The launches from the eastern coastal town of Wonsan were North Korea’s second weapons test in less than a week and were seen as a move to keep up pressure on Washington and Seoul amid a stalemate in nuclear negotiations. Pyongyang has also expressed anger over planned U.S.-South Korea military drills.
According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, short-range missiles fired by North Korea were launched from the town of Wonsan, a regular launch site on the North’s eastern coast. The launches were aimed at ramping up pressure on the United States to make concessions as the two countries are struggling to resume diplomacy on the North’s nuclear weapons program.
North Korea lifted the second Intercontinental Cup at Ahmedabad, beating Tajikistan with a solitary goal in the second half.
The European Union (EU) has voted to renew sanctions against North Korean individuals and entities for contributing to the Asian country's nuclear activities, ballistic missiles and other weapons of mass destruction programmes, as well as for evading the restrictions.
Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, said North Korea deported Alek Sigley on Thursday after he pleaded for forgiveness over his activities, which the agency said infringed on the country's sovereignty.
Alek Sigley was released by the North Korean authorities on Thursday after being held for more than a week.
Australian student Alek Sigley (29) released after a week in detention in North Korea described his condition to reporters in Beijing on Thursday as "very good". However, he has not elaborated what happened. Australia's PM Scott Morrison announced to Parliament that Sigley had been released hours earlier following intervention from Swedish diplomats on Wednesday.
US President Donald Trump reportedly said on Sunday that teams from the US and North Korea would start meetings "over the next two or three weeks" for talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program, but said he was in no rush for a deal.
Trump and Kim first came face-to-face during their first historic meeting last June in Singapore.
The North's Foreign Ministry said it "will not hesitate to pull a muscle-flexing trigger in order to defend ourselves" if anyone dares to trample over its sovereignty.
North Korean and Chinese national flags are hoisted on a street in Pyongyang, North Korea Thursday, June 20, 2019.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will make a state visit to North Korea this week, state media announced Monday, as U.S. talks with North Korea on its nuclear program are at an apparent standstill.
The Seoul-based Transitional Justice Working Group said its research was based on interviews with 610 North Korean defectors conducted over four years who helped locate the sites with satellite imagery.
North Korea's famous mass gymnastics show has been suspended temporarily since Monday, a travel agency which includes it in its tourist packages, told Efe news, days after the country's leader, Kim Jong-un, criticized it.
The second edition of the Intercontinental Cup will take place in Ahmedabad. India are the defending champions.
The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff had no other immediate details, and it wasn't clear what the North had fired. But some analysts have said that if the North returns to the kind of longer-range banned weapons that it tested in 2017, when many feared a Washington-Pyongyang standoff could end in war.
The test early Saturday was quickly played down by Trump and his top advisers, who noted it was not the kind of long-range missile leader Kim Jong Un has refrained from launching since 2017.
Experts believe that the North has viable shorter-range nuclear-armed missiles but still needs more tests to perfect its longer-range weapons.
As per reports, negotiations are building up towards a meeting in the next few days in Russia's Far East.
Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, addressing a meeting of diplomats and foreign media, including The Associated Press, in Pyongyang said the North was deeply disappointed by the failure of the two sides to reach any agreements at the Hanoi summit between Kim and President Donald Trump.
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