The USS Ronald Reagan met with a Japanese Self-Defence Force helicopter carrier and two destroyers in preparation for World War 3. The aircraft carrier strike group included 14 US destroyers and cruisers, some armed with ballistic missile interceptors. The drills began on September 11, the same day the UN council approved new sanctions against the rogue state.

North Korea has been conducting a series of nuclear tests since July this year. The hermit kingdom fired a ballistic missile over Japan earlier this month and after detonating a hydrogen bomb that was so powerful it caused an earthquake. Trump used his maiden speech in the UN this week to hurl threats against North Korea, calling Kim Jong-un "Rocket Man" and saying that North Korea faces total destruction if he attacks the US or its allies.

Kim later hit back and said: "I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire.” North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said that Kim is now contemplating a hydrogen bomb test somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. US Secretary of State Susan Thorton was asked by reporters why the US has not intercepted any ballistic missiles fired by North Korea.

She responded: “Early Friday morning in the US, Trump tweeted, "Kim Jong-un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn’t mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before!" The US military has a huge presence in the area around North Korea, particularly in Japan and increasingly close allies South Korea.

There are almost 40,000 US troops serving in Japan, more than in any other country, and earlier this year the US Air Force lined up a huge array of helicopters, tactical fighter jets and surveillance aircraft in a show of force aimed to intimidate Kim Jong-un. South of the demilitarised zone (DMZ), the US has 23,468 troops at 83 different sites as well as hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles, meaning there is always a heavy military presence should North Korea decide to launch a land attack.</s>China says North Korean quake ‘suspected explosion’, South Korea says likely natural

A meeting of DPRK of the central committee is held as they vow a sacred war against the US during an anti-US rally, in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang September 22, 2017. — Reuters picBEIJING, Sept 23 — China’s earthquake administration said today it had detected a magnitude 3.4 earthquake in North Korea that was a “suspected explosion”, raising fears the isolated state had conducted another nuclear bomb test weeks after its last one.

An official at South Korea’s meteorological agency said they were analysing the tremor, which they put at magnitude 3.0, but the initial view was that it was a natural quake.

“We use several methods to tell whether earthquakes are natural or manmade,” said the official, who asked for anonymity. “A key method is to look at the seismic waves or seismic acoustic waves and the latter can be detected in the case of a manmade earthquake. In this case we saw none. So as of now we are categorising this as a natural earthquake.”

The earthquake was detected in Kilju county in North Hamgyong Province, where North Korea’s known Punggyeri nuclear site is located, the official said.

The Chinese administration said in a statement on its website that the quake, which occurred around 0830 GMT, was recorded a depth of zero kilometres.

All of North Korea’s previous six nuclear tests registered as earthquakes of magnitude 4.3 or above. The last test on September 3 registered as a 6.3 magnitude quake.

A secondary tremor detected after that test could have been caused by the collapse of a tunnel at the mountainous site, experts said at the time. Satellite photos of the area after the September 3 quake showed numerous landslides apparently caused by the massive blast, which North Korea said was a hydrogen bomb.

The head of the nuclear test monitoring agency CTBTO said today that analysts were “looking at unusual seismic activity of a much smaller magnitude” in North Korea, and that it would have more details to come.

There was no immediate reaction from China’s Foreign Ministry, but the news was widely reported by Chinese state media outlets and on social media.

Tensions have continued to rise around the Korean peninsula since Pyongyang carried out its sixth nuclear test, prompting a new round of UN sanctions.

North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, currently in New York for a United Nations meeting, warned on Thursday that Kim could consider a hydrogen bomb test of an unprecedented scale over the Pacific.

US President Donald Trump called the North Korean leader a “madman” on Friday, a day after Kim dubbed him a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” who would face the “highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history”.

North Korea’s nuclear tests to date have all been underground, and experts say an atmospheric test, which would be the first since one by China in 1980, would be proof of the success of its weapons programme. — Reuters</s>South Korea's weather agency says a magnitude 3.0 earthquake was detected in North Korea around where the country recently conducted a nuclear test, but it assessed the quake as natural.

An official from Seoul's Korea Meteorological Administration said Saturday's quake was detected in an area around Kilju, in northeastern North Korea. She says it was clear that the quake wasn't caused by an explosion. She spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office rules.

