N. Korea starts celebrating birthday of country's founder

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"North Korea is a problem, the problem will be taken care of", Trump said defiantly, amid reports of activity at a North Korean nuclear test site ahead of Saturday's 105th anniversary of the birth of the country's founder Kim Il-Sung.

Another missile launch or nuclear test "can't be ruled out", he said, but the recent U.S. cruise missile strike on Syria and Washington's tough stance "may give Pyongyang some pause".

State television showed Kim, wearing a black suit and white shirt, stepping out of a limousine and saluting his honor guard before walking down a red carpet.

North Korean soldiers take part in a parade at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, Saturday, April 15, 2017.

US President Donald Trump issued a fresh warning to North Korea on Friday, as speculation mounted that Pyongyang may be preparing another nuclear or missile test.

The rockets carried on articulated trailers appeared to be longer than the North's existing KN-08 or KN-14 missiles, analysts said.

North Korea, still technically at war with the South after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce but not a treaty, has on occasion conducted missile or nuclear tests to coincide with big political events and often threatens the United States, South Korea and Japan.

On Friday, mixed with its customary threats to unleash "nuclear thunderbolts" against the United States, North Korea sneered through one of its "think tanks" that "somebody" was cooperating with the U.S.in a "naive and foolish" attempt to collapse the North Korean system. "We're prepared to respond to an all-out war with an all-out war and we are ready to hit back with nuclear attacks of our own style against any nuclear attacks", Choe Ryong-Hae said in a speech at a ceremony before a large military parade started.

Pyongyang residents have been seen practicing for the big day. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence travels to South Korea on Sunday on a long-planned 10-day trip to Asia.

North Korea's Pukkuksong submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) were also on parade.

Donald Trump: Nato is no longer obsolete
The military alliance "also strongly supports the efforts of the fact-finding commission to find out actually what happened". Export-Import Bank, which has been a rallying cry for conservatives who consider it a mechanism of crony capitalism.

South Korean analysts had predicted that the North would use the parade to showcase its strategic weapons, such as prototype intercontinental ballistic missiles. Also on display was a powerful midrange missile, which outside analysts call "Musudan", and which can potentially reach US air bases in Guam.

Other senior officials joining Kim at the podium included Kim Won Hong, who the South Korean government had said earlier this year was sacked from his job as state security minister, presumably over corruption.

Leader Kim Jong Un was shown clapping and smiling from a reviewing box.

In his annual New Year's address, Kim said that North Korea's preparations for an ICBM launch have "reached the final stage". The country under his watch has been aggressively pursuing a goal of putting a nuclear warhead on an ICBM capable of reaching the continental United States. US satellite imagery suggests the country could conduct another underground nuclear test at any time.

The menacing boast came as a US aircraft carrier group headed for the region amid rising fears the secretive state is on the verge of another nuclear weapons test. The North also previous year launched a long-range rocket that put a satellite into orbit, which Washington, Seoul and others saw as a banned test of missile technology.

In a statement on official news agency KCNA, the North's Korean People's Army said Trump had "entered the path of open threat and blackmail against the DPRK".

He diverted the nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its strike group towards the Korean peninsula last weekend in a show of force.

The conclusions from the United Nations report were mixed, with some optimism expressed that China has been cracking down on illicit shipments to North Korea over the past few months but also complaints that China could do a great deal more to cut off Pyongyang's access to missile technology.

North Korea has been facing pressure from the United States to curtail its programs related to the development of nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities.

It warned the United States that any provocation would be met with retaliation.

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