Iran leader says nuclear weapons forbidden in Islam

TEHRAN, Iran - Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that Iran could have taken the step to develop nuclear weapons but will not because their use is "haram", or forbidden in Islam.

"Although we could have taken steps on this path, based on Islamic ruling, we firmly and bravely said we won't take this path," Khamenei said.

"Both building and stockpiling it is wrong, as using it is haram," he told a group of academics in a video posted on his office's Twitter account.

"If we had a nuclear weapon, it would have been obvious that it would have been impossible for us to use anywhere," said the Iranian leader

"Under Islamic principles, it is definitely haram."

Iran vehemently denies having ever sought an atomic bomb and says its nuclear program is for peaceful energy production and medical purposes only.

In May last year, President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from a landmark 2015 deal that gave Iran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Kremlin says it is winning arms race against US despite rocket accident

MOSCOW - The Kremlin boasted on Tuesday it was winning the race to develop new cutting edge nuclear weapons despite a mysterious rocket accident last week in northern Russia that caused a temporary spike in radiation levels.

Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear agency, has said that the Aug. 8 accident occurred during a rocket test on a sea platform in the White Sea, killing at least five and injuring three more.

It has pledged to keep developing new weapons regardless, portraying the men who died in the test as heroes.

US President Donald Trump said on Twitter on Monday the United States was "learning much" from the explosion which he suggested happened during the testing of a nuclear-powered cruise missile vaunted by President Vladimir Putin last year.

Russia, which has said the missile will have an "unlimited range" and be able to overcome any defenses, calls the missile the 9M730 Burevestnik (Storm Petrel). The NATO alliance has designated it the SSC-X-9 Skyfall.

Trump said on Twitter that the United States had "similar, though more advanced, technology" and said Russians were worried about the air quality around the facility and far beyond, a situation he described as "Not good!"

But when asked about his comments on Tuesday, the Kremlin said it, not the United States, was out in front when it came to developing new nuclear weapons.

"Our president has repeatedly said that Russian engineering in this sector significantly outstrips the level that other countries have managed to reach for the moment, and it is fairly unique," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Putin used his state-of-the-nation speech in 2018 to unveil what he described as a raft of invincible new nuclear weapons, including a nuclear-powered cruise missile, an underwater nuclear-powered drone, and a laser weapon.

Tensions between Moscow and Washington over arms control have been exacerbated by the demise this month of a landmark nuclear treaty. Russia says it is also concerned that another landmark arms control treaty will soon expire.

In a sign of how serious the situation in the accident area remains, Russian authorities have advised residents of the nearby village of Nyonoksa to leave while clear-up work is being carried out, the Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday, citing local officials.

Russia's state weather service also said on Tuesday that radiation levels in the nearby city of Severodvinsk had spiked by up to 16 times last Thursday, while medics who treated victims of the accident have been sent to Moscow for a medical examination, the TASS news agency reported.

It said the medics had signed non-disclosure agreements about the nature of the accident.

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Russia missile test blast kills 5 nuclear agency staff

MOSCOW - Russia's nuclear agency said Saturday an explosion during missile testing in the Arctic left five workers dead and involved radioactive isotopes after a nearby city recorded a spike in radiation levels.

Rosatom said the force of the explosion on Thursday blew several of its staff from a testing platform into the sea. 

Russia's military did not initially say that the accident involved nuclear equipment, but stressed that radiation levels were normal afterwards.

Officials in the nearby city of Severodvinsk nonetheless reported that radiation levels briefly increased after the accident.

The incident occurred in the far northern Arkhangelsk region during testing of a liquid propellant jet engine when an explosion sparked a fire, killing two, a defense ministry statement said.

It was not known whether those two deaths were among the five that Rosatom reported.

Russian state news agencies quoted a defense ministry source as saying both defense ministry and Rosatom employees had been killed.

Rosatom said its staff were providing engineering and technical support for the "isotope power source" of a missile.

The missile was being tested on a platform at sea when its fuel caught fire and triggered an explosion, Rosatom said in a statement quoted on Russian television.

Several staff were blown into the sea by the blast, the nuclear agency said, adding that it only announced the deaths once there was no more hope that the employees had survived.

The accident left three other people with burns and other injuries, Rosatom said.

Authorities initially released few details of the accident at the Nyonoksa test site on the White Sea, used for testing missiles deployed in nuclear submarines and ships since the Soviet era.

The defense ministry said six defense ministry employees and a developer were injured, while two "specialists" died of their wounds.

Professor Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies said his "working hypothesis" was that the blast "was related to Russia's nuclear-powered cruise missile, the 9M730 Burevestnik (NATO name: SSC-X-9 Skyfall)." 

Radiation spike

Authorities in Severodvinsk, 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the test site, said Thursday on their website that automatic radiation detection sensors in the city "recorded a brief rise in radiation levels" around noon that day.

The post was later taken down and the defence ministry said radiation levels were normal after the accident.

A Severodvinsk civil defence official, Valentin Magomedov, told TASS state news agency that radiation levels rose to 2.0 microsieverts per hour for half an hour from 11:50 am (0850 GMT).

This exceeded the permitted limit of 0.6 microsieverts, he added.

Greenpeace Russia published a letter from officials at a Moscow nuclear research center who gave the same figure, but said higher radiation levels lasted for an hour. The officials said this did not present a significant risk to public health.

Ankit Panda of the Federation of American Scientists noted on Twitter that the missile "is suspected to have some sort of a miniaturized reactor in its propulsion unit," and added: "a crash likely resulted in not-insignificant radioisotope dispersion."

Russian online media published an unattributed video which reportedly showed ambulances speeding through Moscow to a centre that specializes in the treatment of radiation victims.

Rosatom said the injured were being treated at a "specialized medical center".

Iodine panic 

An expert from Moscow's Institute for Nuclear Research, Boris Zhuikov, told RBK independent news site that isotope power sources are not normally dangerous for people working with them.

"If they are damaged, people who are nearby could be hurt. Isotope sources use various types of fuel: plutonium, promethium or cerium," Zhuikov said.

The radioactivity levels involved are "absolutely not comparable with those during serious accidents at reactors," he added.

But news of the accident prompted Severodvinsk residents to rush to pharmacies for iodine, which can help prevent the thyroid gland from absorbing radiation.

"People started to panic. Within a matter of an hour all the iodine and iodine-containing drugs were sold out," pharmacist Yelena Varinskaya told AFP.

In 1986, the Soviet Union suffered the world's worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl, a disaster that authorities initially tried hard to cover up.

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Kim and Xi in Pyongyang talks as both face standoffs with Trump

PYONGYANG -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Pyongyang Thursday during a historic visit to burnish an uneasy alliance, as the two men each face challenges of their own with US President Donald Trump.

While the North's nuclear negotiations with the US are at a standstill, Kim told his country's key diplomatic supporter and main provider of trade and aid that he was "willing to be patient", Chinese state media reported, but wanted "the parties concerned" to meet him halfway.

Xi is the first Chinese president to visit North Korea in 14 years, after relations between the Cold War-era allies deteriorated over Pyongyang's nuclear provocations and Beijing's subsequent backing of UN sanctions.

But Kim ensured that Xi was the first head of state he met when he embarked on a flurry of diplomacy last year, and has now visited his ally 4 times in China.

Pyongyang has been increasingly keen for Xi to reciprocate, while according to diplomats, Beijing has been biding its time to see how nuclear talks between Kim and Trump play out.

But China's own trade negotiations with Washington hit a wall last month and analysts say Xi is now looking for leverage ahead of his meeting with Trump at next week's G20 summit in Japan.

At their formal talks, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, Kim told Xi that the North had taken "many positive measures to avoid a tense situation" over the past year, "but has not received positive responses from the relevant parties".

"This is not what the DPRK wants to see," CCTV cited him as adding.

Pyongyang wants to demonstrate to Trump that it has China's support after Trump and Kim's second summit in Hanoi in February broke up without a deal.

Xi told Kim that he "positively evaluated" the North's efforts and was "willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with the DPRK and all relevant parties".

China has fretted over being sidelined by diplomatic developments since last year. Trump went as far as declaring he had fallen "in love" with Kim.

