North Korea claims to have conducted its fifth, and by far most powerful, nuclear bomb test on Friday morning, in defiance of United Nations resolutions. Condemnation from world leaders was immediate, including even North Korea’s patron China.
North Korea made another attempt to launch a mid-range missile on Thursday and, like the previous effort a few weeks ago, the missile appears to have crashed shortly after takeoff.
Iran’s flouting of the Obama nuclear deal continued with the test of a new “space rocket,” built with North Korean technology, that may be capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.
During a visit to Seoul, South Korea, Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the North Koreans should be “inspired” to give up their nuclear weapons by the deal that was struck with Iran.
Next month, North Korea will convene the first Korean Workers’ Party Congress in 36 years. The impending event has been seen by analysts as influencing everything the secretive Communist state does – an opportunity to refresh the North Korean peoples’ sense of “unity” with their oppressive government and consolidate the power of dictator Kim Jong Un’s cabal of relatively young leaders.
American and South Korean military officials are reporting that North Korea’s latest missile test, timed to coincide with the 104th birthday of “Eternal President” Kim Il Sung, was an embarrassing failure.
Even as China announced a new round of sanctions against its unruly client, North Korea, due to its nuclear and ballistic-missile programs, international monitors have noted “suspicious activity” at the Yongbyong nuclear site. Also, South Korea complains that the North has been jamming its GPS navigation systems in a bid to raise tensions on the Korean peninsula even further.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula are still running high, as the North Koreans announced the successful test of a solid-fuel rocket booster and threatened to assassinate South Korean president Park Geun-Hye by “scorching” her offices with an “ultra-precision strike.”
BEVERLY HILLS — Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) said the Obama Administration essentially robbed the Iranian people of their chance at freedom from the oppressive theocratic regime, citing a missed opportunity during the Islamic Republic’s 2009 presidential election.
Hard on the heels of its provocative missile tests yesterday, a U.S. official told CNN Iran could launch an even more advanced 3-stage missile “at any minute.”
On Thursday, President Obama signed off on tougher sanctions against North Korea, as punishment for the Communist regime’s recent nuclear detonation, missile test disguised as a satellite launch, and involvement in cyber-espionage.
South Korea stepped up its criticism of North Korea’s nuclear plans this week, with U.N. Ambassador Oh Joon calling for “extraordinary” measures against the North’s “nuclear blackmail.” South Korean President Park Geun-hye warned that Pyongyang faces “regime collapse” if they continue spinning up nuclear weapons production.
The annual threat assessment from Director of National Security James Clapper included some grim news about North Korea, which is evidently restarting its plutonium production reactor at Yongbyon, and has developed missile technology that can reach any part of the continental United States.
North Korea has notified the International Maritime Organization of the United Nations that it plans to launch a satellite sometime between February 8 and February 25. The announcement was not well-received, as it is widely suspected the “satellite launch” will actually be cover for long-range ballistic missile testing.
While being questioned by Lindsey Graham about the means through which the Obama administration intended to secure the ousting of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter conceded that such efforts were “principally political.”
French officials joined the United States Thursday in condemning illegal ballistic missile tests that the Islamic Republic of Iran carried out over the weekend.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee hosted experts on the Middle East on Thursday to examine the new Iran deal and its consequences for U.S. national security and foreign policy. Committee chair Ed Royce (R-CA) put the question to expert witnesses and fellow representatives: “[A]re temporary constraints on Iran’s nuclear program worth the price of permanent sanctions relief?”
The Islamic Republic of Iran has executed approximately sixty-four of its own citizens in the first few weeks of January, according to recent reports by the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center and Iran Focus.
