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Elon musk was the founder space X

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Rocket Part Soon Expected to Crash into Moon, Likely Carving Out a Crater
https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2022-03-03/rocket-part-soon-expected-to-crash-into-moon-likely-carving-out-a-crater
1. 'We're starting to take our problems that we have on Earth to the moon right now,' - Crassidis," were polluting space and making it a future problem
2. The moon is getting more craters because space junk is hitting it
3. China isn't meeting the standards fro space debris.

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A rocket part that has been floating through space is set to crash into the moon Friday morning, marking what is believed to be the first time a piece of space junk accidentally hits the lunar surface.

The debris will smash into the far side of the moon at 5,800 miles per hour, carving out a crater roughly 30-60 feet wide. While that may sound alarming, the moon's extremely thin atmosphere means objects easily crash into it, resulting in its pockmarked surface.

"The moon is going to be perfectly fine," says John Crassidis, a space debris expert at the University at Buffalo.

Still, the development shows there are increasing reasons to be concerned about the issue of space junk, or abandoned materials from launches left to float around in space.

"We're starting to take our problems that we have on Earth to the moon right now," Crassidis says.

Photos: Space Over Time

Humans are launching more things into the atmosphere and to space, increasing the odds that space junk will be created. Over 27,000 pieces of space junk are being tracked in Earth's orbit, but many more are too small to be monitored.

"Imagine if we don't do anything to correct this problem, what's going to happen 50 years from now? I think we're going to be in a lot of trouble," Crassidis says.

That's because of Kessler Syndrome, or the scenario in which the density of space junk in orbit around Earth reaches a critical mass, causing even more collisions and generating additional debris.

Crassidis says reaching that point would mean "that the probability of a collision will be so great that putting something in low-Earth orbit isn't going to be worth it."

It's also a danger to astronauts. The International Space Station already has to keep an eye out for the fast-moving debris and adjust to avoid collisions, but more space junk increases the odds of getting hit, potentially endangering the astronauts onboard.

The space junk that will crash into the moon on Friday raises another issue: How are polluting parties held responsible?

Asteroid tracker Bill Gray discovered the collision course in January. Originally, he thought it was a SpaceX Falcon rocket upper stage from a 2015 launch. But in February, he said the space junk actually likely originated from a Chinese rocket from a mission in 2014.

Chinese officials deny the debris belongs to them, arguing that the object had re-entered Earth's atmosphere and burned up. But the U.S. Space Command told the Associated Press that the rocket part never deorbited.

Even if the part does indeed originate from China, there is no mechanism to hold the country responsible for creating more space debris.

What is in place is the United Nations' Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines, which ask countries to voluntarily minimize the potential for space debris and accidental collisions, avoid intentional collisions and limit the presence of spacecrafts in low-Earth orbit after their missions have ended.

But the guidelines, which were published in 2010, haven't stopped several countries from unintentionally and intentionally creating space junk. Both India and Russia performed anti-satellite tests in recent years to see if they can destroy their own space objects in low-Earth orbit, thereby creating debris.

And not all debris is small. Part of a Chinese rocket created chaos last year when it began falling uncontrollably back to Earth. China's space administration said the debris landed in the Indian Ocean near the Maldives.

"It is clear that China is failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement at the time.

In terms of solutions, clean-up technologies remain limited in how much debris can be collected. And there aren't any plans to slow down launches.

Crassidis says any debris enforcement or mitigation measures would need to come from governments and politicians.

"Obviously, with what's going on in the world today, there's much higher priorities," he says.

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Rocket Part Soon Expected to Crash into Moon, Likely Carving Out a Crater

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A rocket part that has been floating through space is set to crash into the moon Friday morning, marking what is believed to be the first time a piece of space junk accidentally hits the lunar surface. The debris will smash into the far side of the moon at 5,800 miles per hour, carving out a crater roughly 30-60 feet wide.