"Xi wants everyone to remain acutely aware that he can influence Kim, and that no comprehensive, durable deal with North Korea can occur without China's assistance -- and approval," Scott Seaman, Asia director of the Eurasia Group consultancy, said in a research note.

But Robert Wood, US Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, told AFP the US was not concerned.

"What we hope is that President Xi is making the point to Kim Jong Un that we need to move forward on denuclearisation, again something that Kim Jong Un has agreed to."

21-GUN SALUTE

Kim met Xi at Pyongyang airport as he began a two-day state visit with his wife Peng Liyuan, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and other officials, television images showed.

Portraits of the two leaders stood outside the terminal, pictures showed, and a 21-gun salute was fired before the pair drove into the capital together, standing in a convertible Mercedes-Benz as they went past tens of thousands of cheering residents lining the streets and more waving from their windows.

Pyongyang always puts on an impressive show when a foreign leader visits, but in an unprecedented move, Xi was welcomed at the Kumsusan Palace, the mausoleum where the preserved bodies of the North's founder Kim Il Sung and his successor Kim Jong Il -- the grandfather and father of the current leader -- lie in state.

Xi and his wife also watched "a large group calisthenics and art performance" with Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju at a stadium in Pyongyang, China's state-run Global Times reported on its Twitter account. It carried a picture of the two smiling leaders surrounded by a crowd waving Chinese and North Korean flags.

The show of amity belies a sometimes strained relationship -- Kim did not visit Beijing to pay his respects for more than six years after inheriting power.

Beijing sees the North as a strategic buffer, keeping the 28,500 US troops in South Korea far from its borders. Xi's trip was to include a stop at Pyongyang's Friendship Tower, which commemorates the millions of Chinese troops who saved Kim Il Sung's forces from defeat during the Korean War.

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Kim Jong Un warns North Korea could consider change of tack

SEOUL -- North Korea could consider a change of approach if the US maintains its sanctions on the nuclear-armed country, leader Kim Jong Un warned in his New Year speech Tuesday after 12 months of diplomatic rapprochement.

"If the US does not keep its promise made in front of the whole world... and insists on sanctions and pressures on our republic," Kim said, "we may be left with no choice but to consider a new way to safeguard our sovereignty and interests".

Kim was referring to his summit with US President Donald Trump in Singapore in June, when he said he had "fruitful talks" and "exchanged constructive ideas".

At the time the two leaders signed a vaguely-worded pledge on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, but progress has since stalled with Pyongyang and Washington arguing over what that means.

The North is subject to multiple sets of United Nations Security Council sanctions over banned nuclear and ballistic missile weapons programs, which have seen it carry out 6 atomic tests and launch rockets capable of reaching the entire US mainland.

"I am ready to sit with the US President again at any time in the future and will make efforts by all means to produce a result that will be welcomed by the international community," Kim said in his address, broadcast by the North's state television.

Kim spoke sitting in a dark leather armchair, in a large office flanked with packed bookshelves along one side and paintings of his predecessors, his father Kim Jong Il and grandfather Kim Il Sung behind him.

As he began speaking -- in a deep, gravelly voice -- a clock behind him showed the time as just moments after 12.

But at times during the address it was blurred out, and towards the end of the half-hour broadcast it was close to 1, suggesting the speech was recorded in several takes.

YEAR OF RAPPROCHEMENT

The leader's New Year speech is a key moment in the North Korean political calendar, reviewing the past and setting out out goals for the future.

The 2018 address was a crucial catalyst for the developments that followed.

It came after a year of high tensions when the North made rapid progress in its weapons programs and fears of conflict rose.

The two leaders traded personal insults - Trump mocked Kim as "Little Rocket Man," who in turn called him a "mentally deranged US dotard" - and threats of war.

On January 1 2018 Kim ordered mass production of missiles and bombs and warned the whole US mainland was "within the range of our nuclear strike and the nuclear button is on my office desk all the time." 

But he also offered to send a team to the forthcoming Winter Olympics in the South - opening the way for the South's dovish President Moon Jae-In to play the role of peace broker.

