Tag: N.Korea

Categories
-Top News Asia News USA

US urges N.Korea to refrain from ‘threatening’

Patel underscored that the US goal of engagement with North Korea remains the same….reports Asian Lite News

The US has called on North Korea to refrain from further “threatening” activity and return to dialogue after Pyongyang fired several cruise missiles toward the Yellow Sea, the latest in a series of its weapons tests that heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

“We urge the DPRK to refrain from further threatening activity and call on Pyongyang to engage in serious and sustained diplomacy,” a State Department spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Later in a press briefing, State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel repeated the message. “It’s important to remember that we have been incredibly clear about the fact that we harbour no hostile intent towards the DPRK and continue to be open to diplomacy without preconditions,” he said.

“This is also an avenue for us to continue to consult closely with the Republic of Korea, with Japan and other allies and partners about how to best engage with the DPRK to deter some of their aggressive and destabilizing behaviours,” he added.

Patel also underscored that the US goal of engagement with North Korea remains the same. “We are eager to engage in substantive discussions on identifying ways to not just manage military risk but create lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula as well as our continued stated goal of the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” he said.

Earlier, North Korea has fired “several” cruise missiles from its west coast towards the Yellow Sea, according to South Korea, Al Jazeera reported.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the missiles were fired on Wednesday morning.

“Our military detected several cruise missiles launched by North Korea towards the Yellow Sea at around 7:00 am today [22:00 GMT on Tuesday],” the JCS said in a statement.

“The detailed specifications are being closely analysed by South Korean and US intelligence authorities,” the statement added.

The capital, Pyongyang, which is under strict United Nations sanctions over its nuclear weapons programme, has continued to conduct weapons tests this year, including a solid-fuelled hypersonic ballistic missile and the test of a purportedly nuclear-capable underwater attack drone, as reported by Al Jazeera.

However, cruise missile tests are not banned under UN sanctions but the JCS said that it was monitoring further activities by North Korea.

Cruise missiles tend to be jet-propelled and fly at a lower altitude than more sophisticated ballistic missiles, but analysts say they could pose a risk to South Korea and Japan because they are harder to detect by radar.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have increased in recent months as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continues to accelerate his weapons development and issue provocative threats of nuclear conflict with the US and its allies in the region, according to Al Jazeera.

Japan, South Korea and the US, meanwhile, have been expanding their combined military exercises, which Kim portrays as invasion rehearsals, and sharpening their deterrence strategies built around nuclear-capable US assets.

ALSO READ: Biden urges Congress to approve F-16 sale to Turkey  

Categories
-Top News Asia News Europe

N.Korea Arms Russia After Kim-Putin summit

Reports said that the arms transfer that came in the wake of the Kim-Putin summit at the Vostochny Cosmodrome…reports Asian Lite News

North Korea has started sending artillery to Russia as Moscow continues its war in Ukraine after last month’s rare summit between President Vladimir Putin and Pyongyang’s Kim Jong-un about a potential bilateral arms deal, a media report said.

Citing an unnamed US official, CBS News reported on the apparent arms transfer that came in the wake of the Kim-Putin summit at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a Russian spaceport, last month.

The summit raised speculation that it might have led to a deal feared to help advance North Korea’s efforts to build spy satellites and other weapons and in return prop up Russia’s war in Ukraine, reports Yonhap News Agency.

“It was not immediately clear whether the transfer is part of a new, long-term supply chain or a more limited consignment, or what North Korea is getting in return for the weapons,” the report said.

Seoul and Washington have criticised any possible transfer of arms between Pyongyang and Moscow, warning they would flout multiple UN Security Council resolutions, which Russia itself voted for.

This was the longest overseas trip by Kim since taking power.

Including travel time, the North Korean leader spent a total of eight days on his visit to Russia.

