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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says Japan firmly protests North Korea's ballistic missile launches. Abe told reporters on Wednesday morning that North Korea had fired two ballistic missiles earlier in the day. He said Japan firmly protests and condemns the launches, which violate UN Security Council resolutions. Abe said the government will work with the United States and the international community under heightened security to ensure the safety of the Japanese people. After Abe spoke to reporters, the government convened a meeting of the National Security Council, attended by Abe, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, and Defense Minister Taro Kono. They are...

North Korea appears to be preparing to test a new ballistic missile submarine capable of launching nuclear missiles, significantly bolstering the regime’s ability to conduct long-distance attacks. Satellite photographs taken Monday of the Sinpo South Shipyard in North Korea show the new submarine with nearby cranes and support craft, suggesting the submarine may be in preparation for a launch test. Last month, North Korea claimed that Kim Jong Un had inspected a “newly built submarine” at the shipyard. The new photographs appear to confirm the claim, say Joseph Bermudez and Victor Cha of Beyond Parallel, a research project backed by...

New photos taken of a North Korean shipyard suggest the country could be building a submarine that could potentially be capable of launching a nuclear missile, a report early Tuesday said. The photos show vessels and cranes that could be used to haul a missile out to sea for launch, according to experts at a Washington-based think tank, NBC News reported. The satellite photos seem to confirm North Korean state media reports from July about a newly built submarine. “There is no conclusive evidence at the moment that this is a near-term certainty,” an expert said of a possible missile test. Once a...

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday the United States has a really good relationship with North Korea and that the country's leader, Kim Jong-un, has been "pretty straight" with him. "Kim Jong-un has been ... pretty straight with me," Trump told reporters at the White House after North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast, according to the South Korean military. (Reuters) Earlier North Korea fired two suspected short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast Saturday in the seventh weapons launch in a month, South Korea's military said, a...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said this week's missile launches were an "adequate warning" against the joint military exercise between South Korea and the United States that kicked off earlier this week, state media reported Wednesday. On Tuesday, North Korea fired two projectiles believed to be short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea, the fourth such launch in less than two weeks. They flew about 450 kilometers across the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). "Two tactical guided missiles launched at the operational airfield in the western area of the country flew...

China on Aug. 6 vowed to take countermeasures if the United States follows through on a plan to deploy mid-range ground-launched missiles in Asia. The director of the Chinese foreign ministry’s Arms Control Department, Fu Cong, made the statement after the United States formally withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Russia on Aug. 2 and announced plans to deploy missiles in order to deter China. “China will not stand idly by and be forced to take countermeasures should the U.S. deploy intermediate-range ground-based missiles in this part of the world,” Fu said. Fu also called on South...

China warned that the U.S. and its Asia-Pacific allies risked countermeasures if they accepted the deployment of intermediate-range American missiles, singling out Australia, Japan and South Korea... The comments underscore the difficulty facing the Trump administration’s effort to counter China’s own missile capabilities in the region after formally withdrawing last week from its Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia. Any country that accepts the missiles risks diplomatic and economic retaliation from Beijing -- and all three U.S. allies mentioned count China as their largest trading partner... The 1987 INF treaty required the U.S. and Russia to never deploy ground-based ballistic...

Responding to questions about how he would avoid a nuclear arms race following the INF treaty's demise, Mr Trump said his administration had been speaking to Russia "about a pact for nuclear, so that they get rid of some, we get rid of some". "We'd certainly have to include China at some point," he added. Mr Trump said such a treaty would be "a great thing for the world" and that he believed it would happen. The US has accused Russia of violating the deal by deploying a number of 9M729 missiles - known to Nato as SSC-8. This accusation...

NSC expresses grave concern over North Korea test By Jung Da-min North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) into the East Sea, Wednesday morning, the latest in a series of missile tests off its eastern coastal area since May. These latest launches came six days after a similar test of two missiles last week. Hours after the missile tests, Cheong Wa Dae convened an emergency National Security Council (NSC), presided over by National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong. "We expressed grave concerns over the firing of the missiles, which could have a negative impact on peace-building efforts," the presidential office...

North Korea has fired two projectiles toward the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, according to South Korean officials, an act that comes amid increased uncertainty about the future of nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang. The South Korean military told CNN that North Korea launched the two unidentified projectiles from the Wonson area on Thursday morning -- Wednesday afternoon in the US -- and that the flight distance was approximately 430 kilometers (about 267 miles). Analysts say the two objects were most likely missiles. The two projectiles were launched at 5:34 am Thursday local time (4:34...

