North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un called for the country's military to “bolster up their strength in every way to annihilate the enemy”, state media reported on Friday.
Mr Kim made the remarks during photo sessions with troops, state media broadcasters, and others involved in a huge military parade on Monday, which marked the 90th anniversary of the army's founding.
The latest satellite imagery showed increased preparations for a possible nuclear test.
“Current satellite imagery indicates that preparations are well under way and should not be discounted as insignificant activity,” the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report on Thursday.
Commercial satellite imagery from Monday shows construction of new buildings, movement of lumber, and an increase in equipment and supplies immediately outside the new entrance to tunnel number three, CSIS said.
“The date of a seventh nuclear test will undoubtedly depend exclusively upon the personal decision of Kim Jong-un,” the report said.
During the parade, the North Korean leader promised to speed up development of its nuclear arsenal.
The parade featured several of the North's latest missiles, including its largest intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-17, and a recently tested hypersonic missile.
The display demonstrated the “modernity, heroism and radical development of the armed forces of the republic and their matchless military and technological superiority”, Mr Kim told troops at the photo session, state news agency KCNA reported.
North Korea has stepped up weapons tests and displays of military power in recent months, with US and South Korean officials saying there are signs of new construction at North Korea's only known nuclear test site.
The site has been officially closed since 2018, Reuters reported, suggesting Pyongyang may be preparing to resume testing nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, two South Koreans have been arrested on charges of stealing military secrets for a suspected North Korean agent who paid them in cryptocurrency, Seoul police said on Friday.
One of them is a 29-year-old army captain who allegedly passed log-in information for South Korea's Joint Command & Control System, to the suspected Pyongyang spy, Seoul authorities said.
The other, a 38-year-old businessman who runs a virtual asset management company, is accused of giving the army captain a wristwatch with a secret camera to aid in intelligence gathering, at the request of the spy.
The businessman is also suspected of buying and assembling a USB-like hacking device called “Poison Tap” to access the Joint Command & Control System, Seoul police said.
“The two men have been arrested on charges of violating the national security law,” an official at the Korean National Police Agency told AFP on Friday.
Both were paid in cryptocurrency, the police said. The army captain received about 48 million won ($37,789) from the North Korean agent, while the businessman received about $600,000.
“We will strictly respond to security criminals in accordance to laws and principles,” Seoul's prosecution office said.
North and South Korea remain technically at war because the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with the signing of an armistice and not a peace treaty.
Agencies contributed to the report
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Jumanji: The Next Level
Director: Jake Kasdan
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Jack Black, Nick Jonas
Two out of five stars
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies direct from Dubai to Rio de Janeiro from Dh7,000 return including taxes. Avianca fliles from Rio to Cusco via Lima from $399 (Dhxx) return including taxes.
The trip
From US$1,830 per deluxe cabin, twin share, for the one-night Spirit of the Water itinerary and US$4,630 per deluxe cabin for the Peruvian Highlands itinerary, inclusive of meals, and beverages. Surcharges apply for some excursions.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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THREE
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The specs: 2018 BMW R nineT Scrambler
Price, base / as tested Dh57,000
Engine 1,170cc air/oil-cooled flat twin four-stroke engine
Transmission Six-speed gearbox
Power 110hp) @ 7,750rpm
Torque 116Nm @ 6,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined 5.3L / 100km
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The biog
Title: General Practitioner with a speciality in cardiology
Previous jobs: Worked in well-known hospitals Jaslok and Breach Candy in Mumbai, India
Education: Medical degree from the Government Medical College in Nagpur
How it all began: opened his first clinic in Ajman in 1993
Family: a 90-year-old mother, wife and two daughters
Remembers a time when medicines from India were purchased per kilo
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