A North Korean envoy said his nation has developed nuclear missiles and is prepared to use them at any time.
North Korean Ambassador to Britain Hyun Hak-bong said in a recent interview with British broadcaster Sky News that his government would use the missiles in response to a nuclear attack by the US.
Asked whether North Korea has the ability now to launch a nuclear missile, Hyun replied: “Any time. Any time. Yes. If the United States strike us, we should strike back,” he said.
“We are a peace-loving people, you know. We don’t want war, but we are not afraid of war. This is our policy of the government,” Hyun said when asked if North Korea would only fire nuclear missiles in retaliation.
North Korea is thought to have a handful of crude nuclear bombs and has conducted three nuclear tests since 2006.
However, experts are divided on how far it has come in developing the technology needed to miniaturize warheads so they can be placed on missiles.
South Korean Ministry of National Defense spokesperson Kim Min-seok yesterday said that, while North Korea might have advanced its technologies for miniaturizing nuclear warheads so they can be installed on missiles, Seoul does not believe they have succeeded yet.
Kim added that the North has conducted only three nuclear tests so far and it is unclear how successful they were.
The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security recently estimated that North Korea currently has between 10 and 16 nuclear weapons, some based on plutonium, others on uranium.
The institute added that North Korea already has plutonium-based weapons small enough to mount on medium-range and intercontinental-range missiles.
The UN has imposed sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs.
Hyun’s comments come as rivals South Korea and the US conduct annual springtime military drills that North Korea said are aimed at preparing to topple its government. Seoul and Washington said the exercises are purely defensive.
The US has about 28,500 soldiers stationed in South Korea to deter possible aggression from North Korea.
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
‘VERY DIRE’: This year’s drought, exacerbated by El Nino, is affecting 44 percent of Malawi’s crop area and up to 40 percent of its population of 20.4 million In the worst drought in southern Africa in a century, villagers in Malawi are digging for potentially poisonous wild yams to eat as their crops lie scorched in the fields. “Our situation is very dire, we are starving,” 76-year-old grandmother Manesi Levison said as she watched over a pot of bitter, orange wild yams that she says must cook for eight hours to remove the toxins. “Sometimes the kids go for two days without any food,” she said. Levison has 30 grandchildren under her care. Ten are huddled under the thatched roof of her home at Salima, near Lake Malawi, while she boils
RSS