Free Republic

The Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party has decreed that North Korea will not relinquish its nuclear arsenal, which it termed a “precious legacy” of the country’s late leaders, according to local sources, despite an earlier pledge by party chairman Kim Jong Un to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.Kim held historic talks with South Korea’s Moon Jae-in in April, as well as an unprecedented summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in June, and agreed—in principle—to abandoning the North’s nuclear weapons program in exchange for promises of regime security and economic prosperity.But a lack of any concrete agreement on steps to...

NUCLEAR COUNTDOWN US officials believe North Korea has placed a nuclear device in a tunnel, which could mean a nuclear test is imminent. Meanwhile foreign journalists visiting North Korea have been told to prepare for a 'big and important event' US military bosses fear North Korea is ready to detonate a nuclear bomb it has placed in a tunnel.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This analysis argues that Iran is steadily making progress towards a nuclear weapon and is doing so via North Korea. Iran is unwilling to submit to a years-long freeze of its military nuclear program as stipulated by the July 2015 Vienna Nuclear Deal. North Korea is ready and able to provide a clandestine means of circumventing the deal, which would allow the Iranians to covertly advance that nuclear program. At the same time, Iran is likely assisting in the upgrading of certain North Korean strategic capacities.... All in all, a major consequence of the VND is that the...

Senior officials of South Korea, the United States and Japan agreed at a meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday to take unbearably strong punitive action against North Korea if the communist country launches a fresh military provocation, the South Korean participant said. The three countries' chief negotiators on the North Korean nuclear issue held a meeting earlier in the day to coordinate their responses to advancing nuclear and missile threats by North Korea. Kim Hong-kyun, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs at the foreign ministry, represented the South Korean side, vis-a-vis his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Joseph Yun...

China may be getting fed up with continued nuclear bluster from long-time ally North Korea and tilting toward the United States. A day after North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister said Pyongyang would test missiles weekly and use nuclear weapons if threatened, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Beijing was "gravely concerned" about North Korea's recent nuclear and missile activities. In the same press conference, spokesman Lu Kang praised recent US statements on the North Korean issue. "American officials did make some positive and constructive remarks... such as using whatever peaceful means possible to resolve the (Korean) Peninsula nuclear issue. This...

US President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday that "North Korea is looking for trouble. If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them!" North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly convened on Tuesday. A few days later, North Korea will mark the birth anniversary of the late leader Kim Il-sung on April 15, also known as the Day of the Sun. Pyongyang likes to launch nuclear activities as a political salute around this date. Therefore, April is widely seen as a high-risk period for new nuclear tests by North Korea. The US aircraft carrier...

US gov’t and other sources say #DPRK has apparently placed a nuclear device in a tunnel and it could be detonated Saturday AM #Korea time. “We have no comment at this time but we will be watching closely,” an NSC official tells @VOANews.

North Korea’s Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site: Possible Vehicles Located at Tunnel Entrance By 38 North 25 March 2017 A 38 North exclusive with analysis by Joseph S. Bermudez Jr. and Jack Liu Commercial satellite imagery of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site indicates the presence of possibly four or five vehicles or trailers at the entrance to the North Portal, the site of North Korea’s past four nuclear tests. If these vehicles are related to test preparations, they could be involved in the installation of instrumentation or even a nuclear device. However, the evidence is not definitive, therefore they may be...

North Korea will launch another nuclear test in next few days, officials say By Lucas Tomlinson, Jennifer Griffin Published March 23, 2017 FoxNews.com U.S. defense officials have seen evidence that North Korea has completed digging new tunnels around the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, but it still has to move more equipment into the area for a possible test, the official added. The Pentagon is keeping a close eye on these looming developments. NORTH KOREA MISSILE TESTS FAIL SECONDS AFTER LAUNCH, US OFFICIALS SAY North Korea’s nuclear preparations prompted the U.S. military in recent days to move a surveillance aircraft used...

The United Nations' recently implemented sanctions against North Korea are already driving a wedge between longtime allies North Korea and China, a document from the Workers' Party of North Korea reveals. In the document, the Workers' Party condemns Beijing for partaking in the sanctions aimed at curbing North Korea's nuclear program and urges its people to confront China with a "nuclear storm" for its alleged "betrayal of socialism," Daily NK reports.

