WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — United States President Donald Trump told Japanese leader Shinzo Abe on Wednesday that Washington will continue to build its military capabilities to defend against a North Korean attack, the White House said. The pair spoke by phone one day after Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan, in what analysts said was a warning ahead of a US-China summit at which North Korea’s accelerating atomic weapons program […]
Tag: Nuclear
North Korea threatens to hit back over sanctions
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea has warned it will retaliate if the global community ramps up sanctions over its latest round of weapons tests. The warning comes as President Donald Trump threatened the United States was prepared to go it alone in bringing Pyongyang to heel if China did not step in. The isolated state has quickened its missile program in recent months, with a volley of tests it says are putting it […]
US urges China to take ‘action’ against North Korea
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump warned in an interview published Sunday that the United States is prepared to act unilaterally to deal with North Korea’s nuclear program if China proves unwilling to help. “Well, if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times of London. Trump’s comments come ahead of his meeting Thursday and […]
US imposes sanctions on N. Korean entities over nuclear program
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States Treasury hit 11 North Korean business representatives and an industrial firm with sanctions Friday, seeking to further isolate the country’s economy for pursuing nuclear weapons. Most of the officials were based in China and Russia for companies the Treasury said acquire materials, technology and financial support for North Korea’s defense industry. The company named to the sanctions blacklist was North Korea-based Paeksol Trading Corporation, which the Treasury […]
N. Korea could be in final preparations for nuclear test: report
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Satellite images taken this week suggest North Korea could be in the final stages of preparations for a new nuclear test, United States-based analysts said Tuesday. The images, taken March 25, show up to four vehicles or equipment trailers continuously present at the entrance to the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site, with communications cables likely laid on the ground. “This equipment would likely be used to initiate the test, collect data […]
Tillerson: 20 years of efforts to denuclearize N. Korea ‘have failed’
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday that two decades of efforts to stop North Korea’s nuclear ambitions have not worked and that a new approach is needed. “I think it’s important to recognize that the political and diplomatic efforts of the past 20 years to bring North Korea to the point of denuclearization have failed,” he told a press conference with Japan’s foreign minister. “In the face of […]
Disaster training drill held in Tokyo before March 11 Fukushima anniversary
TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) –About 100 people took part in a disaster training drill in downtown Tokyo on Friday (March 10), a day before the sixth anniversary of the March 11 earthquake and subsequent nuclear crisis. Participants were able to experience walking through a plastic tent filled with yellow smoke, get hands-on training using automated external defibrillators (AEDs), and receive free emergency rations. “I participate every year. I was surprised at the number of available automated […]
US skeptical about N. Korea talks, says Kim Jong-Un not ‘rational’
UNITED NATION, United States (AFP) — The United States on Wednesday voiced skepticism about calls for talks with North Korea, saying leader Kim Jong-Un was behaving irrationally and would likely not respond to diplomatic advances. “We are not dealing with a rational person,” US Ambassador Nikki Haley told reporters following a closed-door meeting of the Security Council to discuss North Korea’s latest missile launches. In a reference to China, which is calling for a return […]
China urges US, N.Korea steps to avoid ‘head-on collision’
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China on Wednesday called on North Korea to suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for the US and South Korea halting military wargames, to avoid what it called a “head-on collision.” “To defuse the looming crisis on the (Korean) peninsula, China proposes that as a first step, the DPRK may suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for the halt of the large-scale US-ROK exercises,” Foreign Minister Wang […]
N.Korea missile launch was training exercise for strike on US bases in Japan: KCNA
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Nuclear-armed North Korea’s launch of four missiles on Monday was a training exercise for a strike on US bases in Japan, Pyongyang’s official KCNA news agency reported Tuesday. Leader Kim Jong-Un supervised the drill and gave the order for it to start, it said. “Feasting his eyes on the trails of ballistic rockets”, he praised the Hwasong artillery unit that carried it out, KCNA reported. “The four ballistic rockets launched […]
North Korea fires missiles, three reach Japan waters
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Nuclear-armed North Korea fired an “unidentified projectile” into waters east of the peninsula early Monday, the South’s defense ministry said. The item was fired from North Pyongan province “around 7:36 am” South Korean time (2236 GMT Sunday), the ministry said in a statement adding it landed in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan. The South’s Yonhap news agency cited an unnamed ministry official as saying the […]
Trump wants to expand US nuclear arsenal, make it ‘top of the pack’
WASHINGTON, United States (Reuters) –United States President Donald Trump said on Thursday (February 23) he wants to ensure the US nuclear arsenal is at the “top of the pack,” saying the country has fallen behind in its atomic weapons capacity. In a Reuters interview, Trump also said China could solve the national security challenge posed by North Korea “very easily if they want to,” ratcheting up pressure on Beijing to exert more influence to rein in […]





