Pyongyang accused the US and South Korea of conducting at least 1,100 spy plane missions over its territory in the first half of this year, official media said.
They carried out more than 170 flights last month alone, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Saturday.
North Korea has issued a monthly report on alleged US and South Korean spy plane missions which it denounces as preparations to invade the country despite repeated denials from Washington and Seoul.
The two Koreas, despite recent peace initiatives aimed at ending enmity dating back to the Korean War, still remain technically at war as the conflict was ended in an armistice not a peace treaty.
KCNA said the US had mobilized such reconnaissance planes as the U-2, RC-135, E-3, EP-3, RC-7B and RC-12 to spy on the North while South Korea has also used RC-800 and RF-4C aircraft for the spy missions.
Meanwhile, the six governments involved in talks aimed at a non-nuclear North Korea should meet to work out the details of Pyongyang's promised shutdown of a plutonium-producing reactor, a UN official said.
"The next logical step is that they talk with each other and agree on technical arrangements," now that Pyongyang has agreed on measures to monitor and verify the process, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Deputy Director Olli Heinonen said.
Heinonen spoke on Saturday upon arrival in Beijing following a five-day visit to North Korea, where he and other agency officials worked out a basic agreement on Friday with Pyongyang on how to verify a shutdown of the reactor.
In February, North Korea pledged to shut down and disable the 5-megawatt reactor, which can produce enough plutonium to manufacture one nuclear bomb a year, in exchange for economic aid and political concessions.
Pyongyang negotiated the deal with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the US -- its partners in the six-party forum created in 2003 and meant to check the North's nuclear ambitions.
The efforts took on added urgency after Pyongyang carried out its first atomic test explosion last October.
South Korea said on Saturday it will send its first shipment of heavy fuel oil, promised to the North as part of the deal, within two weeks.
South Korea will "do its best to complete" the total aid delivery within 20 days of the first shipment, the Unification Ministry said in a statement.
Heinonen reiterated to reporters in Beijing on Saturday the IAEA and the North "reached an understanding on how we are going to monitor the sealing and shutting down of the Yongbyon facility."
The visit by Heinonen and three other agency officials included the UN nuclear watchdog's first trip to the Yongbyon reactor since inspectors were expelled from the country in 2002.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS