According to South Korean and US officials, North Korea has fired a ballistic missile from a submarine off its east coast.
The KN-11 missile was launched from waters near Sinpo and flew about 300 miles before falling into the Sea of Japan, a US official said.
Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe said it fell inside Japan’s Air Defense Identification Zone, calling it a “reckless act”.
The move comes as South Korea and the US begin annual military drills, which routinely anger Pyongyang.
Ulchi Freedom involves about 80,000 US and South Korean troops in a largely computer-simulated defense of South Korea from a fictional North Korean invasion.
Photo KCNA
North Korea, which sees these drills as a rehearsal for invasion, recently warned they were pushing the Korean peninsula towards the brink of war and threatened a “pre-emptive nuclear strike” in retaliation.
The communist country is banned by the UN from any use of ballistic or nuclear technology. But in recent months it has carried out repeated missile launches, and is believed to be close to conducting its fifth test of a nuclear device.
Today’s launch appears to have been its most successful test yet of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM).
SLBMs are of particular concern because of the mobility of submarines and the ease with which launch preparation can remain undetected.
South Korea’s military said it “seemed to be aimed at raising military tension in response to the Seoul-Washington military drill”, the Yonhap news agency reports.
It said it would “sternly and strongly respond to any provocation by North Korea”.
Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe confirmed reports that the missile fell into Japan’s ADIZ, an area of airspace over which a country exercises security controls.
He said it was an “unforgivable, reckless act” which “poses a grave threat to Japan’s security”.
The US State Department said it “strongly condemned” this, and previous missile tests, and would raise concerns at the UN.
North Korea’s launch also coincided with a meeting of foreign ministers from Japan, China and South Korea in Tokyo.
Top North Korean diplomat Thae Yong-ho, who disappeared from the country’s embassy in the UK, has defected to South Korea, officials in Seoul have confirmed.
Thae Yong-ho and his family are under the government’s protection, a South Korean official said.
He was the ambassador’s deputy and is thought to be the highest-ranking North Korean official ever to defect.
Thae Yong-ho’s main mission in London had been to spread positive perceptions of the North Korean leadership.
He had been due to return to Pyongyang with his wife and children.
Thae Yong-ho had come under pressure from his government to quash growing criticism of North Korea’s human rights record, sources say.
In the past, Thae Yong-ho had argued the British were brainwashed by their ruling class into believing “shocking, terrifying” lies about North Korea under its leader Kim Jong-un.
“If the people in this country, or in America, knew that there is a country in the world where there is a free education, free housing, free medical care, then they’d have second thoughts,” he had said in one speech.
South Korean Unification spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said: “On his reasons for defection, Minister Thae cited disgust with Kim Jong-Un’s regime, admiration for South Korea’s free, democratic system and the future of his family.”
A group of 13 North Korean restaurant workers who defected from China to South Korea earlier this year have been released.
According to South Korean officials, twelve women and one man had now begun the formal process of resettlement in South Korea.
The group defected in April from a North Korean state-run restaurant in the Chinese city of Ningbo.
At the time Seoul said the size of the defection was “unprecedented” and held them for further investigation.
Most North Korean defectors are first held at an interrogation facility to screen for potential spies and then put through a state resettlement program for three months, the AFP news agency reports.
However, in this case the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it held the workers in “protective custody” because the case was very high profile. It added that North Korea was using the case for propaganda by claiming the female workers had been abducted by Seoul’s spy agency.
The thirteen defectors left a halfway house on August 11, local media reports said. Seoul’s Unification Ministry merely confirmed they had been released but did not give more details.
The release comes just one day after a diplomat at the North Korean embassy in London was reported to have defected and fled abroad with his family.
Thae Yong Ho had served as deputy to the ambassador and was responsible for promoting the image of his country to British audiences.
The group of restaurant workers all left China by legal means on April 6, a Chinese spokesman confirmed after the defection. Unlike many defectors, they all had valid travel documents.
The restaurant was reportedly in Ningbo, in China’s north-eastern province of Zhejiang.
North Korea runs some 130 restaurants in other countries which provide a much-needed source of income.
The North Korean staff is thought to be handpicked from families loyal to the state.
South Korean gymnast Lee Eun-ju of South Korea and fellow North Korean Hong Un-jong posed for a selfie during the training period before the start of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
The images of the two gymnasts have been widely praised as capturing the Olympic spirit.
North Korea and South Korea are technically still at war with each other and relations between the two countries have been more tense in recent months, with recent missile launches from Pyongyang.
Political scientist Ian Bremmer tweeted: “This is why we do the Olympics.”
Ian Bremmer’s tweet was re-tweeted more than 18,000 times.
Photo Twitter
Others hailed it as the “most iconic photo” of the games.
