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.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS