China warned against "troublemaking" on its doorstep, in an
apparent rebuke to North Korea, and the United States said it
was postponing a missile test to help calm high tension on
the divided Korean peninsula.
North Korea has moved what appears to be a mid-range Musudan
missile to its east coast, South Korea's Yonhap news agency
says, quoting multiple government sources privy to
intelligence from US and South Korean authorities.
North Korea has closed access to a joint factory zone with
South Korea, officials say, putting at risk $US2 billion a
year in trade that is vital for an impoverished state with a
huge army, nuclear ambitions and a hungry population.
The US-South Korean military exercises will continue until
the end of this month, and the North Korean threats to do
something terrible if they do not stop grow more hysterical
by the day.
South Korea's new president has vowed to strike back quickly
if North Korea stages any attack, but the United States said
it has seen no worrisome mobilization of armed forces by the
North Koreans despite their bellicose rhetoric.
The White House says it takes North Korea's latest
sabre-rattling threats seriously while cautioning that
Pyongyang has a long history of bellicose rhetoric.
North Korea said today it was entering a "state of war" with
South Korea in a continuing escalation of angry rhetoric
directed at Seoul and Washington, but the South brushed off
the statement as little more than tough talk.
North Korea has threatened the United States with a
preemptive nuclear strike, raising the level of rhetoric just
before the UN Security Council approved new sanctions against
the reclusive country.
Dennis Rodman, the former NBA star known more for his body
piercings and tattoos than international diplomacy skills,
has returned from North Korea with a message from its leader
Kim Jong-un for President Barack Obama - "call me".
