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North Korea under the leadership of Kim Jong Un

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has issued a rare personal apology for the killing of a South Korean official, Seoul says.

Mr Kim reportedly told his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in that the "disgraceful affair" should not have happened.

South Korea has said the 47-year-old man was found by troops floating in the North's waters.

He was then shot dead and his body was set alight, according to Seoul.

The killing - the first of a South Korean citizen by North Korean forces for a decade - has caused outrage in the South.

The border between the Koreas is tightly policed, and the North is thought to have a "shoot-to-kill" policy in place to prevent coronavirus from entering the country.
 
South Korea suggests joint probe with North Korea on shooting of South Korean official

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea urged North Korea on Saturday to further investigate the fatal shooting of a South Korean fisheries official and suggested it could be an unprecedented joint probe by the two sides, as public and political outrage over the killing grew.

The move came as a rare apology from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appears to have failed to soothe criticism over the Moon government’s handling over the accident.

After a National Security Council meeting last evening, South Korea’s presidential office said it would call for a joint probe into the case with the North if needed, saying there were discrepancies in accounts of the accident from the two sides.

South Korea’s military said on Thursday that the North’s soldiers killed the man, doused his body in fuel and set it on fire near the sea border.

But the North Korean government said in a message on Friday that its soldiers shot the “illegal intruder” and denied burning his body.

The two Koreas have not conducted joint probes into previous accidents, including the death of the South Korean tourist who was shot at the North’s mountain resort of Kumgang in 2008 and the North’s bombing of the Yeonpyeong Island which killed four South Koreans in 2010. The two Koreas have been technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.

“A chance of a joint probe is low. How on earth can we investigate the North Korean military?,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

The North has tightened border controls due to the Covid-19 outbreak, which further complicates the prospect of the joint investigation, he said.

“Given Kim quickly offered a rare apology, there is a possibility of an exchange of written questions and answers between two Koreas,” he said.

‘KOREAN LIVES MATTER’

In the message, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was quoted as offering an apology for disappointing his counterpart Moon Jae-in and the South Korean people.

The main opposition People Power Party said on Saturday Kim’s apology was not genuine, calling on the Moon government to send the case to the International Criminal Court and the U.S. Security Council.

The Moon administration faces an intense political backlash over how it responded to the incident, which coincided with a renewed push by the president for engagement with Pyongyang.

Critics questioned why the military did not attempt to save him despite allegedly spotting him six hours before he was shot dead.

“Peace is important in inter-Korean relations, but the most important thing is the lives of our people. Our people were shot by North Korea and why there is no such movement as “Korean lives matter” in South Korea?,” said Thae Yong Ho, a former North Korean deputy ambassador to London who defected to the South, and became a lawmaker.

“I am depressed. Why are we weak in front of North Korea,” he said at a meeting of a parliamentary task force to investigate the case.

The maritime ministry official was reported missing while on duty on a fisheries boat near the island of Yeonpyeong close to South Korea’s sea border.

South Korea’s military said the man was apparently attempting to defect to the North, but his brother refuted the claims, saying that he must have had an accident. The North’s message did not mention whether he was attempting to defect or not, saying the man said he was from South Korea.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ooting-of-south-korean-official-idUSKCN26H02A
 
North Korea prepares for military parade despite coronavirus concern; Kim may speak

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Koreans wearing medical masks have gathered in the capital of Pyongyang, state media reported this week, ahead of what is expected to be a big military parade on Saturday, possibly featuring the country’s latest ballistic missiles.

The holiday marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, and events include concerts, art and industry exhibitions, a light show, visits to monuments and ceremonies to mark the completion of construction projects.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency cited unidentified sources as saying there were signs that the North’s state television was preparing to broadcast a parade, though it is unclear whether it would be live. Leader Kim Jong Un could also deliver an address, Yonhap said.

Officials in South Korea and the United States say that North Korea could use the parade to show off a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

“There is a possibility that North Korea will unveil new strategic weapons, such as new intercontinental ballistic missiles or submarine-launched ballistic missiles, to draw attention at a time when its economic achievements have been sluggish,” the South’s Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the North, said on Thursday.

Unification Minister Lee In-young told lawmakers that displaying a new missile could be a “low-intensity demonstration of force” ahead of the U.S. presidential election that would be less provocative than a launch or nuclear test.

Kim has not displayed ICBMs at a parade since he first met U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018, but their talks on unwinding the North’s nuclear and missile programmes have stalled and Pyongyang has signalled increasing impatience with Washington.

“The display of new ICBMs would signal that North Korea was moving on from this strategy and may indicate that North Korea will resume long-range missile testing,” said Jeffrey Lewis, a missile researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

Foreign diplomats in Pyongyang, who are often invited to observe on such holidays, were told not to approach or take photographs of this weekend’s events, NK News, a Seoul-based website that monitors North Korea, reported.

North Korean state media outlets showed photos of large crowds of delegates and other visitors in masks as they arrived for holiday events.

North Korea has not reported any confirmed cases of the coronavirus, but the government has imposed strict border controls and quarantine measures and analysts say an outbreak could be devastating for the economically and politically isolated country.

“Such an event is extremely risky in that if only a few people were COVID-19 positive in the crowd they could create a deadly super-spreader-like event,” said Harry Kazianis, senior director of Korean Studies at the Center for the National Interest in Washington.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ronavirus-concern-kim-may-speak-idUSKBN26U0AE
 
SpiritOf1903 said:
Where is the guy.... Conspicuously silent
Click to expand...

Right on cue....

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North Korea holds military parade with missiles

North Korea held a rare night time military parade on Saturday, attended by leader Kim Jong-un.

The parade marked the 75th anniversary of the Worker's Party.

North Korea typically uses its parades to show off new missiles and weaponry. Experts say intercontinental ballistic missiles were evident during Saturday morning's event.

It is the country's first parade in two years and comes just weeks ahead of the US presidential election.

North Korea had not featured ballistic missiles in its parades since President Donald Trump and Mr Kim held their first summit in 2018.

According to South Korea's military, the parade was held before dawn on Saturday. It is not yet known why the event was held so early.

No foreign media or foreigners were allowed at the event, so analysts are relying on edited state-media footage which is being released to assess the parade.

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Images showed Mr Kim wearing a grey western-style suit, receiving flowers from children.

In a speech, he said the country would continue to "strengthen" its military for "self-defence and deterrence".

He also said he was grateful that no North Koreans have contracted Covid-19.

"I wish good health to all the people around the world who are fighting the ills of this evil virus," he said.

Despite claiming the country has no cases of coronavirus, Mr Kim continues to hold high-level meetings to ensure tight restrictions remain in place.

Analysts have said it is highly unlikely that North Korea has not experienced any coronavirus cases at all.

There was no sign of anyone wearing masks during the parade. However there were far fewer people involved in the event than usual, AFP news agency reports.

North Korea closed its borders to the outside world in January to prevent an outbreak of Covid-19 spreading from neighbouring China.

Authorities have reportedly issued "shoot-to-kill" orders along the border and created a buffer zone to stop anyone entering the country.

Last month Mr Kim apologised for the fatal shooting of a South Korean. South Korea said the 47-year-old man was found by troops while floating in the North's waters. He was then shot dead and his body was set alight, according to Seoul.

For weeks, satellite imagery has shown thousands of people practicing for Saturday's parade.

Foreign officials in Pyongyang had been told to avoid travelling through the city, going near the event venue and taking photos of the event.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-54491657
 
North Korea unveils new intercontinental ballistic missile at military parade

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea showcased previously unseen intercontinental ballistic missiles at an unprecedented predawn military parade on Saturday that showcased the country’s long-range missiles for the first time in two years.

Analysts said the missile, which was shown on a transporter vehicle with 11 axles, would be one of the largest road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in the world if it becomes operational.

Also displayed were the Hwasong-15, which is the longest-range missile ever tested by North Korea, and what appeared to be a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM).

Ahead of the parade, which was held to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of its ruling Workers’ Party, officials in South Korea and the United States said Kim Jong Un could use the event to unveil a new “strategic weapon” as promised earlier this year.

The parade featured North Korea’s ballistic missiles for the first time since Kim began meeting with international leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, in 2018.

“We will continue to build our national defence power and self-defensive war deterrence,” Kim said, but vowed that the country’s military power would not be used preemptively. He made no direct mention of the United States or the now-stalled denuclearisation talks.

State news agency KCNA said the authority and security of North Korea hinged on “the huge nuclear strategic forces” shown in the parade.

Kim blamed international sanctions, typhoons, and the coronavirus for preventing him from delivering on promises of economic progress.

“I am ashamed that I have never been able to repay you properly for your enormous trust,” he said. “My efforts and devotion were not sufficient to bring our people out of difficult livelihoods.”

The video showed Kim make an appearance as a clock struck midnight. Dressed in a grey suit and tie, he waved to the crowd and accepted flowers from children while surrounded by military officials in Pyongyang’s recently renovated Kim Il Sung Square.

The parade was highly choreographed, with thousands of troops marching in formation, displays of new conventional military equipment including tanks, and fighter jets launching flares and fireworks.

Chad O’Carroll, CEO of the Korea Risk Group, which monitors North Korea, said more new military hardware had been displayed at this event than at nearly any other previous parade.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...stic-missile-at-military-parade-idUSKBN26V01K
 
Documentary claims to expose North Korea trying to dodge sanctions

A new documentary with a bizarre cast of characters claims to shed light on North Korea's efforts to evade international sanctions, by tricking members of Kim Jong-un's secretive regime into signing fake arms deals.

The film features an out-of-work Danish chef fascinated by communist dictatorships; a Spanish nobleman and North Korean propagandist with a penchant for military uniform; and a former French legionnaire and convicted cocaine dealer who plays the part of an international man of mystery.

But could it all be true? One former UN official told the BBC he found it "highly credible".

The film, titled The Mole, is the work of maverick Danish film maker Mads Brügger, who says he orchestrated a complex three-year sting operation to reveal how North Korea flouts international law.

The out-of-work chef fascinated by communist dictatorships is Ulrich Larsen, who, with Brügger's help, infiltrates the Korean Friendship Association, a pro-regime group based in Spain. Larsen moves up the ranks and ultimately wins the favour and apparent trust of North Korean government officials.

Membership of the KFA brings Larsen into contact with its flamboyant founder and president, Alejandro Cao de Benós, a Spanish nobleman known around the world as "the Gatekeeper of North Korea".

During the film, in which he is sometimes seen in North Korean military uniform, Cao de Benós boasts of his access and influence with the regime in Pyongyang.

Then there is Jim Latrache-Qvortrup, described as a former French legionnaire and convicted cocaine dealer. Latrache-Qvortrup is hired to play the part of an international arms dealer, which he does in an assortment of flashy suits.

