While North Korea has never been forthright with their nuclear capabilities, Washington officials stated that tiny communist nation does have the capability to hit the mainland of the U.S. with nuclear strikes. The Pentagon went on to state that they are prepared for such a situation.
“I’m pretty confident that we’re going to knock down the numbers that are going to be shot,” Admiral Bill Gortney, who heads the U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said of a potential strike.
Every few years North Korea taunts Western nations with allusions to the country’s nuclear capabilities. Throughout the past several years, they have continually announced successful nuclear tests.
Last month, North Korea’s space agency announced Pyongyang was building a new satellite and getting ready to launch the satellite for possible long range missile attacks. The country continues to state that the rocket launches are part of a legitimate space program that wants to put satellites into orbit. North Korea has defied past sanctions and international warnings by continuing to conduct missile tests.
In March, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency reported that North Korea could launch an intercontinental ballistic missile this year.
In light of recent reports on North Korea’s possible nuclear capabilities, the U.S. military is investing to modernize its current missile defense system with new sensors and radars in order to better identify potential launches.
“We’re ready for him [Kim Jong Un], and we’re ready 24 hours a day…,” Gortney said.
A new report from Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe shows that one Christian is being martyred worldwide every five minutes.
Massimo Introvigne told a conference there are about 105,000 Christians killed every year for their faith. That number doesn’t include victims of war.
“If these numbers are not cried out to the world, if this slaughter is not stopped, if it is not acknowledged that the persecution of Christians is the first worldwide emergency in the matter of violence and religious discrimination, the dialogue between religions will only produce beautiful conferences but no concrete results,” Introvigne said according to Zenit.org.
The data also showed that between 50,000 and 70,000 Christians are being held in North Korean prison camps.
The report’s publishers said they were making the information available for Christians to keep in mind during the upcoming National Day of Prayer.
“I think it’s important considering all that has happened in the last year, from Iraq to Syria, to the issues of persecution in North Korea; that we have a time here in America to come together and pray as one body of believers for the people who are part of our family, who are persecuted,” Open Doors CEO and President David Curry said.
United States officials have issued a stern warning to North Korea because of their threats to the U.S. and the world over their nuclear capabilities.
The day after North Korea said they have turned up their nuclear reactor at Yongbyon to full production, U.S. officials said the North Korean government should focus on “fulfilling its international obligations.”
“We will work with our partners in the context of the six-party talks to try to return North Korea to a posture of fulfilling those commitments that they have made,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
“We will repeat our call that North Korea should refrain from the irresponsible provocations that aggravate regional tension and should focus instead on fulfilling its international obligations and commitments.”
Earnest added that the world will not allow North Korea to become a nuclear state.
Analysts say that it’s likely Kim Jong-Un is looking at the way Iran was able to parlay their nuclear program into a financial windfall and removal of sanctions and is trying to position his nation to gain a similar bonus.
North Korean officials have stated their nuclear enrichment plant is now operating at full capacity.
The director of North Korea’s Atomic Energy Institute praised what he considered the innovations of his research teams.
“[The scientists have worked] to guarantee the reliability of the nuclear deterrent in every way by steadily improving the levels of nuclear weapons with various missions in quality and quantity,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency quoted the unnamed director.
“All the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon including the uranium enrichment plant and 5 MW graphite-moderated reactor were rearranged, changed or readjusted and they started normal operation.”
The news of the full nuclear operation comes a day after the country reported they would be launching satellites using long-range missiles that could also carry a potential nuclear payload. South Korean officials say that the launches, if they take place, would be a violation of United Nations resolutions.
“South Korea and the United States are jointly watching for all possibilities with regard to North Korea’s (potential) long-range missile launch,” said South Korea’s Defense Ministry spokesman, Kim Min-seok, according to the news agency. “So far, no particular signs have been seen.”
North Korea has announced they will be launching satellites to mark the 70th anniversary of the country’s ruling party.
“Space development for peaceful purposes is a sovereign state’s legitimate right … and the people of (North Korea) are fully determined to exercise this right no matter what others may say about it,” the director told Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency.
The National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA) released a statement saying that “the world will clearly see a series of satellites soaring into the sky at times and locations determined” by the ruling Workers’ Party.
“The NADA is pushing forward at a final phase the development of a new earth observation satellite,” KCNA quoted NADA’s director.
“Successful progress made in reconstructing and expanding satellite launching grounds for higher-level satellite lift-off has laid a firm foundation for dynamically pushing ahead with the nation’s development of space science,” the director added.
The launches will be carried out with missiles that are causing concern around the world.
The U.S. and South Korean militaries both report the satellite launches are being used as methods to test long-range missiles that could deliver a nuclear payload to South Korea or surrounding nations.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is reporting that North Korea has substantially increased the size of their nuclear facilities.
