The nature of kingship in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth follows the events that occur during Macbeth’s unlawful rise to the throne......The themes of greed, arrogance and excessive political ambition are still, very relevant to the world today. Shakespeare got it right - his story of Macbeth still applies to today's world....
April 14.....North Korea’s Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site: Primed and Ready.....Commercial satellite imagery of North Korea’s Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site from April 12 shows continued activity around the North Portal, new activity in the Main Administrative Area, and a few personnel around the site’s Command Center.......At the North Portal, what appears to be a small vehicle or trailer is located immediately outside the entrance; the water flow out of the portal has diminished in the past 10 days; and what may be a small trailer is visible on the road south of the portal. The netting—suspended over probable equipment—south of the portal’s support building remains in place, and there has been no significant dumping of additional material on the portal’s spoil pile."
Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site (Korean: 풍계리 핵실험장) is North Korea's only known nuclear test site and is located in Kilju County, North Hamgyong Province. Based on currently known satellite imagery, Its exact location is 41°16'47.87"N, 129° 5'10.51"E. The site is where the 2006, 2009, 2013 and 2016 North Korean nuclear tests took place.
North Korea and weapons of mass destruction concerns North Korea (officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or DPRK), which declared in 2009 that it had developed a nuclear weapon, and possessed a small stockpile of relatively simple nuclear weapons. North Korea may also have a chemical weapon and/or biological weapons capability. Since 2003, North Korea is no longer a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
North Korea had been suspected of maintaining a clandestine nuclear weapons development program since the early 1980s, when it constructed a plutonium-producing Magnox nuclear reactor at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, about 90 km north of Pyongyang.
The Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center is North Korea's major nuclear facility, operating its first nuclear reactors. It is located in the county of Nyŏngbyŏn in North Pyong'an Province, about 90 km north of Pyongyang. The center produced the fissile material for North Korea's nuclear weapon tests in 2006 and 2009, and since 2009 is developing indigenous light water reactor nuclear power station technology....In March 2013, North Korea announced that they would be restarting operation of the 5 MWe experimental reactor. In order to do so, the disabled secondary cooling system will have to be restored. The announcement arrived days after Pyongyang declared a "state of war" with South Korea.."
For 2013, the Institute for Science and International Security gives a mid-range estimate of 12 to 27 "nuclear weapon equivalents", including plutonium and uranium stockpiles. By 2016, North Korea is projected to have 14 to 48 nuclear weapon equivalents. (Each weapon is assumed to contain 20 kilograms of weapons-grade uranium.)....
In 2016, North Korea conducted its fifth underground nuclear test ...The ministry estimated the explosive yield was equivalent to 10 kilotons of TNT, the most powerful detonation unleashed in a North Korean nuclear test so far,..... The South’s government estimated the North’s last nuclear test, conducted in January, at 4.8 magnitude with an explosive yield of six to nine kilotons. (By comparison, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 exploded with 15 kilotons of energy.)
On January 6, 2016,after reports of a magnitude 5.1 earthquake originating in northeast North Korea at 10:00:01 UTC+08:30, the country's regime released statements that it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb.
On March 6, 2017, North Korea launched four ballistic missiles from the Tongchang-ri region towards the Sea of Japan. The move prompted US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to embark on a diplomatic mission ten days later to Japan, South Korea and China, in an effort to resolve the heightened international tension in the region.....
April 9, 2017.....A U.S. Navy strike group led by the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier was making its way towards the Korean peninsula Sunday “to maintain readiness” as Kim Jong Un’s regime in North Korea prepared to mark key anniversaries this coming week.....Analysts expect the recent barrage of missiles to continue, and activities around its known nuclear test site have raised concerns North Korea may be preparing for a sixth nuclear test.....Over the weekend, North Korea said it was not afraid of military strikes like those the United States launched on Syria last week, saying it could defend itself with its “tremendous military muscle with a nuclear force.” ...The Vinson group last month participated in joint drills with the South Korean military to prepare for a sudden change on the peninsula — including the collapse of the North Korean regime or an invasion. ...North Korea has been testing medium-range missiles over recent months, and Kim in January said North Korea had “entered the final stage of preparation for a test-launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile” capable of hitting the mainland United States. In response, President Trump tweeted: “It won’t happen!”
North Korea said on Saturday U.S. missile strikes against a Syrian airfield on Friday were "an unforgivable act of aggression" that showed its decision to develop nuclear weapons was "the right choice a million times over".
Diplomatically isolated North Korea considers Syria a key ally. KCNA said its leader Kim Jong Un and Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad exchanged messages of warm wishes and pledges of friendship and cooperation between the two countries.......Al-Assad thanked Kim for recognizing the Syrian struggle to "meet such challenges as sinister actions of the world's terrorists and encouraged Syria to successfully weather the crisis without fail," KCNA said.
President Hassan Rouhani stressed Iran's support for the Syrian state in "its war against terrorism" during a call with his counterpart Bashar al-Assad on Sunday, condemning a U.S. missile strike on Syria as a violation of its sovereignty.......Syrian state news agency SANA said Assad told Rouhani the Syrian people and army were "determined to crush terrorism in every part of Syrian territory" and thanked him for Iran's support for "the Syrian nation".