Kim Jong Un wants the world to know he still matters. Seven missile tests in a month may prove it
CNN
Seven North Korean missile tests in January 2022 suggest the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, wants to show that in an increasingly turbulent world Pyongyang still matters.
According to analysts, seven North Korean missile tests in the first four weeks of 2022 suggest the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, is both striving to meet domestic goals and show an increasingly turbulent world that Pyongyang remains a player in the struggle for power and influence.
"By threatening to destabilize Asia while global resources are stretched thin elsewhere, Pyongyang is demanding the world pay it to act like a 'responsible nuclear power,'" said Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea.
France condemned the brief detention of two consulate members after it said Israeli police forced their way into a French-owned holy site in Jerusalem, in what is the latest diplomatic spat in a series of events that have sent relations between the two plummeting.
An Israeli airstrike on a multi-story building in northern Gaza killed at least 27 people, relief officials said, as the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders in the area – where it is mounting a major offensive.
If his first term in the White House is any indication, President-elect Donald Trump is likely to keep the Middle East high on his agenda.
Rights groups say journalist Reza Valizadeh has been detained, amid heightened tensions between the United States and Iran.
A female student stripped to her underwear outside her university in Iran in what some student and rights groups say was a protest against the country’s strict Islamic dress code.
Israel is at a “high level of readiness” for a response from Iran, an Israeli military source told CNN, as US officials visited the Middle East for a renewed push to resolve the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. Follow live updates.