Vladimir Putin has actually alerted South Korea it would be making “a huge error” if it arms Ukraine in the war versus Russia.
His remarks followed Seoul stated it was thinking about such a possibility, in reaction to Russia and North Korea’s brand-new pact to assist each other in case of “hostility” versus either nation.
Moscow “will… [make] choices which are not likely to please the existing management of South Korea” if Seoul chooses to provide arms to Kyiv, Mr Putin informed press reporters on Thursday.
The Russian leader was speaking in Vietnam, quickly after a luxurious check out to Pyongyang where he signed a shared defence arrangement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Mr Putin likewise alerted that Moscow wants to equip Pyongyang if the United States and its allies continue providing Ukraine with weapons.
“Those who provide these weapons think that they are not at war with us. I stated, consisting of in Pyongyang, that we then schedule the right to provide weapons to other areas of the world,” Mr Putin stated.
Seoul had actually previously condemned the Russian-North Korean arrangement as a hazard to its nationwide security, and nationwide security consultant Chang Ho-jin had actually stated his nation prepared to “reassess the concern of arms support to Ukraine”.
Following Mr Putin’s remarks, South Korea’s governmental workplace stated on Friday it would think about “numerous alternatives” in providing arms to Ukraine and its position will “depend upon how Russia approaches this concern”.
It likewise summoned the Russian ambassador Georgy Zinoviev to object the pact, requiring that Moscow “instantly stops” military cooperation with Pyongyang.
While South Korea has actually offered humanitarian help and military devices to Ukraine, it has actually up until now declined to supply deadly weapons as it has a main policy not to arm nations at war.
Some in Ukraine have actually been hoping that the deepening military cooperation in between Moscow and Pyongyang would trigger Seoul to reconsider its method. Experts had previously stated that Kyiv would utilize Mr Putin’s check out to Pyongyang to up the pressure.
Throughout the check out, Mr Kim had actually likewise vowed “complete assistance” for Russia’s intrusion of Ukraine. There is growing proof that Russia has actually currently been releasing North Korean rockets in Ukraine.
Early on Friday the United States nationwide security council’s representative John Kirby weighed in on the Russian-North Korean arrangement, stating it ought to “be of issue to any nation that appreciates keeping peace and stability” in the area.
He included that the arrangement was “not a surprise”, stating that the United States had actually been cautioning about the 2 nations’ “growing defence relationship” for numerous months.
Tokyo stated it was “seriously worried that President Putin did not eliminate military innovation co-operation with North Korea”, Japan’s federal government representative Yoshimasa Hayashi stated, including that the arrangement was “inappropriate”.
Experts have actually stated that the treaty might have considerable ramifications for the world in addition to the area. Besides the possibility of North Korean honestly equipping Russia, it might likewise possibly see Russia intervening in any fresh dispute on the Korean peninsula.
The 2 Koreas are still technically at war and keep a greatly safeguarded border, where stress have actually aggravated in current weeks.
In a different event on Thursday, North Korean soldiers “briefly crossed” the border and pulled away after the South fired cautioning shots, Seoul authorities stated on Friday.
This marks the 3rd such event in less than 3 weeks. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Personnel had actually stated the 2 earlier cases – on 9 June and 18 June – seemed unintended.
(Bloomberg) — Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un accepted offer instant military help if among them is assaulted, restoring a contract going back to the Cold War in a relocation likely to agitate the United States and its partners.
A Lot Of Check Out from Bloomberg
The 2 leaders signed the offer Wednesday throughout Putin’s very first see to North Korea in 24 years. Kim called the pact “the most effective treaty” signed in between the 2 nations and one that raises their ties to an alliance.
“If either celebration is gotten into by military by a private state or states and deal with a war, the other celebration will without hold-up and in accordance with Post 51 of the Charter of the United Nations and the laws of North Korea and Russia, offer military and other help with all the ways at its disposal,” the treaty stated, according to a text released Thursday from the main Korean Central News Firm.
After the finalizing event, Kim stated the offer is for protective functions however it raises the threats for the United States and its partners in reacting to justifications from Moscow and Pyongyang and is a sign of their defiance versus Western powers.
The pact, called the Comprehensive Strategic Collaboration Treaty, likewise states Russia and North Korea accepted interact to enhance their defense abilities, while broadening cooperation in the trade and financial investment.
Putin’s journey followed Kim took a trip to Russia in September, which as satellite images later on revealed was followed by a huge development in arms transfers. Putin last went to Pyongyang in 2000 as Russia’s president. Moscow and Pyongyang have actually rejected the arms transfers in spite of sufficient proof revealing them occurring.
The leaders of Russia and North Korea have actually struck a contract on shared support in case of an attack by a 3rd nation, as part of an overarching collaboration arrangement in between the 2 nations.
The arrangement on all-inclusive tactical cooperation signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang on Wednesday is meant to take cooperation in between the 2 states to a brand-new level.
Kim explained the arrangement as “a big treaty,” which he stated introduce a brand-new period. Their cooperation on political, military, financial and other concerns was tranquil and was targeted at protecting the interests of both states, he stated.
“I believe that it will end up being a driving force in the sped up advancement of a brand-new multipolar world,” Kim stated.
Throughout his see to North Korea, Putin slammed Western arms shipment to Ukraine. Private NATO allies have actually licensed Ukraine to assault Russian area with the high-precision weapons provided. Russia sees this as a direct participation of NATO states in the war in Ukraine.
Putin likewise spoke up in favour of raising UN sanctions versus North Korea and ensured Kim of assistance in withstanding pressure from global punitive steps.
It was Putin’s very first remain in the neighbouring nation in 24 years.
The Russian leader was invited by a cheering crowd at Kim Il Sung Square, the architectural and symbolic centre of Pyongyang.
Putin thanked his North Korean host for supporting Russian policy, consisting of Moscow’s war versus Ukraine.
According to the White Home, the 2 sides concurred in 2015 on the shipment of North Korean rockets and weapons ammo to Russia, which Moscow utilizes in the war.