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North Korean Leader Vows 'Offensive' Nuclear Expansion

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North Korean Leader Vows 'Offensive' Nuclear Expansion

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1. Kim Jong Un and the military commission members analyzed the security situation on the Korean Peninsula.
2. Tensions are likely to be prolonged as the allies continue their drills and North Korea uses them as a pretext to advance weapons development.
3. Kim Jung Un reviewed the country’s frontline attack plans and various combat documents and stressed the need to bolster his nuclear deterrent.

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to enhance his nuclear arsenal in more "practical and offensive" ways as he met with senior military officials to discuss the country's war preparations in the face of his rivals' "frantic" military exercises, state media said Tuesday.

The meeting of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Military Commission on Monday came amid heightened tensions as the pace of both the North Korean weapons demonstrations and the U.S.-South Korean joint military drills have intensified in recent weeks in a cycle of tit-for-tat.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said the commission's members discussed unspecified issues related to strengthening defense capacities and perfecting war preparations to counter the threat posed by the allies' drills, which the North portrays as invasion rehearsals.

Kim reviewed the country's frontline attack plans and various combat documents and stressed the need to bolster his nuclear deterrent with "increasing speed on a more practical and offensive" manner, KCNA said.

The report did not specify the directions the North intended to take. KCNA also published photos of Kim talking to officials while pointing to certain spots on a blurred map that appeared to be of South Korea.

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KCNA said Kim and the military commission members analyzed the security situation on the Korean Peninsula "in which the U.S. imperialists and the (South) Korean puppet traitors are getting ever more undisguised in their moves for a war of aggression" and discussed preparation for proposed military actions that their enemy has no way of counteracting.

The U.S. and South Korean militaries conducted their biggest field exercises in years last month and separately held joint naval and air force drills involving a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group and nuclear-capable U.S. bombers. KCNA claimed the drills simulated an all-out war against North Korea and communicated threats to occupy Pyongyang and decapitate its leadership.

The United States and South Korea have described their exercises as defensive in nature and said that the expansion of those drills are necessary to cope with the North's evolving threats.

Tensions are likely to be prolonged as the allies continue their drills and North Korea uses them as a pretext to advance weapons development and intensify military training involving its nuclear-capable missiles.

The North Korean report came as South Korean officials said the North did not respond to South Korean calls placed over inter-Korean liaison and military hotlines for the fifth consecutive day. South Korean officials say North Korea cut off communications after the South last week urged the North to stop using without permission South Korean assets left at a now-shuttered joint factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.

The paused military hotlines are particularly concerning in a time of heightened tensions as they are intended to prevent accidental clashes along the rivals' sea borders. Jeon Ha Gyu, spokesperson of South Korea's Defense Ministry, said Tuesday the South's military wasn't immediately detecting unusual activities by North Korea's military after the hotlines were paused.

South Korean Unification Minister Kwon Youngse, Seoul's point man on the North, in a news conference expressed "strong regret" over North Korea's "unilateral and irresponsible attitude "over the communication lines and also warned of unspecified legal action over its use of the Kaesong assets.

When asked about Kim's comments during the military meeting, Kwon said it's likely that North Korea currently sees the buildup of tensions as favorable to its interests and that Seoul is closely analyzing the North's intent.

South Korea pulled its companies out of Kaesong in 2016 following a North Korean nuclear test, removing the last remaining major symbol of cooperation between the rivals. North Korean state media recently showed what appeared to be South Korean commuter buses running in the streets of Kaesong and Pyongyang.

North Korea in 2023 so far has fired around 30 missiles in 11 different launch events, including intercontinental ballistic missiles that demonstrated potential range to reach the U.S. mainland and several shorter-range weapons designed to deliver nuclear strikes on South Korean targets.

The North was already coming off a record year in weapons testing, after launching nearly 70 missiles in 2022.

Experts say Kim's provocative run in weapons displays is aimed at forcing the United States to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and negotiating economic concessions from a position of strength.

Nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled since 2019 over disagreements in exchanging crippling U.S.-led sanctions against the North and the North's steps to wind down its nuclear weapons program.

South Korean officials say North Korea may soon up the ante by staging more provocative displays of its military might, including its first nuclear test detonation since 2017.

North Korea last month unveiled what appeared to be a new nuclear warhead designed to fit on various delivery systems as Kim called for his nuclear scientists to increase production of weapons-grade material to make bombs to put on his growing range of weapons.

