All posts tagged "Nkorea"

Seoul (AFP) - North Korea said Thursday it would deploy new weapons and stronger armed forces to the border with the South, as Seoul's spy agency said Pyongyang had received Russian help to successfully put a military spy satellite into orbit. Tuesday's launch of the "Malligyong-1" was Pyongyang's third attempt at securing a military eye in the sky after two failures in May and August.  North Korean state media claimed within hours of the launch that leader Kim Jong Un was already reviewing images of US military bases in Guam. Seoul's National Intelligence Service told lawmakers the launch had......

Seoul (AFP) - A US soldier is believed to have been detained by North Korea after crossing the heavily fortified border -- an incident likely to further aggravate Washington's troubled relations with the nuclear-armed state. Hours later, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, according to the South Korean military -- an apparent response to the first visit by an American nuclear-armed submarine to a South Korean port in decades. The events underscored the diplomatic tightrope being walked by Seoul and Washington in the face of an increasingly assertive Pyongyang. Th......

Seoul (AFP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's powerful sister warned Saturday that a US-South Korean agreement aimed at strengthening deterrence against Pyongyang will lead to "more serious danger", state media reported. The United States and South Korea vowed this week that North Korea would face a nuclear response and the "end" of the leadership there should it use its own nukes against the allies, as the two countries' presidents met in Washington. In Pyongyang's first response to the Washington summit, Kim Yo Jong said the North remained convinced that its nuclear deterrent "should be br......

Seoul (AFP) - Seoul and Washington are discussing joint planning and exercises involving US nuclear assets to counter growing threats from the North, South Korea's presidential office said Tuesday, after US President Joe Biden said there would be no such joint drills. The statement was released after Biden said the United States was not discussing joint nuclear exercises with South Korea, seemingly contradicting comments by Seoul's President Yoon Suk-yeol earlier this week. The two security allies are "in talks over information-sharing, joint planning and the joint implementation plans that fo......

Seoul (AFP) - North Korea unsuccessfully fired an intercontinental ballistic missile during a new salvo of launches Thursday, the South Korean military said, with Washington urging all nations to enforce sanctions on Pyongyang. The launches prompted South Korea and the United States to extend their ongoing joint air drills, the largest-ever such exercises, citing North Korea's "provocations". People in parts of northern Japan were ordered to seek shelter during the North's latest launches, which included two short-range missiles and followed a blitz of projectiles fired Wednesday. The largest ......

Seoul (AFP) - North Korea's recent missile tests were "tactical nuclear" drills personally overseen by leader Kim Jong Un, state media said Monday, adding the launches were a response to US-led joint military exercises in the region. Kim has long wanted to develop tactical nukes -- smaller, lighter weapons designed for battlefield use -- and made it a top priority at a key party congress in January 2021. The country revised its nuclear laws last month, envisaging a wide array of scenarios in which it could use its nukes, with Kim declaring North Korea an "irreversible" nuclear power -- effecti......