Donald Trump to skip India in November's Asia tour, North Korea in spotlight

United States President Donald Trump is scheduled to travel to Asia in November for the first time after becoming the president. Reports state that Trump will make a stop in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines, where his prime agenda would be to discuss the North Korea nuclear threat.

Trump, however, will not visit India during his trip. The US President had accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's invitation to India with his family earlier this year. "I hope that you will give me the opportunity to welcome you and host you in India," Modi had told Trump at the White House's Rose Garden in June.

Trump will travel with wife Melania from November 3 to 14. Reports state that he is scheduled to attend two major summits during the trip, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Vietnam and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations conclave in the Philippines.

The US President, during these summits, will have the opportunity to bolster allied resolve for "complete denuclearization" of North Korea.

Trump and the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un have been locked in a bitter war of words over Pyongyang's ambitious nuclear programme. The tension between the nations heightened when Trump, during his first address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), vowed to annihilate North Korea if it posed any threat to the US and its allies.

Trump also called Kim a "rocket man" who is on a suicide mission for testing nuclear weapons and launching ballistic missiles despite several sanctions imposed on it by the United Nations. While Kim called Trump "mentally deranged" and a "dotard."

The White House released a statement announcing Trump's trip: "The president's engagements will strengthen the international resolve to confront the North Korean threat and ensure the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."