The site of the quake is near where North Korea on Sept. 3 conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test in what it said was the detonation of a thermonuclear weapon.

Trump announces new sanctions against North Korea, but China's role remains key

Aides warned Trump not to attack North Korea's leader personally before his fiery U.N. address

'Dotard' rockets from obscurity to light up the Trump-Kim exchange, sparking a partisan war of words in U.S.</s>WASHINGTON — In a show of American military might to North Korea, the United States on Saturday flew bombers and fighter escorts to the farthest point north of the Demilitarized Zone by any such American aircraft this century. The Pentagon said the mission showed how seriously President Donald Trump takes North Korea’s “reckless behaviour.”

“This mission is a demonstration of U.S. resolve and a clear message that the president has many military options to defeat any threat,” Defence Department spokesman Dana White said in a statement.

“North Korea’s weapons program is a grave threat to the Asia-Pacific region and the entire international community. We are prepared to use the full range of military capabilities to defend the U.S. homeland and our allies,” White said.

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, has said Trump would “pay dearly” for threatening to “totally destroy” North Korea if the U.S. was forced to defend itself or its allies against a North Korean attack. Kim’s foreign minister told reporters this past week that the North’s response to Trump “could be the most powerful detonation of an H-bomb in the Pacific.”

North Korea has said it intends to build a missile capable of striking all parts of the United States with a nuclear bomb. Trump has said he won’t allow it, although the U.S. so far has not used military force to impede the North’s progress.

The Pentagon said B-1B bombers from Guam, along with F-15C Eagle fighter escorts from Okinawa, Japan, flew in international airspace over waters east of North Korea on Saturday. The U.S. characterized the flights as extending farther north of the DMZ, which separates North and South Korea, than any U.S. fighter or bomber had gone off the North Korean coast in the 21st century.

Trump on Friday had renewed his rhetorical offensive against Kim.

“Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn’t mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before!” the president tweeted.

On Thursday, Trump announced more economic sanctions against the impoverished and isolated country, targeting foreign companies that deal with the North.

“North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile development is a grave threat to peace and security in our world and it is unacceptable that others financially support this criminal, rogue regime,” Trump said as he joined Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in for a meeting in New York.

Hours later, Kim responded by saying Trump was “deranged.”

In a speech last week at the United Nations, Trump had issued the warning of potential obliteration and mocked the North’s young autocrat as a “Rocket Man” on a “suicide mission.”

Trump’s executive order expanded the Treasury Department’s ability to target anyone conducting significant trade in goods, services or technology with North Korea, and to ban them from interacting with the U.S. financial system.

Trump also said China was imposing major banking sanctions, too, but there was no immediate confirmation from the North’s most important trading partner.

If enforced, the Chinese action Trump described could severely impede the isolated North’s ability to raise money for its missile and nuclear development. China, responsible for about 90 per cent of North Korea’s trade, serves as the country’s conduit to the international banking system.</s>China’s earthquake monitor has detected a 3.4 magnitude quake in North Korea, in what may be a sign that Kim Jong-Un has moved ahead with a fresh nuclear test.

The China Earthquake Networks Center said that the tremor was caused by a "suspected explosion” near the site that North Korea conducted its last test in September.

The quake was detected at 8.30 GMT at a depth of zero kilometers.

South Korea's weather agency said it was analyzing the nature of the quake and its initial view was that it was a natural earthquake.

If confirmed that the earthquake was caused by a nuclear test, it would be a massive provocation by North Korea just days after Donald Trump threatened to “completely destroy” the country if it did not back down.

Mr Kim responded to the US president’s speech with an unprecedented personal attack on Mr Trump, saying: “I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire.”</s>“It could be the most powerful detonation of an H-bomb in the Pacific,” said North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, according to Yonhap News. “We have no idea about what actions could be taken as it will be ordered by leader Kim Jong Un.”

While provocative rhetoric is not uncommon from North Korea, expert observers of that isolated nation warn that such a statement should not be taken lightly. It comes just weeks after the country conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test to date, triggering sanctions and fierce condemnation from the United Nations Security Council.

What Is An H-Bomb?

“The risks of carrying a nuclear bomb and exploding it over the ocean are significantly greater than any other risk [Kim] has taken,” said Michael Elleman, senior fellow for missile defense at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington. “This is a very dangerous time in the relations between North Korea and the rest of the world.”