North Korea has also issued veiled threats to test fire an ICBM on a normal ballistic trajectory toward the Pacific, which would be seen as a major provocation as its previous long-range tests were conducted on high angles to avoid the territories of neighbors.

The North also previously said it aims to finish preparations to launch a military spy satellite into space by April, an event its rivals would almost certainly see as a test of ICBM technology banned by international sanctions.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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North Korean Leader Vows 'Offensive' Nuclear Expansion

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to enhance his nuclear arsenal in more "practical and offensive" ways as he met with senior military officials to discuss the country's war preparations in the face of his rivals' "frantic" military exercises, state media said Tuesday.

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NASA: Asteroid Mission Strike Successfully Changed Orbit

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NASA: Asteroid Mission Strike Successfully Changed Orbit

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https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2022-10-11/nasa-dart-mission-successfully-changed-asteroids-orbit
1. Nasa sends a spacecraft into an asteroid.
2. It shortened the asteroid impact by around 30mins
3. This test will help prevent asteroids from crashing into Earth in the future.

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NASA: Asteroid Mission Strike Successfully Changed Orbit

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NASA: Asteroid Mission Strike Successfully Changed Orbit

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1:the spacecrafted crashed 7million miles away from earht
2:it was the first misson to test the tecknology for protecting  earth from astroids
3:The impact shortened the asteroid’s orbit by about 32 minutes

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U.S. Releases UFO Report, Congress Criticizes ‘Inconclusive’ Findings

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U.S. Releases UFO Report, Congress Criticizes ‘Inconclusive’ Findings

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https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2021-06-25/us-releases-ufo-report-congress-criticizes-inconclusive-findings

- Made a UFO sighting public
- Investigated UFO sightings
- One of the sightings was identified as a large, deflating balloon. The remainder are unexplained, the report states.

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The Office of the Director of National Intelligence confirmed late Friday it had submitted to Congress a report of its government-wide investigation on UFO sightings and released publicly a nine-page unclassified version of it.

The submission barely met the deadline set by Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who, as the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, last December called for the report within six months to investigate any known causes behind confirmed sightings of what the military and spy agencies call unidentified aerial phenomena or UAP.

The unclassified version of the report offered few details that hadn't previously been leaked, and it aligned with widespread speculation that its findings would not confirm the existence of extraterrestrials. Rather, it identifies the potential national security implications of Earth-bound threats such as previously unidentified technology - perhaps Russian or Chinese experimental projects.

"The limited amount of high-quality reporting on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP)

hampers our ability to draw firm conclusions about the nature or intent of UAP," the report states in its findings. "In a limited number of incidents, UAP reportedly appeared to exhibit unusual flight characteristics. These observations could be the result of sensor errors, spoofing, or observer misperception and require additional rigorous analysis."

Each case likely requires separate explanation, the report stated, adding that some incidents clearly represent "a safety of flight issue" and may pose "a challenge to U.S. national security."

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the committee's top Democrat, criticized the report's findings as "inconclusive," stressing the need to understand more about a problem that appears to be worsening.

Photos: Space Over Time

"I was first briefed on these unidentified aerial phenomena nearly three years ago. Since then, the frequency of these incidents only appears to be increasing," he said in a statement. "The United States must be able to understand and mitigate threats to our pilots, whether they're from drones or weather balloons or adversary intelligence capabilities."

Rubio touted the important precedent set by the report, one shared by so-called "ufologists" worldwide.

"For years, the men and women we trust to defend our country reported encounters with unidentified aircraft that had superior capabilities, and for years their concerns were often ignored and ridiculed," Rubio said. "This report is an important first step in cataloging these incidents, but it is just a first step. The Defense Department and Intelligence Community have a lot of work to do before we can actually understand whether these aerial threats present a serious national security concern."

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby in a statement thanked the DNI office for leading the investigation that produced the report, and announced the Defense Department will continue the work of a task force created to support the investigation.