This is presumed to be in return for the transfer of essential military innovations to Pyongyang, which goes through global sanctions due to its nuclear program. Both nations have actually rejected any such cooperation.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin participate in an inviting event at Kim Il-Sung Square. -/Kremlin/dpa
Vladimir Putin indications a tactical collaboration with Kim Jong Un in North Korea. Texas deals with the very first storm caution of the cyclone season. And baseball loses among its legends.
Here’s what to understand today.
Kim Jong Un and Putin indication pact to assist each other if assaulted in unusual North Korea see
The streets of the North Korean capital were lined today with cheering crowds, installed soldiers and grand pictures — not for Kim Jong Un, however for his visitor and growing ally, Vladimir Putin.
In an unusual check out to the reclusive nuclear-armed state, the Russian leader and his host signed a detailed tactical collaboration that might deepen their military and financial cooperation as both nations deal with a variety of international sanctions and conflicts with the United States and its allies.
The offer might broaden transfers of military innovation to Pyongyang in exchange for materials of munitions that Moscow’s military severely requires for its war in Ukraine. U.S. authorities formerly informed NBC News that such transfers might greatly improve North Korea’s nuclear abilities and threaten the Asia-Pacific area.
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Putin’s very first check out to North Korea in 24 years started with a handshake and accept at the Pyongyang International Airport, according to the state-run Korean Central News Firm. Then the set “exchanged their bottled-up inmost ideas” throughout a limousine trip to the Kumsusan State Visitor Home, where Putin would be remaining.
Check out the complete story here.
Texas deals with very first storm caution of cyclone season as severe heat grips East Coast
Southern Texas is braced for a significant storm to strike late today into tomorrow, with significant flash flooding possible, in the very first caution of the cyclone season. The weather condition system is anticipated to end up being a hurricane later on when it will be relabelled Hurricane Alberto.
Tropical notifies remain in location in the state along the Gulf Coast, with as much as 10 to 15 inches of rain and high winds anticipated in Corpus Christi. The state federal government enacted a massive emergency situation action in anticipation of extensive flooding.
The storm caution comes as 71 million individuals were under some kind of heat advisory or cautioning today, as a serious heat wave is set to last through Friday. Numerous parts of the Midwest, the interior Northeast and New England might reach temperature levels of 95 degrees or above today, with Bangor, Maine, set to strike 106 on the heat index, a step of how hot it feels that consider humidity.
NBC News meteorologist Michelle Grossman cautioned that severe heat is not to be ignored.
Baseball loses among its biggest: Willie Mays
Baseball lost among its legends the other day with the death of Willie Mays at 93. Mays, a Hall of Famer who invested the bulk of his profession with the San Francisco Giants, is commonly thought about to be amongst the most gifted gamers in baseball history. His mix of power with a bat, blinding speed and unrelenting defense delighted fans coast to coast throughout a golden era in baseball.
His statistics in the house plate are exceptional and enduring: a .301 profession batting average, 660 profession crowning achievement (sixth-most all-time), 3,293 hits (12th-most), and 1,909 runs batted in (11th-most). Mays likewise won 12 Gold Glove awards as a practiced fielder.
However it’s his over-the-shoulder catch while running into center field throughout Video game 1 of the 1954 World Series that celebrated him in baseball history. It’s commonly thought about one the best defensive plays in baseball, motivating generations of young ball gamers to imitate his athleticism. David K. Li catches what made Mays a Giant on and off the field.
Growing link in between Mexican cartels and Chinese the mob
Brand-new charges versus Los Angeles-based partners of the Sinaloa cartel in an advanced cash laundering plan are proof of a growing relationship in between Mexican cartels and Chinese people in the U.S., federal district attorneys stated.
Information of the case were described in a 10-count superseding indictment. Authorities declared that more than $50 million in drug cash was washed through an underground banking system run by Chinese nationals in the U.S. “Together these groups have actually developed a company in which millions and countless dollars are relocated earnings from the drug sales in the United States pull back to Mexico,” U.S. Lawyer Martin Estrada stated, “and rich Chinese nationals in this nation are admitted to essentially endless materials of money.” Learn More about the case.
Chuck Todd: An absence of worry of another Trump presidency
Among the most significant advancements of the 2024 governmental project — and the most significant distinction from the previous 2 elections — is the absence of worry of another Donald Trump term, NBC News primary political expert Chuck Todd composes in an analysis. It might discuss why President Joe Biden’s project has actually had a hard time to move citizens far from Trump by advising them of his doubtful character characteristics and disorderly governing design. And today, this absence of worry might be a genuine stumbling block for the Biden project.
It’s most likely that a big piece of the general public has actually forgotten the day-to-day turmoil Trump deliberately developed with his presidency throughout the pandemic, Todd argues. Plus, there isn’t clear agreement — or a desire for reflection, truly — on why Trump lost in 2020. On the other hand, a growing approval of a possible 2nd Trump term, even by those who formerly spoke up versus the previous president, makes Biden’s obstacle of injecting worry into citizens even harder. Check out the complete analysis here.
More 2024 election news:
The Biden administration has no company strategy to signal the general public about deepfakes or other incorrect details throughout the election with a couple of exceptions, existing and previous U.S. authorities stated. Here’s why.
Politics in Short
Virginia main: Republican Rep. Bob Good, chairman of your home Flexibility Caucus, was secured a close main battle for Virginia’s fifth District versus his opposition, state Sen. John McGuire. Simply a couple of hundred votes separated them since last night.
Georgia main: Chuck Hand, a founded guilty Jan. 6 accused, lost a Republican main overflow seat for a Home seat in Georgia.
Weapon rights: Senate Democrats looked for to pass legislation prohibiting bump stocks for guns after the Supreme Court recently overthrew a previous restriction, however a single Republican objected, which successfully stalled the expense.
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Personnel Select: Fulfill the ‘Harriet Tubman of Texas’
A 1983 illustration by Charles Shaw of Silvia Hector Webber (The Briscoe Center)
Juneteenth is everything about flexibility — and in the 19th century, previous servant Silvia Hector Webber made it her objective to assist others do not hesitate. With the aid of her white spouse, Webber had the ability to discover flexibility, and she utilized their land along the Rio Grande in Texas to assist those getting away slavery to leave to Mexico. Thanks to brand-new research study, her descendants are recently discovering her and are honoring her tradition. — Michelle Garcia, NBC BLK editorial director
NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified
With much of the nation in the throes of a heat wave, you might be searching for concepts for remaining cool. NBC Select staffers evaluated cooling devices, like individual fans. Here are their favorites. And if you’re seeking to keep a bigger area cooler, take a look at the very best portable air conditioning systems.
