North Korea appears to be ignoring warnings from the international community over nuclear weapons

Han Song Ryol said the situation on the Korean peninsula is now in a “vicious cycle” and also accused President Trump of “making trouble” with “aggressive” tweets.

Earlier this week, the US leader tweeted that North Korea was “looking for trouble”, and vowed to take on the hermit state alone if necessary as tensions near breaking point.</s>Tensions between America and North Korea are boiling over

Concerns have been growing that North Korea could soon conduct a sixth nuclear test or more missile launches in defiance of U.N. sanctions and stark warnings from the United States that its policy of 'strategic patience' was over.

Specualtion has been growing that Donald Trump, who has now ordered missile attacks in Syria and Afghanistan, was preparing for a pre-emptive strike on the rogue state before the weekend.

American bombers have been placed in Guam ready to strike if the call comes.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday the situation on the Korean peninsula was heading down "an irreversible route" unless there was a drastic change of diplomacy.

Wang was speaking at a joint media briefing with visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault.

North Korea denounced the United States on Friday for bringing "huge nuclear strategic assets" to the Korean peninsula as a U.S. aircraft carrier group headed for the region amid concerns the North may conduct a sixth nuclear weapon test.

Tension has risen since the U.S. Navy fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airfield last week in response to a deadly gas attack, raising concerns about U.S. President Donald Trump's plans for North Korea, which has conducted missile and nuclear tests in defiance of U.N. and bilateral sanctions.

The United States has warned that its policy of "strategic patience" is over. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence travels to South Korea on Sunday on a long-planned 10-day trip to Asia.</s>Speaking in Beijing, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi suggested he would rather see diplomacy than the use of military force. He said: "Military force cannot resolve the issue.

"Amid tensions we will also find a kind of opportunity to return to talks. "Whoever provokes the situation, whoever continues to make trouble in this place, they will have to assume historical responsibility.”

Despite the superpower’s insistence that military force should not be used to resolve the North Korean problem, experts have warned Kim Jong-un could be gearing up to launch another nuclear test at any moment. Washington-based think tank 38 North claim satellite images show “unusually high levels of activity” at Kim Jong-un’s Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site.

Experts say the images could mean a nuclear test is “imminent” as US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has called for North Korea to destroy its nuclear arsenal. In recent years, barbaric dictator Kim Jong-un has launched nuclear tests to coincide with ‘the Day of the Sun’, an annual public holiday in North Korea to commemorate the birth of the country’s founder, Kim Il-sung. Pyongyang has already warned of an upcoming “big and important event” and with the Day of the Sun set to be celebrated on Saturday April 15 as the world braces itself for what would be North Korea’s sixth nuclear test.

Meanwhile, an influential Chinese newspaper has claimed the best option for North Korea is to give up its nuclear program in return for protection from China. On Thursday, the Global Times said in an editorial: "As soon as North Korea complies with China's declared advice and suspends nuclear activities... China will actively work to protect the security of a denuclearised North Korean nation and regime.”</s>North Korea will conduct its next nuclear test "whenever supreme headquarters sees fit", the country's vice foreign minister has said.

Han Song Ryol told the Associated Press that Donald Trump is "making trouble" with "aggressive" tweets.

Tensions are growing in the region after the US sent a Navy strike group to waters off the peninsula and President Trump warned he is willing to "deal with North Korea".

America and its allies have expressed alarm about North Korea's recent ballistic missile tests and the US has been conducting war games with South Korea.

There is speculation that the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might conduct a missile test to mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of the state's founder, Kim Il Sung, on Sunday.</s>South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said on Thursday he believed the United States will consult Seoul if it is considering a pre-emptive strike against North Korea.

Yun's comments at a South Korean parliamentary hearing came amid rising tensions in the region over the possibility North Korea could conduct a new nuclear or missile test.

The possibility of U.S. military action against North Korea in response to such tests gained traction following last week's U.S. strikes against Syria, which came in retaliation for a deadly gas attack.</s>North Korea’s nuclear test site appears “primed and ready” to conduct a trial, according to a U.S. research institute that monitors the country.

Commercial satellite imagery from April 12 shows activity at the Punggye-ri test site northeast of Pyongyang, analysts wrote on the 38 North website. That includes movement around the north portal and in the main administrative area, as well as some personnel around the command center, according to the website run by the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.