Lee Eun-ju, 17, and 27-year-old Hong Un-jong both competed as individual qualifiers, with the games in Brazil being Lee’s first Olympics.
Hong Un-jong became North Korea’s first gymnast to win a medal at the Olympic Games when she took home the gold in vault in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Many users were quick to point out the contrasting attitudes portrayed by the South and North Korean athlete in comparison to the Lebanese Olympic Team, who allegedly refused to ride on the same bus with Israeli athletes.
According to Udi Gal, a member of Israel’s Olympic sailing team, the organizers intervened and the two teams traveled separately to “prevent an international and physical incident”, he said in a post on Facebook.
“How could they let this happen on the eve of the Olympic Games? Isn’t this the opposite of what the Olympics represents?” Udi Gal said.
Lebanon and Israel are officially at war and have no diplomatic relations.
However, they weren’t the only two countries to get off to a rocky start.
Chinese authorities clashed with Australian Olympic gold medalist Mack Horton, after he called Chinese defending champion Sun Yang a “drug cheat”.
“We think his inappropriate words greatly hurt the feelings between Chinese and Australian swimmers,” said China’s swimming team manager Xu Qi to Chinese news outlet Xinhua.
“We strongly demand an apology.”
Users on social media also quickly flooded Mack Horton’s social media with angry comments.
A North Korean defector has entered the South Korean consulate in Hong Kong seeking asylum, the South China Morning Post reports.
The publication reported that the 18-year-old
Photo Reuters
defector participated in the International Mathematical Olympiad held in Hong Kong recently.
Police patrols around the area have been boosted and security stepped up.
China, which has authority over Hong Kong’s diplomatic issues, has reportedly been notified.
South Korea’s foreign ministry declined to comment, with an official saying the government’s position was not to make any comments related to defectors from Pyongyang.
Local media suggests the Hong Kong government is keen to avoid a similar outcome of a saga in 2013 where US whistle-blower Edward Snowden hid in a Hong Kong hotel before flying to Russia for temporary asylum.
Under Hong Kong’s Basic Law, the constitutional document of the territory, China has authority over diplomatic issues.
China usually sends back North Koreans found entering its territory illegally. South Korea usually takes in and rehabilitates North Koreans who escape.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry’s website says more than 29,000 North Koreans have defected to the South since the end of the Korean War.
The antagonism that exists between South Korea and Japan has a historical background. Contemporary hostility is traced back to 1910 when Japan ruled Korea until 1945 at the end of World War II, when Korea gained independence and became a separate country. The rulers of both Asian nations did try to establish friendlier ties but always ended back at the negotiating table with issues unresolved.
Thus when, in December 2015, Tokyo and Seoul reached a historic agreement, many entities were elated. President Obama was understandably the most pleased, since the United States had been constantly in the background pushing for its key Asian allies to have a warmer relationship. The aforementioned landmark deal concerned the subject of the “comfort women.” These are the Koreans that were allegedly forcibly used by the Japanese soldiers for sexual services. The respective foreign ministers of both countries met in Seoul and announced that the matter would be “finally and irreversibly resolved” as soon as certain conditions were met.
On the other hand, there were elements that were not happy with the agreement, North Korea foremost among them. An alliance between the two, supported by Washington, will make the sanctions imposed on Pyongyang more forceful and their combined military strength to combat Kim Jong-un’s aggressive nuclear weapons deployments will be harder to overcome. Pyongyang has set in motion protests and rallies to incite South Korean sentiments against the comfort women agreement. Chong Dae Hyup, an organization that supports the women and is leaning towards North Korea has gathered people to march to protest the deal and is looking for legal ways to make the agreement invalid. The state-owned media group KCNA has accused the United States government of fooling its Asian allies into entering the deal. A Japan-based North Korean group has called the deal a “humiliating diplomacy” for South Korea. In LA, California, a Korean American civic group launched a petition to have US Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken terminated for aiding in the successful resolution.
Since the Korean War (1950 – 1953) technically never ended even though an armistice agreement stopped the fighting, Pyongyang is still hopeful for a reunification of the two sides. On the surface, it looks like a noble goal. But the North Korean leadership will only entertain a union on its conditions, mainly that its social structure will prevail. Reunification will also be costly for South Korea if it will take on the burden of lifting Pyongyang’s impoverished economy. It will also have to submit itself to the communist rule. This could be why the younger generation of South Koreans is indifferent to a reunion while the older population, hoping to reunite with family members, has shown more eagerness. Moreover, some sectors see South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s openness to a unified Korea as a mere political gambit to earn some of her people’s support. Park is keen enough to realize that it is not in Seoul’s best interest to open talks with the North.