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This short article was initially released on NBCNews.com
Russian President Vladimir Putin is set up to go to North Korea and Vietnam, the Kremlin revealed on Monday.
Putin’s see to North Korea on Tuesday and Wednesday follows an invite from ruler Kim Jong Un, a declaration stated, explaining the journey as a “friendly state go to.” Putin is then due to take a trip on to Vietnam for 2 days.
Russia preserves close ties to North Korea, which is seen with terrific suspicion in the West. The separated communist nation with nuclear aspirations is thought to be providing Russia with ammo for its war versus Ukraine.
Kim paid an unusual foreign see to Russia in September.
In Vietnam, the Kremlin revealed that Putin would fulfill the presidents, federal government and the Communist Celebration. The talks are to concentrate on broadening the 2 nations’ detailed tactical collaboration.
In 2015, the International Bad Guy Court in The Hague provided an arrest warrant for Putin, in relation to declared Russian war criminal offenses in Ukraine.
He is for that reason limited in his global contacts and can just go to allied nations that – like Russia – do not acknowledge the court.
Because the start of his brand-new term of workplace in May, Putin has actually gone to Belarus, China and Uzbekistan.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean soldiers fired alerting shots after North Korean soldiers breached the land border previously today, South Korea’s armed force stated Tuesday, in the middle of skyrocketing displeasures in between the competitors over the North’s current trash-carrying balloon launches.
Some North Korean soldiers who were participated in undefined deal with the northern side of the border briefly crossed the military separation line on Sunday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Personnel stated.
Those North Korean soldiers instantly went back to their area after South Korea’s military fired alerting shots and released alerting broadcasts, the Joint Chiefs of Personnel stated. It stated North Korea had actually not carried out any other suspicious activities.
South Korea’s armed force has actually examined that the North Korean soldiers didn’t appear to have purposefully crossed the border since the website is a woody location and MDL indications there weren’t plainly noticeable, Joint Chiefs of Personnel representative Lee Sung Joon informed press reporters.
The Koreas’ mine-strewn land border is the world’s most greatly armed border, with numerous countless fight soldiers dealing with each other. It’s a tradition of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
On Sunday, South Korea resumed anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts from its border speakers in action to the North’s current launches of balloons bring manure and rubbish throughout the border. South Korea stated North Korea has actually installed its own border speakers in action however hasn’t turned them on yet.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s military on Monday stated it’s spotting indications that North Korea is installing its own speakers along their greatly armed border, a day after the South blasted anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts over its speakers for the very first time in years as the competitors participate in a Cold War-style mental warfare.
The South’s resumption of its speaker broadcasts on Sunday remained in retaliation for the North sending out over 1,000 balloons filled with garbage and manure over the last number of weeks. North Korea has actually explained its balloon project as a tit-for-tat versus South Korean civilian groups flying anti-North Korean propaganda brochures throughout the border. Pyongyang has actually long condemned it as it’s very conscious any outdoors criticism of leader Kim Jong Un’s authoritarian guideline.
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Personnel didn’t right away discuss the variety of presumed North Korean speakers or where along the border they were identified being set up. It stated the speakers were still quiet since Monday afternoon.
South Korea on Sunday triggered its speakers for a preliminary broadcast into North Korea, which apparently consisted of news, criticism about North Korea’s federal government and South Korean popular song.
Hours in the future Sunday, Kim’s effective sibling alerted that the South developed a “start to a really unsafe scenario.” She stated South Korea would witness an undefined “brand-new action” from the North if it continues with the broadcasts and stops working to stop civilian activists from flying anti-North Korean propaganda brochures throughout the border.
“I sternly alert Seoul to right away case its unsafe activities that would even more provoke a crisis of fight,” Kim Yo Jong stated through state media.
Lee Sung Joon, representative of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Personnel, stated Kim’s remarks represented an increased spoken hazard from North Korea however he did not offer a particular evaluation on the actions the North may take. Lee stated the South was performing broadcasts in websites where soldiers have enough security and are geared up to quickly counter if assaulted.
“(We) don’t believe that they might provoke us that quickly,” Lee stated throughout a rundown Monday.
The Joint Chiefs of Personnel didn’t define the border location where Sunday’s broadcast happened or what was played over the speakers. It stated that any extra broadcasts are “totally depending on North Korea’s habits.”
The South withdrew speakers from border locations in 2018, throughout a quick duration of engagement with the North under Seoul’s previous liberal federal government.
In choosing to reboot the speaker broadcasts, South Korea’s governmental workplace scolded Pyongyang for trying to trigger “stress and anxiety and interruption” in the South and worried that North Korea would be “entirely accountable” for any future escalation of stress.
The North stated its balloon project followed South Korean activists sent out over balloons filled with anti-North Korean brochures, along with USB sticks filled with popular South Korean tunes and dramas. Pyongyang is very conscious such product and fears it might demoralize front-line soldiers and homeowners and ultimately deteriorate leader Kim Jong Un’s grip on power, experts state.
In 2015, when South Korea rebooted speaker broadcasts for the very first time in 11 years, North Korea fired weapons rounds throughout the border, triggering South Korea to return fire, according to South Korean authorities. No casualties were reported.
South Korea has stated it will resume propaganda broadcasts versus North Korea for the very first time in 6 years in reaction to Pyongyang’s project of sending out rubbish-filled balloons throughout the border.
Over 300 North Korean balloons were spotted over Saturday and Sunday with around 80 landing in the South bring scrap paper and plastic sheets.
North Korea is yet to react to the statement, however Pyongyang thinks about the speaker propaganda broadcasts an act of war and has actually threatened to blow them up in the past.
Last month North Korea appeared to send out a minimum of 200 balloons bring rubbish over the border in retaliation for propaganda brochures sent out from the south.