Pulling the strings is Brügger himself, who calls himself "the puppet master". He claims to have spent 10 years working on his film - now a joint production by the BBC and Scandinavian broadcasters.

The film is funny, grotesque and at times barely credible. "I am a film maker who craves sensation," Brügger admits in the film.

But Hugh Griffiths, who was co-ordinator of the UN Panel of Experts on North Korea between 2014 and 2019, called the revelations in the film "highly credible".

"This film is the most severe embarrassment to Chairman Kim Jong-un that we have ever seen," said Griffiths. "Just because it appears amateurish does not mean the intent to sell and gain foreign currency revenue is not there. Elements of the film really do correspond with what we already know."

North Korea has been under UN sanctions since 2006 because of its nuclear ambitions - its development and testing have been documented in regular reports by a Panel of Experts since 2010. But it is unprecedented to see North Korean officials, on film, discussing how to evade sanctions in order to export weapons.

In one key moment in the film, Ulrich Larsen, the former chef and "The Mole" of the title, films as Jim Latrache-Qvortrup, aka "Mr James" the arms dealer, signs a contract with the representative of a North Korean arms factory, with government officials present. The encounter takes place in a gaudy basement restaurant in a Pyongyang suburb.

Not all the Koreans present are properly identified, and, laughing about it afterwards, Latrache-Qvortrup says he had to invent a company name when grilled by one of the Korean officials. It seems incredible the team would not have given any previous thought to such a basic detail, just as it stretches credulity to think that genuine Korean officials would allow such a meeting to be filmed and for documents to be signed and exchanged.

The signed document bears the signature of Kim Ryong-chol, president of Narae Trading Organisation. Narae is a common name on the Korean Peninsula, but the most recent UN Panel of Experts report, dated 28 August 2020, says that a company called Korea Narae Trading Corporation "is engaged in sanctions evasion-related activities for the purposes of generating revenue that supports the prohibited activities of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea".

Griffiths, the former UN official, said it was telling that the Koreans present were apparently willing to deal with a private businessman about whom they knew nothing.

"It shows that UN sanctions are working. The North Koreans are clearly desperate to sell their weapons," he said.

At one point, during a meeting in Kampala in 2017, Latrache-Qvortrup is asked by "Mr Danny" (described as a "North Korean arms dealer") whether he would be able to deliver North Korean weaponry to Syria. The question reflects North Korea's increasing difficulty in doing this for itself, Griffiths said.

"Mr James" is in Uganda, accompanied by some of the same North Korean officials seen in Pyongyang, to discuss the purchase of an island in Lake Victoria. Ugandan officials are told it's for the construction of a luxury resort, but Mr James and the Koreans are secretly planning to build an underground factory to manufacture weapons and drugs.

Again, it seems fantastical, but North Korea has done this sort of thing before. The regime built an ammunition factory at a disused copper mine in the Leopard Valley in Namibia. Ostensibly, they were in the country to build statues and monuments.

The activities of the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (Komid) were investigated by the UN Panel of Experts between 2015 and 2018. UN pressure on Namibia may help explain why the North Koreans, who in the film initially suggest building there again, switched their attention to Uganda, said Griffiths.

"North Korean projects in Namibia were effectively shut down," the former UN official said. "By 2018, Uganda was one of the very few African countries… where North Korean arms brokers could still travel at will."

Another aspect of the film of interest to international observers is the apparent involvement of accredited North Korean diplomats in embassies abroad in facilitating efforts to violate UN sanctions. In one sequence, Ulrich Larsen visits the North Korean embassy in Stockholm, where he receives an envelope of plans for the project in Uganda from a diplomat described as Mr Ri.

Like many of the documentary's key scenes, the encounter is secretly filmed by Larsen. As he leaves, Mr Ri warns him to be discreet.

"If something happens, the embassy knows nothing about this, OK?" Mr Ri says.

According to Griffiths, the sequence "fits a pattern".

"The vast majority of sanctions investigations by the UN Panel found that North Korean diplomatic premises or passport holders were involved in the actual or attempted violations," he said.

None of the deals discussed in the film ever come to fruition. Eventually, as partners start to demand money, Brügger makes "Mr James" disappear. The filmmakers say their evidence has been presented to the North Korean embassy in Stockholm, but there has been no response.

Cao de Benós, the founder of the KFA, said that he was "play acting" and that the film was "biased, staged and manipulate".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-54464581
 
Kim Jong-un sheds tears as he delivers rare apology to North Korea over failings

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, shed tears as he issued a rare apology for his failure to guide the country through tumultuous times exacerbated by the coronavirus outbreak.

Speaking at a huge military parade held at the weekend to mark the 75th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ party, Kim removed his glasses and wiped away tears – an indication, analysts say, of mounting pressure on his regime.

“Our people have placed trust, as high as the sky and as deep as the sea, in me, but I have failed to always live up to it satisfactorily,” he said, according to a translation of his comments in the Korea Times. “I am really sorry for that.”

Citing his grandfather and father – North Korea’s previous two leaders – Kim continued: “Although I am entrusted with the important responsibility to lead this country upholding the cause of the great comrades Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il thanks to the trust of all the people, my efforts and sincerity have not been sufficient enough to rid our people of the difficulties in their lives.”

While the parade in the capital, Pyongyang, featured the expected unveiling of a new intercontinental ballistic missile and other military hardware, analysts said Kim had used a sizeable portion of his speech to sympathise with the North Korean people.

The address was peppered with ominous words such as “grave challenges”, “countless ordeals” and “unprecedented disasters,” according to media accounts.

North Korea has seen trade with China – by far its biggest economic partner – fall dramatically due to the closure of borders in response to the pandemic, although Pyongyang insists it has not recorded a single case of the virus.

Years of international sanctions in response to Kim’s nuclear and missile programmes, plus damage inflicted by natural disasters, have only added to his difficulties.

“It is important to look at why he has come to shed tears at such an occasion,” Hong Min, director of the North Korea division at the Korean Institute for National Unification, told the Korea Times. “Underneath his message, one can sense that Kim is feeling a lot of pressure on his leadership.”

Despite the presence of troops, missiles, tanks and other evidence of North Korea’s growing military might, Kim offered support to people around the world suffering as a result of Covid-19 and voiced hope for an improvement in ties with South Korea.

The South said it was concerned that the parade appeared to have included a new long-range ballistic missile, with the foreign ministry calling on Pyongyang to resume denuclearisation talks.

Kim warned in his speech that he would “fully mobilise” his nuclear force if threatened, but avoided direct criticism of Washington.

A US official said it was “disappointing” that North Korea was continuing to prioritise nuclear and ballistic missile development while talks with the US remained deadlocked, and urged Pyongyang to “engage in sustained and substantive negotiations to achieve complete denuclearisation”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ers-rare-apology-to-north-korea-over-failings
 
North Korea says China dust could spread COVID-19, warns people to stay inside

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has warned its citizens to stay indoors, saying seasonal yellow dust blowing in from China might carry the new coronavirus into the country.

“As the new coronavirus infections continue to spread around the world, the need to deal with the yellow dust and take thorough measures has become more critical,” North Korea’s official party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said on Thursday.

The claim that the virus that causes COVID-19 could spread to North Korea from the Gobi desert, 1,900 km (1,200 miles) away, appears unsupported. Two metres (6 feet) is a common social-distancing metric, although the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says droplets containing the virus can sometimes linger in the air for hours.

The North Korean newspaper said citizens should refrain from outdoor activities and must follow prevention guidelines such as wearing masks when they go outside.

North Korea has reported no confirmed cases of the coronavirus, a claim that health experts question. Pyongyang has imposed strict border controls and quarantine measures to prevent an outbreak. Analysts say an outbreak could be devastating for the economically and politically isolated country.

State-run KRT television said on Wednesday the yellow dust and fine dust may contain harmful substances, such as heavy metals and pathogenic microorganisms including viruses.

“People must pay attention to personal hygiene after returning from outside,” a news reader said. “Also, workers should avoid outdoor construction work even at reconstruction sites.”

On Thursday, the Russian embassy in North Korea wrote on Facebook that North Korea’s Foreign Ministry had ordered all visitors to the country and its staff to wait out the dust storm inside.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-19-warns-people-to-stay-inside-idUSKBN27907B
 
China gave COVID-19 vaccine candidate to North Korea's Kim: U.S. analyst

SEOUL (Reuters) - China has provided North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his family with an experimental coronavirus vaccine, a U.S. analyst said on Tuesday, citing two unidentified Japanese intelligence sources.

Harry Kazianis, a North Korea expert at the Center for the National Interest think tank in Washington, said the Kims and several senior North Korean officials had been vaccinated.

It was unclear which company had supplied its drug candidate to the Kims and whether it had proven to be safe, he added.

“Kim Jong Un and multiple other high-ranking officials within the Kim family and leadership network have been vaccinated for coronavirus within the last two to three weeks thanks to a vaccine candidate supplied by the Chinese government,” Kazianis wrote in an article for online outlet 19FortyFive.

Citing U.S. medical scientist Peter J. Hotez, he said at least three Chinese companies were developing a coronavirus vaccine, including Sinovac Biotech Ltd, CanSinoBio and China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), an unlisted Beijing-based company.

Sinopharm says its candidate has been used by nearly one million people in China, although none of the firms have unveiled results of Phase 3 clinical trial of their experimental COVID-19 vaccines, which are under way outside China.

Some experts doubted that Kim would use an experimental vaccine.

“Even if a Chinese vaccine had already been approved, no drug is perfect and he would not take that risk when he has numerous shelters which can ensure almost complete isolation,” said Choi Jung-hun, an infectious disease expert who defected from North Korea to the South in 2012.

Mark Barry, an East Asia analyst and associate editor of the International Journal on World Peace, said Kim would prefer proven European vaccines to one supplied by Beijing.

“The risk is too great. But he’s happy to get Chinese personal protective equipment,” Barry said on Twitter.

North Korea has not confirmed any coronavirus infections, but South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) has said an outbreak there cannot be ruled out as the country had trade and people-to-people exchanges with China - the source of the pandemic - before shutting the border in late January.

Microsoft said last month that two North Korean hacking groups had tried to break into the network of vaccine developers in multiple countries, without specifying the companies targeted. Sources told Reuters they included British drugmaker AstraZeneca.

The NIS said last week it had foiled North Korea’s attempts to hack into South Korean COVID-19 vaccine makers.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...to-north-koreas-kim-u-s-analyst-idUSKBN28B3C9
 
Kim Jong-un warns of North Korea crisis similar to deadly 90s famine

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has told citizens to prepare for hard times ahead, following warnings from rights groups that the country faces dire food shortages and economic instability.

Speaking at a party conference, Mr Kim appeared to compare the situation to the devastating 1990s famine, estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands.

North Korea has shut its borders due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Trade with China, its economic lifeline, has come to a standstill.

