South Korea's military said on Monday it had tracked a North Korean balloon over its territory, but determined it did not pose a threat.
The balloon briefly entered South Korean airspace on Sunday, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement, adding it in response had taken unspecified “measures”.
The craft left South Korean airspace a few hours later and officials believe it was a weather balloon not one intended for spying activities, Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unnamed official.
North Korea said on Thursday that drills by the United States and its allies have reached an "extreme red-line" and threaten to turn the peninsula into a "huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone."
The Foreign Ministry statement, carried by state news agency KCNA, said Pyongyang was not interested in dialogue as long as Washington pursues hostile policies.
North Korea has issued somewhat rare statements lashing out at growing US military involvement in Ukraine, with the influential sister of Kim Jong Un condemning the decision to transfer heavy battle tanks.
North Korean authorities have warned of extreme weather conditions in the country as a cold wave sweeps the Korean peninsula.
Temperatures are likely to dip below -30C in the northern regions, which are also the poorest part of the country, the state radio broadcaster said.
Coastal areas are also expected to see high winds, according to state media.
South Korea too has issued a cold wave warning and northern China has been experiencing record low temperatures.
Drawing American military supplies from South Korea to assist Ukraine in its war against Russia will not affect U.S. military readiness on the Korean Peninsula, military officials said Friday.
The Defense Department is turning to its stockpiles in South Korea and Israel to keep Ukraine supplied in its ongoing fight….
“[We] feel confident on what we have been able to withdraw and what we have been able to get to the Ukrainians.”
The U.S. is supplying Ukraine “pretty regularly” with ammunition, materials, capabilities and equipment, and doing so quickly….
The Biden Administration has just announced that it must dig into weapons it had stored in Israel and South Korea to shovel into the black hole known as Ukraine. Meanwhile the US Secretary of Navy has said that the US Administration is soon going to have to decide whether to arm Ukraine or arm the US.
Former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo wrote in his new memoir that his secret meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jung Un in 2018 began with a “joke about assassination.”
China has suspended issuing visas to Japanese and South Korean travelers, its embassies in Tokyo and Seoul said Tuesday, after it threatened to take countermeasures against countries that introduced tighter COVID-19 entry restrictions on visitors from China.
The Chinese Embassy in Tokyo, on its website, said the issuance of ordinary visas for Japanese citizens was being suspended from Tuesday and the timing of its resumption will be notified later.
North Korea has criticized Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's ongoing trip to NATO member countries for bringing "security instability" to the Asia-Pacific region, and warned the bloc against expanding its influence in the area, state-run media said Friday.
Japan serves as a guide "introducing NATO, a legacy of the Cold War, into the Asia-Pacific region" and such a behavior is "sowing the seeds of discord" in the region, the Korean Central News Agency said, quoting an article by Kim Tong Myong, an international politics researcher, released Thursday.
