Republic of korea

North Korea is about to celebrate its 69th anniversary as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and its southern neighbours are on high alert for a possible missile test.

South Korean intelligence reports of launch preparations in the North, just a few days after Pyongyang, North Korea, claimed to have tested a hydrogen bomb that that could fit an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

“The situation is very grave. It doesn’t seem much time is left before North Korea achieves its complete nuclear armament,” South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon told a meeting of defense ministers in Seoul on Thursday, according to CNN .

“Some believe North Korea may launch another intercontinental ballistic missile on the 9th, this time at an ordinary angle.”

Rumors of another missile test launch also were fueled by North Korea’s chief diplomat at the United Nations, Han Tae Song, warning the U.S. that it could expect more “gift packages” coming its way.

September 9 is significant as it marks North Korea’s anniversary of its founding. The day is usually celebrated with parades and mass dances around Pyongyang, but last year it also became an occasion for Kim Jong-un to conduct an underground nuclear test, the fifth since the country first began nuclear tests, in 2006.

North Korea’s missile test launches are usually held around historically significant dates. The July 4 launch of its first-ever ICBM rocket was seen as a “gift for the American bastards” for U.S. Independence Day. A second ICBM test was expected on the anniversary of the Korean War armistice on July 27, but weather conditions delayed the missile launch for a day.

On the anniversary of the Japanese annexation of Korea on August 29, Pyongyang flew an intermediate range ballistic missile over the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

Experts believe that Pyongyang’s missile-launch threat for a date in or around September 11 is significant, but it may prove to be empty, as the North Korean leadership has proven hard to predict.

“There’s been no diplomatic intervention to stop the continued testing, and the pace has been consistently fast,” John Delury, associate professor of Chinese studies at the Yonsei University Graduate School of International Studies in Seoul, told The Washington Post .

“North Korea could be playing with us, looking like they’re moving stuff around just to keep people on edge,” he continued. “If there’s nothing on the 9th, there will be a sigh of relief—but it’s sort of meaningless, because we’ve set this expectation.”

One of the most important annual holidays in North Korea, National Day, or Foundation Day of the Republic, commemorates the 1948 declaration of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea under Kim Jong-un’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung. He won the Soviet Union’s support to lead the country, effectively created after Moscow and Washington agreed to divide the Korean Peninsula along the 38th parallel in 1945, following the defeat of Japan in World War II.

Having ruled for two thirds of the country’s 69-year-old history, Kim Il-sung’s reign was marked by war and terror. He started the Korean War in 1950 and was responsible for two (failed) attempts to kill South Korean leaders: the 1968 Blue House raid against Park Chung-hee that resulted in the deaths of 26 South Koreans, four Americans and 28 North Koreans; and the 1983 Rangoon bombing in Myanmar against president Chun Doo-hwan that left 17 government generals dead.

Also during his rule came the axe murders of two U.S. soldiers in 1976 , and the 1987 bombing of a Korean Airlines plane that killed all 115 passengers and crew aboard.

For all of Kim Jong-un’s missile tests and provocations, the only direct foreign casualty was U.S. student Otto Warmbier —whose death, North Korea said, was a “mystery” to them.

The young dictator has so far turned against his own family and his entourage to ensure unrivaled control and loyalty over the party and the country, with the South Korean Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank, estimating more than 340 executions ordered in his first five years in power.

The North Korean regime has more than one reason to celebrate its 69-year-old existence . Not only has the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) proclaimed by Kim Il Sung on September 9, 1948 survived the fall of the Soviet Union that was so crucial to its creation , but it also presents a growing threat to global stability.

The country’s missile development program has grown exponentially in recent years. North Korea has circumvented progressively restrictive U.N. sanctions using illicit procurement techniques which, according to a 2017 U.N. report , are “increasing in scale, scope and sophistication.”

Some of North Korea’s techniques include falsifying documentation and mislabeling cargo, moving money, people and goods, as well as arms and related material, across borders.