This is on top of existing international economic sanctions over Pyongyang's nuclear programme.
Click to expand...

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56685356.
 
North Korea has reacted furiously to the US president's description of the country as a security threat, calling it a "big blunder".

The response came after Joe Biden addressed Congress for the first time last week, saying nuclear programmes in North Korea and Iran are a "serious threat to America's security and world security".

He promised to work with allies to address the problems through "diplomacy and stern deterrence".

But Kwon Jong Gun, a senior North Korean Foreign Ministry official, was unimpressed, saying talk of diplomacy was being used to cover up US hostile acts.

In a statement reported by news agency KCNA, he said: "(Mr Biden's) statement clearly reflects his intent to keep enforcing the hostile policy toward the DPRK as it had been done by the US for over half a century.

"It is certain that the US chief executive made a big blunder in the light of the present-day viewpoint.

"Now that the keynote of the US new DPRK policy has become clear, we will be compelled to press for corresponding measures, and with time the US will find itself in a very grave situation."

Mr Kwon was not specific about the steps North Korea could take.

Another unnamed foreign ministry spokesperson said the US had insulted the dignity of North Korea's leadership by criticising the country's human rights situation.

The criticism is a provocation that shows the US is "girding itself up for an all-out showdown" with North Korea, the spokesperson said, adding that it will be answered accordingly.

On Friday the White House said that a review of US policy towards North Korea had been completed.

Press secretary Jen Psaki did not give details of the review's findings but she said the Biden administration would seek a middle ground between Donald Trump's "grand bargain" and Barack Obama's "strategic patience" approaches.

Mr Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a number of times during his presidency, each time claiming to have made major progress.

But no deal was ever reached.

North Korea is reluctant to surrender the nuclear weapons it sees as necessary for its own protection - especially without some form of sanctions relief.

The US had wanted steps towards denuclearisation before committing to the easing of sanctions.

Markus Garlauskas, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council and former US national intelligence officer for North Korea, said Pyongyang's words are a reminder that the challenge is about more than terminology or tactics.

"The differences between the Kim regime and the United States are much more fundamental," he said.

He added that Mr Kim does not intend to give up nuclear weapons or reform North Korea's political system but it is difficult to see how the US could embrace a nuclear-armed North Korea that abuses human rights.

https://news.sky.com/story/north-ko...e-hostile-policy-12292858?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter
 
North Korea's Kim Jong-Un targets BTS fans in brutal crackdown on K-Pop music

The Supreme Leader of North Korea and leader of the Workers' Party of Korea has taken issue with the fun, infectious tunes produced by bands like BTS which he claims are 'corrupting' the youth of his nation

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has declared war on K-Pop and is targeting BTS fans in particular in a bizarre battle of music and control.

The 37-year-old supreme leader has taken issue with the infectious tunes of Korean pop music – which blends European music style with Korean lyrics.

Control freak Kim has declared the music style a “vicious cancer” and says it risks corrupting the people of North Korea – who live under his totalitarian control.

Mr Jong-un’s government is now cracking down on the style of music as he regards it as “a serious threat to North Korean socialism.”

TMZ reports: “Leaked documents from the North Korean government show Kim is running an anti-K-Pop campaign against what he calls the ‘vicious cancer’ of South Korean pop groups.

“The docs, detailed in the New York Times, rip K-Pop for spreading ‘anti-socialist’ sentiment and corrupting the ‘attire, hairstyles, speech, behaviors’ of the youth.”

The report hints that there are concerns over how brutal Mr Jong-un’s vendetta against the music style, and those who enjoy it, will go.

K-Pop superstars BTS share agony over racial discrimination they've suffered
They write: “The scary part is it's hard to say how far Kim would go to stem what he sees as a cultural invasion from South Korea and its boy bands.”

And add: "While BTS and other K-pop groups are hurling infectious hits like Dynamite ... Kim Jong-un has actual explosives."

The latest threat against K-Pop comes three months after Kim Jong-Un made a veiled threat to entertainment.

In March, a propaganda site was uncovered describing artists as: "bound to unbelievably unfair contracts from an early age, detained at their training and treated as slaves after being robbed of their body, mind and soul by the heads of vicious and corrupt art-related conglomerates".

Expert Keith Howard, from London's School of Oriental and African Studies, told CNN at the time: "There's no evidence that people are creating any of their own music outside of what's centrally allowed.

"The only recording company is state-owned, and there are no performances that would be permitted outside what's authorised.

"You don't even have the right to create new words (to existing songs), and if you did, you'd have to be incredibly careful, because if they were deemed to be inappropriate you'd be in trouble."

https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/north-koreas-kim-jong-un-24303071
 
North Korea's Kim looks much thinner, causing health speculation


The health of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has long been a source of morbid fascination in rival South Korea, which sits in the shadow of Kim’s 1.2 million-strong army and his growing arsenal of nuclear-armed missiles.

Has he gained even more weight? Is he struggling for breath after relatively short walks? What about that cane? Why did he miss that important state anniversary?

Now, the 37-year-old faces fresh speculation in the South about his health again. But this time, it’s because he’s noticeably slimmer.

Kim’s health matters in Seoul, Washington, Tokyo and other world capitals because he hasn’t publicly anointed a successor who would control an advancing nuclear programme targeting the US and its allies if he is incapacitated. North Korea, never open about the internal workings of its leadership, has over the last year shut itself up even tighter to protect itself against the coronavirus pandemic.

In recent state media images, including those published on Wednesday, Kim appeared to have lost a large amount of weight. The strap on his fancy watch is tighter and his face thinner. Some observers say Kim — who is about five feet and 8 inches tall and has previously weighed 140 kilogrammes — may have lost about 10-20 kilogrammes.

Kim’s apparent weight loss is more likely an attempt to improve his health, rather than a sign of illness, according to Hong Min, a senior analyst at Seoul’s Korea Institute for National Unification.

“If he was experiencing health problems, he wouldn’t have come out in public to convene the plenary meeting of the Workers’ Party’s Central Committee,” a major political conference this week that is expected to last two to three days, Hong said.

Kim, known for heavy drinking and smoking, comes from a family with a history of heart problems. His father and grandfather, who ruled North Korea before him, both died of heart issues. Experts have said his weight could increase the possibility of cardiovascular diseases.

South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said it has no information to share about Kim’s health. His slimmer look has been the focus of keen interest in South Korea, with media outlets publishing photos of his previous and current appearances.

Seo Yu-Seok at the Seoul-based Institute of North Korean Studies said the North’s recent creation of the first secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party, the country's number two job, might have been related to Kim’s possible health issues. He said Kim may have allowed the post’s establishment at the urging of top officials but still hasn’t named anyone to the job because it could loosen his grip on power.

“If Kim faces a real health problem and is in a condition in which he can’t express his opinions, though he isn’t dead, who will make a decision to name the first secretary?” Seo said.

When global speculation flared about Kim’s health last year after he missed the commemoration of the birthday of his late grandfather, some analysts speculated Kim’s younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, was next in line to inherit her brother’s power. Others said a collective leadership was also possible.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1629675/north-koreas-kim-looks-much-thinner-causing-health-speculation
 
North Korea has test-fired a new type of tactical guided weapon which it claims is of "great significance".

The reclusive state's dictator Kim Jong Un observed the test, and was pictured beaming as generals clapped behind him.
 
North Korea launched a suspected ballistic missile toward its eastern waters on Wednesday, South Korean and Japanese officials said, a few days after the North Korean ruler, Kim Jong-un, vowed to bolster his nuclear arsenal “at the fastest possible pace” and threatened to use nuclear weapons against other countries.

The launch, the North’s 14th round of weapons firing, also came six days before a new South Korean president takes office for a single five-year term.

North Korean state media released on Sunday an image showing the testing of a weapons system it claimed was part of the regime’s nuclear weapons program.

South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said the launch was made off the North’s eastern coast but gave no further details.

Japan’s defence ministry said North Korea fired a possible ballistic missile without providing further details.

North Korea’s quickened pace in weapons testing this year underscores its dual goal of advancing its missile programmes and applying pressure on Washington over a deepening freeze in nuclear negotiations, experts say.

There are also signs that the North is preparing for a nuclear test at its remote north-eastern testing facility.

Last week, Kim showcased his most powerful missiles during a massive military parade in capital, Pyongyang, where he vowed to develop his arsenal at the “fastest possible pace” and warned that the North would proactively use its nuclear weapons if its national interests were threatened.

Guardian
 
North Korea's rapidly spreading Covid-19 outbreak is a "great disaster" for the country, its leader Kim Jong-un has said, according to state media.

Mr Kim called for an all-out battle to tackle the spread of the virus during an emergency meeting on Saturday.

It comes after officials announced the first confirmed cases on Thursday - although experts believe the virus has likely been circulating for some time.

There are fears a major outbreak could have dire consequences in North Korea.

Its population of 25 million is vulnerable due to the lack of a vaccination programme and poor healthcare system.

And on Saturday, state media reported that there had been half a million cases of unexplained fever in recent weeks. The country has limited testing capabilities so most Covid cases are not confirmed.

That figure marked a major increase on the numbers given on both Friday and Thursday, potentially providing some indication of the scale of North Korea's outbreak.

"The spread of the malignant epidemic is [the greatest] turmoil to fall on our country since the founding," the official KCNA news agency quoted Mr Kim as saying.

He blamed the crisis on bureaucratic and medical incompetence, and suggested lessons could be learnt from the response of countries like neighbouring China.

State media reports that 27 people have died since April after suffering a fever.

The reports do not say whether they tested positive for Covid, apart from one death in the capital Pyongyang which was confirmed to be a case of the Omicron variant.

The unprecedented admission on Thursday marked the end of two years of North Korean claims to be free of Covid.

The secretive country rejected offers from the international community to supply millions of AstraZeneca and Chinese-made jabs last year. Instead, it claimed it had controlled Covid by sealing its borders early in January 2020.

It shares land borders with South Korea and China, which have both battled outbreaks. China is now struggling to contain an Omicron wave with lockdowns in its biggest cities.

At a meeting outlining new Covid rules on Thursday, Mr Kim was seen wearing a face mask on television for what was believed to be the first time.

He ordered "maximum emergency" virus controls, which appeared to include orders for local lockdowns and gathering restrictions in workplaces.

South Korea has said it offered humanitarian aid after Thursday's announcement, but Pyongyang is yet to respond.

BBC
 
<b>North Korean citizens told to gargle salt water to cure COVID - as Kim Jong Un facing a 'dilemma'</b>

The reclusive country acknowledged a COVID-19 outbreak for the first time last week, and has said more than 50 people have died and that 1.5 million have been infected.

North Korean state media has now told citizens to gargle with salt water and drink willow leaf tea three times a day to get rid of the illness.

