Important Takeaways:
- The North’s military suggested their simulated strikes included the explosions of dummy nuclear warheads
- The simulated attack also included a rehearsed occupation of its rival’s territory.
- Atomic weapons, such as those used during World War II over Japan are typically detonated above the Earth, rather than hitting it directly, to increase their devastating potential.
- This could suggest North Korea intends to conduct nuclear and EMP (electromagnetic pulse) attacks at the early stage of a potential war, according to an expert.
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Important Takeaways:
- North Korea says latest spy satellite launch failed, but will try again
- The launch prompted an emergency warning in Japan just before 4 a.m. local time (1900 GMT) over the J-alert broadcasting system, telling residents of the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa to take cover.
- North Korea space agency says will try again in October
- South Korea’s National Security Council condemned the launch as a provocation and violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions banning the North’s use of ballistic missile technology.
- North Korea has made multiple attempts to launch “earth observation” satellites, two of which appeared to have been successfully placed in orbit, including in 2016.
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Important Takeaways:
- Nuclear war is inevitable – North Korea
- The world is just a step away from nuclear conflict, North Korean Defense Minister General Kang Sun-nam warned in a statement made public on Tuesday and presented at the Moscow International Security Conference.
- The official blamed Washington’s desire for regime change in Pyongyang for ratcheting up tensions. He also accused the US of increasing its military presence in the region by deploying nuclear-capable aircraft and a submarine to the area.
- “Now, the question is not if a nuclear war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, but who starts it when,” Kang warned. In this year alone, the US sent “massive strategic arms” to the region, including a nuclear-capable submarine, an aircraft carrier group, and a nuclear-capable bomber, he added.
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Important Takeaways:
- North Korea’s Kim, Russia’s Putin exchange letters vowing stronger ties
- North Korea leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin exchanged letters on Tuesday pledging to develop their ties into what Kim called a “long-standing strategic relationship,” Pyongyang’s state media KCNA said.
- The letters mark the 78th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule, which is also celebrated as a national holiday in South Korea.
- In his letter to Putin, Kim said the two countries’ friendship was forged in World War II with victory over Japan and is now “fully demonstrating their invincibility and might in the struggle to smash the imperialists’ arbitrary practices and hegemony,” KCNA said.
- “I am firmly convinced that the friendship and solidarity … will be further developed into a long-standing strategic relationship in conformity with the demand of the new era,” Kim was quoted as saying in the letter.
- “The two countries will always emerge victorious, strongly supporting and cooperating with each other in the course of achieving their common goal and cause.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Kim pointed at the South Korean capital, Seoul, and its surrounding area on a map at a meeting with generals, in pictures released by state media.
- Kim held a meeting of the central military commission in the country’s capital, Pyongyang, on Wednesday and discussed plans against its enemy, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. It did not say who the enemy was.
- Pak Su Il was also removed from his post as chief of the general staff after just seven months.
- North Korea has launched several missiles since the start of this year, and last month it launched the Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile, which officials said could reach the U.S. mainland.
- It also threatened to shoot down American spy planes after what it said were incursions into its airspace.
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Important Takeaways:
- Japan raises alarm over China’s military, Russia ties and Taiwan tensions in new defense paper
- The Japanese government stepped up its alarm over Chinese assertiveness, warning in a report issued Friday that the country faces its worst security threats since World War II as it plans to implement a new strategy that calls for a major military buildup.
- The 2023 defense white paper, approved by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet, is the first since the government adopted a controversial new National Security Strategy in December, seen as a break from Japan’s postwar policy limiting the use of force to self-defense.
- China, Russia and North Korea contribute to “the most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II,” according to the 510-page report. It says China’s external stance and military activities have become a “serious concern for Japan and the international community and present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge.”
- On Thursday, Russian and Chinese delegates joined North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in North Korea’s capital for a military parade that showed off the country’s latest drones and long-range nuclear-capable missiles.
- Russia and China have also stepped up strategic ties
- The report predicted that China will possess 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035 and increase its military superiority over Taiwan, in what Japan views as a security threat, especially to its southwestern islands including Okinawa.
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Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- North Korea fires ballistic missiles after U.S. nuclear sub harbors in Jeju Island
- North Korea launched two ballistic missiles into the East Sea late Monday, after a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine took harbor in a South Korean naval base amid growing tensions on the peninsula.
- South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed the launches in a text message to reporters, stating the first launch of a short-range ballistic missile was detected at 11:55 p.m. Monday followed by a second launch at 12 a.m. Tuesday.
- Both missiles landed in the East Seat after each flew about 250 miles, it said.
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Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- U.S. ‘actively engaged’ in ensuring King’s safety – envoy
- Private faced disciplinary action, due to fly back to the U.S.
- North Korea remained silent on Thursday about a U.S. soldier who split from a tour group and made a dash across the heavily fortified border two days earlier, landing Washington in a new diplomatic quandary amid an already tense military standoff.
- State Department spokesman Miller said Sweden has been engaged as it acts as a diplomatic channel for Washington which remains technically at war with North Korea.
- “We are still trying to gather information here about the whereabouts of Private King,” he said. “The administration has and will continue to actively work to ensure his safety and return him home to his family.”
- North Korea has previously detained Americans who entered the country and put them on trial but eventually released them, often following high-level diplomatic intervention. But incidents involving U.S. servicemen have been rare.
- In a case that remains unexplained, an American college student Otto Warmbier was held for more than a year and was returned to the United States in a coma and died days later.
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Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- North Korea launches two missiles in defiance after US deployed a nuclear sub to South Korea and a soldier was arrested crossing the DMZ
- North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into its eastern sea early Wednesday in what appeared to be a statement of defiance as the United States deployed a nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea for the first time in decades.
- It comes just two days after White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said he’s ‘been concerned for some time’ about more tests even though there are no ‘indications’ of an impending launch.
- The launches happened as a U.S.-led United Nations Command tried to secure the release of a U.S. soldier who fled to North Korea from the South Korean side of a border village Tuesday afternoon.
- Private 2nd Class Travis King, in his early 20s, had just been released from a South Korean prison where he was held on assault charges.
- Instead of getting on a plane to be taken back to Fort Bliss, Texas, he left and joined a tour of the Korean border village of Panmunjom, where he ran across the border, U.S. officials say.
- South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that from 3:30am to 3:46am North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles from an area near capital Pyongyang that flew about 341 miles before landing in waters east of the Korean Peninsula.
- The flight distance of the North Korean missiles roughly matched the distance between Pyongyang and the South Korean port city of Busan, where the USS Kentucky arrived Tuesday afternoon in the first visit by a U.S. nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea since the 1980s.
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Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- An American national has crossed into North Korea without authorization and has been detained
- An American has crossed the heavily fortified border from South Korea into North Korea, the U.S.-led U.N. Command overseeing the area said Tuesday, amid heightened tensions over North Korea’s nuclear program.
- The U.N. Command tweeted that the U.S. citizen was on a tour to the Korean border village of Panmunjom and crossed the border into the North without authorization.
- It said he is currently in North Korean custody and that the U.N. Command is working with its North Korean counterparts to resolve the incident.
- It gave no further details on who the person is or why he crossed the border.
- Tuesday’s border crossing happened amid high tensions over North Korea’s barrage of missile tests since the start of last year. The United States earlier Tuesday sent a nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea for the first time in decades as deterrence against North Korea.
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