The United States has military options for North Korea that do not put Seoul at grave risk, Washington's top defense official said Monday.The remark by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis marks a departure from the popular argument that there is no viable military option that would not leave thousands

South Korea's Air Force said Wednesday it has successfully conducted its first live-fire exercise for Taurus, a long-range air-to-surface missile introduced from Germany for precision bombing of key facilities in North Korea.In the exercise, which took place in the air over Taean, South Chungche

U.S. President Donald Trump played down the new United Nations sanctions against North Korea on Tuesday, saying they are "just another very small step" and "not a big deal."The Trump administration pushed for a complete oil embargo and an asset freeze for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after th

The U.S. House of Representatives will hold a hearing this week to address the North Korea issue following its latest nuclear test, the relevant committee said Monday.Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, will convene a hearing at 10 a.m. Tuesday to discuss "Sanctio

The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted new sanctions against North Korea on Monday, imposing caps on its imports of oil but stopping short of measures that could cripple the regime.The move comes in the wake of North Korea's sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3.The sanctions in

South Korea is not considering the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons into the country, the presidential office said Sunday, in response to a U.S. media report that hinted the Trump government is willing to take it as a viable option should Seoul ask for it."There is no change in the governme

An influential American senator on Sunday called for serious consideration of redeploying U.S. nuclear weapons to South Korea.In an interview with CNN, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said he thinks "it ought to be seriously considered" in the wake of North Korea

North Korea warned Monday that the United States will suffer the "greatest pain" if it pushes ahead with new tougher U.N. sanctions over its sixth nuclear test.Pyongyang's threat comes as the U.S. asked the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) last week to vote on new sanctions Monday in res

A bipartisan group of U.S. House lawmakers have introduced a resolution condemning North Korea's threat against the U.S. territory of Guam.Last month, the North threatened to fire intermediate-range ballistic missiles into waters just 30-40 kilometers off the Pacific island, a key strategic poin

South Korea's military is watching North Korea closely for signs of provocations, officials said Saturday, amid concern the regime could undertake a missile launch or even another nuclear test on its founding anniversary. The anniversary, which marks the 1948 establishment of the North&#

The Philippines has suspended trade with North Korea as part of efforts to enforce a U.N. Security Council resolution against the regime, according to news reports.On Friday, Foreign Minister Alan Peter Cayetano told reporters in the capital of the decision in the wake of North Korea's sixth and

Traces of xenon gas, a radionuclide, were detected in South Korea, the nuclear safety agency said Friday, five days after North Korea conducted its most powerful nuclear test.The the radioactive material, the xenon-133 isotope, was found in the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission's analysis o

South Korean President Moon Jae-in defended the government's decision to fully deploy the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system here Friday, saying it was an inevitable decision to protect his people from evolving nuclear and missile provocations from North Korea.The president,

South Korea will explore all measures to prevent North Korea from perfecting a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the unification minister said Friday.Minister Cho Myoung-gyon also said that now is not the right time to seek talks with North Korea amid tensions sparked by its

South Korea's unification ministry said Friday it plans to seek trilateral economic cooperation involving the two Koreas and Russia after taking into account international sanctions and public sentiment.President Moon Jae-in has unveiled the so-called new Northern Policy designed to expand econo

The United States has tentatively concluded that North Korea detonated an H-bomb over the weekend, as the regime has claimed, a senior U.S. administration official said Thursday.The remark underscores the gravity of the threat posed by North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, as an

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis assured South Korea Thursday that it will not face the North Korean nuclear threat alone.Mattis was responding to Yonhap News Agency's question about reports the North could test another long-range missile on the anniversary of its founding day on Saturday."We,

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday that it is keeping close tabs on any possible escalation of retaliation by China against South Korea over its deployment of additional launchers for the U.S. THAAD missile defense system.Earlier, the defense ministry here announced that the deployment of

Top diplomats from South Korea and Japan underlined the need to intensify sanctions and pressure against North Korea to resolve the North's evolving nuclear and missile threats, the foreign ministry here said Thursday.Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and her Japanese counterpart Taro Kono continu

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that military action is not his first choice for dealing with the nuclear threat from North Korea.He made the remark before boarding a plane to North Dakota, in response to reporters' questions about North Korea and his phone call earlier in the day wit