ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Satellite imagery suggests potential for missile launches, air defence or even civilian activity Jon Sharman   Two of the islands near the Sohae satellite launch station  Google Maps North Korea  is building up islands in the Yellow Sea and may be preparing them for installation of military hardware, analysts have claimed. A string of islands near the Sohae satellite launching station, north-west of Pyongyang, have been beefed up with buildings, extra concrete areas and wide roads over a period of several years, according to reports. Sohae has been used to launch satellite-bearing rockets but also, earlier this year, to test a new engine for an intercontinental ballistic missile. Analysts suggested construction work on the nearby islands, some of which are linked to the mainland by causeways, may allow North Korea to launch missiles there or install defensive anti-aircraft weaponry. Some of the islands may have been built from scratch, it is thought. READ MORE

Pyongyang accuses Washington of plotting a 'decapitation strike', and sees in nuclear weapons a powerful deterrent. NORTH KOREA'S NUCLEAR Why testing nuclear weapons? Has war been declared in 2017? How it got nuclear weapons? How many it has? North Korea's nuclear development activities have long been a source of international condemnation and nuclear war threats. North Korea  carried its first successful nuclear test in 2006, while its nuclear programme started in the Soviet era with the construction of its first nuclear reactor in Yongbyon back in 1965. Pyongyang's  latest nuclear test  was in September 2016, and since then it has ground-tested a  new rocket engine  and test-launched  ballistic missiles  by firing over sea. Those activities were followed by new UN  sanctions  on North Korea in November 2016, while the UN Security Council in February  pressed  to "redouble efforts" on enforcing the san

FILE IMAGE Clashes between the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and ISIS militants are ongoing in the following areas: The first, second and third districts; The Euphrates dam north of the town of Tabqa; The villages of Safsafa, Abad and Sahl Khashab. SDF units killed some 15 ISIS militants in northern districts of Tabqa town. They also seized many weapons, according to pro-SDF sources. At Sahl Khashab, some ISIS militants were killed as a result of an explosion of land mine planted by the SDF. Meanwhile, the US-led coalition’s air power targeted ISIS militants in the village with 6 airstrikes. During the clashes in the villages of Safsafa and Abad, the SDF reportedly killed 40 ISIS militants, including two ISIS commanders, as well as captured a rocket launcher along with other ammunition and weapons. ISIS militants attacked members of the SDF and the PKK (allegedly) in the western Karama area north of Raqqa. They also targeted two vehicles belonging to the