North Korea's official releases lie so often it's hard to notice when they publish a kernel of truth. Last week, the country claimed to have tested a hydrogen bomb, while analyses from around the world showed the impact to be instead that of a much weaker atomic bomb. Shortly after that atomic test, North Korea released an hour-long propaganda video boasting of their military success--including, remarkably, evidence of a new submarine-launched ballistic missile test. Thanks to editing and splicing, the footage gives the impression of a fully functional missile. North Korea doesn't have that, but they are getting closer.

Four decades after the war, Vietnam is still working to identify its dead. But so far it's lacked the sophisticated scientific tools to do so effectively. Now the country is getting a technological upgrade in order to better process samples of victims' DNA, as Nature News reports.

A gun is a powerful tool for putting a hole in a person. That power made them a staple of armies centuries ago and keeps them on the hips of soldiers, law enforcement, and Gadsden-flag-wearing anybodies to this day. Among the problems of such a lethal tool is that, in the event someone wants to use force but doesn't want to kill anybody, guns are a bad choice. A whole field of less-lethal weapons has sprung up, and one of the latest would use lasers and jets as a less-bloody alternative.

Just in time for the holiday wishlists, China is now selling a team of combat robots for urban combat. Unveiled at the Beijing 2015 World Robot Conference, HIT Robot Group's it consists of three robots. There is an armed variant with an assault rifle, grenade,or an option for a recoilless rifle for heavier firepower, a recon variant equipped with NBC detectors, and finally, the explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) robot designed to dispose of explosives and other hazards. Running on a 10-12kg tracked chassis, HIT Robot Group literature specifically mentions that the recon variant can be carried in a soldiers' backpack, while the other 2 variants would likely not due to the size of the weapons mounted. The systems are remote operated, akin to the controls of US systems like the Packbot or SWORDS.

Only a handful of countries have ever built and successfully flown a stealth fighter. Early next year, Japan may join their ranks, with scheduled test flights of its first experimental stealth fighter expected within the first three months of 2016. The Advanced Technology Demonstrator X, or ATD-X, is a tentative step forward into rare skies, and comes at a time when most of Japan's neighbors are either building or buying stealth fighters of their own.

For 99 years, armored tanks have been a part of modern battlefields, shrugging off bullet fire and sending footsoldiers running for cover. The development of anti-tank weapons is almost as old, with people struggling to create new tactics and new weapons that can stop the lumbering warmachines. Countries especially want anti-tank weapons light enough to be carried by a single person into battle, but powerful enough to punch through modern tank armor. For years, DARPA's been quietly working on a human-portable anti-tank railgun. And now, it appears, China's working on one too.