Page 23 - North Korea

N Korean leader's sister slams US for criticising failed satellite launch

The powerful sister of North Korean Kim Jong Un on Thursday accused the United States of "gangster-like" hypocrisy for criticizing her country's failed launch of a military spy satellite and insisted a successful launch will be made soon. Kim Yo Jong said North Korea's efforts to acquire space-based reconnaissance capabilities were a legitimate exercise of its sovereign right and restated the country's rejection of UN Security Council resolutions that ban it from conducting any launch involving ballistic missile technology. Her comments on state media came a day after the rocket carrying the satellite failed. North Korea said the rocket lost thrust after a stage separation and crashed in waters off the Korean Peninsula's western coast. Washington, South Korea and Japan had quickly criticized the launch. Adam Hodge, a spokesperson at the US National Security Council, said Washington strongly condemns the North Korean launch because it used banned ballistic missile technology, raised

North Korea's attempt to launch first spy satellite ends in failure

North Korea said Wednesday that its attempt to launch the country's first spy satellite has failed. In a statement published on state media, North Korea said a rocket carrying the spy satellite crashed into waters off the Korean Peninsula's western coast after it lost thrust following the separation of its first and second stages. It said scientists were examining the cause of the failure. South Korea's military earlier said the North Korean rocket had "an abnormal flight" before it fell in the waters. North Korea launched a rocket Wednesday, South Korea and Japan said, prompting brief evacuations in those countries as the North appeared to be attempting to put its first military spy satellite into orbit. The rocket was launched about 6.30 am from the North's northwestern Tongchang-ri area, where the country's main space launch centre is located, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. South Korea's military was trying to confirm whether the launch was successful, accordin

N Korea confirms plan to launch its first military spy satellite in June

North Korea on Tuesday confirmed plans to launch its first military spy satellite in June and described such capacities as crucial for monitoring the United States' reckless military exercises with rival South Korea. The statement came a day after North Korea notified Japanese authorities that it plans to launch the satellite sometime between May 31 and June 11, and that the event may affect waters in the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and east of the Philippines' Luzon Island. Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said he ordered Japan's Self Defense Forces to shoot down the satellite or debris, if any entered Japanese territory. In comments published on state media, senior North Korean military official Ri Pyong Chol berated the combined US-South Korean military exercises, which Pyongyang has long described as invasion rehearsals. He said North Korea considers space-based reconnaissance as indispensable to monitor in real time the dangerous military acts of the US and its vassal ..

N Korea tells neighbour Japan it plans to launch satellite in coming days

Japan's coast guard said North Korea has notified it that it plans to launch a satellite in coming days, which may be an attempt to put a military reconnaissance satellite into orbit. Japan's coast guard said the notice from North Korean waterway authorities said the launch window was from May 31 and June 11 and that the launch may affect waters in the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and east of the Philippines' Luzon Island. Japan's coast guard issued a safety warning for ships that would passing through the area during the launch window. The prime minister's office said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has instructed officials to do their utmost to gather and analyze information related to the launch and inform people about it. Pyongyang said early this month its first military spy satellite was ready for launch. Such a launch would use long-range missile technology banned by past UN Security Council resolutions. North Korea's past launches have demonstrated an ability to deliver a satel

S Korea, US troops to hold massive live-fire drills near N Korea border

The South Korean and U.S. militaries were set to begin massive live-fire drills near the border with North Korea on Thursday, despite the North's warning that it won't tolerate what it calls such a hostile invasion rehearsal on its doorstep. Thursday's drills, the first of the allies' five rounds of firing exercises until mid-June, mark 70 years since the establishment of the military alliance between Seoul and Washington. North Korea has typically reacted to such major South Korean-U.S. exercises with missile and other weapons tests. Since the start of 2022, North Korea has test-launched more than 100 missiles but none since it fired a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile in mid-April. North Korea has argued its torrid pace of tests was meant to respond to the expanded military drills between the U.S. and South Korea, but observers say the North aims to advance its weapons development then wrest greater concessions from its rivals in eventual diplomacy. The U.S.-South Kore