A rapid sequence of developments followed, with athletes and a senior delegation led by his powerful sister going to the Pyeongchang Games in February, before Kim met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing ahead of the Singapore summit with Trump.

Kim also met with Moon 3 times last year -- twice at the border truce village of Panmunjom and once in the North's capital Pyongyang -- and at the weekend vowed to meet Moon "frequently" this year.

In his speech Tuesday Kim said the US and South Korea should no longer carry out joint military exercises -- which have been largely halted since the Singapore meeting -- calling such drills "a source of tension".

"War-related equipment -- including strategic assets of outside powers -- should no longer be allowed to be brought in," he added.

Seoul and Washington are in a security alliance and the US stations 28,500 troops in the South to protect it against its neighbor, which invaded in 1950.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Japan stocks fall to 4-month low after North Korea fires missile

TOKYO - Japan's Nikkei share average fell to a near 4-month low on Tuesday morning as sentiment was soured after North Korea fired a missile over northern Japan earlier in the day.

In early trade, the Nikkei opened down 0.7 percent and fell as low as 19,304.76, its lowest since May 1.

The broader Topix dropped 0.5 percent to 1,592.77.

North Korea fired a missile that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific waters off the northern region of Hokkaido, South Korea and Japan said, in a sharp escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula.

The dollar slumped to a 4-month low against the yen , down 0.55 percent at 108.660 after hitting 108.330, its lowest since April 18.

A risk-averse mood prevailed in the region following the missile launch, with Japan's Nikkei falling to a 4-month low.

The yen tends to benefit during times of geopolitical or financial stress as Japan is the world’s biggest creditor nation and there is an assumption that Japanese investors will repatriate funds should a crisis materialize.

"Based on past patterns in which the yen has gained on such incidences, speculators reacted immediately to the North Korean missile headlines, taking dollar/yen to the intraday lows," said Mitsuo Imaizumi, chief FX strategist at Daiwa Securities.

"But dollar/yen trimmed some of the losses after the reports that the missile actually flew over northern Japan."

The last North Korean projectile to fly over Japan was in 2009. The United States, Japan and South Korea considered that launch to have been a ballistic missile test while North Korea said it was a rocket carrying a communications satellite into orbit.

The Swiss franc touched a 1-month high of 0.9497 franc per dollar before pulling back slightly to 0.9532.

The euro lost 0.6 percent to 130.040 yen, dragged back from a three-week high of 130.965 set overnight.

The dollar was already on the defensive, particularly against the euro, after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen did not mention monetary policy at a central bankers' summit in Jackson Hole last week, and as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's held back from talking down the euro at the same meeting.

The dollar had also weakened after Tropical Storm Harvey paralyzed Houston, Texas, spurring worries about the storm's potential impact on the US economy.

The euro was down 0.1 percent at $1.1965 following an ascent to $1.1986, its highest since January 2015.

The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies was steady at 92.274 after slipping as low as 92.137, its weakest since May 2016.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Guam nuclear guidelines: 'Take cover, avoid bomb flash'

WASHINGTON - Guam posted emergency guidelines on Friday to help residents prepare for any potential nuclear attack after a threat from North Korea to fire missiles in the vicinity of the U.S. Pacific territory.

Pyongyang's state-run KCNA news agency said on Thursday its army would complete plans in mid-August to fire four intermediate-range missiles over Japan to land near Guam as North Korea and the United States engaged in increasingly heated rhetoric this week over the North's nuclear weapons program.

North Korea did not threaten Guam with a nuclear attack, but the crisis between Pyongyang and the United States has stirred fears that a nuclear conflict could break out in the region.

While the governor of Guam shrugged off the North's missile warning and said there was no heightened threat, the government has issued a preparedness fact sheet.

In language that evoked the specter of nuclear conflict during the Cold War, the guidelines cover what to do before, during and after a nuclear attack.

"Do not look at the flash or fireball – It can blind you," it said. "Take cover behind anything that might offer protection."

"Remove your clothing to keep radioactive material from spreading. Removing the outer layer of clothing can remove up to 90% of radioactive material," read the guidelines of what to do if caught outside.

They suggest having an emergency plan and supply kit and making a list of potential concrete structures near home, work and school to serve as fallout shelters.