"Incursions into our training ranges and designated airspace pose safety of flight and operations security concerns, and may pose national security challenges. DOD takes reports of incursions - by any aerial object, identified or unidentified - very seriously, and investigates each one," Kirby said. "The report submitted today highlights the challenges associated with assessing UAP occurring on or near DOD training ranges and installations. The report also identified the need to make improvements in processes, policies, technologies, and training to improve our ability to understand UAP."

Friday's report centered on 144 government sightings that took place between 2004 and 2021, 80 of which registered on multiple government sensors, including radar, infrared technology and visual observation, among others. The majority are from Navy personnel.

"Our analysis of the data supports the construct that if and when individual UAP incidents are resolved they will fall into one of five potential explanatory categories: airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, [U.S. government] or U.S. industry developmental programs, foreign adversary systems, and a catchall 'other' bin," the report states. The "other bin" includes sightings for objects that appear to defy physics and known technologies, requiring "additional analysis on the small number of cases where a UAP appeared to display unusual flight characteristics or signature management."

One of the sightings was identified as a large, deflating balloon. The remainder are unexplained, the report states.

The report in part faults the military services, specifically the Navy and Air Force, for not developing a standardized way for pilots and other eyewitnesses to report UAPs until recent years. It also cites a cultural stigma that may prevent professionals from admitting they witnessed an aerial phenomenon they can't explain.

"Although the effects of these stigmas have lessened as senior members of the scientific, policy, military, and intelligence communities engage on the topic seriously in public, reputational risk may keep many observers silent, complicating scientific pursuit of the topic," it notes.

Many of the reported sightings originate from areas near known military and government aerial testing facilities, which the report says may indicate the UAP was, in fact, a government program or simply that observers are more inclined to look for unexplained aircraft nearby.

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office of the director of national intelligence

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U.S. Releases UFO Report, Congress Criticizes 'Inconclusive' Findings

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The Office of the Director of National Intelligence confirmed late Friday it had submitted to Congress a report of its government-wide investigation on UFO sightings and released publicly a nine-page unclassified version of it . The submission barely met the deadline set by Sen.

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Pressurization Issue Delays SpaceX’s Massive Starship Rocket Launch

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Pressurization Issue Delays SpaceX’s Massive Starship Rocket Launch

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https://www.usnews.com/topics/subjects/space
* Even for a multi-billion dollar corporation, things don't always go as planned
* The public is highly eager to view this launch
* Musk is under a lot of pressure from the media, and other space corporations.

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US News is a recognized leader in college, grad school, hospital, mutual fund, and car rankings. Track elected officials, research health conditions, and find news you can use in politics, business, health, and education.

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North Korean Leader Vows 'Offensive' Nuclear Expansion

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North Korean Leader Vows 'Offensive' Nuclear Expansion

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1. The U.S and South Korea both exercised military weaponry and the KCNA claims that the drills simulated an all out war with north korea.

2. The meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Military Commission on Monday came amid heightened tensions as the pace of both the North Korean weapons demonstrations and the U.S.-South Korean joint military drills.

3. Kim reviewed the country’s frontline attack plans and various combat documents and stressed the need to bolster his nuclear deterrent with “increasing speed on a more practical and offensive” manner, KCNA said.

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to enhance his nuclear arsenal in more "practical and offensive" ways as he met with senior military officials to discuss the country's war preparations in the face of his rivals' "frantic" military exercises, state media said Tuesday.

The meeting of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Military Commission on Monday came amid heightened tensions as the pace of both the North Korean weapons demonstrations and the U.S.-South Korean joint military drills have intensified in recent weeks in a cycle of tit-for-tat.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said the commission's members discussed unspecified issues related to strengthening defense capacities and perfecting war preparations to counter the threat posed by the allies' drills, which the North portrays as invasion rehearsals.

Kim reviewed the country's frontline attack plans and various combat documents and stressed the need to bolster his nuclear deterrent with "increasing speed on a more practical and offensive" manner, KCNA said.

The report did not specify the directions the North intended to take. KCNA also published photos of Kim talking to officials while pointing to certain spots on a blurred map that appeared to be of South Korea.

