North Korea

The new defence agreement was announced in a virtual four-way meeting between Japanese Foreign and Defence Ministers and the US’s Secretary of State and Secretary of Defence on Thursday. As per the new five-year agreement, Japan will extend the support package provided or the hosting of around 50,000 US troops and their families

Blinken made the remarks on Thursday during annual security consultative talks with his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi, that also involved US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Japanese Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi, reports Yonhap News Agency.

The North launched the missile eastward at around 8.10 a.m. (S.Korea time) from a land-based platform, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said without further elaboration, reported Yonhap news agency. "For additional information, the intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States are conducting a detailed analysis," the JCS said in a text message sent to reporters. South Korea's military in cooperation with the US is closely watching related North Korean movements and maintaining a readiness posture against the possibility of the North's additional launches, the JCS said.

The Japan Coast Guard said the unidentified projectile is believed to have already landed, Xinhua news agency reported. It was fired toward the Sea of Japan, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency citing the South Korean military. This was the first test-fire of the country in 2022. Before it, the DPRK test-fired a new type of submarine-launched ballistic missile in October 2021.

On Sunday, South Korea sent the message through a western military communication line "in light of protecting our citizen", though it has yet to verify details about the person who crossed the heavily fortified border on Saturday night, reports Yonhap News Agency.

Earlier this month, the State Department unveiled its annual Country Reports on Terrorism 2020, which kept the North on the list, along with Iran and Syria, reports Yonhap News Agency. In a post on its Foreign Ministry website, Pyongyang criticized Washington for posing as the "judge of terrorism", cataloguing a number of past US-involved wars and lambasting them as "large-scale acts of state terrorism".

North Korea earlier announced the ruling Workers' Party will hold a plenary meeting of its central committee "in the last third of December" to "discuss and decide on work plans for the new year", reports Yonhap News Agency. "The plenary has been usually held for one to four days with leader Kim Jong-un's attendance," Unification Ministry spokesperson Lee Jong-joo told reporters here.

In an article uploaded onto its website on Saturday, the North's Foreign Ministry said such "remarks constitute an aggressive violation of sovereignty, which tries to deny the exercise of its rights by a sovereign nation, as well as foreign interference and an intolerable act of provocation", reports Yonhap News Agency.

North Korea has been on the list of state sponsors of terrorism since 2017 when North Korean agents assassinated leader Kim Jong-un's half brother, Kim Jong-nam, using chemical agents in Malaysia, reports Yonhap News Agency. "In 2017 the Secretary of State determined the DPRK had repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism since its State Sponsor of Terrorism designation was rescinded in 2008," the report, Country Reports on Terrorism, released on Thursday said, noting the North was first designated as a state sponsor of terrorism in 1988 for its involvement in the tragic bombing of a South Korean passenger jet the year before.

Chronic food shortages in North Korea: "North Korea is experiencing chronic food shortages with around 1 million tons of foods falling short every year," Ministry spokesperson Lee Jong-joo said in a press briefing. Since the borders are sealed in North korea for a long time, it's been difficult for the country to secure food from abroad, Lee further said.