But the agreement between Tokyo and Seoul that resolves the comfort women issue has dashed hopes for a Korean reunification. One positive outcome of the deal is the trilateral ties that now bind the United States and the two Asian powerhouses. The three nations have already agreed to hold joint military drills in Hawaii on the occasion of the Rim of the Pacific Exercise which will be held in the latter part of June. The joint exercise will focus on the detection and tracing of North Korean missiles without actually firing any. Each country will have its own Aegis warship, naval vessels that can defeat enemy ballistic missiles. This activity was decided based on a December 2014 information-sharing agreement between the three countries.
The concerns of allied nations over North Korea are well-founded. Since 2006, there has been a series of rocket launches and ballistic missile tests that have become more frequent in the past few months. In response to a regular joint drill by the US and South Korea in March, the Korean Central News Agency reported that North Korea’s National Defence Commission said, “If we push the buttons to annihilate the enemies even right now, all bases of provocations will be reduced to flames and ashes in a moment…” Even if the recent missile tests failed, Pres. Obama has said they are still taking the matter very seriously.
The “comfort women” issue has been a thorny topic that hindered talks between South Korea and Japan for years. The key factors are the conflicting versions each nation has of what really transpired during the war and the awaited apologies and compensation for the women which Japan has given countless times. Now that a resolution has been reached, North Korea is posing a dead weight and sowing tension between Japan and South Korea to push for its own agenda.
Donald Trump has been described by North Korean media as a “wise politician” who could be good for the Asian country.
According to an editorial in DPRK Today, the Republican billionaire was a “far-sighted presidential candidate”.
Donald Trump recently said he would be willing to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and has also proposed withdrawing US troops from South Korea.
Analysts said the editorial was not official policy but likely reflected Pyongyang’s thinking.
The writer, Han Yong-mook – described as a Chinese North Korean scholar – said Donald Trump’s policy on US troops would make the North’s “Yankee Go Home” vision come true.
North Korea has long wanted US troops to leave the Korean peninsula.
“The day when the slogan becomes real would be the day of Korean Unification,” said the editorial, first reported by website NK News.
It suggested Donald Trump’s statement that he did not want to get involved in any conflict between North and South Korea was “fortunate from North Koreans’ perspective”.
Han Yong-mook also said US voters should reject Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, calling her “dull”.
“The president that US citizens must vote for is not that dull Hillary, but Trump, who spoke of holding direct conversation with North Korea,” he said.
North Korea had earlier this month dismissed Donald Trump’s proposal to discuss Pyongyang’s nuclear program with Kim Jong-un as “just a gesture”.
“I think his [Donald Trump’s] idea of talk is nonsense,” So Se-pyong, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, had told Reuters.
North Korea’s coastguards have detained a Russian yacht in the Sea of Japan, Russia’s foreign ministry says.
According to Russian reports, the yacht Elfin with five crew on board was intercepted as it was returning to Russia after participating in a competition in South Korea.
Russian diplomats have demanded the crew’s immediate release and an explanation.
However, Russia is one of the few countries that have relatively friendly ties with North Korea.
The Elfin was on its way from South Korea’s port city of Busan to Vladivostok in Russia’s far east when it was detained 80 miles off the coast on May 13, the foreign ministry said.
The yacht was taken into the North Korean port of Kimchaek and the crew were not in any danger, the ministry added.
The Russian consul-general was waiting for permission to visit them, it said.
Russia shares a short land border with North Korea.
The North Korean Workers’ Party is holding its first congress since 1980.
Analysts believe the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, will cement his status within the party’s structure at this rare political gathering.
The first full congress of the ruling party in 36 years is being closely watched for any shift in policies or changes in political leadership.
Kim Jong-un is expected to reassert his nuclear ambitions, amid speculation he will soon conduct a fifth nuclear test.
Foreign media have been invited but are not allowed inside the venue.
Capital Pyongyang was spruced up ahead of the event and citizens laid flowers in central squares as it got under way.
The streets are lined with National and Workers’ Party flags with banners that read “Great comrades Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il will always be with us” and “Defend the headquarters of the Korean revolution at the cost of the our lives”.
Photo Reuters
It is the seventh meeting of North Korea’s Worker’s Party and the first since 1980, and is being held inside the April 25 House of Culture, now covered in vast red and gold banners and massive images of the current leader’s father and grandfather.
This year’s event is shrouded in secrecy. About 100 foreign journalists have been invited to the congress and reporters are being closely monitored.
Kim Jong-un is inside the hall with guards lined up outside.
Instead of being allowed into the congress, reporters have instead been taken to on a factory tour.
The agenda and duration of the event is not known but experts say Kim Jong-un is likely to declare his so-called “byongjin” policy, which is the simultaneous push towards economic development and nuclear capability.
It could also see a new generation of leaders put in place.
The meeting will elect a new central committee, which appoints a Politburo – the central decision-making body of the Communist party – and many say loyalists to the current leader will be rewarded with high profile posts.