But back in 1984, the regime founded by Kim Il Sung simply purchased its first Soviet missiles from Egypt, the Scud B, and reverse-enginnered them to create the Hwasong-5 missile.

The short-range, road-mobile, liquid-propellant ballistic missile was first tested in 1984 and its production began a year later. In less than a decade, North Koreans built an estimated total of 300 Hwasong-5 missiles as well as several mobile launch systems, ending production in 1991 or 1992, as documented by the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Missile Defense Project .

The country’s founder conducted 16 missile tests (of which only eight were considered successful) in its 46 years as head of the DPRK, as counted by the U.S.-based think tank Nuclear Threat Initiative.

Kim Il Sung’s son and heir Kim Jong Il took power in 1994 but only began missile tests four years later. While most of the launches continued to test rockets first developed under his father, Kim Jong Il also tested a Taepodong-1, a liquid-fueled, intermediate-range ballistic missile.

North Korea claimed that was a satellite launch, but the international community dispute that, and the U.S. State Department considered the missile launch a technology demonstrator.

While the first missile tested had a range of 500 miles, under Kim Il Sung North Korea’s missile range grew to encompass Japan, parts of China and Southeast Asia with the development of the medium-range Nodong missile, which has an 800-mile range.

While Kim Jong Il began nuclear tests to develop a warhead to fit on the missiles, it was not until his death in 2011 and the accession of youngest son Kim Jong Un to power that the missile and nuclear development program intensified and began to truly threaten the world.

The young dictator has tested more missiles than his father and grandfather combined. In the past six years, the country tested submarine-launched ballistic missiles and conducted the country’s most powerful nuclear test to date. It developed rockets like the Musadan, first tested and successfully launched in 2016, which has a 2,500-mile range and could reach India. The Hwasong-12, first successfully tested in May 2017, put the U.S. territory of Guam within its range.

North Korea had long been developing a missile that could be used as an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the Taepodong-2, which was first tested in 2006 and only after repeated failures succeeded, on its fourth test launch in December 2012, to put a satellite into space.

But the real gamechanger was the two July tests of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Hwasong-14, as experts agree that this North Korean missile could reach the U.S. mainland. Just how far it could reach remains a matter of debate, as this depends on the payload of the warhead fitted on the missile: The smaller the payload, the longer the missile range.

“To reach the U.S. East coast the payload will have to be very small, to the point where one has to ask the question whether they can make it that small already. The missile, in its current form, could reach the West Coast but not the East Coast,” Michael Elleman, Senior Fellow for Missile Defense at the ‎International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Newsweek after the late July ICBM launch.

“We don’t know what kind of payload they put on the test missiles. We can speculate, we can make reconstructions but we end up with different results because of different assumptions,” he added.

The 2017 Hwasong-14 is based on the Soviet Rd-250 missiles and it incorporates several elements of its predecessor Hwasong models.

As John Schilling wrote on the website of 38 North, a U.S.-based North Korea monitoring project , the ICBM uses the Hwasong-12’s engine, features a similarly-sized upper stage as the Hwasong-13, and probably fits the re-entry vehicle used on another rocket, also named Hwasong-14, which was rolled out in 2015.

The July 28 test saw the missile launched at a high-angle trajectory to avoid overflying Japan, flying for about 620 miles for roughly 47 minutes , but it is estimated to be able to cover a distance of 4,350-4,970 miles if launched on a maximum-range trajectory.

We know that North Korea has so far developed two important elements of a missile, propulsion system and a mobile launcher, but the actual threat represented by the rocket remains dependent on North Korea’s capability to fit a bomb on the missile, and to make it re-enter the atmosphere without catching fire.

If North Korea wants to keep increasing the accuracy and reliability of its missiles, the world needs to brace itself for more test launches. “They will probably want to do additional flight tests before they are confident their system works. You can only establish reliability by testing repeatedly in different circumstances,” Elleman said.

