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Russia has warned North Korea that threats to deliver “preventive nuclear strikes” could create a legal basis for the use of military force against the country, suggesting that even Pyongyang’s few remaining friends are growing concerned about its increasingly confrontational stance. The Russian foreign ministry statement, which follows a North Korean threat to “annihilate” the US and South Korea, also criticises Washington and Seoul for launching the largest joint military drills yet to be held on the peninsula. “We consider it to be absolutely impermissible to make public statements containing threats to deliver some ‘preventive nuclear strikes’ against opponents,” the...

The Japanese government says North Korea launched what's widely believed to be a long-range ballistic missile on Sunday. The government said the missile was launched at 9:31 AM Japan time from the western coast of North Korea toward the direction of Okinawa Prefecture.

Russia on Tuesday warned the United States against sending a ballistic missile defence system to South Korea, saying it could threaten regional security. Washington says it wants to deploy the system, known as THAAD, to South Korea as a deterrent to military provocation by North Korea. "Such a development cannot but cause concern about the destructive influence of the United States' global missile defence on international security," Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Russia's Foreign Ministry says the international community should take a measured response to North Korea's announced nuclear test. In a press statement, the ministry says the North Korean action threatens the peace, safety and stability of the region. It also calls for Pyongyang to return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and agree to new talks. North Korea was a signatory of the treaty, but withdrew from it in 2003. Pyongyang also pulled out of six-party negotiations about its nuclear program last year, talks that included Russia. Along with China, Moscow maintains cordial diplomatic relations with Pyongyang, but Russia has been...

Russia is facing criticism after secretly offering to sell North Korea technology that could help the rogue state to protect its nuclear stockpiles and safeguard weapons secrets from international scrutiny. Russian officials touted the equipment at an IT exhibition in Pyongyang a fortnight ago - just days before the Communist state caused international alarm by launching a salvo of short and long-range missiles into the Sea of Japan. Students walk past a mock North Korean missile in Seoul Students walk past a mock North Korean missile in Seoul In what appear to have been unguarded comments, Aleksei Grigoriev, the deputy...

U.S. sources: Signs of North Korea mobile ballistic missile launch By Barbara Starr, CNN Pentagon Correspondent Updated 1807 GMT (0107 HKT) April 12, 2016 CNN) — U.S. intelligence satellites have spotted signs that North Korea may be preparing for an unprecedented launch of a mobile ballistic missile which could potentially hit portions of the U.S., CNN has learned. Opinion: Impose sanctions on North Korea's enablers Two U.S. officials told CNN that if the regime proceeds with a launch, the latest assessments are the most likely scenario is the launch of the so-called Musudan missile, which the U.S. believes could potentially...

Are North Koreans fighting in Syria? It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds. By Adam Taylor March 25 This week, representatives of Western-backed Syrian opposition delegation in Geneva told Russian state media that President Bashar al-Assad had a surprising new ally on the Syrian battlefield: militia units from North Korea. "Two North Korean units are there, which are Chalma-1 and Chalma-7," Asaad az-Zoubi, head of the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) to Syrian peace talks in the Swiss city, reportedly told Tass news agency on Tuesday. In any other context, the presence of soldiers from the internationally isolated and geographically distant...

North Korea Nukes US In Propaganda Video Kim Jong-Un lays waste to Washington with a submarine-launched nuclear missile in Pyongyang's latest menacing video. 10:20, UK, Saturday 26 March 2016 North Korea has threatened to lay waste to Washington with a submarine-launched nuclear missile in a menacing propaganda video. The four-minute film - titled Last Chance - runs through the history of US-Korea relations, including images of US prisoners of war on Korean soil. It ends with a digitally-enhanced sequence showing a missile emerging from the clouds and slamming into the road in front of the Lincoln Memorial - sending a...

Another day, another veiled threat from North Korea. Unlike most, this one was very specific. State-run television in the People’s Republic reported on Sunday that Pyongyang’s arsenal of deadly weapons now includes a hydrogen bomb that could wipe out New York City and kill everybody who lives there. “Our hydrogen bomb is much bigger than the one developed by the Soviet Union,” DPRK Today reported, citing nuclear scientist Cho Hyong Il.

North Korea’s provocative nuclear rhetoric has gotten so bad even the Kremlin has come out against the hermit kingdom, warning continued nuclear threats could justify an invasion. The warning was issued in the form of a written statement from the Russian foreign ministry. It follows North Korea’s threat it would engage in a “preemptive and offensive nuclear strike” in reaction to the start of joint U.S.-South Korean war games Monday. “We consider it to be absolutely impermissible to make public statements containing threats to deliver some ‘preventive nuclear strikes’ against opponents,” said the statement, as translated by the Russian TASS...

GENEVA -- A U.N. expert on human rights in North Korea said Monday supreme leader Kim Jong Un and other top officials should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity, asking a key rights body to authorize three experts to look into the legal aspects of criminal accountability. Addressing the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Marzuki Darusman said international criminal law holds military and civilian leaders responsible for failing to prevent or repress crimes against humanity by those under their authority. He said that offers a "plausible theory" to hold Kim and other leaders "individually culpable." "It is now time for...