Who he chooses will be watched carefully. In 2013 Kim Jong-un had his uncle executed for “acts of treachery” and there have followed many reports of purges of high profile figures in the establishment.
Some experts have said that Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jong, with whom he attended school in Switzerland, is tipped for promotion.
Many observers will scrutinize announcements carefully to evaluate North Korea’s commitment to a planned economy and hints at reform, but the congress is also being seen as the public stage for Kim Jong-un to define his leadership for the years to come.
No congress was held during the rule of Kim Jong-un’s father, Kim Jong-il. His death in 2011 brought Kim Jong-un to power when he was still in his twenties.
The 1980 congress, held before Kim Jong-un was born, saw Kim Jong-il presented as successor to the North’s founding leader Kim Il-Sung.
Despite his death in 1994, Kim Il-Sung, who has been named North Korea’s “eternal president”, still officially presides over the latest congress.
Kim Dong-chul, a 62-year-old naturalized US citizen born in South Korea, was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor in April 2016 for spying.
Otto Frederick Warmbier, a US student who was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in March 2016 for trying to steal a propaganda sign from a hotel and “crimes against the state”.
Hyeon Soo Lim, a Canadian Christian pastor of South Korean origin, was sentenced to a life term of hard labor in December 2015, also for “crimes against the state”.
Sandra Suh, an American aid worker, was arrested then expelled in April 2015, accused of gathering and producing anti-North Korea propaganda.
Matthew Todd Miller, an American citizen who was sentenced to 6 years of hard labor in September 2014 for what North Korean state media described as “hostile acts”, but was released in November 2014.
Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American Evangelical Christian Missionary who was arrested in November 2012 and accused of using his tourism business to form groups to overthrow the North Korean government. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in May 2013 but was released along with Matthew Todd Miller.
Jeffrey Edward Fowle, an American citizen was detained for five months and charged with “anti-state” crimes. He was released in October 2014.
Merrill Newman, a Korean War veteran who was held in October 2013 on charges of “hostile acts”. He was released in December 2013.
US citizen Kim Dong-chul has been sentenced to 10 years of hard labor in North Korea.
Kim Dong-chul, who was born in South Korea, was arrested in October 2015 after being accused of spying.
In March, the 62-year-old had made an apparent confession in Pyongyang in front of reporters, saying he was paid by South Korean intelligence officers.
The US has previously accused North Korea of using its citizens as pawns in a diplomatic game. The North Korean government denies the accusations.
Last month, US student Otto Frederick Warmbier was jailed for 15 years for stealing a propaganda sign and “crimes against the state”.
North Korea has previously said Kim Dong-chul had a USB stick containing military and nuclear secrets on him when he was arrested in the special economic zone of Rason.
Kim Dong-chul, who used to live in Virginia, had said he was introduced to South Korean spies by US intelligence officers.
Forced public confessions by foreign prisoners are common in North Korea.
Kim Dong-chul’s imprisonment comes amid a period of high tensions. North Korea has recently conducted a series of missile tests following its fourth nuclear test in January, both of which break UN sanctions.
Pyongyang attempted to launch two mid-range ballistic missiles on April 28 which crashed shortly after their launches, prompting an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
It is believed North Korea will attempt a fifth nuclear test soon.
The recent burst in activity is thought to be a ramp-up to a rare party congress due to be held on May 6, where leader Kim Jong-un is expected to consolidate power.
North Korea has announced its ruling Workers Party will hold its first congress in 36 years in May.
The North Korean Workers Party congress, which will take place in Pyongyang from May 6, will be only the seventh in the party’s history and the first under leader Kim Jong-un.
The gathering will be closely watched for signs of major policy shifts, movement among senior officials or comment on North Korea’s nuclear program.
The announcement comes as North Korea is believed to be preparing a fifth nuclear test.
North Korea has often timed its controversial tests to coincide with big political occasions.
Its fourth test, in January, was followed by the launch of a satellite.
Both were violations of existing sanctions and resulted in the UN imposing further measures limiting trade and contact with North Korea.
The last North Korean congress was in October 1980, before the current leader Kim Jong-un was born.
The congress lasted four days and among other issues saw Kim Jong-il formally named as the intended successor to then leader Kim Il-sung.
Expectation has been growing for months that the leadership was about to announce the seventh congress.
The statement from North Korea’s KCNA news agency on April 27 gave no details of the event, and did not specify how long it would last.
However, it is widely expected that Kim Jong-un will use the party’s congress to both reinforce his role as Supreme Leader and to push his agenda of economic development coupled with nuclear progress.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye said on April 26 that North Korea had finished preparations for its fifth nuclear test and could carry it out it any time.
