"North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for urgent talks with South Korea to make the Winter Olympics next month a success even while repeating claims that he could strike the U.S. with a nuclear bomb," per Bloomberg.
Kim, in an annual New Year's Day speech: ""It's reality, not a threat, that the nuclear button is always on my desk ... The U.S. can never start a war against myself and our nation now."'
A tuxedoed Trump, strolling past the media pool at his Mar-a-Lago New Years' Eve party, replied when asked about Kim's "button" claim: "We'll see, we'll see. Come on inside."
Two people have been killed amid violent anti-government protests in Iran, AFP reports. Lorestan province deputy governor Habibollah Khojastehpour told state television that the two people were killed in the western town of Dorud late Saturday night, but denied the involvement of security forces.
The backdrop: Interior Minister Abdolrahman Rahmani Fazli went on state television to say, "Those who damage public property, disrupt order and break the law must be responsible for their behavior and pay the price."