Will North Korea Really Detonate One?

The odds that North Korea will actually conduct an H-bomb test over the Pacific “are probably close to even,” Elleman speculated, “but I think [Kim] will opt to be more prudent and not do it. If I had to bet, I would say no, but it wouldn’t be a very confident bet.”

Due to the long-range nature of the proposed test, the North Koreans “would have a limited capacity to actually measure what occurred, because they wouldn’t have a line of sight,” Elleman added. “That may be the ultimate determinant of why they opt not to do the test: They’re not going to gain the information that they would really want.”

“On the one hand, his remarks do not represent the official North Korean position. He himself acknowledged that. But on the other hand, there is no statement on North Korean nuclear weapons that would not be vetted before he said it,” Hanham said.

How Would It Happen?

The North Koreans would likely need to use a missile, rather than a plane or other method, to deliver the purported H-bomb to the Pacific, according to Elleman. “If they were to fly a plane out, it would be much more vulnerable to pre-emption,” he said, adding that it’s doubtful they would fly over Japan.

There has been some speculation as to whether the foreign minister’s comment about a detonation “in the Pacific” meant in the ocean or over the ocean, but Elleman and Hanham think the latter was implied. The last atmospheric nuclear test was conducted by China nearly four decades ago.

It’s a matter of balancing “technical imperatives of testing and the political objectives [North Korea] is trying to achieve, because there is a lot of messaging in everything they do,” he explained. A detonation actually in the ocean might signify a failure, he said, or it might be an attempt to minimize the potential radioactive fallout.

What Are The Risks?

The Hwasong-12, a North Korean intermediate-range missile, has worked successfully in only three of six tests, Elleman noted. So putting an H-bomb on that missile “would be a tremendous risk to take. It would be even riskier to put it on their ICBM,” he said, referring to the intercontinental Hwasong-14 missile, which has only been tested twice.

“China, Japan, South Korea, the U.S., Russia ― these are countries that don’t always agree with each other about how to deal with North Korea, but I think they can all agree that an atmospheric test by North Korea would be detrimental to the world,” she said. “They should work together to communicate to North Korea that this type of test would be regarded in the worst possible light, and it may not be possible to prevent some of these countries from a retaliatory act if they do it.”</s>South Korea’s weather agency said a magnitude 3.0 earthquake rocked North Korea on Saturday and that it appeared to be a natural occurrence. However, reports about the temblor contained conflicting information about its scale and nature.

A Chinese monitoring agency said the quake was actually stronger – at magnitude 3.4 – and that it was like caused by an explosion, Japan’s Kyoto News reported.

The quake occurred in the area where North Korea recently conducted a nuclear test, the South Korean agency reported.

The nuclear proliferation watchdog CTBTO said the unusual seismic activity detected took place about 31 miles away from previous nuclear tests and that it would be investigating, the group’s executive secretary, Lassina Zerbo, said in a Twitter post.

An official from Seoul’s Korea Meteorological Administration said Saturday’s quake was detected in an area around Kilju, in northeastern North Korea. She said the analysis of seismic waves and the lack of sound waves clearly showed that the quake wasn’t caused by an artificial explosion. She spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office rules.

The site of the quake is near where North Korea on Sept. 3 conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test in what it said was the detonation of a thermonuclear weapon.

Kyoto News said the temblor was detected at 4:29 p.m. local time at a depth of “0 kilometer,” a strong indication of a manmade event, according to the China Earthquake Network Center.

North Korea has been maintaining a torrid pace in nuclear and weapons tests as it accelerates its pursuit of nuclear weapons that could viably target the United States and its allies in Asia.

North Korea said its recent nuclear test was a detonation of a thermonuclear weapon built for its developmental intercontinental ballistic missiles. In two July flight tests, those missiles showed potential capability to reach deep into the U.S. mainland when perfected.

Today’s quake measures 3.4 significantly smaller than all of North Korea’s six nuclear tests.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.</s>China’s earthquake administration said on Saturday it had detected a magnitude 3.4 earthquake in North Korea that was a “suspected explosion”, raising fears the isolated state had conducted another nuclear bomb test weeks after its last one.

