North Korea marks the delivery of 250 nuclear-capable missile launchers to frontline units

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea marked the delivery of 250 nuclear-capable missile launchers to frontline military units at a ceremony where leader Kim Jong Un called for a ceaseless expansion of his military's nuclear program to counter perceived U.S. threats, state media said Monday.

Concerns about Kim’s nuclear program have grown as he has demonstrated an intent to deploy battlefield nuclear weapons along the North’s border with South Korea and authorized his military to respond with preemptive nuclear strikes if it perceives the leadership as under threat.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said the launchers were freshly produced by the county’s munitions factories and designed to fire "tactical” ballistic missiles, a term that describes systems capable of delivering lower-yield nuclear weapons.

Kim said at Sunday's event in Pyongyang the new launchers would give his frontline units “overwhelming” firepower over South Korea and make the operation of tactical nuclear weapons more practical and efficient. State media photos showed lines of army-green launcher trucks packing a large street with seemingly thousands of spectators attending the event, which included fireworks.

North Korea has been expanding its lineup of mobile short-range weapons designed to overwhelm missile defenses in South Korea, while also pursuing intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the U.S. mainland.

Kim’s intensifying weapons tests and threats are widely seen as an attempt at pressuring the United States to accept the idea of North Korea as a nuclear power and to end U.S.-led sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear program. North Korea also could seek to dial up tensions in a U.S. election year, experts say.

Kim lately has used Russia’s war on Ukraine as a distraction to further accelerate his weapons development. In response, the United States, South Korea and Japan have been expanding their combined military exercises and sharpening their nuclear deterrence strategies built around strategic U.S. military assets.

Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a briefing that the South Korean and U.S. militaries were closely analyzing North Korea’s weapons development and further monitoring was needed to confirm the operational readiness of the missile systems showcased Sunday. He didn’t provide a specific assessment on whether the systems could be placed.

Lee said the missiles are likely to be shorter in range than some of North Korea’s most powerful short-range ballistic missiles, which have demonstrated an ability to travel more than 600 kilometers (372 miles).

The North in recent months has revealed a new missile called the Hwasong-11, which analysts say can travel up to 100 kilometers (62 miles). If deployed in frontline areas, the missiles would theoretically be able to cover huge swaths of South Korea’s greater capital area, where about half of the country’s 51 million people live.

In his speech at Sunday’s event, Kim called for his country to brace for a prolonged confrontation with the United States and urged a relentless expansion of military strength. He justified his military buildup as a counter to the “outrageous” military cooperation between the United States and its regional allies, which he claimed are now showing the characteristics of a “nuclear-based military bloc.”

"Negotiations and confrontation are among our options, but we must be more thoroughly prepared to cope with the latter — this is the review and conclusion we have derived from the 30-odd years of dealing with the United States," Kim said.

“The United States we are now confronting is by no means an administration that remains in power for a tenure of some years, but a hostile state that our descendants, too, will have to counter, generation after generation. This fact testifies to the inevitability of the steady improvement of our defense capability.”

Kim also said the decision to hold the weapons ceremony while the country was trying to recover from disastrous flooding showed its determination to “push ahead with the bolstering of defense capabilities ... without stop in any circumstances."

The floods in late July submerged thousands of homes and huge swaths of farmland in regions near the border with China.

Russia has offered flood aid to North Korea, in another sign of expanding relations between the two nations. Kim has made Russia his priority in recent months as he pushes a foreign policy aimed at expanding relations with countries confronting Washington, embracing the idea of a “new Cold War” and trying to display a united front in Putin’s broader conflicts with the West.

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during a ceremony to mark the delivery of 250 nuclear-capable missile launchers to frontline military units, in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

This photo provided by the North Korean government shows a ceremony to mark the delivery of 250 nuclear-capable missile launchers to frontline military units, in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

This photo provided by the North Korean government shows a ceremony to mark the delivery of 250 nuclear-capable missile launchers to frontline military units, in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center right, hands its military flag to soldiers in what they call a "newly-created missile unit" during a ceremony to mark the delivery of 250 nuclear-capable missile launchers to frontline military units, in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

This photo provided by the North Korean government shows celebrations to mark the delivery of 250 nuclear-capable missile launchers to frontline military units, during a ceremony in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed the director overseeing New York City's office for asylum seekers, the latest sign of escalating federal scrutiny of Mayor Eric Adams' administration.

Molly Schaeffer, who leads the city's Office of Asylum Seeker Operations, received the information sharing request from federal authorities Friday morning, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the subpoena.

It was not immediately clear what information federal authorities were seeking or whether the subpoena related to multiple ongoing federal law enforcement investigations swirling around Adams, a first-term Democrat and former police captain.

Schaeffer directed questions to the mayor's deputy mayor for communications, Fabien Levy, who declined to comment on the investigation. “We expect all team members to fully comply with any ongoing inquiry,” Levy wrote in a text message. “Molly Schaeffer is an integral part of our team and works hard every day to deliver for New Yorkers.”

Schaeffer has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Federal prosecutors often issue subpoenas in a hunt for evidence and potential witnesses, not necessarily because they believe the recipient has committed a crime.

Emailed inquiries to the U.S. attorney's offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn were not returned.

Earlier this month, federal authorities seized the phones of several top advisers to the mayor, including his schools chancellor, two deputy mayors and a longtime adviser who oversees contracts at migrant shelters. They also seized the phones of the police commissioner, Edward Caban, who resigned last week.

Those seizures are believed to be related to probes overseen by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan, which are looking at least in part into whether the relatives of top-ranking Adams' aides used their family connection for financial gain.

In July, Adams received his own subpoena from federal prosecutors seeking information from him, his campaign, and City Hall. That request came eight months after FBI agents seized the mayor's phones and an iPad as he was leaving an event in Manhattan. The subpoenas requested information about the mayor’s schedule, his overseas travel and potential connections to the Turkish government, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigations.

Adams also has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

A separate federal probe led by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn is believed to be examining Adam's director of Asian Affairs, Winnie Greco.

Schaeffer has led the office of asylum seeker operations since its creation last year, overseeing the city’s response to the arrival of more than 200,000 migrants and the wide-ranging effort to house and feed the surge of new arrivals.

She previously worked for Adams’ predecessor, Mayor Bill de Blasio.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks to members of the press at a news conference in New York, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)