North Korea also claimed last week to have used “cold launch” technology to fire a missile from a submarine, while South Korean officials say it also appears to be preparing another test launch of its medium-range Musudan ballistic missile.
President Barack Obama has rejected North Korea’s proposal to halt nuclear tests if the US ceases its annual military exercises with South Korea.
On April 24, Barack Obama told reporters that the US did not take such a proposal seriously and that Pyongyang would “have to do better than that”.
North Korean foreign minister Ri Su-yong made the offer in a rare interview.
Annual military drills conducted by the US and South Korea routinely inflames tensions with North Korea.
Ri Su-yong’s comments came as North Korea said it fired a ballistic missile from a submarine off its eastern coast.
The UN condemned the test, which it called a “serious violation” of past resolutions aimed at curbing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
International sanctions have been stepped up in the wake of several controversial nuclear and missile tests by North Korea.
The latest allegedly took place last week, with North Korea claiming to have used “cold launch” technology to fire a missile from a submarine, where it is expelled using gas pressure.
North Korea also conducted its fourth nuclear test with a hydrogen bomb in January sparking worldwide condemnation, and claimed last month that it has developed nuclear warheads small enough to fit on ballistic missiles, though experts have disputed such claims.
Analysts believe that North Korea may be gearing up for a fifth nuclear test as a show of strength ahead of the Workers’ Party Congress, the first since 1980.
According to South Korean sources, North Korea appears to have fired a ballistic missile from a submarine off its eastern coast.
It is not clear whether the test was authentic, and if it was, whether it will be considered a success by North Korea.
A successful test would be significant because submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) are hard to detect.
The latest test comes as North Korea gears up for a rare and significant party congress next month.
North Korea is banned from nuclear tests and activities that use ballistic missile technology under UN sanctions dating back to 2006.
A South Korea defense ministry spokesman said: “North Korea launched a projectile which was believed to be a submarine-launched ballistic missile around 6:30 pm in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) near the north-eastern port of Sinpo.”
Photo KCNA
“We are keeping close tabs on the North Korean military and maintaining a full defence posture,” he said.
North Korea has yet to report the test in its own official media. The secretive state has claimed to have carried out similar tests before but some doubt those claims.
The US says photographs supposedly showing one launch in December were manipulated and others think North Korea has fired missiles from submerged platforms, but not submarines.
Regarding this latest test, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the missile travelled about 19 miles, whereas a typical SLBM can travel at least 186 miles.
North Korea has so far conducted four nuclear tests – the first one in October 2006 and the latest in January this year.
The UN Security Council responded to the latter by imposing its strongest sanctions to date over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
In March 2016, North Korea said it had developed nuclear warheads small enough to fit on ballistic missiles, although experts cast doubt on the claims.
Analysts believe North Korea may be gearing up for a fifth test as a show of strength ahead of the North Korean Workers’ Party Congress, the first since 1980.
A North Korean missile test was conducted off the country’s east coast on April 15.
However, the launch appears to have failed, the US and South Korean officials say.
The rocket has not yet been identified but is suspected to have been a previously untested “Musudan” medium-range ballistic missile.
The launch coincided with the birthday of North Korea’s founding leader, Kim Il-sung.
It also comes amid particularly high tension on the Korean peninsula.
South Korea’s Yonhap national news agency quoted government sources as saying that the missile was a type of intermediate-range ballistic missile known as a Musudan, also called the BM-25.
North Korean forces were seen recently moving two such missiles.
According to the Yonhap report , it would be North Korea’s first Musudan test, and that it may have at least 50 more.
The Musudan is named after the village in North Korea’s northeast where a launch pad is sited.
The rocket has a range of about 1,800 miles, which extends to the US Army base on the Pacific island of Guam, but not as far as the mainland US.
The US said it had tracked the latest launch, but could also not confirm details.
“We call again on North Korea to refrain from actions and rhetoric that further raise tensions in the region and focus instead on taking concrete steps toward fulfilling its international commitments and obligations,” a State Department official said.
China also criticized what it called “the latest in a string of saber-rattling that, if unchecked, will lead the country to nowhere,” according to the official Xinhua news agency.
North Korea has made a series of threats against the South and the US since the UN imposed some of its toughest ever sanctions on the country.
The move was a response to North Korea’s fourth nuclear test in January and its launching of a satellite in February, both of which broke existing sanctions.
A senior North Korean spy has defected to South Korea, South Korean officials confirm.
The officer has not been named, but the defense ministry in Seoul said he was a senior colonel in the Reconnaissance General Bureau and left in 2015.
Announcement of defection follows revelation that 13 North Koreans believed to have been working in China had also fled to South Korea. It was the largest group defection since North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, took power in late 2011. South Korean media reported that the restaurant is located in the eastern city of Ningbo.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted a source as saying the colonel was seen as an elite among other defectors.
