North Korea is never happy about US warplanes operating in its neighborhood. But an upcoming deployment of advanced fighter jets in Japan is going to make supreme leader Kim Jong-un particularly displeased.
In January, aviation authorities announced the suspension of the vast, expensive search for the Malaysia Airlines MH370 plane that went missing in March 2014, along with its more than 200 passengers. Now the hunt is back on, thanks to a seabed-exploration company offering to look for the Boeing 777 on a “no find, no fee” basis.
The White House has confirmed that Donald Trump intends to scrap a critical Obamacare subsidy. In his most dramatic action yet against the Affordable Care Act, the US president will end subsidies to insurers selling plans to low-income customers.
North Korea warned Sept. 21 it might detonate a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean in response to threats made by US president Donald Trump as he addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 19.
It was bound to happen.
Much has been made of US president Donald Trump’s first speech yesterday (Sept. 19) to the United Nations General Assembly. Being rather dark and blunt, it was indeed notable. But the gathering’s most consequential presence could prove to be that of a diplomat from North Korea: the foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho.
North Korea is making the world uneasy with its missile launches. It’s also driving business for defense contractors.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, like his US counterpart Donald Trump, seems to relish being unpredictable. When he’ll order the next missile launch or nuclear test, it seems, is anyone’s guess. But while the reasoning behind the timing of many tests does indeed seem unfathomable, in other cases it appears more clearly linked to happenings in the outside world. For instance, North Korea launched its second missile over Japan on Sept. 15, days after the United Nations Security Council imposed new sanctions against it. It’s possible Pyongyang will do the same after future economic punishments are leveled against it. North Korea has also been known to conduct tests following military drills held by the US and South Korea.
The Winter Olympics are a time for athletes from around the world to show off their athletic prowess. They might also be a time for North Korea to demonstrate the strength and dexterity of its rapidly advancing weapons.
The Trump administration is touting new sanctions leveled against North Korea by the UN Security Council yesterday (Sept. 11), after it pushed for a vote on the matter. But it was less the power of Washington, and more that of Beijing and Moscow, that was on display.
Donald Trump’s bluster over North Korea plays well with some of the Americans who voted for him. The US president has refused to rule out military action in North Korea, made dramatic threats against Pyongyang (including one of “fire and fury“), and tweeted that “talking is not the answer” for reining in the nation’s alarmingly fast weapons development.
As this weekend passes, we may learn that North Korea has launched more missiles or some such, this time to celebrate its 69th anniversary. Then again, there has been little correlation between key anniversaries and its weapons tests; instead, Pyongyang seems more intent on spitefully ruining long weekends and international meetings.
One thing about whether economic sanctions will work against North Korea: the experts disagree.
The most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic, Hurricane Irma, could wreak havoc on Florida this weekend, depending on its still-uncertain path. (Update: Irma is now on a collision course with Miami.) While it will create bigger problems to worry about if it does, the booming city of Miami is already warning residents about the potential danger posed by objects on its skyline that are hard to miss: towering construction cranes.
If Kim Jong-un wants South Korea to bolster its military capabilities, he’s making all the right moves.
What does North Korea want? The question is on many minds, especially because the nation keeps timing weapons tests—including a sixth nuclear test on Sunday (Sept. 3)—to ruin weekends and meetings between world leaders.
That North Korea is testing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons of ever increasing sophistication is alarming. That North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is routinely timing tests to occur during important meetings, events, or weekends—preferably long holiday weekends in the United States—is something else: irritating.
In less than six months the South Korean province of Gangwon will proudly host the 2018 Winter Olympics. Today, it hosted something of a different nature: bombing drills designed to intimidate North Korea.
North Korea launched yet another missile today (Aug. 29), this one flying over Japan before landing in the sea. Sending a rocket over mainland Japan is rare for North Korea, but not unprecedented. It did so in 1998 and 2009, for instance, although in each of those instances, unlike this time, it said it was sending satellites into space (paywall).
It wasn’t supposed to be so hard. When Japan redrew its arms exports restrictions in early 2014, it had every reason to believe its firms would quickly succeed in selling military hardware, given their technical and manufacturing prowess. Skip ahead to today and none of them has won a major contract, despite considerable effort.
In 2012, China wrested control of Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea from the Philippines. With the shoal—reefs, rocks, and a vast lagoon—located just 220 km (137 miles) from the Philippines’ main island Luzon, the incident heightened tensions and embarrassed Manila, which the following year opened a case in an international tribunal challenging Beijing’s territorial moves in the sea.
The prospect of tanks, machine guns, and drones that think for themselves becoming widespread is giving tech luminaries the heebie-jeebies.
The upcoming military exercises by the US and South Korea occur every year. What doesn’t: a fiery war of words between North Korea and the US president just ahead of the drills.
In China it took less than two weeks for the locally made blockbuster Wolf Warrior 2 to become the nation’s highest-grossing film ever. Released in late July, the movie, essentially about punishing anyone who offends China, has struck a chord with many patriotic Chinese (in addition to sending a shiver down Hollywood’s spine).
