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As he explored a facility at the center of the Demilitarized Zone between North Korea and South Korea on Friday, Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz felt uneasy. He was being watched.

A North Korean soldier outside put his face to the dusty window, peered in at the congressman and snapped a picture. Chaffetz stood just three feet from the man dressed in full military regalia with a only plate of glass between them.

"It was surreal," Chaffetz said. "It brings to life how real the conflict is. They were trying to fluff their chests out, but we just let it play out."

That "staredown" comes at a time of increasingly tense relations between the United States and North Korea. Communist leader Kim Jong-un has boasted about the country's nuclear weapons and missiles while President Donald Trump has warned of possible pre-emptive strikes to deter such attacks.

After visiting the area, Chaffetz gives Trump credit for being poised and "taking all the right steps." The congressman fears Kim has just one thing on his mind: "developing a nuclear capability and expanding his ability to hit the United States."

And despite the failed missile launch Saturday by North Korea, Chaffetz warned, the threat is real.

He spent three days in South Korea and three days in Japan on a trip with 17 other members of Congress on a fact-finding trip paid for by The Aspen Institute, a nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization based in Washington, D.C. Chaffetz has visited the DMZ — the heavily guarded border between North Korea and South Korea — one other time about five years ago.

"There's always a degree of tenseness," he said.

Chaffetz left the region some 24 hours before Vice President Mike Pence flew in Sunday and announced the end of the U.S. "era of strategic patience" with North Korea.

Chaffetz sees this juncture as an opportunity to forge relationships and "lock arms" with Japan, South Korea and China to "resolve the problem without ever having to fire a shot." Those international agreements, he said, could effectively neuter North Korea by imposing economic and political sanctions until the country de-escalates or abandons its nuclear program.

"We must engage the Chinese, which the president has made huge progress on," Chaffetz said.

Trump sat down with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago in Florida this month. The two have also spoken on the phone — signaling room for a potential alliance.

"There's an agreement, I think by everyone so far, that a nuclear-capable North Korea is not in anybody's best interest," said White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer during a media briefing Monday. "And I think we're going to continue to work with the Chinese in particular on this case."

Utah Rep. Chris Stewart also toured parts of Asia — including China, Tibet, Hong Kong and Japan — last week on an official congressional trip with one other representative and three senators, all Republicans, arranged by the State Department and funded by tax dollars. He came back with a new sense of optimism, believing it's possible to peaceably resolve tensions with North Korea.

"The door may be opening," Stewart said. "Now it's only opening a little bit, and it's not going to be open forever. We may be able to make progress. If you asked me six months ago, I would not have thought that."

North Korea, he added, has become "so belligerent and so unpredictable" that neighboring countries feel they can no longer stand idly by and try to preserve stability, including the generally pacifist nation of Japan. Like Chaffetz, Stewart also suggests the most important ally is China, a country "we just can't be successful without."

Neither congressman would take U.S. military action off the table. And both denounced policies of former President Barack Obama they said failed to prevent nuclear expansion in North Korea. "The evidence of that is not my opinion: It's just the truth," Stewart, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said.

Chaffetz applauds Trump for being tough, including the missile strike on Syria after the Middle Eastern country's government launched a chemical weapons attack on its civilians early this month.

With North Korea, though, he acknowledges, a resolution may not be entirely within the president's power or control.

"Ultimately it's going to require a regime change. Kim Jong-un is solely focused on nuclear capability," Chaffetz said. "I'm not certain through a political and economic approach that you can achieve everything you need to achieve. It's the first choice, it's the best choice, but it may end up being not enough."

Diverging from Chaffetz and Stewart, Rep. Mia Love said Sunday that she isn't clear on what Trump's plan is for the communist country. Jake Tapper, host of CNN's "State of the Union," asked the Utah Republican: "Do you feel like you have an idea of what the strategy is here from the Trump administration when it comes to North Korea?"

"Well, first of all, no," she responded.

Love later added that "before we commit any act of war," Trump should seek congressional approval.

"That being said, I know that there are times where he has to act quickly, and I'm fine with that because we have to make sure that North Korea doesn't advance," she said. "I mean, it's scary to see what's happening. It's scary to know they want us gone."

ctanner@sltrib.com

Twitter: @CourtneyLTanner

Editor's note: This story has been altered slightly to clarify Trump's stance on pre-emptive strikes on North Korea.