Even so, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff downplayed expectations of an imminent nuclear test, with spokesman Roh Jae-cheon telling reporters in Seoul that the military saw no particular signs that North Korea is preparing any provocative actions.

Tensions are mounting in North Asia amid expectations that North Korea may conduct its sixth nuclear test in defiance of United Nations sanctions and warnings from the Trump administration that it may take military action. Kim Jong Un’s regime has test-fired a series of ballistic missiles this year to advance its nuclear program, and the U.S. has dispatched a fleet of warships toward the Korean Peninsula.

Foreign journalists visiting North Korea were told on Thursday morning to prepare for a “big and important event” that turned out to be the opening of a new street attended by Kim, Reuters correspondent James Pearson tweeted. Pyongyang is hosting the reporters as it prepares to commemorate the 105th birth anniversary of its founder Kim Il Sung on Saturday — one of several key dates in the nation’s calendar that it could mark with a nuclear or missile test.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan also warned that North Korea may be capable of firing a missile loaded with sarin nerve gas toward Japan.

Abe’s comments Thursday to a parliamentary panel on national security and diplomacy come amid looming concern about another missile or nuclear test by the communist country.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he’s leaning on China’s President Xi Jinping to put pressure on North Korea to back off its nuclear weapons and missile development. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump said he offered to ease trade friction with China in exchange for help dealing with North Korea. In an earlier phone call, Xi told Trump that China wants to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula peacefully.

Wu Dawei, China’s special envoy for Korean peninsula affairs, will visit North Korea on Friday, the Maeil Business Newspaper reported, citing an unidentified South Korean politician. Wu has been meeting with South Korean government officials and lawmakers in Seoul since April 10.

Trump has threatened to act unilaterally if China — North Korea’s main ally and benefactor — fails to do more to curb its neighbour’s activities. Kim is working on developing a long-range missile that can carry a nuclear weapon as far as the continental U.S., a program that North Korea says it needs to deter an attack.

North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006. It has performed three detonations since Kim took power in late 2011, most recently in September.</s>North Korean monitoring service 38 North said Wednesday the country’s Punggye-ri nuclear site is “primed and ready” for a sixth nuclear test.

“The activity during the past six weeks is suggestive of the final preparations for a test,” 38 North analyst Joseph Bermudez told CNN.

Their prediction comes as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday that North Korea may have the capability to deliver missiles equipped with sarin nerve gas.

He and other analysts pore over commercial satellite imagery of the testing site, looking for signs of activity similar to that prior to other tests.

Bermudez and his colleague Jack Liu correctly predicted the last nuclear test, in September 2016. Since late February they have been warning of increased activity at the site, particularly new equipment arriving, activity at the command center, and excavation and water pumping from entrances to the underground testing site.

“We watch what changes from image to image,” he said. “We take the current image and look back several months and compare it to what was happening then.”

After an uptick in recent months, recent satellite images show excavation work and water pumping appears to have stopped, Liu and Bermudez said, indicating to them that a test may be imminent.

Speaking at an event in Tokyo Thursday, Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said “North Korea’s nuclear program is showing steady progress.”

North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests in total, three of them under current leader Kim Jong Un, who has significantly ramped up the country’s program.

“North Korea believes the only way to deter the US from attacking them and maintaining the power of the Kim regime is by the possession of nuclear weapons,” Bermudez said.

North Korean officials told CNN in Pyongyang this week that the decision by US President Donald Trump to bomb a Syrian airfield, as well as his dispatching a US navy carrier strike group to northern Asia, showed the importance of the nuclear program.

“The aggressive acts of war on the part of the United States are getting increasingly reckless,” the official said.

Trump has promised to “be effective” on North Korea, and called on China to play a role containing the regime’s nuclear program. Following a talk between him and Chinese President Xi Jinping Wednesday, Trump said China “wants to do the right thing.”

Bermudez said the regime has “repeatedly stated that if Libya or Iraq had nuclear weapons the US would not have attacked them.”

North Korea will mark the “Day of the Sun” on April 15, to mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of the country’s founder Kim Il Sung. The date has typically been a key one for weapons tests and other displays of strength.