North Korea has once again asserted that it will use its nuclear weapons arsenal against the United States. Unlike previous statements, however, a note from the rogue state’s foreign minister on Monday insisted that North Korea is fully equipped and ready to use a nuclear weapon on the United States, not just willing to do so.

/begin my excerpts U.S.: N. Korea Injecting Fuel into a Missile, Readied For Launch in a Few Days Washington = Atsushi Okudera February 5, 2016 15:00 N. Korea, which issued notice to launch a satellite, which is a de-facto ballistic missile launch, have started to inject fuel into its rocket, which was revealed to Asahi Shimbun by a U.S. defense official. It is said to be "readied for launch as early as within a few days." It could be fired in the period starting at Feb. 8, which N. Korea had set. /end my excerpts

North Korea is getting ready to conduct a fourth nuclear test to respond to policies of the United States, according to details from South Korea’s spy agency published by the Yonhap news agency. USA Today reported: The North is getting ready to conduct the test because of what it says are the confrontational policies of the United States and its allies, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, Yonhap reported. The spy agency said the test was not imminent. It did not elaborate on the type of test that would be held. North Korea last conducted a nuclear test in...

Following is an excerpt from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting: "It seems that the nuclear talks in Iran have yielded a collapse, not a breakthrough. The major powers' concessions are increasing. The deal being formulated will pave Iran's path to the production of very many atomic bombs and it will also channel to Iran hundreds of billions of dollars that will serve its aggression and terrorism campaigns in our region and around the world. This is a bad deal. It is not less bad – in my opinion it is worse –...

A top U.S. commander said Friday that North Korea likely has the capability to produce a nuclear warhead that could be mounted on a rocket, putting its wherewithal to build a nuclear missile within closer reach. North Korea has struggled for years in its attempts to develop nuclear warheads and long-range missiles, as well as with the steep technical challenges of combining warhead... But the secretive dictatorship apparently has moved a significant step closer, according to Pentagon officials. Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon on Friday, Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of U.S. forces on the Korean peninsula, said North Korea...

A top-ranking North Korean military official has threatened a nuclear strike on the White House and Pentagon after accusing Washington of raising military tensions on the Korean peninsula. The threat came from Hwang Pyong-So, director of the military's General Political Bureau, during a speech to a large military rally in Pyongyang Sunday on the anniversary of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. Hwang, who holds the rank of vice marshal in the Korean People's Army, said a recent series of South Korea-US military drills, one of which included the deployment of a nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier, had ramped...

North Korea has developed nuclear weapons capable of being launched on its ballistic missile forces, according to a new report by a defense analyst. The Obama administration is seeking to hide the fact that North Korea possesses nuclear missile warheads, according to a report by Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon strategic analyst and director for forces policy at the office of the secretary of defense. Schneider’s statement came in a report published April 28 in the journal Comparative Strategy. According to the 16-page report, “The North Korean Nuclear Threat to the United States,” the Defense Intelligence Agency stated in an...

President Barack Obama said on Saturday the United States did not use its military might to “impose things” on others, but that it would use that might if necessary to defend South Korea from any attack by the reclusive North. The North warned last month it would not rule out a “new form” of atomic test after the UN Security Council condemned Pyongyang’s launch of a mid-range ballistic missile into the sea east of the Korean peninsula. Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-hye presented a united front against North Korea at a joint news conference following their summit on Friday, warning...

North Korea has stepped up activity at its main nuclear test site, possibly preparing to carry out a fourth underground blast, South Korea said Tuesday. The report comes just days before U.S. President Barack Obama is due to arrive in South Korea as part of a visit to several Asian countries. "We confirm that we have spotted several activities related to the nuclear test in Punggye-ri in North Korea," the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement. It declined to specify what the activities were, saying the information was classified. The ministry said it had increased its military preparedness...

A State Department contractor charged with leaking top-secret information about North Korea to Fox News entered a guilty plea Friday and agreed to serve a 13-month prison term.During an 80-minute hearing at U.S. District Court, Stephen Kim pled guilty to a single felony count of disclosing national defense information to an unauthorized person, Fox News reporter James Rosen.Kim admitted providing Rosen with the contents of a top-secret intelligence report on North Korean intentions to carry out nuclear tests. The contractor acknowledged that he and Rosen stepped out of their offices at State Department headquarters for a short meeting nearby on...