.

Currently, the U.S. operates missile interceptor sites, designed to shoot down incoming long-range missiles, in Alaska and California, but Harris wants Congress to “consider putting interceptors in Hawaii that defend Hawaii directly.”

North Korea has launched a series of ballistic missile tests this year at a record pace, and is on the verge of conducting its sixth nuclear test in the past decade. In particular, Pyongyang has made great strides developing longer-range missiles and in reducing the size of its warheads.

“North Korea vigorously pursued a strategic strike capability in 2016,” Harris said. “Kim’s strategic capabilities are not yet an existential threat to the U.S., but if left unchecked, he will gain the capability to match his rhetoric.”

The Trump administration has answered these tests with increasingly blunt rhetoric, warning Kim that the United States will not allow him to develop the capability to hit the United States with nuclear missiles.

The admiral also took responsibility for the confusion earlier this month as to where the USS Carl Vinson strike group was operating in the Pacific, after his command announced that it was heading toward Korea, when in fact it was thousands of miles away. He said Wednesday that the Vinson is currently in Philippine Sea near Okinawa, in “striking range” of North Korea, and will continue steaming north.

The U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet — which is the forward-based part of the U.S. Navy in Japan — announced earlier in the day that the ship was conducting training with the Japanese navy. Several other U.S. destroyers are conducting exercises in the Sea of Japan and near the South Korean coast with the Japanese and South Korean navies, according to statements from the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet and Pacific Command.

Harris also warned about increasing Chinese and Russian capabilities in the Pacific region, saying both countries have dispatched their newest and most advanced classes of submarines to the Pacific [.....]

Trump & XI had a phone call Monday, according to XI, and there is no serious disagreement implied in the official report, the second last paragraph is even positive about Trump, though overall it is clear that they want to look neutral:

Xi calls for restraint over DPRK tensions in phone conversation with Trump

THAT SAID, this article from today makes it very clear that they want to look like they are upset about the THAAD system being deployed in South Korea:

China warns of “necessary actions” as US says THAAD to be operational “in coming days”

Admiral Harry Harris, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, told Congress that the THAAD anti-missile defense system would be operational “in the coming days.”

Speaking to the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, Admiral Harris said that North Korea remains the most “immediate threat” to the security of the U.S. and its allies in the Asia-Pacific region. The U.S. believes that North Korea is trying to develop a “preemptive nuclear strike capability” against American cities.

Admiral Harris said that the U.S. must assume North Korea’s claims are true. He added that the U.S. is prepared to fight tonight, if necessary. “That’s why the ROK-US alliance decided last July to deploy THAAD,” he said. He added that the THAAD system will be operational “in the coming days.”

China expressed its “grave concern” after parts of the THAAD system were moved to the deployment site in South Korea, which the U.S. claims is “purely defensive.” China’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that the deployment of THAAD breaks the strategic balance in the region and ratchets up the tension on the Korean Peninsula.

China strongly urged the U.S. and South Korea to cancel the deployment and withdraw the equipment, and sent a strong warning that China will take necessary actions “to safeguard its own interests.” [.....]

BUT it is impossible to know if THAT is a real threat towards the U.S. Navy or just saber rattling Kabuki for the benefit of North Korea and the more hawkish of their own country. 

One shouldn't leave out the factor that Ivanka is all the rage with Chinese women,a huge hit. I'm serious about that. The Chinese leadership likes to keep the public happily distracted with such "opiate".

I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Xi and Trump agreed that a certain amount of Kabuki-style saber rattling was called for in both of their situations. (Yes, a Kayfabe kinda thing.)