North Korea has warned it is watching U.S. attempts to deter the regime’s nuclear program and said it will only strengthen its capabilities, as its state media attacked Niki Haley, the U.S. Envoy to the U.N., threatening Washington would pay for her “hysterical fit.”

Choe Hui Chol, North Korea’s deputy minister of Foreign Affairs, told international ambassadors that Pyongyang’s sixth nuclear test last week—its most powerful so far—had a “weighty significance” for North Korea’s project to assemble a “state nuclear force,” South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported Saturday. Speaking to representatives from Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, he said North Korea was closely watching U.S. attempts to increase U.N. sanctions on the rogue state, vowing Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities will only improve.

Choe accused the U.S. of “making irresponsible remarks” that North Korea wants war in “disregard of the international community’s will,” when the U.S. was the one seeking punitive action through more sanctions. Choe once again accused the U.S. of being a nuclear threat, and vowed not to slow down Pyongyang’s growing capabilities that seek to one day send a nuclear warhead to the U.S. mainland.

“We will not take even a step back from the road of our option but keep bolstering the nuclear deterrence for self-defense to defend our government and people from the U.S. nuclear war threat,” Choe said. “The U.S. should never forget the position of the DPRK as a full-fledged nuclear power possessed of ICBM together with A-bomb and H-bomb, and the DPRK will keep watching every move of the U.S,” he added, using the acronym of North Korea’s official name—the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Choe’s comments came as North Korea’s state news agency published commentary on Haley’s accusation that the regime was “begging for war,” accusing her of having a “hysterical fit.”

“The U.S. administration will have to pay a dear price for her tongue-lashing,” KCNA said of Haley’s remarks, according to Bloomberg .

Over the summer, North Korea has traded threats with the U.S. administration, stoking fears that U.S. Pacific territory Guam may get caught in any potential crossfire or escalation between the two nations. North Koreans were celebrating the country’s latest nuclear test on Pyongyang’s streets earlier this week in the run-up to the country’s 69th birthday.

North Korea has struck again in its nuclear-fueled war of words with the U.S., this time warning Washington that its latest military developments give supreme leader Kim Jong Un unprecedented clout amid the current crisis.

North Korea’s state-run media ran a series of articles on Friday threatening to meet any further U.S. military expansion in the region with an opposing show of force. After North Korea successfully tested its first two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), in July and conducted its first hydrogen bomb test earlier this month, it launched a second intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), over Japan on Friday. As President Donald Trump and allies continue to demand the total denuclearization of North Korea, Pyongyang struck back against talk of bringing back U.S. tactical nukes to the Korean Peninsula.

Related: North Korea launches missile as Defense Secretary James Mattis inspects U.S. nuclear arsenal

“The attempt of the U.S. to deploy tactical nuclear weapons into south Korea and develop up-to-date miniaturized nuclear bombs is targeted at its strategic rivals in the region as well as the DPRK, and it will increase the tension in the Korean Peninsula and the region and instigate intense arms race,” the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Institute of American Studies said in a statement, referring to the country by its official title: the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“The nuclear threat of the U.S. which is growing more vicious propels the DPRK to continuous development of all means of counterattack including tactical nuclear weapons to the highest level at a maximum speed and to faster deployment of these means ready for battle,” it added, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The U.S. once maintained an arsenal of about 100 tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush withdrew all nuclear assets stationed abroad, according to The Washington Post . This could change, however, as mounting tensions in the region reportedly compelled the South Korean defense minister to appeal to his U.S. counterpart for a redeployment of such weapons.

South Korea President Moon Jae-in rejected this notion, however, seemingly agreeing with his northern rival that such a move could “lead to a nuclear arms race in northeast Asia,” CNN reported.

