North Korea has condemned Donald Trump’s $175 billion Golden Dome project by threatening to ‘turn outer space into a potential nuclear war field’.

On May 20, President Donald Trump revealed his plans for a $175 billion ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense program while speaking to reporters from the Oval Office in the White House.

The goal of the program is to help the US to intercept missiles, ‘even if they are launched from space‘.

And – shockingly – the news hasn’t gone down too well with some other countries, with North Korea even going so far as to warn it could ‘turn outer space into a potential nuclear war field’.

Donald Trump’s plans haven’t sat well with other countries (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

What is the Golden Dome and why is it necessary?

China and Russia have already put offensive weapons in space – including satellites that can disable critical US satellites – meaning the US is subsequently vulnerable to attack.

And following warnings from the Pentagon that updating countermeasures is a much-needed step, Trump decided to do something about it.

Essentially, the Golden Dome program is set to strengthen the US’ ability to detect and stop missiles at four specific stages of a missiles’ launch and journey:

• Before a launch
• During the earliest stage of a missile’s flight
• During the middle of a missile’s course
• During the final minutes as a missile approaches a target

General Chance Saltzman, head of the US Space Force, said the Golden Dome and its weapons ‘represent new and emerging requirements for missions that have never before been accomplished by military space organizations’.

And North Korea isn’t exactly happy about the plan, with the controversial country speaking out earlier today (May 27).

The Golden Dome doesn’t come cheap (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

North Korea’s response to Trump’s Golden Dome plan

Pyongyang’s foreign ministry told the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in a statement shared with AFP that the program is ‘very dangerous’, before accusing it of ‘threatening the strategic security of the nuclear weapons state’.

The foreign ministry accused the US of being ‘hell-bent on the moves to militarize outer space’.

It resolved: “The US plan for building a new missile defense system is the root cause of sparking off global nuclear and space arms race by stimulating the security concerns of nuclear weapons states and turning […] outer space into a potential nuclear war field.”

And Trump certainly isn’t messing around when it comes to how long he hopes it’ll take to execute his plans for the Golden Dome.

Shocking, news of the Golden Dome likely isn’t music to Kim Jong Un’s ears (Contributor/Getty Images)

Trump’s timeline for the Golden Dome and costs

Trump’s presidency is set to come to an end in 2029 – as long as he doesn’t try and find a loophole to run for a third time that is – and he’s said hopes the Golden Dome will be ‘fully operational before the end of [his] term’.

The president also detailed an initial spend of $25 billion to begin work on the program, the system reported as being set to cost $175 billion to create – and it could cost the US an even heftier amount in the long-run.

With medium, high and ‘extra high’ choices for developing options within the program, an official said as reported by PA News Agency, the differences between the three options would essentially depend on how many satellites, sensors, and space-based interceptors are bought.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that space-based components of the program alone could cost as much as $542 billion over the next 20 years.

Although, newly confirmed Air Force Secretary Troy Meink noted to senators there’s not actually any money currently available for the project yet with the Golden Dome ‘still in the conceptual stage’.

And where Trump goes, Musk always follows it would seem, the Tesla CEO reportedly potentially ending up involved in the Golden Dome too.

Trump hopes to get the job done by 2029 (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Elon Musk’s potential involvement in the Golden Dome

‘Six people familiar with the matter’ told Reuters that Musk’s SpaceX alongside two partners are ‘frontrunners’ to help build the program.

Representatives of SpaceX alongside software maker Palantir and drone builder Anduril reportedly met with Trump administration officials alongside the Pentagon to make their pitch.

The pitch? To build and launch between 400-1,000 satellites around the globe to detect missiles alongside another 200 armed with missiles or lasers themselves to stop enemy missiles.

And it’s not only North Korea which has spoken out against the Golden Dome but China too.

China’s response to the Golden Dome

Not long after Trump’s announcement of the program, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning issued a warning, echoing that of North Korea by noting the dome increases the risk of outer space becoming militarized.

The spokesperson said: “The United States, in pursuing a ‘US-first’ policy, is obsessed with seeking absolute security for itself. This violates the principle that the security of all countries should not be compromised and undermines global strategic balance and stability. China is seriously concerned about this.”

Mao ultimately urged Washington to ditch the development of the Golden Dome altogether.

North Korea has offered a rare glimpse into a secretive facility to produce weapons-grade uranium as state media reported leader Kim Jong Un visited the area.

Friday’s report (September 13) said Mr Kim called for stronger efforts to ‘exponentially’ increase the number of his nuclear weapons.

It is unclear if the site is at the North’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex, but it is the North’s first public disclosure of a uranium-enrichment facility since it showed one at Yongbyon to visiting American scholars in 2010.

Kim Jong Un seen inspecting the Nuclear Weapons Institute and the production base of weapons-grade nuclear materials (Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

While the latest unveiling is likely an attempt to apply more pressure on the US and its allies, the images North Korea’s media released of the area could provide outsiders with a valuable source of information for estimating the amount of nuclear ingredients that North Korea has produced.

During a visit to the Nuclear Weapons Institute and the production base of weapon-grade nuclear materials, Mr Kim expressed ‘great satisfaction repeatedly over the wonderful technical force of the nuclear power field’ held by North Korea, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

KCNA said he went around the control room of the uranium enrichment base and a construction site that would expand its capacity for producing nuclear weapons.

Mr Kim has called for more nuclear bombs to be made at the facility (Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

State media photos showed Mr Kim being briefed by scientists while walking along long lines of tall grey tubes, but KCNA did not say when he visited the facilities and where they are located.

