North Korea to launch 3 more spy satellites, Kim Jong Un says
CBSN
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country will launch three additional military spy satellites, build more nuclear weapons and introduce modern unmanned combat equipment in 2024, as he called for "overwhelming" war readiness to cope with U.S.-led confrontational moves, state media reported Sunday.
Kim's comments, made during a key ruling Workers' Party meeting to set state goals for next year, suggest he'll continue a run of weapons tests to increase his leverage in future diplomacy ahead of the U.S. presidential elections in November. Observers say Kim could eventually offer to halt North Korea's testing activities and take other limited denuclearization steps in return for sanctions relief but he has no intentions of fully abandoning his advancing nuclear arsenal.
During the five-day meeting that ended Saturday, Kim said moves by the U.S. and its followers against North Korea have been unprecedented this year, pushing the Korean Peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
Russia launched a barrage of missiles at Ukraine Thursday in its first major retaliation for Ukraine's attack earlier in the week on a military facility in the Russian region of Bryansk. That strike saw the Ukrainians use American-made and supplied long-range missiles known as ATACMS, which President Biden had given the Ukrainian forces permission to fire deeper into Russian territory only two days earlier.
Amersham, England — Family and friends of One Direction star Liam Payne, who died last month after falling from a Buenos Aires hotel room, gathered for his funeral in Britain on Wednesday. Payne's former bandmates Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson were among mourners at the private service at St Mary's Church in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, just outside London.