Speaking at the Association of Asian Nations summit in the Philippines, Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Odonera said North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities have grown to an "unprecedented, critical and imminent" level that could compel Japan to endorse possible military action.

On his way to the conference, US Defense Secretary James Mattis said the major nations in the region all agree the Korean Peninsula must be denuclearized.

"There's only one country with nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula, and the UN Security Council's unanimous resolutions give a pretty good idea of how the international community looks at it," he said.

Secretary Mattis did not mention military action at the conference, but instead focused on diplomatic pressure.

President Trump has said the US will resolve the North Korea problem alone if necessary, to prevent Pyongyang from gaining the capability to attack the United States with a nuclear missile.

But when he heads to Beijing next month, the president will pressure the Chinese to make good on their vow to ramp up pressure against North Korea. China is North Korea's only major ally, and accounts for more than 90 percent of North Korean trade.

The White House said China needs to do more.

North Korea is a threat to the West in more ways than one. The website Marketwatch reports that North Korean hackers can launch anonymous cyber-attacks from many different countries, without the risk of retaliation.

It says North Korea is now capable of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars a year from just from one type of online attack alone. And they can attack digital banks, and have even hacked the South Korean bitcoin exchange, stealing almost a million dollars of the cyber-currency.

The author claims North Korea's potential to create mayhem on the internet is almost limitless, and right now, there's not much anyone can do to stop it.

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