South Korean authorities caution the general public not to touch the balloons, however to report them [Reuters]
Over the weekend North Korea resumed its waste project versus its neighbour by sending out balloons bring sacks of rubbish over the border into South Korea.
It remained in retaliation for activists in the South sending out 10 balloons consisting of brochures important of the North Korean routine on Friday, according to AFP news firm.
South Korea’s armed force stated there disappear balloons in the air including that no harmful products have actually been discovered.
It has actually cautioned the general public not to touch the balloons and to be familiar with falling things.
The general public must report any sightings to the nearby authorities or military system, the military included.
Following the most recent batch of balloons, South Korea’s National Security Council stated speaker broadcasts on the border would resume on Sunday after accepting reboot the speakers for the very first time given that 2018.
On Thursday an activist group in South Korea stated it had actually flown balloons into North Korea bring brochures criticising the leader Kim Jong Un, dollar expenses and USB stick to K-pop video – which is prohibited in the North.
Recently, the broadcasts have actually consisted of news from both Koreas and abroad along with details on democracy and life in South Korea.
The South Korean military claims the broadcasts can be heard as much as 10km (6.2 miles) throughout the border in the day and approximately 24km (15 miles) during the night.
In May, a South Korea-based activist group declared it had actually sent out 20 balloons bring anti-Pyongyang brochures and USB sticks consisting of Korean popular song and video throughout the border.
Seoul’s parliament passed a law in December 2020 that criminalises the launch of anti-Pyongyang brochures, however critics have actually raised issues associated to liberty of speech and human rights.
North Korea has actually likewise introduced balloons southward that assaulted Seoul’s leaders.
In one such launch in 2016, the balloons apparently brought toilet tissue, cigarette butts and rubbish. Seoul authorities explained them as “harmful biochemical compounds”.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s federal government authorized the suspension of a controversial military arrangement with North Korea on Tuesday, an action that would permit it to take harder actions to North Korean justifications.
The advancement came as bitterness in between the competing Koreas increased dramatically just recently after North Korea introduced trash-carrying balloons throughout the border in response to previous South Korean civilian leafletting projects.
South Korea’s Cabinet Council passed a proposition targeted at suspending the 2018 inter-Korean arrangement on decreasing down frontline military stress. The proposition will officially work when it’s signed by President Yoon Suk Yeol, likely later on Tuesday, according to federal government authorities.
Throughout the cabinet conference, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, South Korea’s No. 2 authorities, stated the federal government examined that the 2018 offer has actually damaged South Korean military preparedness at a time when duplicated North Korean justifications position genuine hazards to the South Korean public.
Han pointed out North Korea’s balloon project,tests of nuclear-capable weapons targeting South Korea and declared jamming of GPS navigation signals in the South.
The military arrangement — reached throughout a temporary age of reconciliation in between the Koreas — needs the 2 nations to stop all hostile acts versus each other at their border locations such as live shooting drills, aerial drills and mental warfare.
The accord has actually welcomed withering conservative criticism in South Korea that shared decreases of standard military strength would wind up deteriorating South’s war preparedness while North Korea’s nuclear ability stay undamaged.
In the previous week, North Korea utilized balloons to drop manure, cigarette butts, scraps of fabric and waste on South Korea, triggering South Korea to vow undefined “excruciating” vindictive actions. On Sunday, North Korea stated it would stop its balloon project.
South Korean authorities stated the suspension of the 2018 offer would permit it to phase frontline military drills however didn’t openly intricate on other actions. Observers state South Korea was thinking about rebooting frontline propaganda speaker broadcasts, a Cold War-style mental project that specialists state has actually formerly stung in strictly managed North Korea as the majority of its 26 million individuals are not permitted main accesses to foreign news.
The 2018 offer has actually currently been in limbo after the 2 Koreas taking some actions in breach of it in the middle of stress over North Korea’s spy satellite launch last November.
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea prepares to suspend a military contract signed with North Korea in 2018 focused on reducing stress, the governmental workplace stated on Monday, after Seoul alerted of a strong action to balloons released by Pyongyang bring garbage to the South.
North Korea has actually released hundreds balloons brought by wind throughout the border that dropped garbage throughout South Korea, which called it a justification and turned down Pyongyang’s claim it was done to trouble its neighbour.
The National Security Council stated it would raise the strategy to suspend the totality of the military contract for approval by the cabinet at a conference on Tuesday.
Suspending the contract will lead the way for the South to carry out training near the military border and take “adequate and instant steps” in action to North Korea’s justification, the Council stated in a declaration.
It did not elaborate what those steps might be.
The pact, which was the most substantive offer to come out months of historical top conferences in between the 2 Koreas in 2018, had actually been all however ditched when Pyongyang stated in 2015 it was no longer bound by it.
Ever Since, the North released soldiers and weapons at guard posts near the military border.
By continuing to adhere to the pact, “there have actually been substantial issues in our armed force’s preparedness posture,” the Council stated.
South Korea has formerly stated it would take “unendurable” steps versus North Korea for sending out the garbage balloons over the border, which might consist of roaring propaganda from speakers placed at the border directed at the North.
North Korea has stated the balloons remained in retaliation for a propaganda project by North Korean defectors and activists in the South, who routinely send out inflatables consisting of anti-Pyongyang brochures with food, medication, cash and USB sticks filled with K-pop video and dramas throughout the border.
North Korea has actually responded madly to the project due to the fact that it is stressed over the prospective effect of the products on the psychology of individuals who check out or listen to them and on the state’s control of the general public, professionals stated.
(Reporting by Jack Kim; Modifying by Kim Coghill and Michael Perry)
North Korea sent out more balloons filled with garbage to South Korea, continuing its project from previously today, according to South Korea’s military, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The balloons, which are bring “dirt,” flew throughout the verge on Saturday, once again, and into several provinces, consisting of locations of Seoul, South Korea’s capital.
Around 90 balloons, including cigarette butts, paper and plastic bags, have actually been sent out by North Korea, South Korea’s Yonhap news firm reported on Saturday, pointing out Seoul’s military.
