Contents: North Korea liquidates all commercial projects with South Korea; In desperation move, European Central Bank further lowers negative interest rates; ECB tries to target the velocity of money
The government of North Korea has once again fired short-range ballistic missiles into the sea as a form of protest against new United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang and a large-scale military training exercise being conducted by American and South Korean troops.
Both China and Russia, traditionally supportive of North Korea, stepped away from their usual role in protecting against United Nations sanctions, and now Russia’s Foreign Ministry has warned the North Koreans they could face military action if they do not back down from threats of launching “preventive nuclear strikes” against South Korea and U.S. forces.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un alleges in a new report from Pyongyang that his scientists have “miniaturized” nuclear warheads, making it possible to fit them on ballistic missiles that could reach South Korea or the United States.
South Korea says North Korea has been trying to hack into their smartphones and has also conducted cyberattacks against the South Korean railway transit system.
The government of North Korea is using its official media outlets to attempt to threaten South Korea and the United States out of performing scheduled joint military exercises this week, vowing a “pre-emptive nuclear strike of justice” should Pyongyang feel sufficiently threatened by the exercises.
The latest round of saber-rattling from North Korea featured dictator Kim Jong Un ordering his country’s nuclear weapons to be readied for a “pre-emptive attack.”
South Korean President Park Geun-hye vowed in a speech Thursday that her nation would work to pressure North Korea to “end the tyranny that has deprived North Koreans of their freedom and human rights,” the first time she has called the communist regime in Pyongyang a “tyranny.”
North Korea has issued an unofficial response to the United Nations Security Council’s vote to implement the harshest sanctions on the communist dictatorship in years, shooting six “short-range projectiles” towards South Korea and employing increasingly absurd rhetoric against its southern neighbor in state media.
The U.N. Security Council has unanimously voted to impose tougher sanctions against North Korea for refusing to abandon its nuclear warhead and ballistic missile programs.
A Chinese major general has condemned North Korea for its “ungrateful behavior” towards China, in yet another sign that Pyongyang’s most powerful ally is losing patience with the rogue communist regime.
The North Korean government is claiming a U.S. student imprisoned in the hermit kingdom admitted to “severe crimes,” including stealing a propaganda sign.
Japan has recalibrated its estimate of how many of its citizens North Korea has abducted in the past four decades. It has come up with a figure of 886, demanded Pyongyang release the kidnapped who are still alive, and come clean on the fate of those who have died since being abducted.
The Korean War never actually ended — both North Korea and the United States are in their seventh decade of a temporary armistice — but over the weekend it surfaced that the North Koreans quietly reached out to the U.S. for a permanent peace treaty last fall, only to change their minds and abandon the effort after their illegal nuclear weapons test on January 6.
“The doom of the U.S. has been sealed.” So reads a statement on North Korea’s official state media outlet, warning Pyongyang will attack the “U.S. Mainland” if American and South Korean forces complete a military drill simulating the collapse of the Kim Jong-un regime in March.
15,000 American soldiers and 290,000 of their South Korean counterparts will simulate the invasion of a collapsed North Korea in early March, as part of two military drills named Key Resolve and Foal Eagle. North Korea’s communist dictatorship has responded to the proposed largest-ever drill with threats of a preemptive strike.
North Korean defector organizations say that the U.S. State Department is willing to fund projects to help liberalize North Korea’s population, including information drops and agitating movements working within the communist country’s borders.
North Korea has responded to elevated rhetoric from its southern neighbor with the sort of sexist tirade it has been hurling at South Korea’s female president for years, calling Park Geun-hye a “senile granny” and “tailless, old, insane bitch,” as well as a “traitor for all times.”
On Thursday, President Obama signed off on tougher sanctions against North Korea, as punishment for the Communist regime’s recent nuclear detonation, missile test disguised as a satellite launch, and involvement in cyber-espionage.
Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) criticized the Obama administration for facing North Korea “with indifference instead of resolve” and argued “We can no longer stand idly by as North Korea builds an arsenal of mass destruction” while promoting the North Korea
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has announced his plans to launch more rockets into space, asserting that Pyongyang seeks to “conquer space” as part of a “fierce class struggle” against capitalism.
