Kim Jong-un Says He Can Hit U.S.: ‘The Nuclear Button Is Always on My Desk’
North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-un delivered a New Year’s Eve speech, saying the United States is within range of the country’s nuclear weapons.

North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-un delivered a New Year’s Eve speech, saying the United States is within range of the country’s nuclear weapons.

North Korea’s state newpaper, Rodong Sinmun, published a piece accusing U.S. President Donald Trump of “noisily crying out for military counteraction” against Pyongyang a day after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson invited North Korean diplomats to a talk without preconditions.

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera announced on Friday that Japan will purchase long-range missiles from the United States for the first time, citing the “increasingly severe” security situation faced by the island nation.

A report from Japan’s Asia Press International (API) identifies “massive amounts” of Russian oil entering North Korea, providing a much-needed lifeline as the rest of the world pressure the rogue regime for its consistent nuclear threats with growing sanctions.

The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting Wednesday following North Korea’s latest missile test in which South Korea and the United States warned the Kim regime to step back from the brink.

North Korea’s state media announced that dictator Kim Jong-un “personally supervised” and “meticulously guided” its latest missile launch on Wednesday, claiming he directed the missile to fly at a high angle such that it fell into the Sea of Japan.

China’s state-run Global Times announced on Tuesday that experts see potential for the illegally-constructed floating nuclear power plants in the South China Sea to provide technology that “could be applied to military nuclear vessels.”

The latest issue of the National Interest asks if we are looking at “war in Asia” within the next decade or so. The question asked collectively by the headline articles is whether the multi-sided contest between China, the Koreas, and Japan can be resolved without someone, somewhere, pulling a trigger. The urgent question for U.S. policymakers is whether America can do anything to make overt hostilities less likely.

North Korea’s state newspaper Rodong Sinmun demanded a “trial” in the country against U.S. President Donald Trump for his “heinous crimes.” This pronouncement came shortly after the State Department announced it had once again placed North Korea on its state sponsors of terrorism list.

North Korea is currently working on an “aggressive schedule” to develop a ballistic missile submarine capable of reaching the United States, the website 38 North, run by the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies have revealed.

The communist government of North Korea has dispatched Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho to Cuba for an “official visit,” state media confirmed on Friday, as Pyongyang prepares to receive an envoy from another communist country, China.

TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Tuesday that Iran will not spread its military influence in Syria as a means to attack Israel, despite Russia’s earlier statement that the Iranian presence in the war-torn country is “legitimate.”

Senate Foreign Relations Committee holds a hearing to examine presidential authority over the use of nuclear weapons

The North Korean ambassador to the United Nations has claimed that the United States “is hell-bent on bringing catastrophic disaster to humanity” as the Pentagon continues to carry out precautionary military exercises in the Korean Peninsula.

Pope Francis has gone further than any of his predecessors in denouncing the arms race, saying that not only the use or massive stockpiling of nuclear arms, but their very possession is worthy of condemnation.

TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s resignation and his accompanying statement slamming Iran should be a “wake-up call” to the world to take action against the Islamic Republic.

TEL AVIV – The shocking resignation announcement of “fig-leaf” Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has unmasked the country as an Iranian proxy state run by Hezbollah – the Middle East’s most powerful terror group, an Israeli analyst observed on Saturday.

On Sunday, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford hosted a meeting with South Korean and Japanese military officials at the U.S. Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii. The three powers produced a joint statement calling on North Korea to “refrain from irresponsible provocations that aggravate regional tensions, and to walk away from its destructive and reckless path of development.”

The Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday that German security officials have accused Iran of continuing to work on nuclear missile technology in defiance of President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal.

In an interview with Russia’s state-run media, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said that U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech to the U.N. General Assembly in September “lit the wick of war.”

A source “familiar with the meeting” described President Trump as “furious” at Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and other advisers for defending the Iran nuclear deal in a July meeting, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Fox News reports on three German intelligence reports that say Iran attempted to purchase illicit nuclear and ballistic missile technology no less than 32 times in 2016 — and that was just in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The deadline to renew or reject the Iran nuclear deal brokered by President Barack Obama is approaching, and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) argued Monday it is also time for President Donald’s Trump’s national security team to back his plan to pull out of the deal or get out of the White House.

A recent survey commissioned by the New York Times found that people who could find North Korea on a map were more likely to favor talks over military action. A glance at North Asia’s geography explains why.

CIA officials assess that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is a rational actor who wants to avoid a military conflict with the U.S., they said at an intelligence conference on Wednesday.

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, assessing South Korean opposition to his aggressive nuclear and missile programs, must believe his predecessors — father Kim Jong-il and grandfather Kim Il-sung — are out there working in the netherworld to do what they can to influence acceptance by the world community of Pyongyang as a nuclear-armed power.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said during an interview with Politico that President Trump’s “posturing,” “publicity stunts,” use of “alternative facts,” and “insulting” speech to the U.N. General Assembly have put Iran in a stronger diplomatic position than ever by destroying the credibility of the United States.

When legislation on U.S. foreign policy, vehemently opposed by the president, comes before the U.S. Senate for approval, the chances the bill will sail through by unanimous vote are highly unlikely.

North Korea’s state newspaper claimed on Friday that nearly five million citizens “volunteered to join or rejoin in the Korean People’s Army” in the past week, looking to fight against President Donald Trump.

President Donald Trump ridiculed Hillary Clinton for criticizing his speech to the United Nations, reminding the country that the Clintons failed to prevent North Korea from obtaining nuclear weapons.

South Korea’s defense minister assured legislators this week that his government would complete the creation and training of a “decapitation brigade” to attack North Korea if necessary by the end of the year. While Seoul has referenced the plan in the past, officials appear to be expediting it in response to North Korea’s latest nuclear test.

North Korea’s foreign ministry threatened the United States with “the greatest pain and suffering it had ever gone through in its entire history” on Monday, the 16th anniversary of the Al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001.

The Department of State would like to include North Korea in ongoing efforts toward a “diplomatic solution” to force the hereditary Kim dictatorship to dismantle its small nuclear arsenal, spokeswoman Heather Nauert indicated Thursday.

The government of New Zealand has proposed an intelligence-sharing initiative, approved on Friday, with small Pacific island states meant to catch North Korean cargo ships disguised with flags from Vanuatu, Tuvalu, and other regional powers.

South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon has warned that North Korea may be planning to test an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Saturday, the latest in a series of increasingly belligerent military actions that culminated in the nation’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test last weekend.

The government of South Korea confirmed Wednesday that it would allow for the installation of four new missile defense launchers, part of a larger U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system designed to protect from a North Korean attack.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that threats by the United States had pushed North Korea to test nuclear weapons and were a “dangerous game for the entire world”.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha claimed following a chat with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Tuesday that China could potentially support harsher sanctions on North Korea following its sixth illegal nuclear test on Sunday.

North Korea’s state media outlets–the only legal media in the communist state–continued their onslaught of violent rhetoric against South Korea and the United States on Tuesday, with one article asserting that North Koreans were “fully determined” to reduce South Korea “to ashes.”

Long before North Korea’s latest nuclear weapons test, Steve Bannon has spoken about the critical economic war with China.