The outbreak is likely to be worse than reported by state media, as North Korea lacks sufficient COVID tests and few people are vaccinated.

Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University's Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, said the country's leader Kim Jong Un is facing a "really huge dilemma".

"If he accepts US or Western assistance, that can shake the self-reliant stance that he has steadfastly maintained and public confidence in him could be weakened."

During his reign, Kim Jong Un has shunned international help and instead tried to fix issues domestically.

He had previously touted his country as "impregnable" to the pandemic and rebuffed offers of millions of doses of vaccines from the UN-backed COVAX programme.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, said the country is "experiencing another 'arduous march'" - referring to the state's euphemism for a devastating famine in the 1990s that killed hundreds of thousands of people.

SKY
 
Sunday's test lasted 35 minutes, with the missiles launched in succession from the Sunan area near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.

Japan's defence minister Nobuo Kishi said the launch "cannot be tolerated".

It is not yet clear how far the missiles travelled, but Mr Kishi said at a briefing that at least one missile had a variable trajectory, which indicates it could manoeuvre to evade missile defences.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is balancing missile tests with an outbreak of COVID-19© Associated Press North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is balancing missile tests with an outbreak of COVID-19
The news comes just a day after South Korea and the US finished three days of combined exercises off the Japanese island of Okinawa.

The exercises involved the USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

North Korea describes such drills as an example of the US's "hostile policies" towards it.

US special representative Sung Kim has also been in the area, meeting his counterparts from South Korea and Japan to prepare for "all contingencies" as fears grow that Pyongyang could soon conduct a nuclear test for the first time since 2017.

Mr Kim insisted that the US is open to diplomacy with North Korea, even going as far as to say that this includes talks about sanctions relief.

Sunday's missile test was the 18th by North Korea this year.

The most recent was on 25 May, when it launched three missiles, including its largest intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-17.

That prompted a US resolution in the UN Security Council calling for more sanctions, although this was vetoed by Russia and China.

Talks between the US and North Korea have made no progress since 2019 - the US wants signs of disarmament, but North Korea refuses to take such steps while sanctions remain at their current level.

Despite the frosty relations, the US has offered North Korea aid in its struggle with COVID-19, as the country continues to battle its first known outbreak since the pandemic began.

More than 73,000 people were reported as having fever symptoms on Saturday.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/worl...sedgntp&cvid=aaa4085cfd584e1b800bdc5002ca7eb4
 
Kim Jong-un says North Korea ready to mobilise nuclear forces

North Korea is ready to mobilise its nuclear war deterrent, its leader Kim Jong-un has claimed.

Speaking at a Korean War anniversary event, Mr Kim added that the country was "fully ready for any military confrontation" with the US, state news agency KCNA reported.

The comments come amid concern that North Korea could be preparing a seventh nuclear test.

The US warned last month that Pyongyang could conduct such a test at any time.

North Korea's most recent nuclear test was in 2017. However, tensions have been rising on the Korean peninsula.

The US special representative to North Korea Sung Kim says North Korea has tested an unprecedented number of missiles this year - 31 compared to 25 during the whole of its last record-breaking year, 2019.

In June South Korea responded by launching eight missiles of its own.

Although the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, North Korea claims it as a victory against the US. The annual "Victory Day" celebrations are marked by military parades, fireworks and dancing.

In his speech to mark the event, Mr Kim said nuclear threats from the US required North Korea to achieve the "urgent historical task" of beefing up its self-defence.

The US had misrepresented North Korea's regular military exercises as provocations, he added.

Mr Kim also appeared to address reports that South Korea is moving to revive a plan to counter the North Korean nuclear threat by mounting precautionary strikes in the event of an imminent attack.

The so-called "Kill Chain" strategy, first elaborated a decade ago, calls for pre-emptive strikes against Pyongyang's missiles and possibly its senior leadership.

Some analysts have warned it carries its own risks and could fuel an arms race.

At the Victory Day celebration Mr Kim said that South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol's government and military would be "obliterated" if he carried out pre-emptive strikes.

Is North Korea 'on the brink of war'?


Kim Jong-Un's warning that the Korean peninsula is "on the brink of war" sounds extremely scary. But North Korean rhetoric is often fiery, especially on significant anniversaries.

What it indicates is just how angry the North Korean regime is about South Korea's new President Yoon Suk-yeol.

Since taking office in May, President Yoon has laid out a new, more aggressive defence policy. It would allow South Korean forces to pre-emptively strike the North, if Seoul believes it is under imminent threat of a nuclear attack from Pyongyang.

This so-called "Kill Chain" strategy would allow South Korea to launch pre-emptive ballistic missiles and air strikes on North Korean targets, including taking out the North Korean command and control structures. In other words, attempting to kill Kim Jong-Un himself.

Pyongyang is also quite unhappy with the lack of engagement from Washington since President Biden replaced Donald Trump.

All of this could suggest we are headed towards some sort of deliberate escalation by the North.

Everyone now expects that Pyongyang will carry out a seventh underground nuclear test. Preparations have been underway at the Punggye-ri test site since March.

BBC
 
Russian President Vladimir Putin has written to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, to suggest the two countries form closer ties.

North Korea's state media, KCNA, said the letter from Mr Putin had suggested the pair work to "expand the comprehensive and constructive bilateral relations with common efforts".

Delivered to Pyongyang on North Korea's liberation day, it went on to say a union would help "strengthen the security and stability of the Korean peninsula and the Northeastern Asian region".

In a separate letter in reply, Mr Kim said that since a Russian-North Korean friendship had been forged in World War II with victory over Japan, the "strategic and tactical cooperation, support and solidarity" between the two countries had reached a new level.

Their common efforts to frustrate threats and provocations from "hostile military forces", it said, bound them.

KCNA did not identify the "hostile forces", but it has typically used that term to refer to the US and its
allies.

In July, Mr Kim said North Korea was ready to mobilise its nuclear war deterrent "accurately and promptly" in the face of potential military conflicts with the US or South Korea.

Also in July, North Korea recognised two Russian-backed breakaway "people's republics" in eastern Ukraine as independent states, and officials raised the prospect of North Korean workers being sent to the areas to help in construction and other labour.

Ukraine, which has been resisting a Russian invasion since February - described by Moscow as a "special military operation"- immediately severed relations with Pyongyang over the move.

SKY
 
<b>North Korea declares itself a nuclear weapons state</b>

North Korea has passed a law declaring itself to be a nuclear weapons state, according to state news agency KCNA.

The country's leader Kim Jong-un called the decision "irreversible" and ruled out the possibility of any talks on denuclearisation, it said.

The law also enshrines the country's right to use a pre-emptive nuclear strike to protect itself.

Despite crippling sanctions, Pyongyang has conducted six nuclear tests between 2006 and 2017.

It has continued to advance its military capability - in breach of United Nations Security Council resolutions - to threaten its neighbours and potentially even bring the US mainland within striking range.

Mr Kim carried long-range launches and nuclear tests in 2019 following two headline-grabbing but inconclusive summits with then US president Donald Trump.

But talks between the countries have since stalled.

Although the Biden administration has indicated it's willing to talk to Pyongyang, it hasn't said whether President Joe Biden would meet Mr Kim.

The White House also said its attempts to contact Pyongyang and overtures of help over its Covid outbreak had gone unanswered so far.

The US reviewed its North Korea policy last year and reiterated that "complete denuclearisation" of the Korean peninsula was the goal.

Mr Biden said he would pursue it with a mix of diplomacy and "stern deterrence". Mr Kim responded by saying his country must prepare for both "dialogue and confrontation".

Meanwhile, tensions on the Korean peninsula have spiked this year with Pyongyang firing a record number of ballistic missiles.

South Korea and the US have responded with a volley of missiles and the largest joint military exercises on the peninsula in years.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-62845958
 
<b>North Korea has fired a suspected ballistic missile off its east coast, its first known test since June, South Korean military officials have said.</b>

It came after a US aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea to participate in joint drills, and ahead of a planned visit by Vice President Kamala Harris.

Seoul said the launch was an "act of grave provocation".

The UN prohibits North Korea from ballistic and nuclear weapons tests.

South Korea's military said it detected a short range missile fired at just before 07:00 local time (23:00 GMT) close to Taechon, more than 100 km (60 miles) north of Pyongyang.

It said it flew about 600 km at an altitude of 60 km.

"Our military maintains a full readiness posture and is closely cooperating with the US while strengthening surveillance and vigilance," it said in a statement.

Japan's coast guard confirmed the launch, warning ships to "be vigilant".

Tokyo's defence minister Yasukazu Hamada said the missile reached a maximum altitude of around 50 km, falling in waters off North Korea's eastern coast, and outside Japan's exclusive economic zone.

"It's North Korea's way of showing defiance of the [US] alliance," Soo Kim, an analyst at the Rand Corporation, told AFP.

The nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan docked in the southern port city of Busan on Friday, to take part in joint drills off South Korea's east coast.

The exercises are for the "sake of peace and stability on the Korean peninsula", according to the South Korean navy.
 
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea off its east coast on Saturday, marking its fourth launch in a week.

South Korean, Japanese and US militaries said they detected the two launches, with estimates indicating they flew between 220 and 250 miles before landing in waters between Japan and the Korean peninsula.

Pyongyang's launch follows a continuation of a regional arms race between the Koreas, which has seen a major increase in weapons and military spending.

Japan's vice defence minister, Toshiro Ino, said the missiles showed "irregular" trajectory, while some observers said the weapons reported low and "irregular" trajectory - suggesting they were likely nuclear-capable missiles modelled after Russia's Iskander missile.

The test launch is seen as a response to recent naval drills between South Korea and the United States, which also involved Japan.

It came just before South Korea staged a large military show, displaying advanced weaponry, where the country's president Yoon Suk-yeol condemned what he called recent military provocations by the North and vowed to strengthen joint military drills with the US.

Nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches by North Korea have long been banned by the UN Security Council.

On Friday, South Korea, the US and Japan held their first trilateral anti-submarine drills in five years off the Korean Peninsula's east coast.

While earlier this week, US vice president Kamala Harris visited South Korea, meeting with Mr Yoon in Seoul on Thursday.

Mr Yoon said North Korea's "obsession" with nuclear weapons is deepening the suffering of its own people and warned of an "overwhelming response" from South Korean and US officials should such weapons be used.

North Korea views such military exercises by the allies as an invasion rehearsal and argues they reveal US and South Korean "double standards" because they brand the North's weapons tests as a provocation.

Analysts say North Korea's increased pace of testing can be seen as an effort to build operational weapons, as well as to take advantage of a world distracted by the Ukraine conflict and other crises to "normalise" its tests.

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said: "Despite North Korea's internal weaknesses and international isolation, it is rapidly modernising weapons and taking advantage of a world divided by US-China rivalry and Russia's annexation of more Ukrainian territory."

