Rocket Man!
A position of strength.
1. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute:
2. A study released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute this month estimates that North Korea has possibly assembled around 60 nuclear warheads and possesses enough fissile material to produce at least 30 more, and is accelerating the production of fissile material. (Source: bloomberg.com)
3. North Korea is the world’s most unlikely growth story. Its economy is flourishing in ways not seen in years, aided by arms sales and troop deployments to Russia, supplies and financing from China, and the ability to flout international sanctions to import more energy, components and materials. The Kim regime slammed its borders shut during the Covid-19 pandemic. It has since reopened to only a select few outsiders, including Russian and Western travelers and diplomats. Those visitors describe a North Korea unrecognizable from the past, especially its capital, Pyongyang, where Kim and the country’s elite live. (Source: wsj.com)
4. Reuters:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to Pyongyang earlier today, feeling in a position of strength with a firm ally in Russia, a nuclear arsenal and little apparent appetite to engage with Washington. For Xi, leader of the world’s second-biggest economy, the two-day visit to China’s neighbor, his first in seven years, is part of an effort to draw Pyongyang back into its orbit. (Source: reuters.com)
5. Financial Times:
Explosions were heard in central Tehran on Monday morning as Israel traded fire with Iran and its allies in a cycle of attacks that threatened to ignite a broader round of fighting in the Middle East.
Iranian state media reported the explosions in western Tehran hours after the Israeli military said it had struck military targets in western and central Iran.
On Sunday night, Iran launched a barrage of missiles at northern Israel in retaliation for an earlier Israeli strike on southern Beirut targeting the Iran-allied Hizbollah militant group.
The Iranian barrage, which did not cause any injuries, was the first that Tehran had launched at Israel since a fragile ceasefire took effect in April. Iran has insisted that the Israeli-Hizbollah conflict should be part of the broader truce, and had warned that it would retaliate if Israel struck Beirut.
A person briefed on the developments said Israeli officials assessed the renewed fighting could last for a “few days”, but cautioned that “nobody knows how it can escalate”.