However, none of the five previous nuclear tests have been conducted around the anniversary, and while Bermudez said the evidence suggests there is “probably a sixth coming up,” ultimately preparations did not mean much without a final say so from the country’s supreme leader.

“It really depends on one person and that’s Kim Jong Un,” he said. “No one else is going to make the decision.”

Previous years have seen grand military parades, mass celebrations and weapons tests conducted on the “Day of the Sun.”

“It’s a demonstration of national pride,” Bermudez said, adding that satellite imagery appeared to show thousands of people and hundreds of vehicles practicing this week for the event.

Ahead of this year’s anniversary, Kim presided over a drill by special operations units, helicopter gunships and other units, according to state news agency KCNA.

“(Kim said) those combatants carrying out their duties independently and proactively were reminiscent of fierce tigers,” KCNA reported Thursday, adding that the timing of the drill was “significant” given Kim Il Sung’s upcoming memorial.

Often the “Day of the Sun” is a key time for Pyongyang to show off its latest armaments. In 2012, months after Kim Jong Un became leader following his father’s death, North Korea unveiled what it claimed was its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in a huge military parade.

Last year, South Korean officials said the North tested an intermediate-range Musudan missile, but it failed.

The test was not publicized inside North Korea. Weapons expert Markus Schiller told CNN last week the Musudan is likely North Korea’s most domestically developed missile, unlike others that are based on Soviet or Chinese designs, making it a key point of pride for the regime.

In terms of national pride though, nothing comes close to the nuclear program, and Pyongyang may decide that the best way to honor its late leader — and defy pressure from the US and China — is with a sixth nuclear test.</s>Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday said North Korea may already have the ability to fire ballistic missiles equipped with sarin nerve agent. His warning came amid looming concern about another missile or nuclear test by the communist country, reported Nikkei Asian Review.

Abe, while addressing the Japanese Parliament’s diplomacy and defence committee, said North Korea’s nuclear and missile technologies are making progress and labelled the situation “a new stage of threat”. “The denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula is our biggest goal and must be achieved at any cost. The security situation around our country is getting increasingly severe,” said the Prime Minister.

“We have just talked about Syria. There is a possibility that North Korea already has a capability to put sarin on warheads to strike the ground,” he said. Abe did not provide any evidence why he felt North Korea had the capability to equip missiles with chemical weapons, said the report.

Meanwhile, a Washington-based think tank 38 North, that monitors North Korea, said satellite images taken on Wednesday showed continued activity around the Punggye-ri nuclear test site on the east coast, Efe news reported. Experts have warned of continued activity in Punggye-ri for weeks and fear North Korea may soon carry out its sixth nuclear test, especially as important events are approaching with the country celebrating the fifth anniversary of leader Kim Jong-un’s transition to power.

In addition, the country will commemorate the 105th anniversary of the birth of its founder, Kim Il-sung, on Saturday and the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Army on April 25. These celebrations coincide with increased tension in the peninsula after the US responded to the latest North Korean missile launch by sending a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier towards the peninsula, said the report.</s>Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a peaceful resolution of rising tension on the Korean peninsula in a telephone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday, as a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group steamed towards the region.
• North Korea warns of nuclear attack at any sign of U.S. aggression

Trump's call with Xi, just days after they met in the United States, came as an influential state-run Chinese newspaper warned that the Korean peninsula was the closest it has been to a "military clash" since North Korea's first nuclear test in 2006.

The communication between the leaders underscores the increasing sense of urgency as tension escalates amid concern that reclusive North Korea could soon conduct a sixth nuclear test, or more missile launches, and Trump's threat of unilateral action to solve the problem.

Trump had ordered the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group to head to the Korean peninsula in an attempt to deter North Korea's nuclear and long-range missile ambitions, which it is developing in defiance of United Nations resolutions and sanctions.

Trump pressed Xi to do more to curb North Korea's nuclear program when they held their first face-to-face meeting in Florida last week.

He said on Twitter on Tuesday that North Korea was "looking for trouble" and the United States would "solve the problem" with or without China's help.

In their telephone call, Xi stressed that China "is committed to the target of denuclearization on the peninsula, safeguarding peace and stability on the peninsula, and advocates resolving problems through peaceful means," Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang, who said Trump had initiated the call, urged everyone to lower the tension.