The colonel worked for the North Korean military’s general reconnaissance bureau before defecting, according to Seoul’s defense ministry and unification ministry. Both ministries refused to provide further details including a motive for the defection.
The reconnaissance agency was believed to be behind two deadly attacks blamed on Pyongyang that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010.
There have been occasional reports of lower-level North Korean soldiers defecting but it is unusual for a colonel to flee to South Korea.
More than 29,000 people have fled North Korea since the end of the Korean War, but high level defections are rare.
Some more senior figures have also fled while working overseas.
Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun said South Korea could not release further information on the colonel.
One unnamed official told Yonhap the man was the highest-level military official ever to have defected.
“He is believed to have stated details about the bureau’s operations against South Korea to the authorities here,” said the official.
The Reconnaissance General Bureau handles intelligence gathering and spying operations, as well as cyber warfare, said Yonhap.
The highest-level North Korean who took asylum in South Korea has been Hwang Jang-yop, a senior ruling Workers’ party official who once tutored Kim’s late dictator father, Kim Jong-il. His 1997 defection was hailed as a coup by many South Koreans and a clear sign that North Korea’s political system was inferior to the South’s.
North Korea has announced that it successfully tested an engine designed for an intercontinental ballistic missile.
According to the KCNA news agency, the new type of engine would “guarantee” the ability to launch a nuclear strike on the US mainland.
The test was conducted at North Korea’s long-range missile launch site near its west coast.
It is the latest in a series of tests and launches carried out by North Korea.
Kim Jong-un supervised the test, state media report, during which “the engine spewed out huge flames with a deafening boom”.
North Korea would now be able to “keep any cesspool of evils in the earth including the US mainland within our striking range,” the country’s leader was quoted as saying.
In response to the latest announcement, US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said North Korea should “refrain from actions and rhetoric that further destabilize the region and focus instead on taking concrete steps toward fulfilling its commitments and international obligations”.
In March, North Korea said it had developed nuclear warheads small enough to fit on ballistic missiles.
However, experts cast doubt on the claims.
Last month also saw North Korea threaten “indiscriminate” nuclear strikes on the US and South Korea as they held big joint military drills, which the north sees as a rehearsal for an eventual invasion.
Meanwhile, the US imposed new sanctions on North Korea following a nuclear test in January and a satellite launch in February, widely seen as a test of banned missile technology.
North Korea is jamming GPS signals near the South Korean border, Yonhap news agency reports.
The radio waves have reportedly affected 110 planes and ships, and can cause mobile phones to malfunction.
South Korea’s unification ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee was quoted by AFP news agency as saying it was an “act of provocation”.
Tensions have been high between the two countries since North Korea’s fourth nuclear test in January.
The broadcasts appeared to have started a month ago from various locations along the border, but on March 31 North Korea discharged its largest amount of GPS-jamming signals, according to Yonhap, citing a senior government official.
The South Korean coastguard reported about 70 fishing vessels had been forced to return to port after GPS navigation issues, AFP said. There has been no reported disruption to flights.
According to Yonhap, since 2010 North Korea has been accused of jamming signals at least three other times. It is believed to be using equipment imported from Russia.
Pyongyang has called the allegations “sheer fabrication”.
Since North Korea’s nuclear test in January and subsequent launch of a long-range rocket, South Korea has stepped up security measures including border patrols and allowing the US to fly fighter jets near the border.
In return, North Korea has threatened “indiscriminate” nuclear strikes on the US and South Korea.
North Korea announces it has carried out a live-fire artillery drill simulating an attack on the official residence of South Korean President Park Geun-hye, known as the Blue House.
The exercise was overseen by Kim Jong-un, said the KCNA state news agency, who called on the military to be ready to “ruthlessly” destroy the government in South Korea.
It is the latest in a series of angry gestures by Pyongyang.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye has ordered the army to be on alert.
Photo Wikimedia
However, Park Geun-hye said on March 24 that “reckless provocations will only become a path to self-destruction for the North Korean regime”.
North Korea has been reacting after the UN imposed some of its toughest sanctions following its nuclear and long-range rocket tests.
Pyongyang has also been angered, as it is annually, by joint US-South Korean military exercises taking place south of the border.
Already known for vitriolic language, the KCNA report threatened to turn South Korea’s presidential residence into a “sea of flames and ashes”.
“Artillery shells flew like lightning and intensely and fiercely struck targets simulating Cheong Wa Dae and rebel governing bodies in Seoul,” it said of the latest drill, using the Korean name for the Blue House.
It was not clear when the drill was carried out, but the report warned of a “miserable end” for President Park Geun-hye.
The Blue House (Cheongwadae) was attacked by North Korean commandos in 1968.