An official at South Korea’s meteorological agency said they were analyzing the tremor, which they put at magnitude 3.0, but the initial view was that it was a natural quake.

“We use several methods to tell whether earthquakes are natural or manmade,” said the official, who asked for anonymity. “A key method is to look at the seismic waves or seismic acoustic waves and the latter can be detected in the case of a manmade earthquake. In this case we saw none. So as of now we are categorising this as a natural earthquake.”

The earthquake was detected in Kilju county in North Hamgyong Province, where North Korea’s known Punggyeri nuclear site is located, the official said.

The Chinese administration said in a statement on its website that the quake, which occurred around 0830 GMT, was recorded a depth of zero kilometres.

All of North Korea’s previous six nuclear tests registered as earthquakes of magnitude 4.3 or above. The last test on Sept 3 registered as a 6.3 magnitude quake.

A secondary tremor detected after that test could have been caused by the collapse of a tunnel at the mountainous site, experts said at the time. Satellite photos of the area after the Sept 3 quake showed numerous landslides apparently caused by the massive blast, which North Korea said was a hydrogen bomb.

The head of the nuclear test monitoring agency CTBTO said on Saturday that analysts were “looking at unusual seismic activity of a much smaller magnitude” in North Korea, and that it would have more details to come.

There was no immediate reaction from China’s Foreign Ministry, but the news was widely reported by Chinese state media outlets and on social media.

Tensions have continued to rise around the Korean peninsula since Pyongyang carried out its sixth nuclear test, prompting a new round of U.N. sanctions.

North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, currently in New York for a United Nations meeting, warned on Thursday that Kim could consider a hydrogen bomb test of an unprecedented scale over the Pacific.

U.S. President Donald Trump called the North Korean leader a “madman” on Friday, a day after Kim dubbed him a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” who would face the “highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history”.

North Korea’s nuclear tests to date have all been underground, and experts say an atmospheric test, which would be the first since one by China in 1980, would be proof of the success of its weapons programme.</s>SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s weather agency said a magnitude 3.2 earthquake was detected in North Korea on Saturday close to where the country recently conducted a nuclear test, but it assessed the quake as natural.

The quake was detected in an area around Kilju, in northeastern North Korea, just 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) northwest of where the North conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3, according to an official from Seoul’s Korea Meteorological Administration.

The area isn’t where natural earthquakes normally occur. A South Korean expert said the quake could have been caused by geological stress created from the recent nuclear explosion. Other possible causes include landslides or the collapsing of test structures such as tunnels, said Hong Tae-kyung, a professor at the department of Earth System Sciences at Yonsei University.

“It could be a natural earthquake that really was man-made as the nuclear test would have transferred a lot of stress,” he said. “The quake is small enough to suspect that it could have been caused by a tunnel collapse, and satellite data shows there have been many landslides in the area since the nuclear test.”

China’s official Xinhua News Agency said the country’s seismic service detected a magnitude 3.4 quake in North Korea and saw the likely cause as an explosion. But the South Korean weather agency official said the analysis of seismic waves and the lack of sound waves clearly showed that the quake wasn’t caused by an artificial explosion. She spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office rules.

Another Korea Meteorological Administration official, who also didn’t want to be named, said the agency saw the possibility of the earthquake being caused by a tunnel collapse as low.

The U.S. Geological Survey said that it detected a magnitude 3.5 quake in the area of previous North Korean nuclear tests, but that it was unable to confirm whether the event was natural.

North Korea’s weakest nuclear test, its first one, conducted in 2006, generated a magnitude 4.3 quake. The USGS measured this month’s nuclear test at magnitude 6.3. The latest test was followed by a second magnitude 4.1 quake that experts said could have been caused by landslides or a tunnel collapsing after the explosion.

Analysts examining satellite images of North Korea’s mountainous test site after the latest nuclear test said they spotted landslides and surface disturbances that were more numerous and widespread than what was seen from any of the five previous tests.

North Korea has been maintaining a torrid pace in nuclear and weapons tests as it accelerates its pursuit of nuclear weapons that could viably target the United States and its allies in Asia.

North Korea said its recent nuclear test was a detonation of a thermonuclear weapon built for its developmental intercontinental ballistic missiles. In two July flight tests, those missiles showed potential capability to reach deep into the U.S. mainland when perfected.