Individuals were informed not to touch the balloons and to report them to either the military or authorities.
North Korea sent out around 260 balloons previously today which were seen in several locations of South Korea. Pyongyang stated the balloons were sent out in reaction to a project arranged by South Korean activists and North Korean defectors who have actually been introducing balloons bring anti-North Korean brochures and other products, according to AP.
Kim Yo Jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sis, validated the balloons were being sent out in retaliation for the activists’ project. The South Korean armed force stated it does not have strategies to shoot down the inbound balloons, warning versus intensifying stress near the border where stress in between the 2 countries has actually increased, according to AP.
“(We) chose it was best to let the balloons drop and recuperate them securely,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Personnel representative stated on Thursday, AP reported.
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North Korea is sending out more balloons bring garbage and excrement throughout the greatly strengthened border to South Korea, South Korea’s armed force has actually stated.
It comes simply days after North Korea appeared to send out a minimum of 200 balloons bring rubbish over the border in retaliation for propaganda brochures sent out from the south.
South Korea’s defence minister Shin Won-sik called it “unimaginably minor and low-grade behaviour”.
North Korea has yet to discuss the most recent batch of balloons, however on Thursday, vice-defence minister Kim Kang Il cautioned waste and dirt would be sent out over the border so the South might value just how much effort it requires to eliminate them.
South Korea’s military asked the general public to prevent touching the balloons and report them to authorities, according to a declaration on Saturday reported by news firm Yonhap.
Late on Tuesday, homeowners residing in Seoul and in the border area got text from provincial authorities inquiring to “avoid outside activities”.
They were likewise asked to submit a report at the nearby military base or police headquarters if they identify an “unknown things”.
South Korean authorities stated the bags “included unclean waste and garbage” and were being evaluated by appropriate authorities.
Photos shared on social networks reveal bags connected through string to white clear balloons bring toilet tissue, dark soil and batteries, to name a few contents.
Authorities and military officers are seen in a few of these photos.
South Korea’s Yonhap news firm reported that “a few of the fallen balloons brought what seems faeces, evaluating from its dark colour and smell”.
South Korea’s military condemned the function as a “clear infraction of global law”.
“It seriously threatens the security of our individuals. North Korea is totally accountable for what takes place due to the balloons and we sternly caution North Korea to right away stop this inhumane and crass action,” the armed force stated.
North and South Korea have actually both utilized balloons in their propaganda projects because the Korean War in the 1950s.
Current events come days after North Korea stated it would strike back versus the “regular scattering of brochures and other rubbish” in border locations by activists in the South.
In addition to anti-Pyongyang propaganda, activists in South Korea have actually introduced balloons bring to name a few things, money, prohibited media material and even Choco Pies – a South Korean treat prohibited in the North.
Previously this month, a South Korea-based activist group declared it had actually sent out 20 balloons bring anti-Pyongyang brochures and USB sticks including Korean popular song and video throughout the border.
Seoul’s parliament passed a law in December 2020 that criminalises the launch of anti-Pyongyang brochures, however critics have actually raised issues associated to liberty of speech and human rights.
North Korea has actually likewise introduced balloons southward that assaulted Seoul’s leaders.
In one such launch in 2016, the balloons apparently brought toilet tissue, cigarette butts and rubbish. Seoul cops explained them as “harmful biochemical compounds”.
North Korea released more trash-carrying balloons towards the South after a comparable project previously in the week, according to South Korea’s military, in what Pyongyang calls retaliation for activists flying anti-North Korean brochures throughout the border.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry did not instantly talk about the variety of balloons it had actually spotted or the number of have actually landed in South Korea. The military recommended individuals to be careful of falling things and not to touch things believed to be from North Korea, however report them to military or cops workplaces rather.
In Seoul, the capital, the local government sent out text informs stating that unknown things believed to be flown from North Korea were being spotted in skies near the city which the armed force was reacting to them.
The North’s balloon introduces contributed to a current series of intriguing actions, that include its unsuccessful spy satellite launch and test-firings of about 10 believed short-range rockets today.
South Korea’s military dispatched chemical quick action and explosive clearance groups to recuperate the particles from some 260 North Korean balloons that were discovered in numerous parts of the nation from Tuesday night to Wednesday. The armed force stated the balloons brought numerous kinds of garbage and manure however no harmful compounds like chemical, biological or radioactive products.
In a declaration on Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong, the effective sis of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, validated that the North sent out the balloons to make great on her nation’s current danger to “spread mounds of wastepaper and dirt” in South Korea in action to leafleting projects by South Korean activists.
She hinted that balloons might end up being the North’s basic action to leafletting moving on, stating that the North would react by “spreading rubbish lots of times more than those being spread to us.”
North Korea is exceptionally delicate about any outdoors effort to weaken Kim Jong Un’s outright control over the nation’s 26 million individuals, the majority of whom have little access to foreign news.
In 2020, North Korea exploded an empty South Korean-built intermediary workplace on its area after a furious action to South Korean civilian leafleting projects. In 2014, North Korea fired at propaganda balloons flying towards its area and South Korea returned fire, though there were no casualties.
In 2022, North Korea even recommended that balloons flown from South Korea had actually triggered a COVID-19 break out in the separated country, an extremely doubtful claim that seemed an effort to blame the South for intensifying inter-Korean relations.
North Korea drifted numerous balloons filled with trash and feces throughout the border south.
North Korea had actually promised retaliation after South Korean activists sent out anti-Pyongyang brochures.
The North’s balloons included fertilizer, NBC reports, however not human excrement.
North Korea drifted balloons bring trash and feces into South Korea recently, authorities in Seoul stated.
The obnoxious drifting orbs were an obvious retaliation versus South Korean activists who had actually formerly flown anti-Pyongyang brochures and USB drives including K-pop music over the border.
Days before the balloons landed in South Korea, a North Korean authorities swore retaliation through “paper and dirt,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
South Korea’s military found the balloons near the border Tuesday and alerted locals to remain within, according to the Journal.
Approximately 260 balloons were eventually discovered — the biggest number ever sent out, the Yonhap News Company reports, mentioning South Korea’s joint chiefs of personnel. The nations have actually been feuding with messages returned and forth through balloons for many years.
