Kim Yo-jong, the politically influential sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, said on Thursday that her brother might be willing to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, who wishes to discuss the fate of Japanese civilians kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, provided Kishida is “respectful.”
President Yoon Suk-yeol of South Korea stressed economic development, climate change, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and North Korean missiles at the U.N.
North Korea claimed to launch its first nuclear attack submarine on Wednesday in a ceremony attended by a very excited Kim Jong-un.
There could be “nuclear weapons for everyone” who wants to join the Union between Russia and Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko said.
Ex-Russian President Medvedev said the UK is an “eternal enemy” and that Britain will be sent to the “abyss” in the waves of a nuclear blast.
South Korea’s latest defense white paper referred to North Korea as the “enemy” for the first time in six years, citing Pyongyang’s violation of bilateral agreements, missile tests, penetration of South Korean airspace with drones, and growing stockpile of weapons-grade nuclear material.
Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, warned on Tuesday the United States will “face a more fatal security crisis” if it continues pushing the United Nations to take action against North Korea’s illegal nuclear missile program.
The Financial Times reported on Saturday that U.S. intelligence agencies were caught by surprise when China secretly tested a nuclear-capable low-orbit hypersonic missile in August. The weapon circled the globe before descending upon its target, missing by about two dozen miles.
North Korea responded to the announcement of the AUKUS strategic alliance on Monday by calling it “irresponsible” and warning it could launch a “nuclear arms race.”
Satellite images revealed on Thursday that North Korea is constructing new buildings at its Yongbyon nuclear facility, traditionally the Communist dictatorship’s source of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium.
A study of satellite images produced by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California this week revealed China is constructing over 100 new silos for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) in the northwestern desert of Gansu province.
China should expand its stock of nuclear warheads to 1,000 sooner rather than later, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party said Friday, adding the latest class of intercontinental missiles capable of striking continental United States should be included in that expansion.
Media reports from China indicate Tuesday’s military parade, a massive show of force and technological sophistication to mark the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic, will include the public debut of the Dongfeng-41, a nuclear-capable missile that could hit U.S. territory within 30 minutes of launch.
Russia and China accused the United States on Tuesday of “escalating” military tensions after the Pentagon test-fired a ground-launched cruise missile banned by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).
The United States formally withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty on Friday, concluding a six-month advisory period in which Russia failed to correct its repeated violations of the agreement.
President Donald Trump on Saturday indicated the United States will withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) due to persistent Russian violations. The Russians responded that American withdrawal would unleash “full chaos in the nuclear weapons sphere,” as parliamentary foreign affairs chief Konstantin Kosachev put it.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Thursday to have successfully tested the Kinzhal hypersonic cruise missile, the weapon described as “invincible” by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A source within the Japanese government said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may seek a meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, presumably at some point after U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Kim, assuming that summit does indeed occur.
North Korea’s U.N. Ambassador Han Tae Song claimed on Tuesday that the United States is using the Winter Olympics as an excuse for provocative military maneuvers, and boasted North Korea has a “powerful and reliable” nuclear deterrent ready to thwart foreign invaders.
Speaking at an American Enterprise Institute forum on the future of U.S. intelligence operations, CIA Director Mike Pompeo warned that North Korea could be a “handful of months” away from plausibly threatening the continental United States with nuclear weapons.
Delegations from North and South Korea met at the border village of Panmunjom on Tuesday to discuss North Korea’s participation at the Winter Olympics and generally improving the tense situation on the peninsula. At the meeting, North Korea made an obvious play to fracture the international coalition aligned against its nuclear missile program and weaken South Korean resolve.
North Korea announced on Sunday that it will send a five-member delegation to talks in the border village of Panmunjom on Tuesday, the first formal contact between the two Korean nations in over two years.
China’s Commerce Ministry announced on Friday that it will cap oil supplies to North Korea and ban imports of steel and other manufactured goods, in accordance with tougher U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea’s nuclear missile program.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a press conference on Thursday that Japan’s security environment is “at its severest since World War II” because of North Korea, and he vowed to “protect the people’s lives and peaceful living in any situation.”
South Korea’s Yonhap News reported on Tuesday that Seoul has proposed high-level talks with North Korea next week, ostensibly to discuss North Korean participation in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. The offer came after North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s intriguingly “conciliatory” annual address on New Year’s Day.
Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton looked ahead to America’s diplomacy and national security challenges in 2018 on Thursday’s Breitbart News Daily with SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam.
If the South Korean analysts quoted by Yonhap News are correct, North Korea will not be having a Happy New Year. According to the Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul, tough international sanctions imposed against North Korea over its nuclear missile programs haven’t affected the economy much yet, but that is about to change.
China’s Foreign Ministry welcomed U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s offer to talk with North Korea without preconditions on Wednesday, while the White House responded in a more ambivalent manner.
Speaking from the 2017 Atlantic Council-Korea Foundation Forum in Washington on Tuesday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson surprisingly announced that the Trump administration is ready to hold talks with North Korea without any preconditions.
Russia has rejected U.S. calls to cut economic and diplomatic ties with North Korea after the dictatorship’s latest provocative missile test. In fact, the Russians made a point of ridiculing the effectiveness of sanctions and blaming the United States for rising tensions on the Korean peninsula.
North Korea released photos and video of its new missile on Thursday, showing what appears to be a larger and more powerful version of its previous top-shelf ICBM, the Hwasong-14.
A senior State Department official told Reuters on Tuesday that the United States is “quietly pursuing direct diplomacy with North Korea,” despite President Trump’s dismissal of such talks as a “waste of time.”
After taking a great deal of heat for social media posts from North Korea, which he defended on the grounds that he was worried for his safety and that of his family, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof published a full-length account of his experience entitled “Inside North Korea, and Feeling the Drums of War.”
North Korea’s international charm offensive continued on Monday with a statement from the official Korean Central News Agency promising that Japan will be swiftly covered by “nuclear clouds” and “engulfed in flames” if a war breaks out.
The AFP news agency reported on Wednesday afternoon that a draft U.N. resolution prepared by the United States would impose an oil embargo against North Korea.
Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney discussed the North Korean nuclear missile crisis with SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Wednesday’s Breitbart News Daily.
A recent poll from South Korean news network YTN found 68 percent support for the return of American tactical weapons to South Korea, an idea Defense Minister Song Young-moo seemed to endorse on Monday, or at least refrain from dismissing out of hand.
Speaking at the BRICS summit in China on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said further sanctions against North Korea “would now be useless and ineffective,” because “they will eat grass but they will not turn away from the path that will provide for their security.”
In a phone call on Wednesday evening, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that applying further sanctions against North Korea would be “counterproductive and dangerous.”
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told a closed-door session of Parliament on Monday that signs of activity have been detected at North Korea’s Punggye-ri underground nuclear test site, possibly signaling that a new nuclear test is imminent.