North Korea has been extremely critical of the U.S.’s close relationship with South Korea, with which the North has technically been at war since the 1950s . In a commentary published Friday by government newspaper Rodong Sinmun , North Korea dismissed the U.S.’s efforts to lead the international community in punishing Kim Jong Un’s government with economic sanctions, and claimed it is now invulnerable to U.S. tactics because of its weapons capable of delivering a devastating nuclear strike to major U.S. cities .

“The U.S. might have complex mental state due to its consecutive setbacks in the confrontation with the DPRK, but it has to draw a lesson and make a correct judgment,” the commentary read, according to KCNA.

“Whatever means and methods the U.S. may employ, they will never work on the DPRK,” it added. “The U.S. fate is in the hands of the DPRK.”

Like his predecessors, Trump does not recognize North Korea’s claim that it has the right to possess nuclear weapons, which Kim and his government argue are necessary to prevent a U.S. invasion. China and Russia have also called on North Korea to abandon its nuclear testing, but have been more vocally critical of what they perceive to be an invasive U.S. foreign policy in the region.

Following Friday’s North Korean missile launch, Defense Secretary James Mattis said he “immediately” went to the U.S. Strategic Command’s operations center in Omaha, Nebraska, where he was visiting at the time. The site oversees the U.S.’s nuclear forces.

” Steady as she goes ,” Mattis reportedly said about the launch.

“In a deterrent, you can leave no doubt at all,” he earlier told reporters, on Wednesday, “Don’t try it. It won’t work. You can’t take us out.”

North Korea’s coronavirus situation is “now under safe and stable control,” the country’s top envoy said at the U.N.’s 75th annual General Assembly on Tuesday.

North Korean Ambassador Kim Song spoke in person at the U.N. headquarters in New York City.

“At the early stage of the outbreak of Covid-19 [Chinese coronavirus], Chairman Kim Jong-un … ensured that pre-emptive, timely, and strong emergency anti-epidemic measures were taken to prevent the inflow and spread of the pandemic,” Kim said , referring to Pyongyang’s decision to shut its border with China in January to limit virus transmission.

North Korea has consistently denied the existence of any official Chinese coronavirus cases in the country. Despite this, Pyongyang has implemented serious coronavirus countermeasures over the past six months, suggesting that it has battled a high number of cases. In addition to closing its Chinese border as early as January, North Korea locked down its third-largest city, Chongjin, in June, reportedly in response to a major local outbreak.

The following month, Pyongyang issued a maximum level emergency alert against the Chinese coronavirus and locked down an inter-Korean border city, Kaesong. The measures came after authorities admitted to identifying a suspected Chinese coronavirus case in a North Korean refugee who reportedly fled back to the North from South Korea. State authorities were careful never to officially confirm the case.

“In response to the continuing world pandemic infections, a series of state measures are now being taken to block the virus inflow into the country and all people adhere strictly to anti-epidemic regulations while maintaining the highest alert,” Ambassador Kim said on Tuesday.

“The Government of the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] will not tolerate even a smallest bit of slackness or concession, but further strengthen the state emergency anti-epidemic measures until the danger of the pandemic inflow is completely eliminated,” he added.

“At a time when the world was despairingly drawn into a catastrophe of pandemic crisis, we in the DPRK launched the construction of Pyongyang General Hospital as a modern medical service facility for the people and its construction is now dynamically propelled in its final stage,” Kim boasted.

The envoy’s glowing description of Pyongyang General’s construction contrasts with North Korea’s own state media reports about the hospital’s development just two months ago. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un publicly criticized fellow members of the country’s communist Workers’ Party for their mishandling of the hospital’s construction, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on July 20.

“After hearing a detailed report on the overall situation of the construction from the construction coordination commission on the spot, he [Kim] pointed out serious problems in economic organization for the construction,” KCNA reported. “He said that the construction coordination commission is organizing economy in a careless manner with no budget for the construction properly set up, yet.”

Kim reprimanded officials working on the project for soliciting funds to build the hospital from area residents after mismanaging the state-allotted budget, according to the report.