North Korea’s most current barrage of balloons included plastic, batteries, parts of shoes, and manure, a JCS authorities stated, according to Yonhap.
South Korea’s defense ministry verified the existence of fertilizer to NBC, not human excrement — though the outlet kept in mind that human feces was sent out by North Korea in 2016.
The current skirmish comes as North Korea on Monday stopped working to introduce a spy satellite, which took off midair.
South Korean media reported Russia was aiding with the effort, with a variety of its service technicians getting in the nation before the messed up launch.
Washington — An Arizona woman has been accused of conspiring with people tied to the North Korean government to illegally procure remote telework posts with U.S. companies, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
Christina Chapman allegedly worked with North Korean IT workers Jiho Han, Chunji Jin, Haoran Xu and others as part of a scheme to steal the identities of U.S. citizens and gain remote employment at American corporations using those false identities, charging documents said.
In all, Chapman and her co-conspirators allegedly used the identities of more than 60 individuals who lived in the U.S. to generate nearly $7 million for the North Korean government from more than 300 U.S. companies.
Prosecutors said some of the affected companies were Fortune 500 corporations, including a major TV network, a defense company, and a car maker.
Investigators alleged Chapman even used laptop computers that were issued to her co-conspirators under false pretenses to make it appear as though they were actually located within the U.S. and later facilitated the laundering of their salaries. The government accused her of operating a “laptop farm” in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to get some of the workers hired by U.S. government agencies.
Han, Jin, and Xu are tied to North Koreans Munitions Industry Department — according to a State Department memo offering $5 million for information leading to the disruption of the scheme — which deals with ballistic missile and weapons production.
They are accused of working with Chapman in an effort to launder the illicit money back into North Korea.
Chapman was arrested in Phoenix on Thursday.
“The charges in this case should be a wakeup call for American companies and government agencies that employ remote IT workers. These crimes benefitted the North Korean government, giving it a revenue stream and, in some instances, proprietary information stolen by the co-conspirators,” Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a statement.
Robert Legare
Robert Legare is a CBS News multiplatform reporter and producer covering the Justice Department, federal courts and investigations. He was previously an associate producer for the “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell.”
Faced with other more pressing developments in Ukraine and Gaza, the Biden administration has largely kept the threat of North Korea’s nuclear program on the back burner.
But tensions around the Korean peninsula have been ratcheting up for years, opening a new and uncertain chapter in a pitched standoff that, just six years ago under then-President Trump, seemed to be on the cusp of a major breakthrough.
So what happened? And what lies in store for whoever wins the White House in November?
In 2018, hopes ran high that North Korea might finally relinquish its nuclear arsenal.
Following three summits between then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the two countries issued a joint declaration pledging better ties between the countries, the easing of military tensions and a mutual commitment to the “denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.”
Read more: Trump and Biden both say they’re tough on China. But whom would Beijing prefer to deal with?
That unprecedented document, the Panmunjom Declaration, set the stage for meetings between Trump and Kim Jong Un, who had until then been slinging insults at one another, with Trump belittling Kim as “little rocket man” and Kim calling Trump a “dotard” — or a senile old person.
Held over the course of 2018 and 2019 in Singapore, Hanoi and the Korean Demilitarized Zone, the three meetings produced several gestures of goodwill, such as Pyongyang repatriating the remains of American soldiers who died in the Korean War and dismantling several rocket launch sites. At the DMZ, Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to set foot on the North Korean side of the border.
But the meetings failed to achieve a denuclearization deal, running into the same intractable problem that has defined the conflict for decades: the United States’ reluctance to accept anything less than total and immediate nuclear disarmament and North Korea’s equal reluctance to surrender its primary source of leverage.
Things have gone downhill ever since.
Then-President Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the border village of Panmunjom in the Korean Demilitarized Zone on June 30, 2019. (Susan Walsh / Associated Press)
In June 2020, North Korea blew up a joint liaison office that had been installed on its side of the border to facilitate communication with Seoul. It also resumed its nuclear program, rebuilding the nuclear test site it had partially demolished following the Panmunjom Declaration.
North Korea has launched more than 100 missiles since 2022, and U.S. and South Korean officials have said it is likely preparing to conduct its seventh nuclear test — the first since 2017.
In September 2022, North Korea passed a law officially declaring itself a nuclear state, with Kim Jong Un vowing that the country would “never give up” its nuclear arsenal, which is estimated to contain at least 40, and perhaps more than 100, warheads.
The new law specifies several scenarios in which the country would use nuclear weapons, including preemptive strikes in the event of imminent attack.
As a result, the last few years have seen increasingly combustible military postures by both Koreas and the United States.
“North Korea has obviously never had this many nuclear weapons, especially those of such technological sophistication, when it comes to delivery methods or strike range,” said Kim Dong-yup, a professor at the University of North Korea Studies in Seoul.
“But all the negotiation channels or mechanisms that North and South Korea had for preventing escalation or misunderstandings are gone. The safety pin has been pulled out.”
In response to North Korea’s growing nuclear might, the Biden administration has resumed military drills with South Korea that had been paused under Trump. It has said that any nuclear attack by North Korea “will result in the end of that regime.”
South Korea has also been honing its strategy to decapitate North Korean leadership, while Kim Jong Un, who recently repudiated the once-shared goal of Korean reunification, labeled South Korea as his regime’s “primary foe.” Given these competing moves, altercations seem inevitable, experts say.
“I don’t think the chances of a full-blown war are particularly high, because there is now an element of greater deterrence in play,” Kim, the professor, said. “But the likelihood of smaller-scale conflicts has risen significantly, especially in areas near the border with North Korea.”
Technically, the Korean War never officially ended. The hostilities halted in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Read more: Biden suggests there is little chance of meeting with North Korea’s Kim amid rising tensions
Biden, if reelected, is widely expected to pursue his current strategy of maintaining sanctions and military deterrence, keeping with his wider regional strategy of expanding U.S. influence in Asia.
Under President Yoon Suk-yeol, a conservative, South Korea joined a U.S.-led trilateral military alliance with Japan — a buffer against China as well as North Korea.
