North Korea fired five short-range missiles during military training last week, a South Korean newspaper reported yesterday, as the top US general in the South warned that Pyongyang could conduct a second nuclear test.
The North fired the ground-to-air and air-to-air missiles, with ranges from 10km to 50km, as part of an annual training session, the Chosun Ilbo reported, citing an unidentified government official.
The report comes amid speculation that North Korea may be preparing to conduct a second nuclear test following its first one on Oct. 9.
US Army General B.B. Bell said at a news conference yesterday that a second test is possible, though he didn't cite any specific intelligence that another test was imminent.
"I can only surmise that since they tested one, we would see at some time in the future yet another test of a nuclear device," Bell said, adding that missiles and other weapons also could be tested.
"I think we can expect future tests as part of their program to develop these kinds of very provocative weapons," he said.
Bell was firm that the US and South Korean allied forces could deter aggression from the North and defeat any possible attack. Still, he called for a diplomatic solution to the standoff.
"I wish that North Korea would not only stop testing these devices, but stop making them and come back to the bargaining table," he said.
Bell also affirmed that the South remains under protection of the US "nuclear umbrella" -- an issue that drew harsh criticism yesterday from the North.
In a commentary in its main paper, the North said the US' nuclear weapons won't be able to protect the South but "will be a source of disaster and trouble bringing the holocaust of nuclear war."
"Those who are fond of fire are bound to be burned to death," the Rodong Sinmun wrote, according to an English-language dispatch from the North's official Korean Central News Agency. "If the US and South Korean war maniacs persist in nuclear war adventures, they can never evade the lot of destruction."
Meanwhile, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, dissident playwright turned Czech president Vaclav Havel and former Norwegian prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik called for UN Security Council action on the North over its "egregious" human rights record.
The trio commissioned a 123-page report detailing the North's atrocities. In the report, the three said the dispute over Pyongyang's nuclear program should not eclipse its deadly political repression, and that the council should instead take on leader Kim Jong-il's regime over its treatment of its people.
The report says that Security Council action is warranted under a resolution unanimously approved in April that endorsed last year's agreement aimed at preventing tragedies like the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
"Nowhere else in the world today is there such an abuse of rights, as institutionalized as it is in North Korea," Bondevik said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat