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South Korea, the US and Japan called for stronger international support of efforts to ban North Korea from sending workers abroad and curb the North's cybercrimes as a way to block the country's means to fund its nuclear program. The top South Korean, US and Japanese nuclear envoys met in Seoul on Friday in their first gathering in four months to discuss how to cope with North Korea's growing nuclear arsenal. The North's recent weapons tests show it is intent on acquiring more advanced missiles designed to attack the US and its allies, rather than returning to talks. Despite 11 rounds of UN sanctions and pandemic-related hardships that have worsened its economic and food problems, North Korea still devotes much of its scarce resources to its nuclear and missile programs. Contributing to financing its weapons program is also likely the North's crypto hacking and other illicit cyber activities and the wages sent by North Korean workers remaining in China, Russia and elsewhere despite
The South Korean, US and Japanese navies began their first anti-submarine drills in six months on Monday to boost their coordination against increasing North Korean missile threats, South Korea's military said. The two-day drills come as North Korea's recent unveiling of a type of battlefield nuclear warhead prompted worries the country may conduct first nuclear test since 2017. The maritime exercises in international waters off South Korea's southern island of Jeju involved the nuclear-powered USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and naval destroyers from South Korea, the US and Japan, South Korea's Defence Ministry said in a statement. The training was arranged to improve the three countries' capacities to respond to underwater security threats posed by North Korea's advancing submarine-launched ballistic missiles and other assets, the statement said. It said the three countries were to detect and track unmanned South Korean and US underwater vehicles posing as enemy submarines and other
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missile toward waters off its eastern coast Monday, adding to a recent flurry in weapons tests as the United States prepared to deploy an aircraft carrier strike group to neighboring waters to step up military exercises with the South. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles flew cross-country after being fired from a western inland area south of the North Korean capital of Pyongyang but didn't immediately release specific flight details. Japan's coast guard said it believed both weapons landed outside Japan's exclusive economic zone. The launches were the North's seventh missile event this month and underscore heightening military tensions in the region as the pace of both North Korean weapons tests and the U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises has accelerated in recent months in a cycle of tit-for-tat responses. The allies last week completed an 11-day exercise that included their biggest field training in years. But ..
South Korea says North Korea has test-launched multiple cruise missiles toward the North's eastern waters. The launches on Wednesday are the North's fourth weapons tests since the US and South Korean militaries began large-scale military drills last week. North Korea views the drill as a preparation to attack it. The US-South Korean military drills are to end on Thursday. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired several cruise missiles from its northeastern coastal town of Hamhung. It says the South Korean and US intelligence authorities were analysing further details of the launches.
North Korea said Monday it simulated a nuclear attack on South Korea with a ballistic missile launch over the weekend that was its fifth missile demonstration this month to protest the largest joint military exercises in years between the US and South Korea. The North's leader Kim Jong Un instructed his military to hold more drills to sharpen the war readiness of his nuclear forces in the face of aggression by his enemies, state media reported. The South Korean and Japanese militaries detected the short-range missile being launched Sunday into waters off the North's eastern coast less than an hour before the US flew long-range B-1B bombers for training with South Korean warplanes. The North characterizes the US-South Korea exercises as a rehearsal to invade, though the allies insist they are defensive in nature. Some experts say the North uses the exercises as a pretext to advance its weapons programmes. Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said the missile, which flew ..
Japan says North Korea has launched a suspected missile toward the sea. Japan's coast guard said it confirmed that what appeared to be a North Korean missile was fired Sunday morning. Further launch details were not immediately available, it said. South Korea's Yonhap news agency cited the South's military as saying that North Korea had fired a ballistic missile toward its eastern waters. Calls to the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff were not immediately answered on Sunday. The launch, if confirmed, would be the North's fourth round of weapons tests since the U.S. and South Korean militaries began joint military drills last week. The North views the drills as an invasion rehearsal.