The attempt to assassinate then-President Park Chung-hee was unsuccessful, but seven South Koreans and most of the 31 North Koreans attackers were killed.
Otto Warmbier has been given 15 years hard labor in North Korea for crimes against the state.
The 21-year-old American student was arrested for trying to steal a propaganda sign from a hotel while visiting North Korea in January.
Otto Warmbier later appeared on state TV apparently confessing and saying a church group had asked him to bring back a “trophy” from his trip.
North Korea sometimes uses the detention of foreigners as a means of exerting pressure on its adversaries.
The 15-year sentence is high compared to those given to foreigners in the past.
North Korean state news agency KCNA said Otto Warmbier was convicted under an article of the criminal code relating to subversion. The verdict was handed down by the Supreme Court.
Otto Warmbier, a student at the University of Virginia, was arrested on January 2 as he was trying to leave North Korea. He was accused of committing “hostile acts”.
KCNA said at the time he had gone to North Korea “to destroy the country’s unity” and that he had been “manipulated” by the US government.
At the end of February, at a tearful press conference in Pyongyang, Otto Warmbier said he had “committed the crime of taking down a political slogan from the staff holding area of the Yanggakdo International Hotel”.
“The aim of my task was to harm the motivation and work ethic of the Korean people. This was a very foolish aim,” Otto Warmbier was quoted as saying.
He said it was the “worst mistake” of his life.
The sentencing comes a day after veteran US diplomat Bill Richardson met North Korean officials at the UN in New York to try to push for Otto Warmbier’s release.
Bill Richardson has previously been involved in negotiations to secure the release of Americans from North Korea detention.
North Korea has ramped up its hostile rhetoric in recent weeks, after the UN imposed some of its toughest ever sanctions.
The sanctions were a response to North Korea conducting its fourth nuclear test and launching a satellite into space, which was seen as a covert test of banned missile technology.
Pyongyang has also been angered by the US and South Korea carrying out their annual military drills, which this year involve some 315,000 personnel.
According to South Korea’s military, North Korea has fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea.
South Korea said the missiles, launched off the east coast, flew some 300 miles and fell into the water.
Shortly after the launch, Pyongyang announced it “nullifies” all inter-Korean cooperative projects and will liquidate South Korean assets in the country.
Most South Korean assets in North Korea are in the jointly-operated Kaesong industrial zone.
South Korea pulled out of the Kaesong complex in February, after North Korea’s latest long-range missile launch of a satellite. At the time, the North called the shutdown “a declaration of war” and designated Kaesong as a military zone.
On March 9, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un also claimed scientists have developed nuclear warheads small enough to fit on ballistic missiles.
However, South Korea’s defense ministry said it thought North Korea had “not yet secured miniaturized nuclear warheads”.
Photo Reuters/KCNA
The claim is critical, as without miniaturization Pyongyang cannot put its nuclear weapons on missiles – an ability many analysts think could still be several years away.
In response to the miniaturization claims, State Department spokesman John Kirby said of Kim Jong-un that “the young man needs to pay more attention to the North Korean people and taking care of them, than in pursuing these sorts of reckless capabilities”.
The two missiles launched on March 10 were fired from Hwanghae Province, the South Korean military said. It added that the missiles later fell into the sea off North Korea’s east coast, without providing further details.
Japan promptly lodged a protest to North Korea via its embassy in Beijing, over the latest launches, reported Kyodo news agency.
The missile launches are seen as North Korea’s response to the UN imposing some of its strictest sanctions, after the North conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and last month launched a satellite, both in contravention of existing sanctions.
Tensions have been especially high this week as US and South Korean forces hold their annual joint military exercises known as Key Resolve and Foal Eagle.
This year they are the largest ever, with about 17,000 US personnel and around 300,000 South Korean troops participating – both significant increases on 2015, in addition to increased naval and air force assets.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un claims North Korea’s scientists have developed nuclear warheads small enough to fit on ballistic missiles.
State media published images showing Kim Jong-un standing next to what it said was a miniaturized weapon.
The claim is impossible to verify from the images alone and experts have long cast doubt on such assertions.
North Korea has stepped up its bellicose rhetoric in response to the UN imposing some of its toughest sanctions.
The move by the Security Council came after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test and launched a satellite, both of which broke existing sanctions.
In recent days, Pyongyang has threatened to launch an “indiscriminate” nuclear strike on the US and South Korea, as they began their largest ever round of annual military exercises.
The drills, known as Foal Eagle and Key Resolve, routinely generate tension.
The claim from Kim Jong-un was made as he inspected a nuclear facility on March 9.
“The nuclear warheads have been standardized to be fit for ballistic missiles by miniaturizing them,” state news agency KCNA quoted Kim Jong-un as saying.
“This can be called true nuclear deterrent,” he added.