KCNA said Mr Kim stressed the need to further augment the number of centrifuges to ‘exponentially increase the nuclear weapons for self-defence’ – a goal he has repeatedly stated in recent years.

He believes North Korea needs greater defence and pre-emptive attack capabilities because ‘anti-(North Korea) nuclear threats perpetrated by the US imperialists-led vassal forces have become more undisguised and crossed the red-line’, as per KCNA.

North Korea are concerned by threats from the US and South Korea (Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

It said he ordered officials to push forward the introduction of a new-type centrifuge, which has reached its completion stage.

North Korea first showed a uranium enrichment site in Yongbyon to the outside world in November 2010, when it allowed a visiting delegation of Stanford University scholars led by nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker to tour its centrifuges.

North Korean officials then reportedly told Mr Hecker that 2,000 centrifuges were already installed and running at Yongbyon.

It’s thought that anywhere between six to 18 nuclear bombs are built by the country each year.

For almost two decades, residents of a North Korean city have experienced an ‘eerie’ wake-up call blaring through its streets.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, situated in East Asia, is a totalitarian dictatorship.

According to Amnesty International, the country has one of the world’s worst human rights records, having also been condemned by the United Nations and Freedom House.

The Kim family, officially the Mount Paektu Bloodline, have ruled the country since 1948 as ‘supreme leaders’.

Three years before the second supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong II’s death in 2011, a blaring noise began echoing across the country’s capital city, Pyongyang.

Every morning at 6am, a ‘creepy’ tune now blasts out across the sprawling city, forged from concrete, bronze and marble.

This mysterious sound was once featured in the Channel 5 show Michael Palin In North Korea.

Described by the Monty Python actor as ‘the most peculiar wake-up call’, the sound has recently been doing the rounds again on social media.

“I thought it was just incidental post-production music,” wrote one YouTube user after hearing the sound.

“But when you learn that it’s being played through a sound-system throughout the city it becomes creepy. It takes on a bizarre life of its own. There’s also something weirdly hypnotic about it to”

A second said: “Eerie. Sounds like a perfect soundtrack for a strange dystopian land, played throughout the city like that creates a fitting vibe.”

“It seems like a song that would play if you walk around in a foggy forest under the watchful eye of a mystical predator creature,” another penned.

Meanwhile, a TikTok user wrote: “This is the same exact vibe I get in my dreams.”

People have been having their say on the North Korean music (KIM WON JIN/AFP via Getty Images)

“That’s quite creepy imagine having sleep paralysis and this is playing,” someone else added.

If this is the first time you’re being introduced to the bizarre wake-up call then here’s everything you you need to know.

The song that blares out every morning from the speakers of the Pyongyang Railway Station is called ‘Where Are You, Dear General?’

It’s understood the six-minute 30-second track could have potentially been composed by Kim Jong II in 1971, as part of the A True Daughter of the Party opera.

It’s believed the music first started blaring in 2008 (Feng Li/Getty Images)

In the opera, an army nurse called Kang Yeon-ok uses the moment to express her lifelong dream of meeting Kim II Sung, Kim Jong II’s father and ‘founder’ of North Korea.

Every morning at 6am since around 2008, a cover of the song by the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble echoes through Pyongyang.

‘Where Are You, Dear General?’ therefore serves as an alarm clock of sorts, with some claiming it is ‘heavily distorted and barely recognizable’ from its original penning.

The electric ballad is also sometimes broadcast on North Korean television, according to NK News.

You’ve really got to hear it to believe it.

A man who escaped from North Korea on two occasions has revealed some of the rules that civilians in the ‘prison country’ have to follow.

North Korea has become increasingly secretive and closed off from the outside world.

Few images have been seen online that show the average life of North Koreans.

In 2021, satellite images of the Korean peninsula show a stark difference between north and south – with the North being obscured by literal darkness.

While the country has run tours for outsiders wishing to visit the country, there are rules to what you can and can’t do – and your very own assigned guide will often dictate what you can do and visit.

But one way to learn more about the highly secretive country is from people who have managed to escape.

This is a highly risky thing to attempt as even if someone successfully escapes the regime is known to carry out reprisals against the families of defectors, as per PBS News.

Timothy Cho is one person who managed to escape North Korea not just once, but twice.

Timothy Cho escaped from North Korea twice (LADbible TV)

Speaking to LADbible TV, Timothy revealed some of the aspects of life in North Korea, including the draconian rules civilians have to abide by.

Many of these were aimed specifically at limiting people’s access to the outside world.

Timothy said: “Of course you have no phones, and even if there are a few phone which those who are the elite can use you are only allowed to call within the country, messages and calls are tapped.”

Things like television and the internet are closely controlled, with police removing all but one channel from TVs.

Consuming or smuggling in media manufactured in the South or countries such as Japan or the US is reported to carry severe penalties.

But the rules also cover people’s appearance.

“You can’t have jeans, because jeans they say it’s American production, and America is the greatest enemy,” he explained. “You only have certain hair types in this country, it’s a tragic joke. If you have it like the leader’s hairstyle you end up in prison.”

People are of course forbidden from leaving the country, but it goes further than that.

He said: “In North Korea every step of the movement within towns, villages, you need permissions and documents to travel.”

Timothy even recalled how he had personally witnessed a public execution when he was just 11 years old, giving a chilling reminder of the consequences should people fail to follow the rules.

He said: “That’s why when you were born we did not expect to leave the country.

“We would never think of that because we were born without passport in this country.