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3 mins ago
North Korea says successful rocket test could bolster its ICBM force
By Brad Lendon
Kim Jong Un attends the test of what North Korean state media said was a solid fuel rocket motor in a photo released on December 16, 2022. (Credit: Rodong Sinmun)
North Korea said Friday it had successfully tested a solid-fuel rocket engine, a development that could lead Kim Jong Un's regime to be able to fire an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) more quickly and reliably in the future. .
The new high-thrust rocket engine was tested at a satellite launch site northwest of Pyongyang on Thursday, according to a report by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Photos released by state media showed North Korean leader Kim attending the test, which KCNA said provided a "guarantee for the development of yet another new type of strategic weapons system."
That could be a new intercontinental ballistic missile, experts said.
“That, my friends, is the first stage of a solid propellant ICBM,” Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said in a Twitter post.
Experts said the development could be significant if the new rocket engine could be successfully integrated with an intercontinental ballistic missile.
"If North Korea's ground test of high-thrust solid fuel engines at Sohae is nearly as successful as they claim, it is a significant step forward for the country's development of nuclear-capable missiles," said Leif-Eric Easley, professor from Ewha University of Seoul.
Solid-fuel rockets are more stable than liquid-fuel rockets that North Korea has previously tested in ICBM launches.
That means a solid fuel ICBM could move more easily and launch faster than a liquid fuel one.
Due to those factors, the time for any adversary to react to a North Korean ICBM would be reduced.
"Once deployed, the technology would make North Korea's nuclear forces more versatile, resilient and dangerous," Easley said.
Solid fuel ICBMs are the world standard of the latest generation.
The United States' primary ICBM, the Minuteman III, is powered by three solid-fuel rocket motors.
Experts warned that despite the test, North Korea will still face many challenges in deploying a solid-fueled ICBM.
“Going from a ground test of a solid fuel engine to operational, accurate and reliable missiles involves many technical hurdles.
The North Korean media may exaggerate the country's weapons capabilities and deployment timelines," Easley said.
North Korea has been testing its ballistic missiles at a record rate, launching the projectiles 34 times so far this year and sometimes testing multiple missiles each time, according to a CNN tally.
9 mins ago
Landslide in Malaysia leaves at least 16 dead
By Jake Kwon and Kathleen Magramo of CNN in Hong Kong
A landslide in Malaysia has killed at least 16 people, including a five-year-old boy, near the nation's capital Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian state media Bernama reported on Friday.
At least 17 people are still missing, Malaysian state media Bernama reported on Friday, citing police.
The landslide occurred this Friday morning around 2:30 am local time near a camp at the Padre Organic Farm, some 30 km north of the capital, Bernama reported.
At least seven injured were sent to nearby hospitals, the report cited Hulu Selangor District Police Chief Superintendent Suffian Abdullah as saying.
All the victims were camping at the site when the landslide occurred, the police chief said according to Bernama.
94 people, including staff, were on the scene when the landslide occurred, Bernama reported, citing Selangor Fire and Rescue Department director Datuk Norazam Khamis.
394 rescue workers from 15 agencies are involved in the ongoing search and rescue operation, Bernama reported.
15 mins ago
Fire in a suburb of the French city of Lyon leaves at least 10 dead, including 5 children
By Joseph Ataman in Paris
Policemen guard a security perimeter while firefighters and rescuers work in a building in the Mas-Du-Taureau neighborhood where a fire caused many victims, including children, on December 16, 2022 in Vaulx-en-Velin. (Credit: OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE/AFP via Getty Images).
At least ten people, including five children, died after a fire broke out Friday morning in an eight-story apartment building in the town of Vaulx-en-Velin, a suburb of the French city of Lyon, the local government said.
Four people are in critical condition and 10 others, including two firefighters, suffered minor injuries, the local authority of the Auvergne-RhĂ´ne-Alpes regional authority said in a statement.
The fire has already been put out, but the cause of the fire is not known at this time, the regional authority said.
Around 170 firefighters and 65 machines were mobilized to fight the fire.
Emergency services were alerted to the fire at 3:12 a.m. local time Friday morning, according to the regional authority.
Rescuers arrived at the scene at 3:25 a.m. local time.
The prefect of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Pascal Mailhos, the mayor of Vaulx-en-Valin Hélène Geoffrey and the prosecutor Nicolas Jacquet are on site, the regional authority said.
A local resident named Sarem, who lives about 100 meters from the affected building, told CNN affiliate BFMTV that he had been alerted to the fire by the sound of children screaming from the fourth-floor balcony at around 2:25 a.m. am local time on Friday.
He said that a group of neighbors used a ladder to evacuate about 25 people from the second floor of the building.
The flames, some of which were inside the building's entrance, "were not violent," he said, but there was a lot of smoke.
“People screaming for help couldn't breathe,” she added.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin expressed his condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims who died in the fire.
Darmanin told reporters on Friday that the five children who died in the fire ranged in age from three to 15.
He added that the death toll of ten is "definitive".
According to the BFMTV network, the fire engulfed three of the eight floors of the building, from the fifth to the eighth.
The fire was put out around 6 a.m. local time Friday morning after burning for several hours.
The fire broke out on the ground floor, Major Geoffrey Casu, spokesman for the National Federation of Firefighters, told French radio station LCI on Friday.
Because smoke filled the building's internal evacuation routes, evacuations were only possible through the outside of the building using stairs, making rescue more difficult, Casu added.
Darmanin said in a tweet that he will visit the site on Friday morning together with the Deputy Minister for Cities and Housing, Olivier Klein.
He told reporters that the prosecutor will open an investigation into the cause of the fire.