"Fallout shelters do not need to be specifically constructed for protecting against fallout," it said. "They can be protected space, provided that the walls and roof are thick and dense enough (i.e. concrete) to absorb radiation given off by fallout particles."

The fact sheet advises people on how to wash: do not scrub or scratch the skin, use soap, shampoo and water but do not put not conditioner on your hair because it binds radioactive material.

It offers advice for parents who are away from their children during a strike.

"Stay where you are, even if you are separated from your family," it said. "Listen to the news. Do not call the school. Be patient. Wait for instructions to pick up your child."

The information on the fact sheet was gathered from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security website www.ready.gov, a Guam Homeland Security spokeswoman told the Pacific Daily News.

Guam is home to about 163,000 people and a U.S. military base that includes a submarine squadron, an air base and a Coast Guard group. (For a graphic on North Korean missile trajectories, ranges click http://tmsnrt.rs/2hIzZHG)

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday warned North Korea against threatening Guam and said on Friday that the U.S. military was "locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely."

Asked about Trump's tough posture, Guam Governor Eddie Calvo said he agreed with sending a clear message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has ramped up his country's tests of missiles and nuclear bombs.

"Though I don't want the temperature to get any higher, I think it's important also that there is clarity and that if there is an attack on any American soil including Guam, that it will be met with overwhelming response," Calvo told reporters on Friday. "I don't have any problem with that."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

 

 

Asia stocks, dollar brace for further slide as US, North Korea tensions intensify

SINGAPORE - Australian stock futures slumped early on Friday and other Asian markets looked set to follow as tensions ramped up between the US and North Korea, sending investors into less risky assets such as gold, the yen and US government bonds.

The MSCI World index dropped 1.1 percent overnight in its third straight day of declines and its biggest 1-day slide since May 17, as US President Donald Trump stepped up his rhetoric against North Korea.

Australian stock futures dropped 1.2 percent and New Zealand stocks slid 1.1 percent. Japanese markets were closed for a holiday.

US stock futures were marginally softer.

Overnight, Wall Street closed sharply lower after Trump, with fiery rhetoric, warned Pyongyang against attacking Guam or US allies after it disclosed plans to fire missiles over Japan to land near the US Pacific territory.

Trump took specific aim at North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying, he had "disrespected our country greatly," and would not be "getting away with it."

"The latest threats over North Korea have finally escalated to the point where market has been obliged to react," Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, wrote in a note.

"US markets had previously been becalmed amidst the Goldilocks scenario of strong profit growth, low interest rates and full valuations. Difficult to assess political risk is now intruding on this scenario."

The dollar extended losses against the yen to hit a new 2-month low. It was trading at 109.16 yen, after retreating 0.8 percent on Thursday.

Japan is the world's biggest creditor country and there is an assumption that investors there will repatriate funds in a crisis.

Weakness in US Treasury yields may also be supporting the yen, some analysts said.

US Treasury yields fell to as low as 2.197 percent, their lowest level since June 28 overnight. They were at 2.201 percent early on Friday.

The dollar was little changed against a basket of major currencies.

Gold prices, which hit a two-month low on Thursday, were steady at $1,286.31 an ounce, after surging over 2 percent in the past two sessions.

US crude oil crude futures edged up 5 cents to $48.64 per barrel.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Global stocks shudder on Trump warnings to North Korea

NEW YORK - World stock markets slid Wednesday as worries about US-North Korea tensions sent traders fleeing to safe-haven investments.

Analysts pointed to the harsh threats and saber rattling from US President Donald Trump, including a message Wednesday on Twitter boasting that the US nuclear arsenal was now "more powerful than ever before."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was deeply concerned about the tensions on the Korean Peninsula and was "troubled" by the increase in confrontational rhetoric.

In Europe, equities dived with London losing 0.6 percent, while Frankfurt shed 1.1 percent and Paris fell 1.4 percent.

The news was also greeted with dismay by traders in Asia, with Tokyo down 1.3 percent, Hong Kong losing 0.4 percent and Seoul registering a 1.1-percent decline.

