What North Korea is trying to accomplish with its provocations

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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.

Last year North Korea, which regularly fires off short-range rockets, launched a long-range missile and carried out two nuclear tests.

North Korea on Saturday unveiled what appears to be its new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), staging a large-scale military parade in Pyongyang amid increased military tensions on the peninsula.

Military analysts say the missiles could one day be capable of hitting targets as far as the continental United States, although the North has yet to flight test them.

Then on Thursday, the United States dropped what's known as MOAB, the "mother of all bombs", on Eastern Afghanistan, targeting an ISIS cave complex. That raised questions about US President Donald Trump's plans for North Korea, which has conducted several missile and nuclear tests in defiance of United Nations and unilateral sanctions.

In a new interview with The Associated Press in Pyongyang, Vice Minister Han Song Ryol said North Korea "will go to war" with the USA if provoked.

Friday media reports pointed to satellite observations suggesting that North Korea could be preparing for yet another nuclear test in the coming days.

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Joseph, also reacted strongly to the report, saying, "If true, this report is shocking and I would strongly oppose" it. Also, Trump has proposed eliminating EPA's budget by almost one-third.

Trump has urged China to step up measures to prevent North Korea from carrying out more nuclear and weapons tests, and threatened USA intervention if Beijing-Pyongyang talks falter.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves to people attending the military parade on Saturday. Kim Il Sung's birthday is a huge deal in North Korea, so it's not like they put this whole thing together last minute just to piss off Trump, but there is a non-zero chance he will take it that way.

A senior North Korean official used the parade to accuse the U.S. of "creating a war situation" with the recent dispatch of warships to the region.

Speaking in Beijing yesterday, China's foreign minister Wang Yi warned the region is facing a "precarious situation" and that a conflict could break out "at any moment". The country said it could test a nuclear weapon whenever its current leader, Kim Jong Un, decided.

State news agency KCNA said the Trump administration's "serious military hysteria" had reached a "dangerous phase which can no longer be overlooked". But there had been fears that the isolated country would mark the Day of the Sun by conducting a nuclear test - in defiance of USA warnings not to.

Tensions between North Korea and the United States have increased over the past weeks.

A U.S. Navy strike group including the USS Carl Vinson aircraft was sent to the region ahead of the parade to monitor activity.

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