Not surprising if North Korea tests missile again — Central Intelligence Agency chief

During an inspection of the army’s Strategic Forces, Kim praised the military for drawing up a “close and careful plan” and said he would watch the “foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees” a little more before deciding whether to give an order for the missile test, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.

On Friday, Trump tweeted: “Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely”. “And so this is why what Kim Jong Un is doing is very, very risky”.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, said the EU would intensify its diplomatic efforts with North Korea, the United States, South Korea, China, Russia and Japan.

“This isn’t the first time we have had threats lobbed against our island”, he said.

The North then came out with a threat to lob four intermediate-range “Hwasong-12” missiles near Guam, a tiny US territory some 3,200 kilometers (2,000 miles) from Pyongyang. Officials are still expecting a strong August, Muna said.

Silverstone, who is also the director of the global relations program at West Point, said North Korea’s development of miniaturized nuclear weapons was likely done as a deterrent to protect the small Asian country.

Officials have told United States media that satellites have observed DPRK mobile missile launcher movement, indicating an intermediate-ballistic missile may be being prepared as part of North Korea’s holiday celebrations.

Then, in South Korea, frustration is increasing more over Trump’s loose lips than the North’s provocations. -South Korean military drills sure to anger Pyongyang.

The Liberation day holiday, a rare one celebrated by both North and South, will be followed next week by joint U.S.

As a precaution, Japan deployed missile defense batteries under the path a North Korean missile might take.

The Hwasong-12, which was revealed for the first time at a military parade in April, is an intermediate-range ballistic missile that is believed to have a radius of more than 3,700 kilometers (2,300 miles).

When asked why the North Koreans are building nuclear weapons and delivery systems, the North Koreans answer is to deter the United States from engaging in regime change.

Affirming the US commitment to extended deterrence will be high on the agenda after North Korea’s recent threat to fire missiles over Japan and into waters near the American territory of Guam. For years, North Korea has claimed Guam is within its missiles’ striking distance, making furious statements each time when the US flew powerful bombers from the island’s air base to the Korean Peninsula.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that it’s very important to secure USA deterrence at times when regional security is at stake. “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen”, he said.

The South Korean president says the North Korean nuclear crisis must “absolutely be solved peacefully” and there can be no USA military moves without South Korean consent.

“We don’t talk about that”.

“There’s nothing imminent today”, he said on “Fox News Sunday”.

“Sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason and only absolute force can work on him”, a report by the North’s state-run KCNA news agency said of Trump. “But that’s something that we see as remote”, he added.

I can say this, your tourism, you’re going to go up like tenfold, with expenditure of no money, so I congratulate you. We have a very high degree of readiness.

American and South Korean officials said the exercises would happen as planned this month. “I imagine that the North Koreans would skip it if the rhetoric was toned down”. The tragedy of war is well known.

Analysts say that the escalation is unhelpful to resolving the increasingly tense situation in the Pacific. “This is all about preventing the USA from intervening in any military conflict on the Korean peninsula”. “I think it rattled (the U.S. administration) a little bit and caused them to (react) to this”.

Flanked by National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Vice-President Mike Pence, he said: “He (Kim) has disrespected our country greatly. and with me, he is not getting away with it”.

The President also sought to reassure Americans of their own safety on Thursday, even as he issued another stark warning to North Korea. “Our allies are safe”.