Kim Jong-un also inspected nuclear warheads designed for thermo-nuclear reaction, the type used in a hydrogen bomb, KCNA said.
If the claim is true and North Korea can put nuclear warheads on to the tips of its ballistic weapons, it would represent a clear threat to the North’s neighbors and the US.
In October 2014, the commander of US forces in South Korea, Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, told reporters that he believed North Korea had the capability to miniaturize a nuclear device.
In May 2015, the North Korea’s National Defense Commission said the country had succeeded in miniaturizing nuclear weapons.
However, the validity of the nuclear boasts has been widely questioned. Experts also still doubt North Korea’s claim that the nuclear test it conducted in January was of a hydrogen bomb.
In addition to the new UN sanctions, which target luxury goods, financing and trade, South Korea has also announced its own measures against North Korea, which includes blacklisting individuals and entities it believes are linked to the weapons program.
The US and South Korea are currently discussing the possible deployment of a US missile defense system to the peninsula, a move strongly opposed by North Korea, Russia and China.
North Korea has threatened the US and South Korea with nuclear strikes as the two begin their largest ever military drills.
The US and South Korean exercises, Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, are an annual event and always generate tension.
The order for a “pre-emptive nuclear strike of justice” was made in a statement put out by Pyongyang.
Such rhetoric is not uncommon, and experts doubt North Korea’s ability to put nuclear warheads on its missiles.
North Korea says it sees the annual US-South Korean war games as a rehearsal for invasion.
In 2015, North Korea threatened to turn Washington into a “sea of fire”.
“We will launch an all-out offensive to decisively counter the US and its followers’ hysteric[al] nuclear war moves,” a newsreader on the state-run North Korean KRT news channel said of the latest exercises.
Approximately 17,000 US forces are participating in the exercises, alongside around 300,000 South Korean troops – both significant increases on 2015’s numbers.
Despite starting on the same day, Key Resolve is more computer simulation-driven and ends on March 18, while Foal Eagle is more focussed on field exercises and runs until 30 April.
South Korea’s defense ministry has warned Pyongyang against any “rash act that brings destruction upon itself”.
“If North Korea ignores our warning and makes provocations, our military will firmly and mercilessly respond to it,” said spokesman Moon Sang-gyun.
Japan’s foreign minister also demanded that North Korea show restraint.
Though unconfirmed, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing military sources, has reported that the exercises will include training for precision attacks on North Korean leadership and its nuclear and missile facilities.
Seoul is expected to announce more sanctions of its own on March 8, which is likely to draw another angry response from Pyongyang.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has announced that his country’s nuclear weapons should be ready for use “at any time”, state media report.
Kim Jong-un told military leaders North Korea would revise its military posture to be ready to launch pre-emptive strikes, the KCNA said.
However, despite its rhetoric it remains unclear how advanced North Korea’s nuclear weapons program is.
The UN has imposed some of its toughest ever sanctions on North Korea following its nuclear test and missile launch.
In response on March 3, North Korea fired six short-range projectiles into the sea.
According to the KCNA, Kim Jong-un was speaking at a military exercise on March 3, which is thought to be when the projectiles were fired.
Kim Jong-un said North Korea “must always be ready to fire our nuclear warheads at any time” because enemies were threatening the North’s survival.
“At an extreme time when the Americans… are urging war and disaster on other countries and people, the only way to defend our sovereignty and right to live is to bolster our nuclear capability,” he was quoted as saying.
Analysts still doubt whether North Korea has the ability to make a nuclear bomb small enough to put on a feasible missile, but Kim Jong-un’s announcement brought a swift response from the US.
“We urge North Korea to refrain from provocative actions that aggravate tensions and instead focus on fulfilling its international obligations and commitments,” Pentagon spokesman Commander Bill Urban said.
The US and South Korea began talks on March 4 on the possible deployment of a US missile defense shield in the South.
Initial talks will focus on the costs, effectiveness and environmental impact of installing the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, among other issues, the Yonhap news agency reported.
North Korea has announced it will no longer take part in UN Human Rights Council session examining its rights record.
Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong accused the council of “politicization, selectivity and double standards” and of “singling out” North Korea for criticism.
The UN council has repeatedly criticized North Korea over its treatment of its citizens.
The move is likely to further isolate North Korea, which is due to face new sanctions.
The UN Security Council is set to vote on March 2 on the new measures, in response to North Korea’s fourth test of a nuclear weapon and its launching of a satellite.
Both moves contravened existing sanctions.
In his statement to the Council, Ri Su-yong also accused the US and others of paying “so-called North Korean defectors” for their testimony.
He said North Korea would “never, ever be bound” by any resolution adopted by the Council.
A UN report in 2014 accused North Korea of “systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights”, including disappearances, forced labor, torture, rape and infanticide.
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