North Korea is embarked on a steady, methodical, and relentless journey whose intended endpoint is a credible capability to hit New York and Washington with nuclear weapons. Pyongyang's nuclear test in January is only the latest reminder that America's policy response to nuclear proliferation in North Korea is a prolonged, and thoroughly bipartisan, failure. Our policy is a failure because our public and our leaders do not understand our adversary and his intentions. We cannot hope to cope successfully with the North Korean threat until we do. The late “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Il (son of regime founder “Great Leader”...

In a state-controlled outlet, the North Korean government threatened Sunday to use its new alleged hydrogen bomb technology to reduce Manhattan, New York, to rubble, warning that its nuclear weapon “is much bigger” than Soviet weaponry.The Washington Post has translated parts of the article in DPRK Today, a publication rarely used for the purpose of military bluster. When North Korean officials seek to announce military developments or threaten other countries, it usually turns to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) or the Rodong Sinmun, the state newspaper. Both outlets have online English versions, making them more accessible to international media.The DPRK Today article–run with the...

n late 2013, Jang Song-thaek, an uncle of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, was taken to the Gang Gun Military Academy in a Pyongyang suburb. Hundreds of officials were gathered there to witness the execution of Mr. Jang’s two trusted deputies in the administrative department of the ruling Workers’ Party. The two men, Ri Ryong-ha and Jang Su-gil, were torn apart by antiaircraft machine guns, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service. The executioners then incinerated their bodies with flamethrowers. SNIP In his memoir, a Japanese sushi chef for Kim Jong-il from 1988 to 2001 who goes by the...

North Korea has lost contact with one of its submarines, U.S. officials tell CNN. The submarine, apparently on some sort of exercise earlier this week, was being tracked by the U.S. military when it suddenly stopped. The fate of the sub is unknown, but U.S. forces have observed North Korea's attempts to find the missing craft. U.S. officials believe the submarine experienced some sort of failure, and the U.S. military has been monitoring the subsequent search and rescue mission via spy satellites, aircraft, and ships. The incident is taking place at a time of particular high tension in the area,...

Seoul retaliates, China pays price for North Korea rocket launch By Shim Jae Hoon on February 10, 2016 in Asia Times News & Features, China, Koreas SEOUL-North Korea's satellite rocket launch has claimed its first casualty amid a changing and increasingly volatile regional security landscape that's dragging in China, the US and Japan. South Korea announced on Feb. 10 that it's closing down the inter-Korean economic project at Kaesong Industrial Complex which Seoul set up 12 years ago to provide hard currency earnings for the North Korean regime. /snip Meanwhile, the Park government has come under pressure from conservatives who...

China FM voices 'serious concern' over possible deployment of U.S. shield in Korea Published : 2016-02-12 16:13 Updated : 2016-02-12 16:15 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed "serious concern" over a decision by South Korea to begin formal talks with the United States to adopt an advanced U.S. missile defense system, according to China's foreign ministry on Friday. Wang conveyed the concern to South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se during their meeting in Munich on the sidelines of international talks on Syria on Thursday, the Chinese ministry said in a statement. "Minister Wang Yi expresses serious concern," the statement said....

Republican primary front-runner Donald Trump says North Korean communist dictator Kim Jong-un deserves "credit" for the cutthroat efficiency with which he disposes of his political foes. "If you look at North Korea, this guy, he's like a maniac, OK?" Trump said at a rally in Ottumwa, Iowa, on Saturday. "And you've got to give him credit: How many young guys - he was like 26 or 25 when his father died - take over these tough generals and all of a sudden, you know, it's pretty amazing when you think of it. How does he do that?" he added. “Even...

Barack Obama enraged many Americans when he began his presidency on an “apology tour.” Famously, Obama bowed to Saudi King Abdullah.Donald Trump hasn’t signaled he would act similarly. In fact, Trump doesn’t apologize for anything—even to God.But Trump has gone out of his way to praise some bad foreign leaders.First, he praised Russian President Vladimir Putin: One day after Putin called Trump a “bright and talented”and the “absolute leader of the presidential race,” the Republican presidential front-runner returned the compliments, hailing Putin as a “leader” and pointing to his high favorability numbers in Russia.“He’s running his country and at least...

As tensions with North Korea rise following Pyongyang’s alleged hydrogen bomb test, there is the specter of a renewed war on the peninsula. In the years following the Korean Armistice Agreement in 1953 — which ended the conflict in a ceasefire without formally terminating hostilities — the U.S. military was the guarantor of the Republic of Korea’s security. More than 60 years later, United States Forces Korea — led by U.S. Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti — maintains a force of over 28,500 troops in South Korea to defend Seoul from Pyongyang’s depredations. But by-and-large, South Korea is defended by its...