NKorea to Launch New Satellites, Build Drones as it Warns War Inevitable

HANDOUT - 30 December 2023, North Korea, Pyongyang: A picture released by the North Korean state news agency (KCNA) on 30 December 2023 shows North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attending the ninth plenary session of the eighth Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea at the headquarters of the party's Central Committee. Photo: ---/KCNA/KNS/dpa
HANDOUT - 30 December 2023, North Korea, Pyongyang: A picture released by the North Korean state news agency (KCNA) on 30 December 2023 shows North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attending the ninth plenary session of the eighth Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea at the headquarters of the party's Central Committee. Photo: ---/KCNA/KNS/dpa
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NKorea to Launch New Satellites, Build Drones as it Warns War Inevitable

HANDOUT - 30 December 2023, North Korea, Pyongyang: A picture released by the North Korean state news agency (KCNA) on 30 December 2023 shows North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attending the ninth plenary session of the eighth Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea at the headquarters of the party's Central Committee. Photo: ---/KCNA/KNS/dpa
HANDOUT - 30 December 2023, North Korea, Pyongyang: A picture released by the North Korean state news agency (KCNA) on 30 December 2023 shows North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attending the ninth plenary session of the eighth Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea at the headquarters of the party's Central Committee. Photo: ---/KCNA/KNS/dpa

North Korea vowed to launch three new spy satellites, build military drones, and boost its nuclear arsenal in 2024 as leader Kim Jong Un said US policy is making war inevitable, state media reported on Sunday.
According to Reuters, Kim lashed out at Washington in lengthy remarks wrapping up five days of ruling party meetings that set economic, military and foreign policy goals for the coming year.
"Because of reckless moves by the enemies to invade us, it is a fait accompli that a war can break out at any time on the Korean peninsula," he said, according to state news agency KCNA.
He ordered the military to prepare to "pacify the entire territory of South Korea," including with nuclear bombs if necessary, in response to any attack.
Kim's speech comes ahead of a year that will see pivotal elections in both South Korea and the United States.
Experts predict North Korea will maintain a campaign of military pressure for leverage around the US presidential elections in November, which could see the return of former President Donald Trump, who traded in both threats and historic diplomacy with Kim.
"Pyongyang might be waiting out the US presidential election to see what its provocations can buy it with the next administration," said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
The administration of US President Joe Biden says it is open to talks, but it imposed new sanctions as North Korea pushed ahead with more missile tests banned under United Nations' sanctions.
The US also increased drills and deployed more military assets, including nuclear-armed submarines and large aircraft carriers, near the Korean peninsula.

Kim said the return of such weapons had completely transformed South Korea into a "forward military base and nuclear arsenal" of the United States.
"If we look closely at the confrontational military actions by the enemy forces... the word 'war' has become a realistic reality and not an abstract concept," Kim said.
Kim said he has no choice but to press forward with his nuclear ambitions and forge deeper relations with other countries that oppose the United States. North Korea has deep ties with both China and Russia.
"North Korea is preparing for further escalation of tension with Washington and Seoul, for at least a year or more, and its hard line policies are likely to be accompanied by efforts for dialogue as well ahead of the US election," Yang Uk, an analyst at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies said.
"Kim is building on his success of the spy satellite to do three more because he knows satellite capabilities are powerful targeting tool for better nuclear command and control."
South Korea holds a parliamentary election in April that could impact the domestic and foreign agenda for conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol, who has maintained a hawkish stance toward Pyongyang.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) warned on Thursday that "there is a high possibility that North Korea could unexpectedly conduct military provocations or stage a cyberattack in 2024, when fluid political situations are expected with the elections."
Pyongyang has now ruled out the possibility of unifying with South Korea, and the country must fundamentally change its principle and direction toward South Korea, Kim said.
"North-South relations are no longer a kinship or homogeneous relationship but have completely become a relationship between two hostile countries, two belligerents at war," he said, calling the South a colonized state completely dependent on the United States for national defense and security.
Kim also promised to develop the economy, including the metals, chemicals, power, machinery and railway sectors, while modernizing wheat facilities to boost production.
One key policy goal is to invest in science and technological research at schools, he said.



Trump Downplays Possibility of Sending Ukraine Long-Range Weapons as It Struggles to Repel Russia

 In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a local resident walks along the street under an anti-drone net in Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a local resident walks along the street under an anti-drone net in Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
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Trump Downplays Possibility of Sending Ukraine Long-Range Weapons as It Struggles to Repel Russia

 In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a local resident walks along the street under an anti-drone net in Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a local resident walks along the street under an anti-drone net in Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

President Donald Trump on Tuesday downplayed the possibility of sending Ukraine long-range weapons as Kyiv awaits an injection of US weaponry that it hopes will help it beat back an intensifying Russian air offensive.