ALSO READ: Putin Accepts Kim Jong-un’s Invitation to Visit North Korea

Categories
-Top News Asia News USA

Yoon, Biden vow more cooperation to deter N.Korean threat

Both countries agreed to establish a Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) in order to operate the new extended deterrence system in more detail…reports Asian Lite News

Visiting South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and his US counterpart Joe Biden have agreed to significantly strengthen Washington’s nuclear commitment to Seoul, promising “swift, overwhelming, and decisive” action in the event of a North Korean nuclear attack.

Yoon announced the agreement during a joint press conference on Wednesday following summit talks with Biden at the White House, outlining a joint statement, dubbed the “Washington Declaration”, that they adopted to strengthen “extended deterrence” against the North’s nuclear and missile threats, reports Yonhap News Agency.

Extended deterrence refers to the US commitment to mobilizing all of its military capabilities, including nuclear, to defend South Korea.

“South Korea and the US agreed to immediately hold talks between their leaders in the event of North Korea’s nuclear attack, and through them, promised to take swift, overwhelming and decisive action using all of the alliance’s military capabilities, including US nuclear weapons,” Yoon said at the White House Rose Garden.

He said the two countries agreed to establish a Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) in order to operate the new extended deterrence system in more detail.

The allies will share information on nuclear and strategic operations and planning and hold regular discussions on how to plan and execute joint operations combining South Korea’s cutting-edge conventional capabilities with the US nuclear capabilities, he said.

A presidential official later told reporters in Washington the NCG will be led by deputy minister-level officials from the two countries.

In South Korea, a deputy minister ranks third, after the minister and vice minister.

The group will meet every quarter, four times a year, and report the results of their meetings to their respective presidents.

The two countries will further develop table-top simulation exercises to prepare against a nuclear crisis and regularly and continuously deploy US strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula, Yoon said, while the declaration said an American nuclear ballistic missile submarine will soon visit South Korea.

The leaders also agreed to continue cooperation to further strengthen extended deterrence.

At the press conference, Biden issued a stern warning to the North.

“A nuclear attack by North Korea against the US, its allies or partners is unacceptable and will result in the end of whatever regime were to take such an action,” he said.

The Washington Declaration follows months of work between the allies amid questions about the credibility of the US extended deterrence commitment to South Korea and calls for the country’s own nuclear armament as North Korea advances its nuclear and missile capabilities.

As a party to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, South Korea is banned from developing its own nuclear weapons, while the US maintains a longstanding policy of upholding the no-nproliferation regime.

Yoon is on a six-day state visit to the US as the two countries mark the 70th anniversary of the bilateral alliance that emerged from the 1950-53 Korean War.

A joint statement following the summit showed the two leaders covered a wide range of topics, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, their commitment to diplomacy with North Korea, their deep concern over climate change, and their commitment to maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific.

ALSO READ: Biden, Yoon pay tributes at Korean War Memorial

Categories
-Top News USA

N.Korea claims successful test of new strategic weapon

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspects a ground test of a "high-thrust solid-fuel motor" at Sohae Satellite Launching Ground in Cholsan, North Pyongan Province, on Dec. 15, 2022.(Yonhap/IANS)

The report added that the “important test” has provided a “sure sci-tech guarantee” for the development of another new-type strategic weapon system…reports Asian Lite News

North Korea has successfully conducted a test to verify the “high-thrust solid-fuel motor” features in developing another “new-type of strategic weapon system”, Pyongyang’s state media said on Friday.

“An important institute under the Academy of Defence Science succeeded in the static firing test of high-thrust solid-fuel motor with a thrust of 140tf, the first of its kind in the country, at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground on the morning of December 15,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a report.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un guided the test, expressing the expectation that “another new-type of strategic weapon would be made in the shortest span of time”, Yonhap News Agency quoted the report as saying.

The KCNA said the aim of the test was to “verify all technical specific features of the high-thrust solid-fuel motor based on the thrust vector controlling technology”.

The report added that the “important test” has provided a “sure sci-tech guarantee” for the development of another new-type strategic weapon system.

Observers said the North could have tested the high-thrust engine to advance the technologies for developing a new solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile.

ALSO READ-UAE President receives message from S. Korean President