A jury found an electrical engineer and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) professor guilty of exporting stolen U.S. military technology to China. UCLA adjunct professor Yi-Chi Shih was convicted June 26 on 18 federal charges, Newsweek reported, and could now lose hundreds of thousands of dollars, while also facing up to 219 years behind bars for numerous violations of the law. These include conspiracy to break the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), committing mail and wire fraud, lying to a government agency, subscribing to a false tax return, and conspiring to gain unauthorized access to information on a...

The Islamic Republic of Iran is involved in the illicit procurement of technology for weapons of mass destruction, the German intelligence agency for the northern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern wrote in its May report. In the 206-page report, that was reviewed by The Jerusalem Post, the intelligence agents wrote: “The fight against the illegal proliferation of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons of mass destruction and the materials needed for their manufacture, as well as the corresponding delivery systems [e.g. rockets], including the necessary knowledge, in cooperation with other authorities, is also the responsibility of counterintelligence.” The intelligence report continued, “From these...

Intelligence showing that Iran is likely moving short-range ballistic missiles aboard boats in the Persian Gulf was one of the critical reasons the US decided to move an aircraft carrier strike group and B-52 bombers into the region, according to several US officials with direct knowledge of the situation.

KEY POINTS The Pentagon approves the deployment of a Patriot missile defense battery and a Navy ship to the Middle East amid increasing tensions between the United States and Iran.The USS Arlington and a Patriot battery will join the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and an Air Force bomber task force, which were deployed earlier in the week to the region.The deployments come as Washington tightens sanctions on Iran. The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln transits the Indian Ocean. Chief Mass Communication Specialist Eric Powell | US Navy   WASHINGTON — The Pentagon approved the deployment of a...

Intelligence showing that Iran is likely moving short-range ballistic missiles aboard boats in the Persian Gulf was one of the critical reasons the US decided to move an aircraft carrier strike group and B-52 bombers into the region, several US officials with direct knowledge of the situation told CNN on Tuesday. The concerns over the movement of the missiles was one of multiple threads of intelligence from various sources that led the US to believe Iran had a capability and intention to launch strikes against US targets, the report said. US Central Command spokesperson Capt. Bill Urban said they had...

Egyptian intelligence officials seethed with anger on Thursday night after missiles were fired from Gaza at Tel Aviv, Israel Hayom reported. One official, who was one of the Egyptian delegates present in Gaza during those dramatic moments, told Israel Hayom's Daniel Sirioti about the delegation's conversation with Hamas Thursday night. "At the beginning of the meeting, the atmosphere was very relaxed," the Egyptian official told Sirioti. "We had just returned from Israel with answers, we estimated that Hamas would accept them and allow us to begin a stable, long-term peace. A few minutes later, one of the Egyptian delegation's aides...

And by “political calculation,” North Korea means Mike Pompeo and John Bolton. Pyongyang announced that Kim Jong-un will shortly decide whether he intends to continue his moratorium on missile and nuclear tests after the failure of the Hanoi summit to make progress toward resolving the standoff on the Korean peninsula. Their spokesperson hailed the “mysteriously wonderful” relationship between Kim and Donald Trump, but blamed Pompeo and Bolton and their hostility for screwing up the summit, Arirang News in Seoul explains: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will soon decide whether to continue diplomatic talks and maintain his moratorium on...

When I woke up this morning it briefly felt as if I’d fallen through a time warp and gone back to the 1980s. The United States had pulled out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Then the Russians pulled out. And before you had time to process all of that, Vladimir Putin was talking about building new, hypersonic nuclear weapons. So, of course, the United States will need to invest in upgrading our own nuclear arsenal. Weren’t we supposedly done with all of this saber rattling? (NY Post) President Vladimir Putin says that Russia will abandon a centerpiece nuclear...

The timing of this revelation is rather disconcerting, all things considered. NBC News is reporting that a new study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) indicates the North Koreans have a previously undisclosed ballistic missile base hidden away in the mountains. And making matters worse, they think this might be one of as many as twenty such sites the country has never admitted to owning. With a second U.S.- North Korea nuclear summit looming in February, researchers have discovered a secret ballistic missile base in North Korea — one of as many as 20 undisclosed missile...

It's a major shift after decades in which submarines focused on projecting power ashore, with their only anti-ship weapons being their rarely-used torpedoes. Driving the change: increasing anxiety about China. WASHINGTON: With an eye on China, the Navy will begin arming its attack submarines with ship-killer missiles for the first time in decades. The weapon of choice: an updated model of the decades-old Harpoon. In a little-noticed announcement posted earlier this month on a government contracting site, the Navy said it was entering into negotiations with Boeing to refurbish and recertify Harpoon anti-ship missiles for Los Angeles-class subs. It’s a...