US stocks also fell, lingering in negative territory the entire session, but notching smaller declines than in overseas markets. The Dow shed 0.2 percent.

"It is a market that is beginning to encounter some major threats and of course the threat is geopolitical," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial.

Uncertainty over North Korea also reverberated in the foreign exchange market, where safe-haven currencies such as the Japanese yen and Swiss franc rallied.

"Saber-rattling between two of the world's least predictable leaders caused a wave of risk aversion to wash over global markets, fueling demand for traditional safe harbors," said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions.

Among other markets, oil prices advanced after a US Department of Energy report showed lower oil inventories.

Dow member Disney dropped 3.9 percent as it reported flat third-quarter revenues due in part to weakness in its cable subscription business.

Disney also announced it will launch two new streaming television services including one for its ESPN-branded sports channel, while ending its deal with Netflix as it shifts towards direct content distribution. Netflix lost 1.5 percent.

Charter Communications rose 2.9 percent on news Altice is exploring a bid for the cable giant. Altice USA, the subsidiary of the French company, added 0.1 percent.

KEY FIGURES AROUND 2050 (4:50 a.m. Thursday in Manila)

New York - Dow: DOWN 0.2 percent at 22,048.70 (close)

New York - S&P 500: DOWN less than 0.1 percent at 2,474.02 (close)

New York - Nasdaq: DOWN 0.3 percent at 6,352.33 (close)

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.6 percent at 7,498.06 points (close)

Frankfurt - DAX 30: DOWN 1.1 percent at 12,154 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 1.4 percent at 5,145.70 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 1.4 percent at 3,467.43

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.3 percent at 19,738.71 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 0.4 percent at 27,757.09 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.2 percent at 3,275.57 (close)

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1758 from $1.1748 at 2100 GMT on Tuesday

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3003 from $1.2989

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 110.02 yen from 110.36 yen

Oil - Brent North Sea: UP 56 cents at $52.70 per barrel

Oil - West Texas Intermediate: UP 39 cents at $49.56 per barrel

source: news.abs-cbn.com

How serious is North Korea's nuclear threat?

US intelligence believes North Korea has now built a nuclear weapon small enough to fit onto a ballistic missile, making it a potent threat against neighbors and possibly the United States, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

The country's nuclear advances have proceeded much more quickly than expected, but experts say North Korea still needs significant technological gains in order to become a full-fledged nuclear threat.

- Where does the North Korean nuclear capability stand? -

Pyongyang has conducted five nuclear bomb tests, with the last one, on September 9, 2016, roughly the size of the nuclear bomb the United States dropped on Nagasaki in 1945: 20-30 kilotons. That device, North Korea said, was going to be miniaturized and "standardized" for use on its ballistic missiles.

This year it demonstrated an ability to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in two tests. The most recent of them, on July 28, showed a missile with a theoretical range of 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles), meaning it could hit much of the United States and Europe, including population centers like New York and Paris.

- Is that enough to constitute an immediate threat? -

Besides reliable missiles with accurate targeting technology, Pyongyang needs to make sure its bombs would survive a 16,000 mile per hour (25,800 kilometer per hour) reentry from high in the atmosphere on an ICBM. It is possible their warheads are currently robust enough to survive the slower speeds of a shorter range missile that could strike Japan, but unlikely with an ICBM.

According to Michael Elleman, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the re-entry vehicle on the July 28 test likely broke into pieces and disintegrated.

Siegfried Hecker, a Stanford University nuclear expert, said it could be another five years before North Korea has an adequately robust reentry vehicle.

"I don't believe they have sufficient missile or nuclear test experience to field a nuclear warhead that is sufficiently small, light and robust to survive an ICBM delivery," Hecker told AFP.

- What other technical hurdles does NK face?-

Hecker, who has visited North Korea several times to view its nuclear activities, said its weapons program is deeply constrained by its small supply of uranium and plutonium, especially plutonium, which is preferable in an ICBM-mounted weapon. Combined, he said, its uranium and plutonium supplies are likely enough for 20-25 nuclear weapons.

