China is expanding the number of road-mobile DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missiles that Beijing has called the “Guam killer” for its ability to attack American forces on the Pacific island, according to a new Defense Intelligence Agency report on foreign nuclear threats.

The DIA stated that China is deploying more DF-26s, described as Beijing’s first-ever precision-strike nuclear capability. “The commingling of nuclear and conventional capabilities raises the potential for inadvertent escalation during a conflict,” the report warned.

A photo included in the report shows the dual-capable DF-26 with a hinged payload door that can be used to load nuclear or conventional warheads. The report said the swappable warhead feature on the DF-26 is “unique among China’s nuclear-capable systems.”

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui is visiting Russia in the latest sign of deepening strategic ties between the two autocratic powers — a development that comes amid growing unease in Western capitals over Pyongyang’s deployment of roughly 10,000 military troops to aid Russia’s war with Ukraine.

National security sources say Pentagon leaders are carefully weighing how to respond to the North Korean deployment, which has prompted U.S. ally South Korea to consider directly arming Ukraine’s military in the war. The burgeoning Russian-North Korean alliance has triggered dangerous waves on Asia’s already turbulent geopolitical landscape.

“We are increasingly concerned that Russia intends to use these soldiers in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region near the border with Ukraine,” Defense Department spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters at the Pentagon on Monday. She said the troops could be in action “within the next several weeks.”

Military Affairs Correspondent Mike Glenn reports that officials and private military analysts are divided over the impact of the North Korean troop infusion. Some say it will provide badly needed manpower, and others say the Kremlin’s appeal to Pyongyang reflects the growing strains of maintaining a war that has lasted far longer than Moscow expected.

Gambling in a bid for a stronger mandate, Japan’s new prime minister called a general election a year before he needed to, only to see his Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner lose their comfortable majority in the Diet’s Lower House in Sunday’s vote. The result raises fresh questions about the staying power of a key U.S. ally in Asia.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, in office for just a month, says he will stay on, even if his ability to enact legislation has been weakened. Washington Times Asia Editor Andrew Salmon offers a deeper look, reporting that Mr. Ishiba may face challenges from within his party and suffer the ignominious fate of his two predecessors: Neither prime minister completed a full term in office, and both were pressured to step down due to their unpopularity.

At a time when Tokyo faces delicate issues both domestically and in a region where North Korea and China pose major challenges, analysts say a return to “revolving-door” prime ministers is the last thing Tokyo needs. Japan is now also bracing for the uncertain result of the coming U.S. presidential election. Both Japan and South Korea were shaken by former President Donald Trump’s focus during his first term on obtaining higher payments from longtime allies in East Asia and Europe for overseas U.S. troop presences.

The Russian government is behind a video showing someone apparently destroying ballots in Pennsylvania in a ploy designed to stoke fear and doubt about election results, according to U.S. intelligence analysts.

A U.S. government’s warning about Moscow’s active measures targeting American voters came from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency late last week.

The intelligence community “assesses that Russian actors manufactured and amplified a recent video that falsely depicted an individual ripping up ballots in Pennsylvania, judging from information available … and prior activities of other Russian influence actors, including videos and other disinformation activities,” the agencies said in a joint statement. “Local election officials have already debunked the video’s content.”

It’s time for a “fundamental shift in how the world approaches the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” according to Marwan Muasher, a former Jordanian foreign minister and currently vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace.

Mr. Muasher argues in Foreign Affairs magazine that, “rather than focusing on a two-state solution as the be-all and end-all of the dispute, international leaders should focus first on ensuring that Palestinians and Israelis have equal rights.”

He writes that “outside governments … should let Arab states lead the way in promoting a rights-based resolution to the conflict. Otherwise, any new push for peace is doomed to fail, as have all negotiations over the last 30 years.”

• Oct. 29 — Crossing the Rubicon: North Korea Sends Troops to Russia, Center for Strategic and International Studies

• Oct. 30 — Elections 2024: Congressman Mike Turner on Geopolitics and the Next U.S. President, Atlantic Council

• Oct. 30 — Assessing Global Arms Trade Transparency, Stimson Center

• Oct. 31 — The War on America’s 2024 Elections: How U.S. Adversaries Seek to Divide Americans and Undermine Trust, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

• Nov. 7 — First in War, First in Peace: Building Post-Conflict Stability and Democracy, U.S. Institute of Peace

• Nov. 8-10 — IISS Prague Defense Summit 2024, International Institute for Strategic Studies

• Nov. 22-24 — Halifax International Security Forum

• Dec. 7 — 2024 Reagan National Defense Forum, Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute