North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Wednesday toward the sea off the Korean Peninsula's east coast, South Korean and Japanese authorities said, days ahead of major joint military exercises by Seoul and Washington long denounced by Pyongyang. The missile was launched from the Wonsan area on North Korea's east coast at around 6am (2100 GMT Tuesday), South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, six days after North Korea fired another ballistic missile from the same area. The launch comes ahead of South Korean and United States military drills, dubbed Ulchi Freedom Shield, scheduled for August 17 to 27, aimed at countering Pyongyang's evolving nuclear and weapons capabilities. Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said the launch was likely part of North Ko...
US President Donald Trump took a secret military flight from Turkey last month in an operation that involved him being moved between aircraft in a catering truck, an extraordinary deception prompted by an Iranian assassination threat, the Washington Post reported. The White House said at the time that the president was flying aboard Air Force One from Turkey, where he had attended a NATO summit, to Britain. But moments after Trump had boarded the plane, he left it in secret via the catering truck and boarded another aircraft for the flight to Britain, the Post said on Monday, quoting unnamed sources. The New York Times carried a similar report, quoting unnamed US officials. Trump had taken a newly renovated Qatari-donated jet to Ankara for the NATO summit but unexpectedly announced he would use an older Air Force One when departing the country, a move that prompted questions about the newer plane's security. The trip to NATO was the first international tr...