This year, North Korea performed missile tests more than 20 times, a record number, as it refuses to resume long-stalled nuclear talks with the United States.

https://news.sky.com/story/north-ko...es-military-show-12708959?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter
 
South Korea and the US military have fired a volley of missiles into the sea, Seoul says, in response to North Korea's launch of a missile over Japan.

The missiles were fired into the East Sea - also known as the Sea of Japan - between the Korean peninsula and Japan.

Pyongyang test-fired a ballistic missile on Tuesday, sending it over Japan for the first time since 2017.

In response, the US, Japan and South Korea have been conducting military drills in a show of force.

On Wednesday South Korea and the US each fired a pair of US-made Army Tactical Missile System missiles, according to a statement.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told CNN the launch was designed to show the US and their allies have the "the military capabilities at the ready to respond to provocations by the North".

A South Korean missile failed shortly after launch and crashed, but caused no casualties, its military separately reported.

The decision by Pyongyang to send a missile over Japan on Tuesday has been seen as a deliberate escalation to get the attention of Tokyo and Washington.

N Korea missile tests: What does Kim Jong-un want?
What missiles has North Korea been testing?
Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida described that launch as "violent behaviour", while US President Joe Biden reinforced Washington's "ironclad commitment" to Japan's defence during a phone call with Mr Kishida.

Later on Tuesday, White House spokesman John Kirby said it was "obviously destabilizing."

As the missile flew over Japan on Tuesday, people in the north, including on Hokkaido island and in the city of Aomori, woke up to the noise of sirens and text alerts which read: "North Korea appears to have launched a missile. Please evacuate into buildings or underground."

The UN prohibits North Korea from testing ballistic and nuclear weapons. Flying missiles towards or over other countries without any warning or consultation also contravenes international norms.

North Korea's missile launch on Tuesday was the fifth carried out by Pyongyang in a week.

Many of its missile tests are conducted on a flight path that reaches a high altitude, avoiding flights over its neighbours.

But firing over or past Japan allows North Korean scientists to test missiles under circumstances "that are more representative of the conditions they'd endure in real-world use", analyst Ankit Panda told news agency Reuters.

These actions have contributed to enduring tensions between North Korea and Japan, rooted in Japan's colonisation of Korea from 1910 to 1945 and the North's abduction of Japanese citizens in the past.

In September, North Korea passed a law declaring itself to be a nuclear weapons state, with leader Kim Jong-un ruling out the possibility of talks on denuclearisation.

BBC
 
North Korea fires two more ballistic missiles, says South Korea
Today's firing is North Korea's sixth in under two weeks in what has been a record-breaking year for such tests by the rogue nation.

North Korea has fired two short-range ballistic missiles, according to South Korea's military.

The country's Joint Chiefs of Staff said they were fired 22 minutes apart towards its eastern waters, in the direction of Japan, on Thursday morning.

Japan's defence minister said they appeared to have flown an irregular trajectory, with one reaching 50km (31 miles) in altitude and covering 800km (497 miles), and the other 100km (62 miles) with a 350km (217-mile) range.

The country's prime minister, Fumio Kishida, was furious.

"This is the sixth time in the short period just counting the ones from the end of September. This absolutely cannot be tolerated," he said.

It comes two days after North Korea fired an intermediate-range missile over Japan for the first time in five years, apparently in response to joint military drills in the region involving the US.

In a statement just before the latest launch, North Korea's foreign ministry condemned the exercises for "escalating the military tensions on the Korean Peninsula".

American aircraft carrier the USS Ronald Reagan was involved in the drills alongside South Korean forces - and has now been redeployed in the area in response to this week's tests.

There were calls for an emergency UN Security Council meeting after Tuesday's launch, which experts said could have reached the US territory of Guam and beyond.

Today's firing is North Korea's sixth in under two weeks in what has been a record-breaking year for such tests by the rogue nation.

North Korea has rejected attempts to reopen disarmament negotiations - which stalled in 2019 - and Kim Jong Un told his parliament this month that he would never give up his nuclear ambitions.

The country recently passed a law authorising the pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons under a broad range of scenarios if its existence or leadership is threatened.

Sky News
 
Last edited by a moderator:
<b>North Korea fires two missiles after US-South Korea drill</b>

<i>Launch is Pyongyang’s seventh weapon test during a two-week period amid American-South Korean military manoeuvres.</I>

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles towards its eastern waters – the latest in its barrage of weapons tests after Pyongyang warned against the US redeployment of an aircraft carrier for a new round of drills with South Korean warships.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement it detected the two missiles launched early Sunday from the North’s eastern coastal city of Munchon.

Both missiles reached an altitude of 100km (60 miles) and covered a range of 350km (217 miles), Japan’s State Minister of Defence Toshiro Ino told reporters.

South Korea’s military boosted its surveillance posture and maintains a readiness in close coordination with the United States, it said.

The Japanese government said North Korea fired what was possible ballistic missiles.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida instructed officials to gather and analyse information while ensuring the safety of aircraft and ships around the country.

The Japanese coastguard said it warned ships off the coasts about falling objects and urged them to stay away. Ino said Tokyo would not tolerate the repeated actions by North Korea.

The launch, the North’s seventh round of weapons tests in two weeks, came hours after the United States and South Korea wrapped up a new round of naval drills off the Korean Peninsula’s east coast.

The drills involved the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its battle group, which returned to the area after North Korea fired a powerful missile over Japan last week to protest against the carrier group’s previous training with South Korea.

On Saturday, North Korea’s defence ministry warned the Regan’s redeployment was causing a “considerably huge negative splash” in regional security.

It called its recent missile tests a “righteous reaction” to intimidating military drills between its rivals.

“Our missile tests are a normal, planned self-defence measure to protect our country’s security and regional peace from direct US military threats,” said state media KCNA, citing an aviation administration spokesperson.

North Korea regards US-South Korean military exercises as an invasion rehearsal and is especially sensitive if such drills involve US strategic assets such as an aircraft carrier.

North Korea has argued it was forced to pursue a nuclear weapons programme to cope with US nuclear threats.

US and South Korean officials have repeatedly said they have no intentions of attacking the North.

North Korea’s latest launch added to its record-breaking pace of weapons tests this year.

These included a nuclear-capable missile that on Tuesday flew over Japan for the first time in five years, prompting a warning for residents there to take cover, and demonstrating a range to attack the US Pacific territory of Guam and beyond.

Earlier this year, North Korea tested other nuclear-capable ballistic missiles that place the US mainland and its allies South Korea and Japan within striking distance.

North Korea’s testing spree has indicated its leader, Kim Jong Un, has no intention of resuming diplomacy with the US and wants to focus on expanding his weapons arsenal.

But some analysts said Kim would eventually aim to use his advanced nuclear programme to wrest greater outside concessions, such as the recognition of North Korea as a legitimate nuclear state, which Kim believes is essential in getting crippling UN sanctions on his country lifted.

South Korean officials recently said North Korea was also prepared to test a new liquid-fuelled intercontinental ballistic missile and a submarine-launched ballistic missile while maintaining readiness to perform its first underground nuclear test since 2017.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022...tent&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
 
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to strengthen his country's nuclear operations going forward.

In the aftermath of more missile tests this week, Mr Kim said there is no need to have dialogue with North Korea's adversaries.

An intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) sent over Japan on Tuesday was a newly-developed missile aimed at delivering stronger and clearer warning to North Korea's enemies, according to the KCNA state news agency.

Over the last two weeks Mr Kim has overseen and guided the country's tactical nuclear operation unit training, the report said.

As well as the missile launch on Tuesday, the South Korean military said a pair of short-range ballistic missiles were detected overnight on Saturday, flying towards its eastern waters.

North Korea has conducted seven rounds of weapons tests over the past couple of weeks.

It comes as the United States and South Korea conducted naval drills off the Korean Peninsula's east coast involving nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan.

SKY
 
South Korea has scrambled fighter jets after North Korea flew warplanes close to its border before launching another ballistic missile.

About a dozen North Korean aircraft came as close as 12km (7 miles) north of the inter-Korean border between late Thursday and early Friday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

They crossed a Seoul-set “reconnaissance line”, which triggers an automatic operational response from the South.

South Korea’s military said it responded by scrambling F-35 jets and other warplanes. There were no reports of weapons fired.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the South Korean air force “conducted an emergency sortie with its superior air force, including the F-35A, and maintained a response posture while carrying out a proportional response manoeuvre corresponding to the flight of a North Korean military aircraft”.

The incursion was highly unusual and happened as tensions have been high between the two neighbours over North Korea’s recent barrage of missile tests.

On Friday, the North’s military said its latest actions came in response to a “provocative” South Korean artillery exercise near the border.

North Korea’s official KCNA news agency quoted its military as saying it took “strong military countermeasures” after South Korean artillery fire.

The Korean People’s Army “sends a stern warning to the South Korean military inciting military tension in the frontline area with reckless action”, said a statement.

‘Tactical nuclear’ drills

Meanwhile, South Korea said North Korea launched yet another ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast early on Friday, but it gave no further details.

On Thursday, North Korea said it had tested long-range cruise missiles a day earlier.

Pyongyang said the series of missile launches was “tactical nuclear” drills personally overseen by leader Kim Jong Un and a response to joint US-South Korean naval exercises.

The tests over the past two weeks were simulated nuclear attacks on key South Korean and US targets, North Korea said, adding that they were meant as a warning to Seoul and Washington over their manoeuvres.

The launches, part of its record-breaking run of weapons tests this year, are seen as an attempt by Kim to acquire a more intimidating arsenal to pressure its rivals to accept his country as a legitimate nuclear state and lift economic sanctions.

Al Jazeera
 
North Korea ICBM had range to hit US mainland - Japan

North Korea has launched an intercontinental ballistic missile with enough range to hit the US mainland, Japan's defence minister says.

The missile landed in the sea roughly 210km (130 miles) west of Hokkaido.

The US has condemned the launch, while South Korea has ordered stronger deterrence measures against the North.

On Thursday North Korean FM Choe Son Hui warned of a "fiercer" response to any increased US military presence in the region.

It also launched a short range ballistic missile the same day.

That followed Sunday's meeting between South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, US President Joe Biden and Japan's PM Fumio Kishida in Cambodia, in which the three countries agreed to increase their military co-operation.

On Friday US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said Mr Biden had been briefed and the US would consult with partners.

North Korea has fired more than 50 missiles over the past two months, most of them short-range. These long-range launches are rarer, and pose a direct threat to the US, as the missiles are designed to carry nuclear warheads to anywhere on the US mainland.

The latest intercontinential ballistic missile (ICBM) was fired at 10:15 local time (02:15 GMT) from near the North Korean capital Pyongyang, military chiefs in Seoul said.

It reached an altitude of 6,100km on a lofted trajectory and travelled 1,000km (621 miles), reaching a speed of Mach 22, South Korea's military said.

