According to a report by The Times, UK, South Korean commandos will be working with the team of US Navy Seals who killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden to create a special squad to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

According to media reports, dozens of South Korean protestors have been injured in clashes between them and the South Korean police as the US military added more launchers to their THAAD missile defence systems deployed across the country. The police officers also reportedly smashed windows of cars that were being used to block roads.

Suki Kim, a South Korean-born American writer who worked undercover in North Korea for over 6 months, has said that an uprising by the people of North Korea against the Kim Jong-un regime is the only way of dealing with the issue. "Literally the only way to approach it is a regime change, North Korea as a regime will not cooperate, you cannot actually come to any conclusion dealing with [their] great leader system," she said.

South Korean citizens took to the streets today, protesting the deployment of THAAD missile defence systems by the US military. South Koreans have been opposing the THAAD systems for quite some time as they believe the system's presence will impact the environment and health of people in an adverse way. Some maintain that deploying these systems is only going to result in an escalation of tensions in the Korean Peninsula, not help calm them down.

div id="ajaxcontentad">

South Korea has said that it expects North Korea to launch yet another intercontinental ballistic missile on Saturday, September 9. "The situation is very grave. It doesn't seem much time is left before North Korea achieves its complete nuclear armament," South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon was quoted as telling a meeting of defense ministers in Seoul today.

US-led military alliance NATO has urged all other countries to step up their efforts in imposing stronger sanctions on North Korea and stop its nuclear tests. The appeal was perceived to be aimed at North Korea's trading partners China and Russia, who seem to be holding back penalties.

Citizens of Pyongyang lined the streets to cheer buses carrying the specialists into the city, and tens of thousands of people gathered in Kim Il-Sung Square to praise their efforts.

The rocket scientist behind North Korea's controversial nuclear weapons program was picked out of nowhere by Kim Jong-un after he spotted a mistake in 2012 missile test that went awry. After that, Kim Jong Sik, as he is known, was elevated to Kim Jong-un's inner military circle in 2012, after the successful launch of a Unha-3 rocket in December that year.

Reports have just come in that amid protests in the South Korean village where the THAAD systems have been deployed, US military personnel have added more launchers to the anti-missile systems.

Meanwhile, in the Chinese city of Dandong, which is on the Chinese-North Korean border, one could be excused for thinking there is nothing going on in the Korean Peninsula. Trucks are still seen plying to and from North Korea and people are seen walking calmly on the promenade in plain view of North Korean border guards. Even local businesses like hotels and restaurants said that the tourist season, which is drawing to a close, did not see much of an impact because of the war of words between US and North Korea.Analysts have been quoted saying that if North Korea follows through on its threat of launching nuclear attacks, Asia's supply chain will be badly hurt. South Korea will be one of the worst-affected countries if war breaks out in the Korean Peninsula and it is one of the largest economies in the world. A lot of other countries depend on South Korea, particularly for electronics, and war-related devastation in the country could end up disrupting the entire manufacturing supply chain in Asia.

South Korea had already deployed two launchers of the US anti-missile Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system couple of days ago. Amid rising tensions, it decided to install the four remaining launchers of the THAAD system on a former golf course earlier today.

South Korea has reportedly deployed anti-missile systems across the country. Protestors in a South Korean village clashed with thousands of policemen todayas components of a controversial system to guard against North Korean missiles were deployed.

What happened overnight?

The US has proposed a series of new sanctions to be imposed on North Korea that includes an oil supply cut and freezing Kim Jong-un's assets. The draft proposal also includes banning textile imports from North Korea by other countries and banning Kim Jong-un from traveling internationally. It is still unclear whether this proposal has the backing of either China or Russia as both of them had expressed their concerns about imposing such sanctions on North Korea.

China shot down “incoming missiles” on Tuesday early morning during a military exercise held over the waters that separate it from the Korean peninsula, reports South China Morning Post.

The drill, which began at midnight and came just two days after Pyongyang conducted its latest nuclear test, challenged a ground unit, under China’s air force, to shoot down simulated low flying missiles in the skies over Bohai Bay, the report quoted the official military news website 81.cn.

The missiles used in the “sudden attack” were shot down at the first attempt by the People’s Liberation Army’s missile force, the report said, without elaborating.

The exercise was the third in the bay area – the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea between China and North Korea – since late July.

Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell said Wednesday the US can't expect China to help with North Korea's nuclear weapons threat.

Mitchell, a key mediator in the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland, said the problem with the US and China teaming up is the latter's "long-term interests are the exact opposite of ours."

"In the short-term, we both want stability. We wish this guy would calm down," Mitchell told CNBC US in an interview," referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "But in the long term, we want a unified Korea and a democratic regime. And that's the last thing that China wants."

Share This Post