South Korean, German leaders agree to cooperate on supply chains, N. Korea

The leaders of South Korea and Germany on Sunday pledged more cooperation in building stable industrial supply chains and addressing the challenges posed by nuclear-armed North Korea as they met in Seoul after flying in from the Group of Seven meetings in Japan. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, in a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, pointed to the similarities between the two major manufacturing nations that are dependent on foreign trade and said a stronger supply chain partnership would help them cope with intensifying global economic instability and geopolitical conflicts. He said the countries in particular will work to advance trade relations in high-tech industries and clean energy, including semiconductors and hydrogen projects, and pursue further opportunities in defense cooperation. Yoon said they also discussed the growing threat posed by North Korea, which has test-fired around 100 missiles since the start of 2022 while accelerating its push t

S Korea, Japan use G-7 to push improvement in ties long marked by animosity

Amid the high-level efforts to deal with a raft of global emergencies, this weekend's Group of 7 summit of rich democracies will also see an unusual diplomatic reconciliation as the leaders of Japan and South Korea look to continue mending ties that have been marked for years by animosity and bickering. At first glance the two neighbours would seem to be natural partners. They are powerful, advanced democracies and staunch US allies in a region beset with autocratic threats. The continuing fallout, however, from centuries of complicated, acrimonious history, culminating in the brutal 1910-1945 Japanese colonization of the Korean Peninsula, has resulted in more wariness than friendship. A big part of the sudden recent shift in tone is a shared focus on China's growing aggressiveness, t he threat of North Korea's fast-improving arsenal of nuclear-capable missiles and deep worry about how Russia's war in Ukraine is influencing both issues. Some diplomatic nudging by Washington, which

N Korean media calls for increased farming output amid food shortage crisis

The reports are the latest in Pyongyang's efforts to raise grain production, as its food situation seems to be worsening amid deepening economic challenges

In a bid to improve ties, S. Korean, Japanese leaders meet again for summit

The leaders of South Korea and Japan met on Sunday for their second summit in less than two months, as they push to mend long-running historical grievances and boost ties in the face of North Korea's nuclear programme and other regional challenges. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in South Korea earlier on Sunday for a two-day visit, which reciprocates a mid-March trip to Tokyo by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. It was the first exchange of visits between the leaders of the Asian neighbours in 12 years. South Korean media attention on the summit is focused on whether Kishida will make a more direct apology over Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. Such comments by Kishida would likely help Yoon win greater support for his push to build stronger ties with Japan and ease domestic criticism that he's preemptively made concessions to Tokyo without receiving corresponding steps in return. It took 12 years to restore the shuttle diplomacy' but our ...

North Korea insults US Prez Biden, slams defence agreement with Seoul

The powerful sister of North Korea's leader says her country would stage more provocative displays of its military might in response to a new US-South Korean agreement to intensify nuclear deterrence to counter the North's nuclear threat, which she insists shows their extreme hostility toward Pyongyang. Kim Yo Jong also lobbed personal insults toward US President Joe Biden, who after a summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday stated that any North Korean nuclear attack on the US or its allies would result in the end of whatever regime took such action. Biden's meeting with Yoon in Washington came amid heightened tensions in the Korean Peninsula as the pace of both the North Korean weapons demonstrations and the combined US-South Korean military exercises have increased in a cycle of tit-for-tat. Since the start of 2022, North Korea has test-fired around 100 missiles, including multiple demonstrations of intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the U

North Korea vows strong ties with Russia on leaders' summit anniversary

North Korea vowed on Tuesday to strengthen its ties with Russia on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the first summit between the leaders of the two nations

Japan gets ready to shoot down North Korea spy satellite debris

Japan's defense chief on Saturday ordered troops to activate missile interceptors and get ready to shoot down fragments from a North Korean satellite that may fall on the Japanese territory. North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un said earlier this week that its first military spy satellite that will be launched at an unspecified date. North Korea has test-fired about 100 missiles since early last year, saying it was responding to joint U.S.-South Korean military drills that it calls an invasion rehearsal. Several of the missiles flew over Japan or landed off the northern Japanese coast. Last week, North Korea test-launched a solid-fuelled intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time. Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada on Saturday instructed troops to ready PAC-3 surface-to-air missiles in southwestern Japan, including Okinawa and nearby islands, in an area believed to be under a flight path of a North Korean rocket that will carry the satellite. He also ordered the deployment of