But that is not to say the door to dialogue with North Korea is shut.
In March, senior U.S. officials said that they would be open to exploring “interim steps” toward denuclearization with North Korea, but that the goal of nuclear disarmament remains unchanged.
Yet this is essentially the same offer that has failed to produce meaningful outcomes in the past — including at the Trump-Kim summits — and North Korea has been ignoring the Biden administration’s attempts to make contact.
“The worst kept secret in the Korea policy community is that demanding denuclearization of North Korea is a nonstarter — totally unrealistic,” said Van Jackson, a former Pentagon official and currently a professor of international relations at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.
“North Korea will come back to the negotiating table only if it receives presidential honors like summits, or tangible accommodations that signal turning over a new leaf — sanctions relief, ending the Korean war,” he said.
“There’s a way in which North Korea’s position here is understandable,” Jackson added. “They don’t have any intention of denuclearizing and they’d be foolish to disarm without having confidence that their much larger adversary is not really an adversary anymore. “
A Trump win would entail far more variables.
President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at their first summit meeting, held in Singapore on June 12, 2018. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)
“There’s an assumption that if Trump reaches out to Kim, that they would immediately resume their love letters, but we have to remember that Kim was blindsided and jaded by the Trump team in Hanoi, so he will not necessarily come running to Trump,” said Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
In other words, drawn out once with the prospect of a groundbreaking deal that never materialized, a warier Kim may not be so quick to do so again.
“Additionally, the geopolitical landscape has changed where Kim has much more support from China and Russia than during the first Trump administration, so he may have less incentive or need to talk to the U.S.,” Yeo said.
In May 2022, China and Russia both vetoed a U.S.-led effort at the United Nations Security Council to increase sanctions on North Korea, which has in recent years cozied up to Moscow, itself the target of sanctions for the invasion of Ukraine.
Following his meeting with Vladimir Putin in September 2023, Kim Jong Un has sought Russia’s help in launching its own spy satellites, sending in return artillery shells, mortars and short-range ballistic missiles for Russia’s war with Ukraine.
Still, many Asia experts believe that dialogue with North Korea is more likely under Trump rather than Biden — with the possibility of a second round of high-level meetings on the table.
“If Trump wins, I fully expect Kim to press the ‘Hey, remember me?’ button and resume summit diplomacy,” Jackson said. “But it’s totally unclear how Trump would respond to that this time around.”
In the event of another summit, the question is how much ground Trump would be willing to give for the sake of consummating a deal to his credit — whether he might, for example, be open to a nuclear freeze rather than disarmament.
Read more: North Korea blows up liaison office just inside its border with the South
“The bureaucracy under Trump will still have hawkish preferences, but if Kim Jong Un is able to manipulate Trump, it’s much more likely this time around that Trump will be able to impose his preferences for Korea,” Jackson said. “In 2018 and 2019, Trump faced a lot of resistance from civil servants and political appointees, but MAGA has since built a cadre of loyalists who are going to exist to ensure Trump’s whims are carried out.”
Yet even dialogue that doesn’t lead to tidy deals may be worthwhile as a kind of pressure valve — a way to ease growing tensions, said Kim Dong-yup, the professor.
“It provides an opportunity to rethink and temper hostile stances,” he said. “And once you begin talking, new solutions may emerge over time.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
North Korea’s former propaganda master Kim Ki Nam has died, state media said on Wednesday. He was 94.
He died due to old age and “multiple organ dysfunction” for which he had been receiving treatment since 2022, the official KCNA said.
Kim had spent decades leading propaganda efforts in the totalitarian state, including building a personality cult around the ruling Kim dynasty.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended his funeral early on Wednesday morning and paid tribute to the “veteran revolutionary who had remained boundlessly loyal” to the regime, KCNA said.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency likened him to Nazi Germany’s propaganda boss Joseph Goebbels, widely known for his mantra “repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”.
Kim Ki Nam – who has no blood relations to the ruling patriarchy – was appointed deputy director of Pyongyang’s Propaganda and Agitation Department in 1966, where he worked closely with Kim Jong Il, the predecessor and father of current leader Kim Jong Un. Kim Ki Nam later rose to lead the department.
Kim Ki Nam reportedly had a close relationship with Kim Jong Il, with several media reports describing them as “drinking buddies”.
In the 1970s, he was put in charge of the state mouthpiece, Rodong Sinmun newspaper.
He later led initiatives to establish the role of Kim Il Sung – widely seen as North Korea’s founding father – in the country’s history, and to support Kim Jong Il’s succession of the leadership, according to North Korea Leadership Watch, a site on Pyongyang’s political culture.
For decades, he also served as the key author of the state’s political slogans and wielded great influence over its media and publishing operations, and even in the fine arts.
In 2015, images on state media showed the tall, bespectacled official – in his 80s at that time – standing among a group of military officials and taking notes while Kim Jong Un spoke.
He retired in the late 2010s, passing on his role to Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong, but has continued to appear at public events – a sign that he remained on good terms with the regime.
Media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders warned of declining government support for press freedom as it unveiled its annual world rankings on Friday, highlighting Argentina among the countries where the situation has deteriorated.
Norway retained its top position, while Eritrea came last, taking over from last year’s lowest-ranked country, North Korea.
Among the most significant declines were Afghanistan, (which fell 26 places to 178th), Togo (down 43 to 113th) and Ecuador (down 30 to 110th).
The bottom 10 includes China, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Eritrea.
But the watchdog, known by its French acronym RSF, warned that politicians across a wide range of countries were targeting the media.
“Some political groups fuel hatred and distrust of journalists by insulting them, discrediting them, and threatening them,” the press watchdog said. “Others are orchestrating a takeover of the media ecosystem.”
It singled out Argentina under newly elected President Javier Milei, down 26 places to 66th, saying his decision to shutter the public press agency Telam was a “worrisome symbolic act”.
It also highlighted Italy under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, where a member of her coalition is trying to acquire news agency AGI.
Respondents in three-quarters of countries (138) reported to RSF that political actors were often involved in disinformation and propaganda, and that this was systematic in 31 countries.