A lofted trajectory means the missile flies much higher into space but across a shorter distance than it would if fired on a normal trajectory.

But Japan's defence minister Yasukazu Hamada said the missile had sufficient range to reach the US.

"Based on calculations taking the trajectory into account, the ballistic missile this time around could have had a range capability of 15,000km, depending on the weight of its warhead, and if that's the case, it means the US mainland was within its range," he said.

"We have told (Pyongyang) that we absolutely cannot tolerate such actions," Mr Kishida told reporters in Thailand.

North Korea's pattern over the past months has been to launch missiles in response to US military activity around the Korean Peninsula.

In October, North Korea launched a ballistic missile over Japan - the first time it had done so in five years.

The North is currently developing a new type of long-range missile, the Hwasong-17. It is larger than the ICBMs it has successfully tested in the past, and experts believe could be capable of carrying multiple warheads, which would make it harder to defend against.

Several attempts to launch the Hwasong-17 are thought to have failed. Earlier this month the North launched an ICBM but it failed mid-flight, according to the South Korean military.

"Even if the North does successfully launch the Hwasong-17, the threat will not have significantly increased", said Yang Uk, a military expert from the Asan Institute. "It must prove it has mastered the technology to be able to mount enough small nuclear warheads onto the ICBM", he said.

Pyongyang has conducted six nuclear tests between 2006 and 2017, and it has completed preparations for a seventh test. Experts believe it may use the opportunity to test a compact nuclear device.

It is also working to improve its short-range missiles and conventional military capabilities.

BBC
 
Kim Jong Un Reveals Daughter To World For 1st Time At Missile Test

Seoul: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un revealed his daughter to the world for the first time on Saturday in striking photos showing the pair hand-in-hand inspecting the launch of the nuclear-armed country's largest ballistic missile the day before.

North Korea test-fired a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Friday, state news agency KCNA reported on Saturday.

The biggest surprise, however, was the presence of Kim's daughter, whose existence had never been publicly confirmed before.

KCNA did not name the girl, who is seen in photographs in a white puffy coat holding hands with her father as they look at the massive missile.

"This is the first observed occasion where we have seen Kim Jong Un's daughter at a public event" Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at the U.S.-based Stimson Center. "It is highly significant and represents a certain degree of comfort on Kim Jong Un's part that he would bring her out in public in such fashion."

Kim is believed to have as many as three children, two girls and a boy, experts said. Some observers believed one of those children was seen in footage of celebrations for a national holiday in September.

In 2013 retired American basketball star Dennis Rodman said Kim had a "baby" daughter named Ju Ae. After a trip to North Korea that year, Rodman told The Guardian newspaper he had spent time with Kim and his family, and held the baby.

Ju Ae is estimated to be about 12-13 years of age which means that in about four to five years she will be preparing to attend university, or go into military service, Madden said.

"This would indicate that she will be educated and trained to go into leadership -- it could be preparing for her to assume the central leader's position or she could become an adviser and behind-the-scenes player like her aunt," he said.

North Korea has never announced who would follow Kim in the event he is incapacitated, and with few details known about his young children, analysts had speculated that his sister and loyalists could form a regency until a successor is old enough to take over.

The appearance of the leader's daughter at this event could suggest fourth generation hereditary succession and that core North Korean elites need to prepare themselves for that eventuality, Madden added.

"Her presence is for an elite audience," he said.

Kim's wife, Ri Sol Ju, also made a rare appearance at Friday's launch, according to KCNA.

"Whenever Ri Sol Ju appears, there is strategic messaging involved. Normally designed to tamp down tensions, counter other aggressive messaging (like tests), or show Kim family cohesion in times of internal troubles," said Ken Gause, a North Korea leadership expert with CNA, a U.S.-based non-profit research organization.

Her presence also fits a trend of Kim "normalizing" politics inside the regime and the dynamics around his position as supreme leader, Gause added.

NDTV
 
As Kim Jong Un Debuts Daughter, Multiple Signals Go Out To The World

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North Korea hasn't said whether she has any siblings. Her age remains a mystery. The world doesn't even know her name. The important thing is that she's the "most beloved" daughter of Kim Jong Un.

The young girl, who South Korean authorities believe is named Ju Ae and about nine years old, has suddenly been featured in North Korean state media alongside her all-powerful father. She most recently accompanied Kim on a photo op to celebrate the successful launch of the country's most powerful ballistic missile -- prompting "stormy cheers of 'Hurrah!'," according to a Korean Central News Agency dispatch published Sunday.

Despite all the mystery, the events sent clear signals to both the North Korean public and the wider world: First, the Kim regime is here to stay. Second, the ruling family won't be bargaining away its nuclear arsenal any time soon.

Both points were driven home when Kim brought his daughter along to observe the launch a new intercontinental ballistic missile believed capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads anywhere on the US mainland. Photos released by state media included a shot of Kim looking down on his child with the rocket looming behind them.

The debut was remarkable on several levels. While parading heirs before the public has been a feature of hereditary monarchies the world over, the Kim family has been far more reluctant to reveal potential successors during its almost 75 years in power.

Kim Jong Un didn't make his official debut until he was around 26. Before Ju Ae's first appearance in state media on Nov. 19, North Korea hadn't even acknowledged Kim had children. It's still not known whether the regime views his "precious child" as Kim's heir, or whether that status would belong to the older brother she's rumored to have.

"The optics of Kim and his daughter observing the launch together seem to underscore recent messaging that the nuclear program is no longer conditional, and now involves the next generation as part of this success," said Jenny Town, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington. In September, Kim told North Korean lawmakers he would "never give up" his nuclear weapons while pushing through a law that would allow "automatic" strikes if his leadership was threatened.

Since taking power a decade ago at 27, Kim has defied predictions that his regime would falter. Instead, he boasts an increasingly diverse stockpile of weapons designed to target the US and its allies in Japan and South Korea. The reports featuring Kim's daughter show he also has a possible heir to bequeath them to.

"It is the truth taught by history that only when we become the strongest, not the weak, in the present world where the strength in showdown just decides victory, can we defend the present and future of the country and nation," KCNA quoted Kim as saying Sunday.

The NIS believed Kim may have wanted to assure people that he is responsible for the "security of the future generation," South Korean lawmaker Yoo Sang-bum told reporters last week after a closed-door briefing with the National Intelligence Service. He added that agency believes that Ju Ae is the second of three children between Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju.

"Under the North Korean regime, the position of Kim's children can be compared to that of prince or princess in a dynastic system," said Cheong Seong-Chang, director of the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute outside of Seoul.

North Korea's ability to deliver a nuclear strike on the US and its allies in Asia has grown under Kim Jong Un to the point where there are calls to declare Pyongyang a nuclear weapons state and revamp a decades-old US policy of never allowing that to happen, while seeking the complete, verifiable and irreversible end of its atomic arsenal.

Kim has ignored the US's calls to return to nuclear disarmament talks now stalled for more than three years.

Ju Ae's debut is only the latest example of Kim's willingness to share the spotlight with prominent women. Besides frequent appearances with his wife, he has made his sister, Kim Yo Jong, the face of the regime's response to the US and South Korea. He also recently appointed, Choe Son Hui, to be the country's first female foreign minister.

Still, it's too early to say whether Kim Jong Un intends to make Ju Ae his formal heir. Such a move would likely face resistance from the country's male-dominated political elite, said Rachel Minyoung Lee, a regional issues manager at the Vienna-based Open Nuclear Network.

"While Kim himself may be ready to appoint a female successor, those around him may not be, and he cannot altogether ignore the opinions of the country's top-ranking leadership," said Lee, who previously worked as an open source analyst for the CIA. "North Korea is a very traditional and conservative society, and Kim may not be confident that a female successor could navigate a male-dominant party, government, and military without jeopardizing regime security."

NDTV
 
Two North Korea Teens, 16 And 17, Executed For Watching K-Drama: Report

North Korea executed two high school students for watching South Korean and American movies, a report said. Viewing or distributing Korean dramas, popularly known as K-dramas, is strictly forbidden in North Korea.

The two boys, 16 and 17, met in October at a school in North Korea's Ryanggang Province and watched several South Korean and American drama shows, the Independent reported.

The two teens were executed in front of locals at an airfield in the city, according to the Mirror. The incident took place in October, but the information about the killings emerged only last week.

The government said that the crimes committed by the two boys were "evil", hence the horrified residents were made to watch the execution.

Last year, North Korea announced an 11-day mourning to mark the death anniversary of Kim Jong Un's father Kim Jong Il. During this period, citizens were not allowed to laugh, shop or drink.

In 2020, the government banned foreign information and influence as part of its crackdown on Korean shows which were growing popular in the country.

South Korean shows are smuggled on flash drives and watched behind closed doors in order to escape fines, imprisonment, or worse, death.

NDTV
 
North Korea is "ready" to test a nuclear weapon and will likely do so, the prime minister of South Korea has said.

Speaking exclusively to Sky News, Han Duck-soo said that although it is "hard to know exactly when" a test would happen, "we gather that they are prepared".

His comments come at a time when tensions on the Korean Peninsula are as high as they've been for several years.

In a wide-ranging interview, Prime Minister Han also said China's recent relaxation of its strict zero COVID rules "should have come sooner" and said he'd like to see its powerful neighbour become "more rules-based".

Prime Minister Han's statements about North Korea come in the closing weeks of a year that has seen the isolated state fire more missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, than at any other time since leader Kim Jong Un came to power in 2011.

Last month, one missile landed in the sea to the south of the 'Northern Limit Line', which is the unofficial maritime border between the two countries, and closer to the South Korean coast than ever before. Another flew over Japan.

If a nuclear test is undertaken, it will be the first since 2017 and will be a major escalation at an already very tense time.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter attend a photo session with the scientists, engineers, military officials and others
Kim Jong Un's daughter appears in public for second time - raising speculation of a successor in the making

"We always have preparations for that kind of very undesirable action," said Prime Minster Han.

"We cannot say at this moment what kind of response will be made.

"But clearly we would like to have some kind of extended deterrence capabilities, including all kind of options."

North Korea has implied it is responding, in part, to large-scale joint military drills held last month between South Korea and the United States, action it sees as threatening and provocative.

South Korea has a relatively new president and a relatively new government. Yoon Suk-yeol was elected in March and promised a more hawkish approach to North Korea.

His government has been accused of squandering some progress made by the previous administration, where dialogue between the two countries had increased.

'We will secure peace on our terms'

This is a criticism wholly rejected by Prime Minister Han: "You may call our strengthening our deterrence capabilities the 'harder line,' but that's a natural course for any country increasing the level of self-reliance in terms of security.

"We will secure our peace on our terms, not on terms dictated by North Korea."

He also added intel on recent images of Kim Jong Un appearing alongside his daughter.

