North Korea denounced the United States for sending military aircraft over the Korean peninsula several times this month, as well as the U.S., Japan and South Korea for holding an air military exercise,

Mr. President, North Korea poses growing challenges to US national interests. You should initiate again an open-ended diplomatic process with Kim in which you are ready to trade sanctions relief for verifiable nuclear concessions.

Russia signed a strategic partnership treaty with Iran on Friday that follows similar pacts with China and North Korea. All three countries are adversaries of the United States, and Russia has used its ties with them to help blunt the impact of Western sanctions and boost its war effort in Ukraine.

John Kirby, White House national security communications adviser, said of Hegseth's remarks on North Korea's status as a nuclear power: "We've not made such a recognition. I can't speak to what the incoming team will—how they'll characterize it. We've not gone so far as to make that recognition."

Trump defense secretary nominee Pete Hesgeth ruffled feathers in S. Korea with his written statement to the Senate panel overseeing his confirmation

North Korean troops, unacknowledged by their own country, are getting chewed up in a vicious war in which, far from home, they are “cannon fodder” fighting anonymously on behalf of the Russians.

The aircraft, also known as Cobra Ball, joined another RC-135S, the 62-4128, which missed the recent North Korean missile launch by a few hours. This is the second time since early December last year that the U.S. military has stationed two Cobra Ball aircraft at Kadena.

The loose arrangement of hostile powers could pose a series of conundrums for President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state.

North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea on Tuesday, Seoul's military said, in a provocation just days before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

North Korea warned Friday that it would exercise its right to self-defense "more intensively" as it condemned recent joint air drills among South Korea, the United States and Japan.

Trump-policy outlook WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (Yonhap) -- Under his America First leitmotif, incoming U.S. President Donald Trump appears poised to bring a shift in the United States' approach to the alliance with South Korea,