WHAT OTHERS ARE CLICKING ON:
• MAN HITS WOMAN IN THE FACE ON BART IN THE EAST BAY</s>China's earthquake administration said on Saturday it had detected a magnitude 3.4 earthquake in North Korea that was a "suspected explosion", raising fears the isolated state had conducted another nuclear bomb test weeks after its last one.

BEIJING/SEOUL: A small earthquake near North Korea's nuclear test site on Saturday was probably not manmade, the nuclear proliferation watchdog and a South Korean official said, easing fears Pyongyang had exploded another nuclear bomb just weeks after its last one.

Chinese earthquake officials said the magnitude 3.4 quake detected at 0829 GMT was a "suspected explosion" but both the CTBTO, which monitors nuclear tests, and a South Korean meteorological agency official said they believed it was a natural quake.

"A key method is to look at the seismic waves or seismic acoustic waves and the latter can be detected in the case of a manmade earthquake," said the South Korean official, who asked for anonymity. "In this case we saw none. So as of now, we are categorising this as a natural earthquake."

The earthquake, which South Korea put at magnitude 3.0, was detected in Kilju county in North Hamgyong Province, where North Korea's known Punggyeri nuclear site is located, the official said.

All of North Korea's previous six nuclear tests registered as earthquakes of magnitude 4.3 or above. The last test on Sept 3 registered as a 6.3 magnitude quake.

A secondary tremor detected after that test could have been caused by the collapse of a tunnel at the mountainous site, experts said at the time. Satellite photos of the area after the Sept 3 quake showed numerous landslides apparently caused by the massive blast, which North Korea said was an advanced hydrogen bomb.

The head of the nuclear test monitoring agency CTBTO said on Saturday that analysts were "looking at unusual seismic activity of a much smaller magnitude" than the Sept 3 test in North Korea.

"Two #Seismic Events! 0829UTC & much smaller @ 0443UTC unlikely Man-made! Similar to "collapse" event 8.5 mins after DPRK6! Analysis ongoing," CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo said in a Twitter post, referring to Sept 3 test.

Russia’s emergency ministry says background radiation in nearby Vladivostok was within the natural range.

The U.S. Geological Survey said it could not conclusively confirm whether the quake, which it measured at magnitude 3.5, was manmade or natural.

"The depth is poorly constrained and has been held to 5 km by the seismologist," USGS said. "The Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC) is the sole organisation in the U.S. federal government whose mission is to detect and report technical data from foreign nuclear explosions."

There was no immediate reaction from China's Foreign Ministry, but the news was widely reported by Chinese state media outlets and on social media.

Tensions have continued to rise around the Korean peninsula since Pyongyang carried out its sixth nuclear test, prompting a new round of U.N. sanctions.

North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, currently in New York for a United Nations meeting, warned on Thursday that Kim could consider a hydrogen bomb test of an unprecedented scale over the Pacific.

Ri is due to address the United Nations later on Saturday.

U.S. President Donald Trump called the North Korean leader a "madman" on Friday, a day after Kim dubbed him a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard" who would face the "highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history".

North Korea's nuclear tests to date have all been underground, and experts say an atmospheric test, which would be the first since one by China in 1980, would be proof of the success of its weapons programme.

North Korea has launched dozens of missiles this year, several of them flying over Japan, as it accelerates a weapons programme aimed at enabling it to target the United States with a nuclear-tipped missile.

While China has been angered by North Korea's repeated nuclear and missile tests and has signed up for the increasingly tough U.N. sanctions, it has also stressed the need to resume dialogue and for all sides to take steps to reduce tensions.

In a series of meetings this week at the United Nations, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has reiterated to various foreign counterparts that apart from sanctions, the resolutions also call for dialogue to resume and that this needs to happen.

Earlier on Saturday, China said it will limit exports of refined petroleum products from Oct. 1 and ban exports of condensates and liquefied natural gas immediately to comply with the latest U.N. sanctions. It will also ban imports of textiles from North Korea.

The United States and South Korea are technically still at war with North Korea because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce and not a peace treaty.

The North accuses the United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, of planning to invade and regularly threatens to destroy it and its Asian allies.
An earthquake is detected in North Korea which China's earthquake authority believes is due to a North Korean nuclear test. South Korea states that it could be a natural earthquake.