She accompanied him to recent missile launches and has never been seen in public before. She is believed to be aged nine or ten and some have speculated she may be being groomed for the leadership.

"The launching of an intercontinental missile will be, without any doubt, a big thing for North Korea," said Prime Minister Han.

"If he would like to show something, then that would be a very opportune time.

"Possibly the appearance of his daughter, for him, he would like to deliver some message."

On the campaign trail, Yoon Suk-yeol also implied strongly he would take a harder line on China and be more overt about South Korea's alliance with the United States.

As a nation, it has had to walk a tight rope between the two superpowers - China is by far its biggest trading partner and both have important roles to play in the North Korean issue.

While keen to emphasise South Korea's warm relationship with China, Prime Minister Han spoke in direct terms about the "very big impact" China's zero COVID policy has had on South Korea and its economy, saying "it should have ended sooner".

He also made clear South Korea agrees with its American ally when it comes to some issues regarding China.

"South Korea and China are a very, very intimate countries, and we will continue to do that," he said.

"But Korea, with the international community, would like to see China be more rule-based and a more universal value respecting country."

He was also clearer than the previous government about actively stepping up tri-lateral cooperation between the United States, Japan and South Korea. This is notable because it has previously been considered a 'red line' for China.

"Tri-lateral cooperation to guarantee the security and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula will be very definitely a necessity for us," he said.

Domestically, Prime Minister Han noted that Korea, like many countries, has pressing economic challenges ahead, not least inflation, a weak currency and high housing costs.

But this is a nation that plays an increasingly important role on the world stage and is aware of its position.

It recently bidded to host the 2030 World Expo in the southern city of Busan - with Mr Han wanting to showcase South Korea's "structure of cooperation with other countries".

But more action from North Korea is the eventuality that will most likely thrust it into the limelight.

Although South Korea insists it is committed to "dialogue", the chance of a major de-escalation feels increasingly faint.

SKY
 
Singaporean Jailed For Selling Strawberry Milk, Coffee To North Korea

A Singaporean man has been jailed for selling nearly $1 million worth of strawberry milk and coffee to North Korea, following other sanctions-busting trades from the city-state that have included sending wine, whisky, and perfume to Pyongyang.

North Korea has been hit with a barrage of sanctions, including from the United Nations, over its nuclear and ballistic missile tests, while Singapore suspended trade ties with the country in 2017.

Phua Sze Hee, 59, a former manager at beverage company Pokka International, was sentenced to five weeks in jail on Monday after he pleaded guilty.

From 2017 to 2018, he sold beverages including strawberry-flavoured milk and coffee drinks to several Singapore companies, knowing that they would be exported to North Korea for sale there.

He did not earn any commission from the sales, but it allowed him to meet his monthly sales targets, court documents said.

The documents added that in 2014 a customer had introduced Phua to "one Mr Kim, who was working as an ambassador in the North Korean Embassy in Singapore" and was later introduced to another employee at the embassy.

Pokka did not immediately respond to AFP.

While the soft drinks were destined for North Korea, leader Kim Jong-Un is known to have a taste for alcohol while his father Kim Jong-Il reportedly spent more than $700,000 a year importing Hennessy cognac.

The maximum punishment for exporting goods from Singapore to North Korea is a fine of up to SG $100,000 ($74,000) or three times the value of the goods exported, up to two years in jail, or both.

There have been several cases in recent years of companies and individuals from Singapore, a key trading hub and financial centre, being prosecuted for supplying banned goods to the North.

Two Singaporean companies were charged earlier this year with exporting whisky, wine and other drinks to North Korea.

In 2019, a court in the city-state jailed the director of a Singaporean trading firm for nearly three years for supplying $4.4 million worth of luxury goods, including alcohol and perfume, to North Korea.

In 2016, a shipping firm in the city was fined for its role in an attempt to smuggle Soviet-era weapons and fighter jets from Cuba to North Korea.

NDTV
 
North Korea Slams Japan's Military Buildup, Vows To Test Nuclear Missile

North Korea on Tuesday condemned a Japanese military buildup outlined in a new security strategy, calling it dangerous and vowing counteractions, while also warning of another imminent test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Japan last week announced its biggest military build-up since World War Two as tension with China and a hostile North Korea, and Russia's Ukraine invasion, stoke fears of war.

North Korea's foreign ministry said Japan had effectively formalised "the capability for preemptive attack" with its new strategy that would bring a "radical" change to East Asia's security environment.

The ministry also criticised the United States for "conniving and instigating Japan's rearmament and reinvasion scheme" saying the United States had no right to question North Korea's defences.

"The foolish act of Japan seeking to gratify its black-hearted intention, arms buildup for reinvasion, under the pretext of the DPRK's legitimate exercise of the right to self-defence can never be justified and tolerated," the official said in a statement carried by the North's KCNA news agency.

The spokesman referred to North Korea by the initials of its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

North Korea will express its displeasure with action to highlight Japan's "wrong and very dangerous" decision, the spokesperson said, warning of a "shuddering shiver to be felt soon".

North Korea has tested an unprecedented number of missiles this year, including an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) designed to reach the U.S. mainland, in defiance of international sanctions.

Several of the North Korean missiles have flown over Japan, or landed in waters near it, drawing condemnation from the staunch U.S. ally.

IMPENDING ICBM TEST?

In a separate statement, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, hinted at a technological advance in its ICBM system, and denounced questions over what North Korea said was its bid to develop a spy satellite.

North Korea fired two medium-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Sunday, calling it an "important" test for the development of a reconnaissance satellite that it hopes to complete by April.

Experts have raised doubts over the level of North Korea's satellite technology but Kim Yo Jong derided them and suggested advances in her country's missile programmes, including ICBM developments.

North Korea has test-fired its ICBMs at a steep angle and analysts say a normal launch angle requires more sophisticated technology to resist heat generated during re-entry into the atmosphere.

"I can clear up their doubt about it," Kim Yo Jong said. "They will immediately recognise it in case we launch an ICBM in the way of a real angle firing straight off."

She dismissed any threat of new sanctions.

"At this time when our right to existence and development is being threatened, how can we stop our advance for fear of sanctions that we have experienced abominably, not for the first time," she said.

Hours after the North's statements, the U.S. Air Force flew B-52 strategic bombers and F-22 fighter jets to South Korea for joint drills with F-35 and F-15K fighters, in their latest display of force against North Korea.

The participation of the F-22 Raptor fifth generation stealth fighters, currently based in Japan's Okinawa, was their first since May 2018 when the allies staged joint exercises in South Korea.

A spokesman of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff declined to discuss any signs or possibility of another ICBM test, but said it was monitoring the North's nuclear and missile activities.

NDTV
 
Kim Jong Un To Ring In New Year With Missiles And Nuclear Threats

Kim Jong Un in 2022 fired off missiles at a record pace, lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons and thumbed his nose at global sanctions. He's likely to turn up the heat even more in the coming year.

Kim is expected to outline his plans for 2023 this week as his ruling Workers' Party wraps up a major year-end policy-setting meeting. The North Korean leader said during the gathering that he would strengthen the military, but details won't be known until state media publishes a report of the meeting around New Year's day. Last year's dispatch amounted to nearly 8,000 words.

With little threat of new sanctions and plans already afoot to further develop weapons including drones, submarines and missiles, Kim will likely look to continue honing his ability to deliver a credible nuclear strike against the US and its allies.

Kim's actions in recent months indicate a broader shift away from the country's long-term goal of normalizing ties with Washington as a buffer against China and Russia, said Rachel Minyoung Lee, who worked as an analyst for the CIA's Open Source Enterprise for almost two decades. That means more policies designed to cope with a prolonged period of hardship, rather than exploring diplomatic overtures, she added.

"Based on North Korea's official pronouncements and media rhetoric since the beginning of the year, as well as its military actions in recent months, it seems unlikely the country will return to the negotiating table in the near term," Lee said.

Kim told the meeting of his firm belief in "the direction of the Korean revolution and the confidence in its invincibility," state media reported Thursday.

Kim's regime has defied United Nations resolutions by firing off about 70 ballistic missiles so far in 2022, nearly three times more than any other year since he took power a decade ago.

That has helped build a modern missile arsenal with solid-fuel rockets that are easier to hide, quicker to deploy and designed to evade US defenses in the region. He's betting that will help deter another confrontation with the US like in 2017, when former President Donald Trump threatened "fire and fury" in response to North Korea's weapons tests and American officials talked of a "bloody nose" strike on North Korea.

Nuclear Test

Kim also appears ready to conduct his first nuclear test since 2017 as he seeks to miniaturize warheads for tactical weapons to strike South Korea and Japan, which host bulk of US troops in Asia. An atomic detonation could also help increase the strength of a warhead he could attach to an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the American mainland.

"Disarmament talks don't fit into the development trends we are seeing," said David Schmerler, a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies with the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

The US, South Korea and Japan have pledged a stern, coordinated punishment if Kim tests a nuclear weapon. But years of sanctions and isolation have failed to get Kim to change course. Now there's almost no chance Russia or China, which have veto power at the United Nations Security Council, would support any new measures against North Korea as they did back in 2017.

"Pyongyang doesn't see any chance or need of improvement in relations with the US or South Korea at this point, so they are ratcheting up tensions to create a pretext to conduct their seventh nuclear test," said Lee Sang-keun, director of strategic research at Seoul-based Institute for National Security Strategy.

Russia, North Korea Restore Rail Trade Halted Since Early 2020

Russia may even be aiding North Korea financially by purchasing weapons it could use in Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine, the US has said. Pyongyang has dismissed the allegation as a baseless rumor, but it has also reestablished its sole train link with Russia that was halted almost three years ago due to Covid-19.

Kim has rebuffed US attempts to return to nuclear disarmament talks and brought along his daughter for her state media debut to attend the November launch of an ICBM - signaling there's another generation ready to take over the Cold War's last continuous family dynasty and it will depend on nuclear weapons for its survival.

'Slap on the Wrist'

Kim's propaganda machine, meanwhile has gone into overdrive to show the North Korean leader as caring for his people, issuing about two dozen reports on its official Korean Central News Agency this year about progress made in housing construction, which it said is an expression of the "loving care" of Kim's ruling party.

While Kim may not have met a US president this year, "he was still able to get away with a record number of weapons tests without more than a slap on the wrist," said Soo Kim, a policy analyst with the Rand Corp. who previously worked at the Central Intelligence Agency.

"Since Kim has had a pretty productive year, he'll want to carry this momentum into 2023 to make further progress in his country's weapons development," she said. "To his benefit, the Russia-Ukraine war and rising tensions with China have, in some ways, diverted our attention away from the North Korean weapons threat."