RSF said there was “spectacular mimicry of Russian repressive methods” across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, stretching as far as Serbia, “where pro-government media carry Russian propaganda and the authorities threaten exiled Russian journalists”.
The most challenging regions remained the Middle East and North Africa, where the situation was “very serious” in nearly half of countries, and Qatar became the only country where the situation is not classified either as “difficult” or “very serious.”
Now in its 22nd year, the report is based on data collected by RSF about abuses against journalists, and questionnaires sent to professionals, researchers and rights defenders.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea is putting surveillance cameras in schools and workplaces and collecting fingerprints, photographs and other biometric information from its citizens in a technology-driven push to monitor its population even more closely, a report said Tuesday.
The state’s growing use of digital surveillance tools, which combine equipment imported from China with domestically developed software, threatens to erase many of the small spaces North Koreans have left to engage in private business activities, access foreign media and secretly criticize their government, the researchers wrote.
But the isolated country’s digital ambitions have to contend with poor electricity supplies and low network connectivity. Those challenges, and a history of reliance on human methods of spying on its citizens, mean that digital surveillance isn’t yet as pervasive as in China, according to the report, published by the North Korea-focused website 38 North.
The study’s findings align with widely held views that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is stepping up efforts to tighten the state’s control of its citizens and promote loyalty to his regime.
These efforts were boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the North imposed stringent border controls that were maintained for three years before a cautious reopening in 2023.
New laws and recent reports of harsher punishments suggest that the government is cracking down on foreign influence and imported media, likely helped by fences and electronic monitoring systems installed on the border with China during the pandemic.
“Having seen that it’s possible to close the border this tightly, I think they are now keen to keep it that way,” said Martyn Williams, an analyst who co-authored the study with Natalia Slavney.
“In terms of broader surveillance across the country, the pandemic could have played a part, but I think a much bigger role has been played by the fast-reducing cost of surveillance equipment,” Williams said.
The report examined North Korean surveillance technologies through information gained from domestic and international media coverage and publicly announced research at North Korean universities and state organizations. The researchers also said they interviewed 40 North Korean escapees about the surveillance they experienced when they lived in the country and, through unspecified partners, surveyed 100 current North Korean residents in 2023 via phone, text messages and other forms of encrypted communication to ensure their safety.
State media reports show that video surveillance is becoming more common at schools, workplaces and airports. The cameras are mostly sourced from Chinese vendors and range from basic video feeds to more advanced models that include features like face recognition.
Experts have warned that China is exporting the technology that powers its AI-powered surveillance to countries around the world.
North Korean state media reports show that cameras now appear in most schools in the capital, Pyongyang, and other major cities, allowing school staff to remotely monitor what’s happening in classrooms by panning and zooming to focus on individual students or teachers.
Cameras are also widespread in factories, government buildings and other workplaces, both to improve security and to prevent theft, while facial recognition systems have been used to record visitors at Pyongyang’s Sunan airport since 2019.
North Korea has also been expanding its network of traffic cameras beyond Pyongyang since 2021, installing them at major roads heading into and out of the city, likely for the purpose of automatically recording license plates, the report said.
The government may not yet be fully able to utilize the data it collects, and it currently doesn’t have an intensive network of security cameras in streets and residential areas, possibly due to electricity shortages and the large number of security agents already monitoring public life in Pyongyang and elsewhere.
But North Korea does appear to be envisioning a future of more pervasive video surveillance — North Korean universities and research institutions for years have focused on developing technologies related to movement detection and facial and license plate recognition, according to the report.
Meanwhile, the state is also building detailed biometric profiles of its citizens. The latest version of North Korean national identification cards comes in a smartcard format and requires citizens to provide fingerprints, facial photographs and, at least according to one report, to take a blood test.
“For North Koreans, the spread of CCTV means even greater surveillance of their lives, especially if the cameras include automatic detection systems. If such cameras become more broadly used, citizens involved in illicit activities would be especially at risk as facial detection could track their movements throughout cities,” Williams and Slavney wrote.
“At present, North Koreans who get caught in activities such as smuggling or distributing illegally imported goods and foreign content can bribe local security services, but, unlike humans, security cameras cannot be bribed,” they said.
Williams said the government will push to expand its surveillance network beyond major cities as infrastructure improves. It still won’t be easy to make use of vast amounts of video data, he said, but North Korea can draw lessons from the surveillance state next door.
“Perhaps the biggest hurdle is the computing infrastructure to process all of this data in real time. Doing so on a national or even provincial level is not an easy task, if the network is to be truly pervasive and consist of multiple cameras,” Williams said. “The country would have to build a small data center and ensure a constant supply of power. I think it definitely can be inspired by China, which is a comparatively freer society in general but has a much more Orwellian digital surveillance network.”
North Korea has fired a ballistic missile, the South Korean military said on Tuesday.
North Korea launched what appeared to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) from the Pyongyang area at about 6:53 am (2153 GMT on Monday) towards the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, the general staff in Seoul (JCS) said.
According to the South Korean military the missile travelled some 600 kilometres before ending in the sea. Data on the missile test is being analysed in cooperation with the US and Japan, it said.
South Korea’s military assumed that the test was a medium-range missile with a range of at least 5,500 kilometres, which is less than that of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
South Korean news agency Yonhap cited the military as saying it did not rule out the possibility that North Korea may have tested a medium-range missile with a hypersonic warhead.
South Korea’s top command accused the largely isolated neighbouring country of another provocation.
In March Pyongyang said it conducted a ground jet test of a solid-fuel engine for a “new type” of intermediate hypersonic missile. The country spoke of a weapon system with strategic value, indicating that the missile could be equipped with a nuclear warhead.
Hypersonic missiles are particularly difficult to intercept as they reach more than five times the speed of sound and are manoeuvrable.
Japan’s government condemned the latest missile test by Pyongyang.
“This is a matter that concerns not only the security of our country but also the safety of the region and the international community. It is absolutely unacceptable,” said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, according to the Japanese news agency Kyodo.
North Korea is prohibited by UN resolutions from launching or even testing ballistic missiles of any range. These are usually surface-to-surface missiles that can also be equipped with a nuclear warhead.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have again risen in recent months.