ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Country’s deputy UN ambassador, Kim In-ryong, makes declaration as Trump tells Kim Jong-un he has ‘gotta behave’ Associated Press in Panmunjom A senior North Korean official has accused the US of turning the Korean peninsula into “the world’s biggest hotspot” and creating “a dangerous situation in which a thermonuclear war may break out at any moment”. North Korea’s deputy UN ambassador, Kim In-ryong, described US-South Korean military exercises as the largest ever “aggressive war drill” and said his country was “ready to react to any mode of war desired by the US”. Kim’s warning came as the US vice-president, Mike Pence, assured Japan that Washington would work closely with its allies in the region to bring about a peaceful resolution to the crisis and denuclearise the Korean peninsula. “We appreciate the challenging times in which the people of Japan live with increasing provocations from across the Sea of Japan,” Pence said during talks in Tokyo with the Japanese prime minister, Shi...

KCNA | Reuters North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (front) stands on the conning tower of a submarine during his inspection of the Korean People's Army (KPA) Naval Unit 167 in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang. North Korea will continue to regularly test missiles and any military action against it by the United States would prompt "all out war", a senior North Korean official told the BBC on Monday. North Korea has conducted several missile and nuclear tests in defiance of U.N. sanctions and has said it has developed a missile that can strike the U.S. mainland. Its latest missile test on Sunday failed a few seconds after launch. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence warned North Korea on Monday that recent U.S. strikes in Syria, one of Pyongyang's few close allies, and Afghanistan showed that the resolve of President Donald Trump should not be tested. Col. Jacobs: We're getting closer to a real crisis wi...

Click to see the full-size map Since this morning, Syrian Arab Army (SAA) artillery units and Syrian Air Force warplanes have been actively bombing the militant-held town of Taybat Al-Imam in the northern part of the province of Hama. Taybat Al-Imam is located 18km northwest of the government stronghold of Hama and in about 1km west of the town of Souran that was liberated by the SAA and its allies yesterday. Before the war, Taybat al-Imam’s population was estimated as over 20,000 people. The town is currently controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda). Government forces started shelling of the town this morning in a move described by some pro-government sources as preparations for a “large-scale” advance on it. According to pro-militant sources, over 10 airstrikes targeted the town. This picture shows airstrikes and artillery strikes hitting Taybat Al-Imam: However, the shelling of Taybat al-Imam will likely not lead to a large ...

© Sputnik/ Yury Strelets Russia will put upgraded Tupolev Tu-160M2 strategic missile carriers on a serial production in 2022, the Russian state-run news agency TASS reported , citing President of Russia’s Aircraft-Building Corporation Yuri Slyusar. According the article, 30-50 Tupolev Tu-160M2 strategic missile carriers are planned to be produced. “We are concluding R&D work in 2021 and starting from 2022 we are beginning the serial production of these machines. We are discussing the exact figure with the customer. I believe their number will range from 30 to 50 machines,” TASS quoted Slyusar’s interview with Rossiya-24 TV Channel. Furthermore, Russia is going to upgrade the exisiting Tu-160 and Tu-95MS missile carriers and Tu-22M3 long-range bombers. More about the Russian Aerospace Forces:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un guides Korean People’s Army (KPA) military drills © KCNA / Reuters Originally appeared at ZeroHedge Following Sunday’s failed medium-range missile test by Kim Jong-Un, President Donald Trump has been evaluating his response options and according to Bloomberg , which cited a “person familiar with his thinking”, is willing to consider ordering “kinetic” military action, including a sudden strike, to “counteract North Korea’s destabilizing actions in the region” However, before launching another offensive campaign – or war as some would call it – Trump’s preference is for China to take the lead on dealing with North Korea, according to the source. While still afforded the luxury of time, Trump may be forced to decide soon how to respond: on its take on the ongoing North Korea crisis, the New York Times said in a front-page article that “what is playing out, said Robert Litwak of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, … is ‘the Cuban missile c...

By Mike Whitney Washington has never made any effort to conceal its contempt for North Korea. In the 64 years since the war ended, the US has done everything in its power to punish, humiliate and inflict pain on the Communist country. Washington has subjected the DPRK to starvation, prevented its government from accessing foreign capital and markets, strangled its economy with crippling economic sanctions, and installed lethal missile systems and military bases on their doorstep. Negotiations aren’t possible because Washington refuses to sit down with a country which it sees as its inferior. Instead, the US has strong-armed China to do its bidding by using their diplomats as interlocutors who are expected to convey Washington’s ultimatums as threateningly as possible. The hope, of course, is that Pyongyang will cave in to Uncle Sam’s bullying and do what they are told. But the North has never succumbed to US intimidation and there’s no sign that it will. Instead, they have developed...

The lawsuit warns that the U.S. gave Israel about $234 billion in foreign aid since the passage of the International Security Assistance and Arms Export Control Act of 1976, despite a ban on support for secret nuclear weapons programs.​ By Kit O'Connell  AUSTIN, Texas — A lawsuit warns that U.S. aid to Israel violates a law meant to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation, even as the United States prepares to increase the already massive Israeli aid program. Filed Aug. 8 by Grant Smith, director of the Institute for Research: Middle East Policy, or IRMEP, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the suit alleges that U.S. aid to Israel violates two amendments to the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act , known as the the Symington and Glenn Amendments, which collectively ban support for countries engaged in clandestine nuclear programs. In the lawsuit, Smith alleges that violating these amendments means that Israel has received approximately $234 billion in illegal aid sin...

By Moon Of Alabama Max Abrahms‏ @MaxAbrahms - 2:07 PM - 16 Apr 2017 After reading dozens of stories about the Shia massacre yesterday in Syria I've come to the conclusion it was perpetrator-less. The War Nerd‏ @TheWarNerd - 11:53 AM - 16 Apr 2017 We find that "at least 112" Shia refugees were killed. By whom? Oh, it's a real whodunit according to Reuters... link Two smaller cities in the northern "rebel"-controlled Idleb governate, Al Foa and Kafriya, have been under "rebel" siege for over two years. Local government aligned forces are defending them. The civilian inhabitants are of Shia believe and seen by the sectarian Sunni "rebels" as unbelievers only worthy of death. The cities are supplied by airdrops from government helicopters. Meanwhile two "rebel" controlled cities near Damascus, Zabadani and Madaya, in the south are held under siege by government forces. They are sparsely supplied by UN and Red Cross convoys. Over the...