Pyongyang accused the US and South Korea of conducting at least 1,100 spy plane missions over its territory in the first half of this year, official media said.
They carried out more than 170 flights last month alone, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Saturday.
North Korea has issued a monthly report on alleged US and South Korean spy plane missions which it denounces as preparations to invade the country despite repeated denials from Washington and Seoul.
The two Koreas, despite recent peace initiatives aimed at ending enmity dating back to the Korean War, still remain technically at war as the conflict was ended in an armistice not a peace treaty.
KCNA said the US had mobilized such reconnaissance planes as the U-2, RC-135, E-3, EP-3, RC-7B and RC-12 to spy on the North while South Korea has also used RC-800 and RF-4C aircraft for the spy missions.
Meanwhile, the six governments involved in talks aimed at a non-nuclear North Korea should meet to work out the details of Pyongyang's promised shutdown of a plutonium-producing reactor, a UN official said.
"The next logical step is that they talk with each other and agree on technical arrangements," now that Pyongyang has agreed on measures to monitor and verify the process, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Deputy Director Olli Heinonen said.
Heinonen spoke on Saturday upon arrival in Beijing following a five-day visit to North Korea, where he and other agency officials worked out a basic agreement on Friday with Pyongyang on how to verify a shutdown of the reactor.
In February, North Korea pledged to shut down and disable the 5-megawatt reactor, which can produce enough plutonium to manufacture one nuclear bomb a year, in exchange for economic aid and political concessions.
Pyongyang negotiated the deal with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the US -- its partners in the six-party forum created in 2003 and meant to check the North's nuclear ambitions.
The efforts took on added urgency after Pyongyang carried out its first atomic test explosion last October.
South Korea said on Saturday it will send its first shipment of heavy fuel oil, promised to the North as part of the deal, within two weeks.
South Korea will "do its best to complete" the total aid delivery within 20 days of the first shipment, the Unification Ministry said in a statement.
Heinonen reiterated to reporters in Beijing on Saturday the IAEA and the North "reached an understanding on how we are going to monitor the sealing and shutting down of the Yongbyon facility."
The visit by Heinonen and three other agency officials included the UN nuclear watchdog's first trip to the Yongbyon reactor since inspectors were expelled from the country in 2002.
‘CHINESE ASSET’: The senate cited Bamban Mayor Alice Guo in contempt after a police raid revealed a scam center operating at a facility on land she partially owned The Philippine Senate yesterday threatened to arrest a mayor for contempt during a hearing investigating her alleged ties to Chinese criminal syndicates. The arrest threat came after Bamban Mayor Alice Guo (郭華萍) failed to appear for a second consecutive hearing, citing stress. The case that began in March, when authorities raided a casino in Guo’s farming town of Bamban, has shed light on criminal activity in the mostly Chinese-backed online casino industry in the Philippines. It gained national attention after one senator asked whether Guo might not have been born in the Philippines and could even be a Chinese “asset,” an accusation she
‘DO WHATEVER’: US Representative Nancy Pelosi said on MSNBC the decision was up to Joe Biden, but her lack of a full statement backing him is likely to send a signal The re-election campaign of US President Joe Biden on Wednesday hit new trouble as US Representative Nancy Pelosi said merely “it’s up to the president to decide” if he should stay in the race, celebrity donor George Clooney said he should not run, and Democratic senators and lawmakers expressed fresh fear about his ability to challenge former US president Donald Trump. Late in the evening, US Senator Peter Welch called on Biden to withdraw from the election, becoming the first Senate Democrat to do so. Welch said he is worried because “the stakes could not be higher.” The sudden flurry of pronouncements, despite
THREATS: The Japanese leader signaled concern over Russia’s war in Ukraine, its deepening cooperation with North Korea and Chinese posturing against Taiwan Russia’s deepening military cooperation with North Korea has underlined the need for Japan to forge closer ties with NATO as regional security threats become increasingly intertwined, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told Reuters. In written remarks ahead of his attendance at a NATO summit in Washington this week, Kishida also signaled concern over Beijing’s alleged role in aiding Moscow’s two-year-old war in Ukraine, although he did not name China. “The securities of the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific are inseparable, and Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and its deepened military cooperation with North Korea are strong reminders of that,” Kishida said. “Japan is determined to
‘STARWARS’: The weapons would make South Korea the first country to deploy and operate laser weapons, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said South Korea is to deploy laser weapons to shoot down North Korean drones this year, becoming the world’s first country to deploy and operate such weapons in the military, the country’s arms procurement agency said yesterday. South Korea has called its laser program the “StarWars project.” The drone-zapping laser weapons that the South Korean military has developed with Hanwha Aerospace are effective and cheap, with each shot costing 2,000 won (US$1.45), and also quiet and “invisible,” the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said in a statement. “Our country is becoming the first country in the world to deploy and operate laser weapons, and