But according to the Washington Post report, the US Defense Intelligence Agency believes the country already has up to 60 nuclear weapons in its stockpile.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Duterte calls North Korea's Kim a 'fool' over nuclear ambitions

President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday described North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a "fool" and a "son of a bitch," just days before Manila hosts an international meeting certain to address Pyongyang's long-range missile tests.

Duterte held nothing back in rebuking Kim for "playing with dangerous toys," setting the stage for next week's rare get-together, to be attended by foreign ministers of all the countries involved in the standoff on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea is determined to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States and officials in Washington said Saturday's test of an intercontinental ballistic missile showed it may be able to reach most of the country.

"This Kim Jong Un, a fool ... he is playing with dangerous toys, that fool," Duterte told tax officials in a speech.

"That chubby face that looks kind. That son of a bitch. If he commits a mistake, the Far East will become an arid land. It must be stopped, this nuclear war.

"A limited confrontation and it blows up here, I will tell you, the fallout can deplete the soil, the resources and I don't know what will happen to us."

This year, Duterte is chairman of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and on Monday his foreign minister will host the ASEAN Regional Forum, which brings together 27 countries that include Australia, China, India, Japan, Russia, North and South Korea and the United States.

It was not the first time Duterte has criticiZed Kim over his nuclear ambitions. In April he questioned his sanity and urged the United States to show restraint and not be baited by a man who "wants to end the world."

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is due to attend the Manila meeting, on Tuesday said he wanted dialogue with North Korea at some point, stressing it was not the enemy and the United States did not seek to topple the regime. (Reporting by Martin Petty and Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Trump confers with Asia allies on North Korea nuclear threat

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump is stepping up outreach to allies in Asia to discuss the North Korean nuclear threat and make sure all are "on the same page" if action was needed, a top White House official said on Sunday.

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said Trump would speak to the leaders of Singapore and Thailand on Sunday, after North Korea test-launched another missile that Washington and Seoul said was unsuccessful but which drew widespread international condemnation.

The telephone calls follow Trump's conversation on Saturday night with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte. A week ago, Trump spoke with the presidents of China and Japan on the North Korea issue.

"We need cooperation at some level with as many partners in the area as we can get to make sure that we have our ducks in a row," Priebus told ABC's "This Week."

"So if something does happen in North Korea, that we have everyone in line backing up a plan of action that may need to be put together with our partners in the area,” he said. "We have got to be on the same page."

Priebus said the planned conversations were prompted by the "potential for nuclear and massive destruction in Asia" and eventually in the United States.

The U.S. president, who warned a "major, major conflict" with North Korea was possible in an interview with Reuters, did not elaborate on any U.S. response to the test. "You'll soon find out," he said Saturday.

Trump has stressed he would not broadcast military options to preserve an element of surprise. His secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, said on Friday all options remained on the table with regard to North Korea.

Pyongyang's missile test came as the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group arrived in waters near the Korean peninsula, where it began exercises with the South Korean navy on Saturday about 12 hours after the failed launch, a South Korean navy official said.

Priebus said Trump was in regular contact with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and that the president had become "very close" to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Trump, for whom China was a virtual punching bag during the 2016 presidential campaign over trade, told CBS that any trade disputes with the Asian economic giant took a back seat to securing its cooperation on North Korea.

China, the only major ally of North Korea and its largest trading partner, has expressed increasing concern about Pyongyang's pursuit of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles in violation of U.N. resolutions. However, it has warned against escalation.

"I think that, frankly, North Korea is maybe more important than trade," Trump said in the "Face the Nation" interview. "Trade is very important. But massive warfare with millions, potentially millions of people being killed? That, as we would say, trumps trade."

Similarly, concerns over human rights in the Philippines, where critics cite extrajudicial killings in Duterte's war on drugs, take a back seat to possible confrontation in Asia.

"There is nothing right now facing this country and facing the region that is a bigger threat than what is happening in North Korea," he said in the ABC interview.

Senator John McCain, a leading Republican on foreign policy, said he did not believe Trump was considering a pre-emptive strike on North Korea. That would put U.S. ally South Korea in immediate danger, he said on CNN's "State of the Union."

"But to say you absolutely rule out that option of course would be foolish. But it has to be the ultimate last option," McCain said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com