Impoverished North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. North Korea sharply raised regional tension this week with the launch of its Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific. South Korea has said it wants to revise the agreement to increase the cap on the payload. Trump “provided his conceptual approval of planned purchases by South Korea of billions of dollars in American military equipment”, the White House said. North Korea defends its weapons programs as necessary to counter perceived U.S. aggression, such as recent air maneuvers with South Korean and Japanese jets.

Source: Sunday Times September 02, 2017 01:52 UTC