The USS Milius, one of the US Navy's most advanced guided missile destroyers, arriving in Japan yesterday. The show of force is a reminder of the military pressure that can be brought to bear on North Korea as the US presses it to abandon its nuclear weapons and its ballistic missile programme. The Milius' dockside welcome in Yokosuka, the headquarters of the US Seventh Fleet, comes after doubts emerged last week over whether the Trump-Kim meeting will go ahead. Its deployment to Japan was delayed by almost a year so it could undergo upgrades to its Aegis air defence system to enhance its ability to detect and target missiles. It is armed with missiles designed to shoot down warheads in space. It joins two other Seventh Fleet ships with similar upgrades and brings the fleet's destroyer unit back to full strength after two other warships were crippled in collisions with commercial ships last year.