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KCNA said Kim and the military commission members analyzed the security situation on the Korean Peninsula "in which the U.S. imperialists and the (South) Korean puppet traitors are getting ever more undisguised in their moves for a war of aggression" and discussed preparation for proposed military actions that their enemy has no way of counteracting.

The U.S. and South Korean militaries conducted their biggest field exercises in years last month and separately held joint naval and air force drills involving a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group and nuclear-capable U.S. bombers. KCNA claimed the drills simulated an all-out war against North Korea and communicated threats to occupy Pyongyang and decapitate its leadership.

The United States and South Korea have described their exercises as defensive in nature and said that the expansion of those drills are necessary to cope with the North's evolving threats.

Tensions are likely to be prolonged as the allies continue their drills and North Korea uses them as a pretext to advance weapons development and intensify military training involving its nuclear-capable missiles.

The North Korean report came as South Korean officials said the North did not respond to South Korean calls placed over inter-Korean liaison and military hotlines for the fifth consecutive day. South Korean officials say North Korea cut off communications after the South last week urged the North to stop using without permission South Korean assets left at a now-shuttered joint factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.

The paused military hotlines are particularly concerning in a time of heightened tensions as they are intended to prevent accidental clashes along the rivals' sea borders. Jeon Ha Gyu, spokesperson of South Korea's Defense Ministry, said Tuesday the South's military wasn't immediately detecting unusual activities by North Korea's military after the hotlines were paused.

South Korean Unification Minister Kwon Youngse, Seoul's point man on the North, in a news conference expressed "strong regret" over North Korea's "unilateral and irresponsible attitude "over the communication lines and also warned of unspecified legal action over its use of the Kaesong assets.

When asked about Kim's comments during the military meeting, Kwon said it's likely that North Korea currently sees the buildup of tensions as favorable to its interests and that Seoul is closely analyzing the North's intent.

South Korea pulled its companies out of Kaesong in 2016 following a North Korean nuclear test, removing the last remaining major symbol of cooperation between the rivals. North Korean state media recently showed what appeared to be South Korean commuter buses running in the streets of Kaesong and Pyongyang.

North Korea in 2023 so far has fired around 30 missiles in 11 different launch events, including intercontinental ballistic missiles that demonstrated potential range to reach the U.S. mainland and several shorter-range weapons designed to deliver nuclear strikes on South Korean targets.

The North was already coming off a record year in weapons testing, after launching nearly 70 missiles in 2022.

Experts say Kim's provocative run in weapons displays is aimed at forcing the United States to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and negotiating economic concessions from a position of strength.

Nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled since 2019 over disagreements in exchanging crippling U.S.-led sanctions against the North and the North's steps to wind down its nuclear weapons program.

South Korean officials say North Korea may soon up the ante by staging more provocative displays of its military might, including its first nuclear test detonation since 2017.

North Korea last month unveiled what appeared to be a new nuclear warhead designed to fit on various delivery systems as Kim called for his nuclear scientists to increase production of weapons-grade material to make bombs to put on his growing range of weapons.

North Korea has also issued veiled threats to test fire an ICBM on a normal ballistic trajectory toward the Pacific, which would be seen as a major provocation as its previous long-range tests were conducted on high angles to avoid the territories of neighbors.

The North also previously said it aims to finish preparations to launch a military spy satellite into space by April, an event its rivals would almost certainly see as a test of ICBM technology banned by international sanctions.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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North Korean Leader Vows 'Offensive' Nuclear Expansion

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to enhance his nuclear arsenal in more "practical and offensive" ways as he met with senior military officials to discuss the country's war preparations in the face of his rivals' "frantic" military exercises, state media said Tuesday.

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1. U.S. National Security Council Spokesmen said that weapons test needlessly raised tensions in the region
2. The missile may have been using a new kind propellant
3. North Korea has launched 100 missiles since 2022, many of them being nuclear missiles

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea on Thursday conducted its first intercontinental ballistic missile launch in a month, possibly testing a new more mobile, harder-to-detect missile for the first time, its neighbors said, as it extends its provocative run of weapons tests.