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Kim Jong-un says N Korea has finished development of 1st spy satellite

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country has completed the development of its first military spy satellite and ordered officials to go ahead with its launch as planned, state media reported Wednesday. During his visit to the North's aerospace agency Tuesday, Kim stressed it's crucial to acquire a space-based surveillance system in the face of what he called US-led security threats, the Korean Central News Agency said. North Korea says its spate of weapons tests, including its first test-launch of a solid-fuelled intercontinental ballistic missile designed to strike the US mainland last week, are a response to joint military exercises between the United States and its regional allies South Korea and Japan. At the National Aerospace Development Administration, Kim said military reconnaissance was crucial for North Korea to effectively use its methods of war deterrence, according to KCNA. Kim said the military reconnaissance satellite No. 1 had been built as of April and order

South Korea, US, Japan hold missile defence drills against N Korean threats

The exercise focused on practicing procedures to detect and track a computer-simulated ballistic missile target, and share related information

G-7 envoys urge tough stance on Chinese, North Korean aggression

Top diplomats from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies are tackling two major worries in Northeast Asia, vowing a tough stance on China's increasing threats to Taiwan and North Korea's unchecked tests of long-range missiles. Another major crisis, Russia's war in Ukraine, will also consume the agenda Monday as the diplomats gather in this Japanese hot spring resort town for Day Two of talks meant to pave the way for action by G-7 leaders when they meet next month in Hiroshima. For the American delegation, the meeting comes at a crucial moment in the world's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and efforts to deal with China, two issues that G-7 ministers from Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and the European Union regard as potent challenges to the post-World War II rules-based international order. A senior U.S. official travelling with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that the Biden administration's goal for the

North Korea tests solid-fuel ICBM to improve nuclear counterattack power

According to the statement, "the test-fire proved that all of the new strategic weapon system's parameters fully matched the requirements of the design in terms of accuracy"

North Korea fires missile that may have been a new type of weapon

North Korea on Thursday conducted its first intercontinental ballistic missile launch in a month, possibly testing a new more mobile, harder-to-detect missile for the first time, its neighbours said, as it extends its provocative run of weapons tests. Japan briefly urged residents on a northern island to take shelter in an indication of its vigilance over North Korea's evolving missile threats. The missile was launched on a high angle from near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang and fell in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan following a 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) flight, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staffs said in a statement. It described its range as medium or longer. The US National Security Council called it a long-range missile and Japan's government said it likely had an intercontinental range. South Korea's military believes North Korea launched a new type of ballistic missile, possibly using solid fuel, a defense official said under the condition of ...

S Korea to conduct radiation test on 89 North Korean defectors from May

Among the 89 defectors to undergo the testing, nine defectors will be the ones who received the result of having suspected radiation exposure during the govt's similar radiation testing held in 2017

N Korea fires missile toward East Sea, Japan says taking all precautions

As Pyongyang fired an unspecified ballistic missile towards the Sea of Japan on Thursday, the Prime Minister's Office of Japan issued a warning of 'taking all the necessary precautions' at this crucial time.Japan has issued a warning that a North Korean missile may have landed in Hokkaido Prefecture or neighbouring waterways.Taking to Twitter, the Japan PMO wrote, "Dedicate maximum effort to gather & analyze information, & provide the public speedy & adequate information. Ensure the safety of aircraft, vessels, & other assets."As the missile is seen as to have possibly landed in Japan's waters, the Prime Minister's Office has urged to take all possible measures for precaution, including readiness for contingencies as well.North Korea on Thursday fired an unspecified ballistic missile towards the East Sea of Japan on Thursday, Yonhap News Agency said citing the South Korean military.According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, they discovered the launch. However, ...