Yukiya Amano, the head of the IAEA, told a 35-nation board at the United Nations that locations which “house uranium enrichment centrifuges, which could make bomb fuel” are showing activity from recent satellite photographs of the area.
“Since my last report, we have observed renovation and construction activities at various locations… particularly at the Yongbyon nuclear complex,” Amano stated.
Amano said the Yongbyon facility had “doubled in size.” Atomic experts say the plant could produce enough enriched plutonium a year for one nuclear bomb.
“These appear to be broadly consistent with [North Korea’s] statements that it is further developing its nuclear capabilities,” Amano added.
Amano said the IAEA will continue to monitor the nuclear sites using satellite images.
Typhoon Goni has slammed into Japan with wind gusts topping 112 m.p.h. and has left as many as 26 people dead and over 100 injured.
Officials in Japan urged more than 600,000 people to flee their homes and to seek shelter.
The storm made landfall around 6 a.m. in Kumamoto prefecture. The storm then crossed over one of the country’s four main islands before heading into the sea of Japan and striking North and South Korea.
The storm essentially paralyzed the country, with air and rail service suspended during the course of the storm. Over 470,000 homes were without power at one point during the storm’s crossing of the nation.
Officials say at least one man is confirmed missing and presumed dead in a landslide caused by the torrential rain. The city of Hiroshima ordered the evacuation of 70,000 because of potential landslides.
The storm had previously left 26 dead in the Philippines with 15 still reported as missing. Thousands of homes were destroyed and hundreds of thousands have been left with no shelter because of storm damage.
The typhoon is beginning to break up as the eye has collapsed but heavy rain is still pouring into North and South Korea. North Korean officials say that at least 40 people have died because of storm related flooding and over 1,000 homes have been damaged.
North Korea has fired artillery across the South Korean border in response to broadcasts made from the South exposing the North Korean government’s brutality.
The North Korean government called the broadcasts “a declaration of war.” The North Korean volley was aimed at the broadcast locations. The attack happened about 4 p.m. local time.
The South Korean military responded with artillery fire. The North did not retaliate but sent a warning that they would carry out military action within 48 hours if the broadcasts did not stop.
“Our military has stepped up monitoring and is closely watching North Korean military movements,” South Korea’s defense ministry said.
The U.S. government, who has about 28,500 military personnel in South Korea, said they are “monitoring” the situation.
“Such provocative actions heighten tensions, and we call on Pyongyang to refrain from actions and rhetoric that threaten regional peace and security,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Katina Adams said.
The nations last traded fire in October 2014 when two patrol boats in the Yellow Sea exchanged fire and was followed by North Korean gunfire later that week.
The first ballistic missile with range long enough to strike within North Korea is now part of the South Korean army’s arsenal.
The first long-range missile was test fired on Wednesday according to the South Korean Defense Ministry.
The missile was fired from a vehicle, indicating that the missile is part of a mobile missile system that could be taken anywhere in South Korea. The weapon is part of a system being developed since a 2012 agreement with the United States to extend their weapon distance capability. The South can now create weapons long enough to strike into North Korea but not able to threaten China or Japan.
South Korean media say the new missiles are called “Hyunmoo-2B” and have a range of 310 miles.
“The test demonstrated improved ballistic missile capability that can strike all parts of North Korea swiftly, and with precision, in the event of armed aggression or provocation,” a statement from the country’s president read.
North Korea has a large arsenal of missiles that can not only reach South Korea but also threaten Japan. The country has also claimed a recent test-fire of missiles that can be launched from submarines.
The chair of the council for Justice & Peace of the Irish Catholic Bishop’s conference is speaking out about Christian persecution around the world, saying that 11 Christians are killed every hour for their faith in Christ.
Bishop John McAreavey cited a Pew Research survey showing Christianity is the most prosecuted religion around the world with persecution against them reported in 110 countries.
“Many of these countries have significant trade links with Ireland. Persecution is increasing in China. In North Korea a quarter of the country’s Christians live in forced labour camps. Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the Maldives all feature in the 10 worst places to be Christian,” McAreavey said. “According to the International Society for Human Rights, a non-religious organization, 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today are directed against Christians.”
McAreavey said that the persecution of Christians in the Middle East is “a threat to our common humanity” and that the stability of the entire planet is at risk because of the violence in the region. He also condemned Western leaders who are not taking steps to help persecuted Christians.
“Perhaps because of a fear of being seen as less than aggressively secular in their own country,” he said, many governments of majority Christian countries in the West seem reluctant to give direct aid to churches and religious minorities.”
McAreavey defined the loss of religious freedom and persecution as something that “can run from subtle cultural exclusion of the religious voice from the public square and refusal to accommodate reasonable differences of conscience to active discrimination, forced displacement, exploitation and loss of life.”