Japan briefly urged residents on a northern island to take shelter in an indication of its vigilance over North Korea's evolving missile threats.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the launch and reiterated his calls on North Korea to comply with U.N. resolutions banning such launches, reopen communications channels and resume dialogue toward peace and denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, his spokesman said.

The missile was launched on a high angle from near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang and fell in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan following a 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) flight, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staffs said in a statement.

It described its range as medium or longer. The U.S. National Security Council called it a long-range missile and Japan's government said it likely had an intercontinental range.

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South Korea's military believes North Korea launched a new type of ballistic missile, possibly using solid fuel, a defense official said under the condition of anonymity because of office rules.

If the launch involved a solid-fuel ICBM, it would be the North's first test of such a weapon. North Korea's known ICBMs all use liquid propellants that must be fueled before launches. But the fuel in a solid-propellant weapon is already loaded, allowing it to be moved easier and fired faster.

A solid-fuel ICBM is one of the key high-tech weapons that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to build to better cope with what he calls U.S. military threats. He also wants a multiwarhead missile, a nuclear-powered submarine, a hypersonic missile and a spy satellite.

Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said the launch may have involved a new intermediate- or long-range missile powered by solid propellants, or be linked to North Korean preparation to launch a spy satellite.

During an emergency meeting of Seoul's National Security Council, officials stressed the need to tighten three-way security cooperation with Washington and Tokyo. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a meeting of his NSC to analyze the launch and Japan's response.

The nuclear envoys of Seoul, Washington and Tokyo held a telephone conversation where they called for a "decisive and united international response" to North Korean provocations and stronger efforts to stem illicit North Korean funding of its weapons program.

North Korea commonly test-launches missiles toward the international waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, using elevated trajectories to avoid neighboring countries. South Korea and Japan typically don't issue evacuation orders unless they determine the North Korean weapon is flying in their direction.

Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters the North Korean missile launched Thursday did not reach Japan's exclusive economic zone. But Japanese authorities still urged people on the northernmost island of Hokkaido to seek shelter and temporarily suspended train, bus and subway services there. Local communities also activated alert sirens through community speakers, urging people to evacuate.

The government then retracted its missile alert, saying there was no possibility of the missile landing near Hokkaido. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters the alert was based on the Japanese Defense Ministry's early assessment of the missile's path and was an "appropriate" step to prioritize people's safety.

North Korea has launched about 100 missiles since the start of 2022, many of them nuclear-capable weapons that place the U.S. mainland, South Korea or Japan within striking distance.

The North's testing spree is largely in protest of South Korean-U.S. military drills that it views as a rehearsal for an invasion. Some observers say North Korea uses its rivals' drills as a pretext to modernize its weapons arsenal and pressure Washington and Seoul to make concessions such as the lifting of economic sanctions. South Korean and U.S. officials say their drills are defensive in nature and were arranged to respond to North Korea's growing nuclear and missile threats.

Later Thursday, China, North Korea's last major ally, reiterated its blame for the heightened animosities on the U.S. and South Korea.

"The negative impact of the U.S. military exercises and strategic weapons deployed around the peninsula a few days ago is obvious to all," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in a briefing.

South Korean officials say North Korea has not been responding to South Korean calls on a set of cross-border inter-Korean hotlines for about a week. Communications on those channels are meant to prevent accidental clashes along the rivals' disputed western sea boundary.

On Tuesday, South Korean Unification Minister Kwon Youngse expressed "strong regret" over what he called North Korea's "unilateral and irresponsible attitude" over the hotlines.

North Korea's advancing nuclear arsenal is expected to be a major topic during a summit between South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden later this month in Washington.

Experts say the discussions between world leaders at Japan's Group of Seven meetings in May could be crucial for maintaining diplomatic pressure on North Korea. U.N. Security Council permanent members China and Russia have blocked tighter sanctions on North Korea in recent months, underscoring a divide deepened by Russia's war on Ukraine.

Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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N. Korea Fires Missile That May Have Been New Type of Weapon

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea on Thursday conducted its first intercontinental ballistic missile launch in a month, possibly testing a new more mobile, harder-to-detect missile for the first time, its neighbors said, as it extends its provocative run of weapons tests.

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