SEOUL | North Korean soldiers boasted on state-run television they bombarded a front-line South Korean island with artillery last month as immediate retaliation after the South fired first.
North Korea could be planning another nuclear test for next year, a South Korean think tank warned Friday, as Pyongyang celebrated the anniversary of leader Kim Jong-il's elevation to military chief, calling him "an invincible and iron-willed commander."
Successive U.S. administrations since the 1979 Islamic revolution have viewed Iran as a dire and existential threat to America and its allies in the Persian Gulf, the broader Middle East and Eurasia. They have thus sought to limit Iran's military capabilities ever since.
North and South Korea beat the drums of war Thursday, with each threatening the other with immediate retaliation if attacked.
One month after a deadly exchange of artillery fire, the two Koreas ramped up their rhetoric Thursday, with South Korea's president pledging unsparing retaliation if his country is attacked again and a top North Korean official threatening a "sacred" nuclear war if provoked.
Fresh off a peacekeeping trip to the Korean peninsula, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson warned that violence between North and South Korea could flare anew if the South continues its military drills and the North abandons its intentions to refrain from retaliation.
In his State of the Union address of January 2002, President George W. Bush coined the phrase "Axis of Evil." However, in his second term he apparently forgot about it. President Obama may never use this term, but make no mistake: The Axis of Evil is alive and well. Iran, North Korea and now possibly Venezuela are on the verge of obtaining nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them.
A newly released State Department cable from November 2009 reveals the Israeli military's growing worries about Iran's nuclear weapons program and Tehran's support for regional terrorists in seeking "Hamastan" and "Hezbollahstan" enclaves.
South Korea vowed Wednesday to "completely punish" North Korea if it attacks again, and it mobilized hundreds of troops, tanks and helicopters for a massive military exercise prompted by high tensions on the peninsula.
