North Korea

The United States and its Asian allies tightened the economic screws on North Korea on Feb. 11, with the US Senate adopting fresh sanctions and South Korean firms abandoning a joint industrial park that helped fund Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.

The chief of North Korea’s military, General Ri Young-gil, has been executed on charges of corruption, according to a South Korean news agency.

He had been chief of the general staff for North Korea since he was appointed to the role in August 2013 by Kim Jong-un .

Moscow on Feb. 10 warned that Washington's deployment of a US missile defense system to South Korea could spark an arms race in the region.

South Korean and US defense officials said last week they would begin formal talks on the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD) system in response to North Korea's recent nuclear and missile tests.    

Turkey has condemned the launch of a long-range rocket by North Korea, calling it a violation of international obligations, the Foreign Ministry said on Feb. 7 in a statement.

"As with the fourth nuclear test by North Korea on Jan. 6, this launch constitutes once again a total disregard to regional and international security and stability," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.      

The United Nations Security Council on Sunday condemned the launch of a long-range rocket by North Korea.

It stopped short of new sanctions but assured it would introduce them soon, after Pyongyang launched a long-range rocket that took a satellite into orbit around the Earth.

The United States, Japan and South Korea have requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council following Sunday's launch of a long-range rocket by North Korea, Fox News has reported.

The security council session is likely to start at 11 a.m. New York time (6 p.m. Sofia time) on Sunday.

North Korea has claims that it successfully launched a long-range rocket carrying what it has called a satellite drawing international condemnation.

The U.S. Strategic Command said it had detected a missile entering space, and South Korea’s military said the rocket had put an object into orbit, as Reuters reports.

North Korea launched a long-range rocket on Feb. 7 carrying what it called a satellite, but its neighbors and the United States denounced the launch as a missile test, conducted in defiance of U.N. sanctions and just weeks after a nuclear bomb test.

China on Feb. 3 joined the global chorus of anger and concern over a planned rocket launch by North Korea, while Japan vowed to shoot down any missile that threatened its territory.

Bulgaria ranks 60th in the latest Index of Economic Freedom which was released on Monday.

The index is published annually by The Wall Street Journal and the Washington-based Heritage Foundation think-tank.

The overall score of Bulgaria is 65.9, the country recording a decrease of 0.9 point compared to the previous edition of the index.