With weeks of threats the North Koreans seem to be finally hitting the “put or shut up” level as the international community mostly shrugs the rogue state off. North Korea has now told foreigners in South Korea to take safety measures, claiming to not want to be held responsible for any non-South Koreans and Americans [...]

North Korea has decided to once again up the rhetorical ante by threatening an attack on Guam, Hawaii, and the U.S. mainland. This comes after a litany of other threats that seemed to have been mostly ignored by the international community as a new round of UN sanctions were passed in the wake of North [...]

In the continually escalating conflict between North Korea and the United States a new threat has been issued from Pyongyang. The North Koreans have threatened to attack U.S military bases in Japan and Guam. North Korea on Thursday threatened to attack American military bases in Japan and on the Pacific island of Guam in retaliation [...]

Update 10:08 am EST: Senate Foreign Relations Hearing on North Korea Now While Washington obsesses over Iran possibly one day getting a nuclear weapon – nuclear armed North Korea has laid down the ultimate threat. After threatening to cancel the cease-fire that ended effectively ended the Korean War the North Korean government has now gone [...]

After another round of nuclear weapons tests and an outright threat to bring “final destruction” to South Korea at a disarmament conference, the government of North Korea promised to cancel the cease-fire that effectively ended the Korean War if the U.S and South Korea did not cease military exercises. North Korea vowed Tuesday to cancel [...]

Only a few days after North Korea conducted its third nuclear weapons test the rogue state has told its closest ally it plans one or two more nuclear tests this year in hopes of driving American foreign policy. North Korea has told its key ally, China, that it is prepared to stage one or even [...]

While the United States government obsesses over the possibility that Iran might be pursuing nuclear weapons, North Korea has conducted its third nuclear weapons test. North Korea conducted its third nuclear test on Tuesday in defiance of existing U.N. resolutions, drawing condemnation from around the world, including from its only major ally, China, which summoned [...]

The White House is denying a report in the New York Times claiming that they will conduct one-on-one talks with Iran over their nuclear program. The bilateral negotiations, the fruit of a secret back-channel process according to the Times, would not occur until after the Presidential election, at the Iranian’s request, so they can have [...]

Reports indicate fresh clashes with riot police inside Tehran, Iran today, but they do not have necessarily the same rationale as the Arab uprising. These stem from the collapse of the Iranian currency, a direct result of international sanctions on the Islamic Republic over their nuclear program. Clashes erupted in the center of the Iranian [...]

The Senate passed, by a 90-1 count, an “Iran containment” resolution that creates that “red line” Benjamin Netanyahu pleaded for recently. And, it puts the red line for Iran’s nuclear program at a nuclear capability rather than a nuclear weapon, a shift from current Presidential policy.

When you talk about tail risk for the US economy, sweeping away the European crisis and the fiscal cliff, perhaps the biggest potential comes from an oil price shock. Combined with any fiscal tightening, that could easily snap the US into recession. And the biggest threat of this stems not from the protests outside US [...]