North Korean nuclear test

Less than a week before North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach the continental US, a North Korean official said the country's nuclear program is only targeting the US.

Ri Jong-hyok, the Deputy of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly delivered the comments during the Asian Parliamentary Assembly in Turkey, according to Yonhap News.

North Korea warned countries at the United Nations on Monday in a statement: don't join the United States in military action against the Asian state and you will be safe from retaliation, Reuters reported.

Politicians from North and South Korea will not hold direct talks in Russia on Monday about Pyongyang's nuclear and missile program despite attending the same event, Russian news agencies said on Sunday, Reuters reported.

According to a Russian lawmaker, who has just returned from North Korea, Pyongyang is ready to test a missile capable of reaching the US western coast.
“They are preparing for a new test of a longer-range missile. They even gave us mathematical calculations that they believe prove that their missile can hit the western coast of the United States,” Morozov said.

DPRK intelligence has stolen technology to launch ballistic missiles from submarines, penetrating one of the servers of a weapons manufacturer in the Republic of South Korea. This was reported by the Seoul newspaper "Koynjan Singun", citing sources from the South Korean army.

South Korea said on Wednesday traces of radioactive xenon gas were confirmed to be from a North Korean nuclear test earlier this month, but it was unable to conclude whether the test had been for a hydrogen bomb as Pyongyang claimed.

World leaders have been pushing for tougher sanctions on North Korea after its latest and the most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3, while Pyongyang pledged to take "powerful counter measures" to respond to U.S. pressure or any new sanctions against it over its missile programme. 

North Korea's recent nuclear test appears to have triggered several landslides, according to what are believed to be the first satellite images of the aftermath, reported BBC.

Sunday's test took place underground at the mountainous Punggye-ri site.

Analysis group 38 North published pictures which show "more numerous and widespread" disturbances than before.

South Korea said on Tuesday an agreement with the United States to scrap a weight limit on its warheads would help it respond to North Korea's nuclear and missile threat after it conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test two days ago, Reuters reports.

North Korea is readying the launch of a ballistic missile, military leaders in South Korea believe after launching rockets in live-fire drills in response to the test of a nuclear bomb at the weekend.