SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected a large, newly built submarine, state news agency KCNA reported on Tuesday, potentially signaling continued development of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) program.
Kim inspected the operational and tactical data and combat weapon systems of the submarine that was built under "his special attention", and will be operational in the waters off the east coast, KCNA said.
It said the submarine's operational deployment was near.
"The operational capacity of a submarine is an important component in national defense of our country bounded on its east and west by sea," Kim said.
In this March 12, 2016, file photo, Marines of the U.S., left, and South Korea, wearing blue headbands on their helmets, take positions after landing on a beach during the joint military combined amphibious exercise, called Ssangyong, part of the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle military exercises, in Pohang, South Korea. (Associated Press/Yonhap/Kim Jun-bum)
Joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises scheduled for next month are going ahead, a top Seoul official said Saturday, despite a threat by North Korea to boycott working-level talks with Washington and possibly restart nuclear and longer-range missile tests.
SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States looks set to break a promise not to hold military exercises with South Korea, putting talks aimed at getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons at risk, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
The United States' pattern of "unilaterally reneging on its commitments" is leading Pyongyang to reconsider its own commitments to discontinue tests of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), the ministry said in a pair of statements released through state news agency KCNA.
(U.S. Attorney's Office Central District of California via Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Marine veteran accused of taking part in a raid on the North Korean Embassy in Madrid was ordered freed on $1.3 million bail on Tuesday but must serve home confinement ahead of his possible extradition to Spain.
OSAKA/SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday proposed a weekend meeting with Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea, an encounter North Korea said would be meaningful if it goes ahead.
If Trump and Kim do meet, it will be for the third time in just over a year, and four months after their second summit broke down with no progress on U.S. efforts to get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.
North Korea said it had not had an official proposal.
President Donald Trump was asked Tuesday about a Wall Street Journal report that Kim Jong Nam, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's slain half-brother, was a CIA source.
Trump said he had seen the story, but that nothing like that would occur under his watch.
"I saw the information about the CIA with respect to his brother or half-brother, and I would tell him that would not happen under my auspice that's for sure," Trump told a press gaggle before boarding the presidential helicopter.
"I just received a beautiful letter from Kim Jong Un. I can't show you the letter, obviously, but it was very personal, very warm, very nice letter," Trump told the press. "North Korea, under his leadership, has great potential."