"We hope that the relevant parties do not adopt irresponsible actions," Lu told reporters at a regular press briefing. "Under the current circumstances, this is very dangerous."

China's Global Times newspaper said in an editorial North Korea should halt any plan for nuclear and missile activities "for its own security".

While widely read in China and run by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily, the Global Times does not represent government policy. The newspaper noted Trump's recent decision to launch 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airfield in response to a deadly gas attack last week.

"Not only is Washington brimming with confidence and arrogance following the missile attacks on Syria, but Trump is also willing to be regarded as a man who honours his promises," it said. "The U.S. is making up its mind to stop the North from conducting further nuclear tests. It doesn't plan to co-exist with a nuclear-armed Pyongyang," it said.

"Pyongyang should avoid making mistakes at this time."

The Global Times said if North Korea made another provocative move, "Chinese society" might be willing to back unprecedented sanctions, "such as restricting oil imports".

North Korean state media warned on Tuesday of a nuclear attack on the United States at any sign of American aggression.

Officials from the North, including leader Kim Jong-un, have indicated an intercontinental ballistic missile test or something similar could be coming.

North Korea launched a long-range rocket carrying a satellite on April 13, 2012, marking the anniversary of the birth of North Korea's founding president Kim Il-sung. Saturday will be the 105th anniversary of his birth.

Residents thronged Pyongyang's boulevards on a sunny spring morning, some practising for a parade to be held on the weekend, with no visible sign of the tension.

"So long as we are with our supreme leader Marshall Kim Jong-un we are not afraid of anything," a woman who gave her name as Ri Hyon Sim told Reuters journalists, who were escorted by North Korean officials.

Russia has said it is worried about the possibility of a U.S. attack on North Korea and it would raise the issue with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Russian media quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying.

Earlier on Wednesday, two sources in Tokyo said Japan's navy planned exercises with the Carl Vinson carrier group in a joint show of force.

Japan's Maritime Self Defence Force and the U.S. Navy could conduct helicopter landings on each other's ships, as well as communication drills, they said.

South Korea's acting president, Hwang Kyo-ahn, has warned of "greater provocations" by North Korea and ordered the military to intensify monitoring.

China's Defence Ministry, in a one-line statement posted on its website, dismissed foreign media reports about a build-up of Chinese troops on its border with North Korea as "pure fabrication".

The North fired a liquid-fuelled Scud missile this month, the latest in a series of tests that have displayed its ability to launch attacks and use hard-to-detect solid-fuel rockets.

North Korea remains technically at war with the United States and its ally South Korea after the 1950-1953 Korean conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. It regularly threatens to destroy both countries.</s>North Korea is ready to launch a nuclear test at its Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site, the 38 North monitoring group reported.

The 38 North analysis group described the test site as “primed and ready.”

“Commercial satellite imagery of North Korea’s Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site from April 12 shows continued activity around the North Portal, new activity in the Main Administrative Area, and a few personnel around the site’s Command Center,” the North Korea-related analysis website said.

A barrage of recent North Korean missile tests has stoked US fears that Pyongyang may soon develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the US mainland.

There is speculation that the country could be preparing a missile launch, or even another nuclear test - this would be its sixth - to mark the 105th birthday anniversary of its founder Kim Il-Sung on Saturday.

The Voice of America said, quoting US government and other sources, that North Korea “has apparently placed a nuclear device in a tunnel and it could be detonated Saturday AM Korea time.”

US President Donald Trump’s administration has been forceful in its warnings to Pyongyang that leave military options “on the table,” as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said.

The threat carries extra weight after the US strike on a Syrian air base last week.

“We are sending an armada. Very powerful,” Trump had said. “We have submarines. Very powerful. Far more powerful than the aircraft carrier.”
• None North Korea to deliver ‘ruthless blow’ if provoked by US: Envoy

He was referring to a strike group headed by the USS Carl Vinson supercarrier that has been re-routed to the Korean peninsula in a show of force against Kim.

The strike group, which deployed with about 6,500 sailors, is still some way south, conducting exercises with the Australian navy.

The US Navy already has a massive regional presence, including another carrier strike group headquartered at Yokosuka in Japan.
U.S.-based monitoring group 38 North says satellite imagery of North Korea's Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site indicates that preparation for a sixth nuclear weapons test is underway.