Pyongyang’s suspected hypersonic ballistic missile test has analysts worried the regime is inflaming tensions to skirt sanctions.

Carrier’s arrival shows the ‘firm resolve’ of South Korea and the US to respond to escalating threats from the North, Seoul’s navy says.

Existing doctrine says Russia may use nuclear weapons in response to nuclear attack or a conventional attack that poses an ‘existential threat’.

Russia’s president is heading to Pyongyang for a ‘friendly’ two-day visit from Tuesday, state media said, followed by Vietnam.

In a letter, the Russian president vowed to support Pyongyang against ‘US pressure, blackmail and military threats’.

The number of operational nuclear warheads is steadily rising, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

China is likely to see the multi-domain exercise – which will be launched this summer – as ‘destabilising and threatening’, analyst says.

The first B1-B drill in 7 years comes amid heightened tensions after Pyongyang floated hundreds of huge waste-filled balloons south.

But the trilateral summit promotes lower-level dialogue among senior officials, encourages key people-to-people exchanges and maintains ties, an analyst says.

The launch became the nuclear-armed North’s latest failure, following two other fiery crashes last year.

Leaders also pledge to cooperate on denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, during trilateral summit in Seoul.

At a three-way summit in Seoul, China, Japan and South Korea sought to cooperate on security, and denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, they said in a joint statement.

Pyongyang told Japan it intends to launch the satellite by June 4. Rocket debris could fall near the Korean peninsula and Philippine island of Luzon.

Seoul should pay to refurbish some of the US’ old ‘regime killer’ nuclear bombs, a US defence analyst says – as confidence wavers in Washington’s commitment to defend South Korea.

North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile toward waters off its east coast, hours after the outspoken sister of leader Kim Jong-un blasted as “fiction” accusations that her nation was exporting weapons to Russia.

The State Department said American Christina Chapman helped three North Koreans in an ‘illicit telework employment’ scheme that earned US$6.8 million for Pyongyang.

Analysts say the sudden two-tier rise of the warning despite no major events in progress for Seoul could signal precautions against a retaliation over a row on defected diplomats.

With wars raging in Ukraine, the Middle East, an emboldened North Korea, and the coming US presidential election, it is prudent Seoul not get involved in a potential Taiwan crisis, one expert said.

The move is in line with Pyongyang’s efforts to attract Iran to an alliance against the US and boost cooperation for mutual benefit, analyst notes.

Events used to lionise Kim’s grandfather and father have been reduced, a move that could put the focus on Kim’s own achievements and policies instead.

Chinese foreign ministry says China does not compete with other nations in military power and ‘firmly pursues a defensive national defence policy’.

Read on for a closer look at the potential conflict scenarios, after two prominent analysts set North Korea watchers’ tongues wagging by warning Kim ‘has made a strategic decision to go to war’.

The launch was overseen by Kim Jong-un, who said the weapon showed the ‘absolute superiority’ of Pyongyang’s defence technology.