Trump offered a more cautious tone on what to expect after he threatened Russia a day earlier with steep tariffs if President Vladimir Putin doesn’t act within 50 days to end the three-year conflict. He also on Monday announced plans to bolster Kyiv's stockpile by selling American weapons to NATO allies who would in turn send arms to Ukraine.

Providing Ukraine with more long-range weaponry would give Kyiv the chance to strike further into Russian territory, a move that some in Ukraine and the US have said could help push Putin toward negotiations to end the fighting.

Asked if he intended to supply Ukraine with weapons that could reach deeper into Russian territory, Trump replied, "We're not looking to do that." He made the remarks to reporters before departing the White House for an energy investment event in Pittsburgh.

While Trump's threats of weapons, sanctions and tariffs mark the most substantive pressure he’s placed on Putin since returning to office nearly six months ago, some lawmakers said they remain concerned that the administration, with the 50-day deadline, is giving Putin time to grab even more Ukrainian territory.

Sens. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, and Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, said waiting 50 days before imposing sanctions on Russia would give Putin more time to gain an advantage in the war.

"The 50-day delay worries me that Putin would try to use the 50 days to win the war, or to be better positioned to negotiate a peace agreement after having murdered and potentially collected more ground," said Tillis, who recently announced he won’t run for reelection.

Tillis and Shaheen lead the Senate NATO Observer Group, which facilitates work between Congress and NATO, and met Tuesday with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Capitol Hill.

Trump himself scoffed at the idea that 50 days is giving Putin too much time. The president suggested he may act more quickly if he does not see signs that Putin is taking steps toward ending the conflict.

"I don’t think 50 days is very long and it could be shorter than that," he said.

Ahead of Trump's announcement that he would impose a 100% tariff on Russia’s trading partners if Putin doesn't negotiate an end to the war, bipartisan legislation proscribing even tougher sanctions on Moscow was gaining steam in the Senate.

The legislation, in part, calls for a 500% tariff on goods imported from countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports. It would have an enormous impact on the economies of Brazil, China and India, which account for the vast majority of Russia’s energy trade.

But Trump on Monday said "at a certain point it doesn’t matter" how high the tariff is set and that "100% is going to serve the same function." Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he was putting the legislation on hold following Trump's announcement.

Trump during his campaign described the conflict as a waste of US taxpayer money and vowed to quickly end it on his first day back in office. He deflected when asked by a reporter on Tuesday if his tougher tone on Putin suggests he's now on Ukraine’s side in the bloody conflict.

"I’m on nobody’s side," Trump said, adding this concern was for "humanity."

US officials say they are still sorting through Ukraine’s wish list of weaponry to determine what can be most quickly replaced after Trump announced an agreement for Europe to supply Ukraine with defensive munitions from existing stocks.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss arms transfers that have not yet been approved or completed, said Ukraine’s requests for military equipment are roughly the same as they have been since the start of Russia’s invasion. Those include air defenses like Patriot missiles and Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems, long-range missiles known as ATACMS and short- to medium-range ground-to-air missiles known as NASAMs, and assorted artillery, according to the officials.

Under the terms of the very rough agreement sketched out by Trump and Rutte on Monday, NATO members would ship billions of dollars of these weapons to Ukraine and then purchase replacements for them from the United States.

One official said some of the larger items, such as Patriots, could take up to five years to produce to deliver to the European donors, while smaller munitions like 155mm artillery shells can be produced on a much shorter timeline.

Trump has lately changed his once friendly tune toward Putin, whom he has long admired and whom he sided with publicly over his national security team during his first term when asked whether Russia had interfered in the 2016 election.

In recent weeks, Trump has chastised Putin for continuing his brutal assault on Ukrainian cities, even noting that the Russian leader "talks nice and then he bombs everybody."

Trump has continued to blame his White House predecessors for Putin's 2022 invasion on neighboring Ukraine — a conflict he says would have never happened if he were reelected in 2020.

"He’s fooled a lot of people," Trump said Monday at the White House. "He fooled Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden. He didn’t fool me."

In February, Trump expressed confidence that Putin "will keep his word" on any deal to end the war in Ukraine. But in an interview with the BBC published Tuesday, when asked whether he trusted Putin, Trump paused before answering.

"I trust almost nobody, to be honest with you," Trump said. "I’m disappointed in him, but I’m not done with him. But I’m disappointed in him."