Kim Sung-woo, the chief presidential secretary for public affairs to South Korean President Park Geun-hye, warned on Thursday that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is preparing a campaign of terror against the South, as tensions between the two countries over the North’s nuclear weapons program increase.
President Barack Obama has announced a visit to Cuba next month. The Cuban regime has not improved its human rights record, nor has it made any democratic reforms.
Security conscious Americans are hard-pressed to be optimistic after reading the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Worldwide Threat Assessment for 2016.
John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, argued on Breitbart News Daily Thursday morning that Apple’s response to the U.S. government’s demand for Apply to unlock the San Bernardino jihadi’s iPhone is “simply wrong.”
South Korea stepped up its criticism of North Korea’s nuclear plans this week, with U.N. Ambassador Oh Joon calling for “extraordinary” measures against the North’s “nuclear blackmail.” South Korean President Park Geun-hye warned that Pyongyang faces “regime collapse” if they continue spinning up nuclear weapons production.
The rogue regime of Cuba has returned an American Hellfire missile that somehow arrived in Havana after NATO operators in Europe shipped it there instead of Florida almost two years ago. American officials have not said whether the missile, a dummy model, shows signs of having been taken apart for study.
Facing growing international pressure to intervene as the nation almost solely responsible for North Korea’s survival, China has decreed the rogue nation’s containment a “U.S. obligation,” protesting that ‘the U.S. should not always try to outsource its problems to China.”
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un reportedly encouraged the nation’s scientists to develop more rockets for the launching of alleged “satellites” into space, less than a month after receiving wide condemnation from the free world, and even some notes of concern from China, over a rocket launch.
The annual threat assessment from Director of National Security James Clapper included some grim news about North Korea, which is evidently restarting its plutonium production reactor at Yongbyon, and has developed missile technology that can reach any part of the continental United States.
American experts believe the satellite North Korea launched into space has finally stopped tumbling and reached a stable orbit, but it is still highly unlikely to be producing data and sending it back to earth.
The South Korean news agency Yonhap is reporting that North Korea has executed the nation’s army chief of General Staff, reportedly on charges of corruption. This disruption in Pyongyang’s leadership follows a string of belligerent acts on the part of the communist regime, most recently the use of a long-range rocket to launch an alleged satellite into orbit.
According to the editor of a North Korea tech blog, the rogue nation launched its Kwangmyongsong-4 satellite on Sunday, which flew a path over Levi’s Stadium roughly an hour after Super Bowl 50 ended.
North Korea has the ability to deliver a nuclear warhead into downtown Los Angeles. And Sunday’s illegal long-range rocket launch may have brought the regime steps closer to achieving that.
North Korea sent a patrol boat into sovereign South Korean waters just days after violating international sanctions by shooting a long-range rocket into space, allegedly to install a new satellite into orbit. South Korea’s navy forced the patrol boat to retreat, firing multiple warning shots in its direction.
GOP presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson responded to North Korea’s satellite launch with ballistic missile technology, saying this is evidence of “just how ineffectual America’s current foreign policy approach has become.”
Contents: Turkey will keep Syria border closed as Aleppo refugees mass; Europe sends mixed messages to Turkey about new flood of Syrian refugees; Syria, Iran and Russia ridicule Saudi Arabia’s army; Turkey confiscates parrots and parakeets on Syria border; North Korea launches long-range missile, violating Security Council resolution
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Sunday defied international warnings and launched a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others call a cover for a banned test of technology for a missile that could strike the U.S.
North Korea has dropped over 300,000 propaganda leaflets over South Korea in an unprecedented air drop that also included hundreds of cigarette butts, used toilet paper, and other assorted garbage. As some of the exploding bags of garbage did not detonate, they broke cars, windows, and other targets on their way down.
North Korea has notified the International Maritime Organization of the United Nations that it plans to launch a satellite sometime between February 8 and February 25. The announcement was not well-received, as it is widely suspected the “satellite launch” will actually be cover for long-range ballistic missile testing.
