Ahead of a rare ruling party Congress next month, secretive North Korea is revealing details of its weapons development program for the first time, showcasing its push to develop long-range nuclear missiles despite international sanctions.
North Korea will pursue its nuclear and ballistic missile program in defiance of the United States and its allies, a top Pyongyang envoy said on Friday, adding that a state of \”semi-war\” now existed on the divided Korean peninsula.
North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Friday off its east coast and it flew about 500 miles into the sea, South Korea\’s Yonhap news agency reported.
U.S. State Department officials expressed optimism on Thursday that new sanctions imposed on North Korea may be more effective than earlier attempts to curtain Pyongyang\’s nuclear program, pointing to China\’s apparent willingness to support them.
South Korean and U.S. troops began large-scale military exercises on Monday in an annual test of their defences against North Korea, which called the drills \”nuclear war moves\” and threatened to respond with an all-out offensive.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised the exercise of newly developed multiple rocket launchers and ordered his country to be ready to use nuclear weapons \”at any time\” in the face of a growing threat from enemies, its official media said on Friday.
North Korea faces harsh new U.N. sanctions to starve it of money for its nuclear weapons program following a unanimous Security Council vote on Wednesday on a resolution drafted by the United States and Pyongyang\’s ally China.
North Korea, which conducted its fourth nuclear test last month and launched a long-range rocket on Saturday, could begin to recover plutonium from a restarted nuclear reactor within weeks, the director of U.S. National Intelligence said on Tuesday.
Satellite images taken this week of North Korea\’s Sohae rocket launch site show apparent fueling activity seen in the past one to two weeks before a rocket launch, a U.S. think tank said on Friday.
North Korea told U.N. agencies on Tuesday it plans to launch a satellite as early as next week, a move that could advance the country\’s long-range missile technology after its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6.
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