NDTV
 
<b>Kim orders an ‘exponential increase’ in N Korea’s nuclear arsenal</b>

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for an “exponential” increase in the production of nuclear warheads and ordered the development of a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to counter the United States and South Korea.

Kim’s statement was released on state media on Sunday, hours after North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile off its east coast in a rare late-night New Year’s Day weapons test.

He also ordered the manufacturing of a new type of ICBM “with a rapid nuclear counterattack capability as its basic mission,” KCNA said.

Kim also reportedly said North Korea plans to launch its first military spy satellite soon.

North Korea test-fired more than 70 missiles last year. Some experts say the country eventually aims to boost its weapons arsenals and increase pressure on its rivals to win concessions such as sanctions relief.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023...onential-increase-of-n-koreas-nuclear-arsenal
 
<b>N Korea’s Kim reveals daughter in hint at extending family rule</b>

<I>Kim Jong Un, who turns 39 on Sunday, is the third generation of his family to successively rule North Korea since 1948.</I>

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s presentation of his young daughter at recent public events is likely an attempt to show his people that one of his children will one day inherit the leadership in what would be the third power transfer to a Kim family member in Pyongyang, South Korea’s spy service has told legislators.

Kim was photographed escorting his daughter to three events in the past few months: a ballistic missile launch site, a photo session with North Korean weapons scientists and a tour of a missile storage facility.

North Korea’s state news media called the girl Kim’s “most beloved child”, sparking outside debate over whether she is being groomed as his heir apparent, although she is believed to still be nine or 10 years of age.

South Korean news outlets have reported that Kim has three children – born in 2010, 2013 and 2017 – and that the first child is a son while the third is a daughter.

In its earlier assessment, after the daughter’s first appearance in November, the NIS told legislators she is Kim’s second child, Ju Ae, and is about 10 years old.

The agency said at the time that her unveiling at the missile launch site appeared to reflect Kim’s intentions to commit to protecting the security of North Korea’s future generations in the face of a standoff with the United States.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023...als-daughter-in-hint-at-extending-family-rule
 
Christians being sent to labour camps and executed in North Korea

North Korea has intensified its hounding of Christians, hunting for underground churches, executing believers and incarcerating their families in labour camps, aid groups have reported.

As Kim Jong-un seeks to tighten his grip on power through ideological indoctrination, Open Doors, a global mission organisation that supports persecuted Christians, said it had documented a “rise in reported incidents of violence” last year.

“In one horrifying incident that Open Doors heard about from reliable sources, several dozen North Korean believers from different underground churches were discovered and executed.

More than 100 members of their families were said to have been rounded up and sent to labour camps,” it said in its latest “World Watch List,” which tracks crackdowns on religious freedom.

...
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/worl...p&cvid=b17ec6e842914e60bc2c2484ace7ab58&ei=32
 
North Korea holds key meeting as US sends nuclear submarine to South Korea
Kim Jong-un attended the conference to review defence strategies and the country’s struggling economy

North Korea opened a key political conference with leader Kim Jong-un in attendance to discuss improving its struggling economy and reviewing defence strategies in the face of growing tensions with rivals, according to state media reports.

The enlarged plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ party’s central committee came as the US sent a nuclear-powered submarine to South Korea in the allies’ latest show of force against the North, which has ramped up its testing of nuclear-capable missiles to a record pace in recent months.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken held a call with South Korean foreign minister Park Jin ahead of his visit to China. The two discussed bilateral relations, relations between China and South Korea, and North Korea.

Blinken and Park strongly condemned what they consider North Korea’s repeated provocations in a statement released by South Korea’s foreign ministry. The two agreed the US, South Korea and Japan should continue to urge China to play a constructive role in the UN security council on denuclearisation.

During the first day of meetings Friday, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said, party officials reviewed the country’s economic campaigns for the first half of 2023, and discussed foreign policy and defence strategies to “cope with the changed international situation”.

The KCNA didn’t specify what was discussed or mention any comments made by Kim. It said the meeting will continue for at least another day.

The arrival on Friday of the USS Michigan in the South Korean port of Busan came a day after North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into its eastern seas in response to US-South Korean live fire drills that took place near the inter-Korean border this week.

...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-as-us-sends-nuclear-submarine-to-south-korea
 

North Korea would pay ‘price’ if it supplies Russia with weapons, US says​

White House adviser says Russia-North Korea arms negotiations are ‘actively advancing’, warns Pyongyang against deal.

A top White House official has said North Korea would pay “a price” if it sells weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine, after Washington warned that Pyongyang was in talks with Moscow about a potential arms deal.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday that the United States believes the negotiations between North Korea and Russia are “actively advancing”.

"Providing weapons to Russia for use on the battlefield to attack grain silos and the heating infrastructure of major cities as we head into winter, to try to conquer territory that belongs to a modern sovereign nation – this is not going to reflect well on North Korea, and they will pay a price for this in the international community,” Sullivan told reporters.

www.aljazeera.com

North Korea would pay ‘price’ if it supplies Russia with weapons, US says

White House adviser says Russia-North Korea arms negotiations are ‘actively advancing’, warns Pyongyang against deal.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com
 
Kim Jong-un returns home after Russia trip underscoring ties with Putin.

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, was on his way home from Russia on Sunday, ending a six-day trip that triggered global concerns about weapons transfer deals between the two countries locked in separate standoffs with the west.

Kim began his journey back onboard his armoured train from the Primorye region in Russia’s far east, after a farewell ceremony at the train station, Russia’s state news agency RIA said.

Experts have said potential military cooperation between the countries could include efforts to modernise North Korea’s outdated air force, which relies on warplanes sent from the Soviet Union in the 1980s.



The Guardian
 
North Korea has decided to expel the American soldier Travis King who, according to the state news agency KCNA, has confessed to illegally entering the country.

Releasing the results of an investigation into King’s border crossing in July, KCNA said the soldier harbored ill feelings over inhumane treatment and racial discrimination within the US army.

KCNA did not specify how, when, or to where King would be expelled.

Pte King entered North Korea on 18 July during a tour of the border village of Panmunjom, US officials have said. He had served nearly two months in a South Korean prison for assault before being released to be sent home to Fort Bliss, Texas, where he faced possible additional military disciplinary actions and discharge from the service.

He is the first known American to be held in North Korea in nearly five years.

He absconded the previous day from Incheon international airport, where he had been taken to catch his flight home, before joining the civilian tour of the demilitarized zone village, where he ran across the demarcation line separating North and South Korea, despite attempts by South Korean and US guards to stop him.

King faced two allegations of assault in South Korea and had pleaded guilty to one instance of assault and destroying public property for damaging a police car during a profanity-laced tirade against Koreans, according to court documents.


Source: Guardian
 
Crackpot leader of a failed state.
But atleast, his successors may be women. They are generally smarter and have more empathy.

There's hope for North Korea yet.
 
North Korea has fired what it claims to be a spy satellite, South Korea says, hours after Japan said it was warned of a possible launch.

The office for the Japanese prime minister said North Korea had fired a "suspected ballistic missile".

Residents on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa were told to take cover.

The order was later lifted after the missile reportedly passed into the Pacific Ocean, local media reported.

The launch came earlier than anticipated. Pyongyang had notified Japan of a nine-day window for it - starting on Wednesday and closing at 23:59 local time (14:59 GMT) on 30 November.

If confirmed as a spy satellite, it would be the third attempt by the North to launch one this year.

Earlier, Japan said it would work with South Korea and the US to "strongly urge" the North not to proceed with the launch, which they said would violate UN resolutions.

The Japan Coast Guard said Pyongyang's notification designated three maritime zones believed to be the areas where debris from the rocket carrying the satellite will fall.

Two are to the west of the Korean Peninsula and the other is to the east of the Philippines' island of Luzon.

Kang Ho-pil, chief director of operations at the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned that Seoul would take "necessary measures" should the launch proceed.

A spy satellite is a coveted prize for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as it will allow him to monitor incoming attacks and plot his own more accurately.

However the United Nations Security Council has banned Pyongyang from launching satellites because it sees them as a pretext to test the North's missile technology.

South Korea retrieved debris from the North's first launch in May and said the satellite had "no military utility". After a second attempt in August failed, Pyongyang's space agency said it would try again in October but did not do so.

Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested in September after a meeting with Mr Kim that Moscow could help Pyongyang build satellites, but the details of what was actually promised are unclear.

Earlier this month, South Korea announced plans to launch its own spy satellite by the end of November. The satellite is to be carried by a rocket from US company SpaceX.

This is reportedly the first of five spy satellites Seoul plans to launch into space by 2025.

Source: BBC

www.bbc.com

North Korea claims successful launch of spy satellite after prior failures

Its announcement comes after Russia offered Pyongyang help with its space programme.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
daytrader said:

North Korea would pay ‘price’ if it supplies Russia with weapons, US says​

White House adviser says Russia-North Korea arms negotiations are ‘actively advancing’, warns Pyongyang against deal.

A top White House official has said North Korea would pay “a price” if it sells weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine, after Washington warned that Pyongyang was in talks with Moscow about a potential arms deal.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday that the United States believes the negotiations between North Korea and Russia are “actively advancing”.

"Providing weapons to Russia for use on the battlefield to attack grain silos and the heating infrastructure of major cities as we head into winter, to try to conquer territory that belongs to a modern sovereign nation – this is not going to reflect well on North Korea, and they will pay a price for this in the international community,” Sullivan told reporters.

www.aljazeera.com

North Korea would pay ‘price’ if it supplies Russia with weapons, US says

White House adviser says Russia-North Korea arms negotiations are ‘actively advancing’, warns Pyongyang against deal.
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What can US possibly do to North Korea other than those silly sanctions (which really don't work)?
 
FearlessRoar said:
North Korea has fired what it claims to be a spy satellite, South Korea says, hours after Japan said it was warned of a possible launch.

The office for the Japanese prime minister said North Korea had fired a "suspected ballistic missile".

Residents on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa were told to take cover.

The order was later lifted after the missile reportedly passed into the Pacific Ocean, local media reported.

The launch came earlier than anticipated. Pyongyang had notified Japan of a nine-day window for it - starting on Wednesday and closing at 23:59 local time (14:59 GMT) on 30 November.

If confirmed as a spy satellite, it would be the third attempt by the North to launch one this year.

Earlier, Japan said it would work with South Korea and the US to "strongly urge" the North not to proceed with the launch, which they said would violate UN resolutions.

The Japan Coast Guard said Pyongyang's notification designated three maritime zones believed to be the areas where debris from the rocket carrying the satellite will fall.

Two are to the west of the Korean Peninsula and the other is to the east of the Philippines' island of Luzon.

Kang Ho-pil, chief director of operations at the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned that Seoul would take "necessary measures" should the launch proceed.

A spy satellite is a coveted prize for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as it will allow him to monitor incoming attacks and plot his own more accurately.

However the United Nations Security Council has banned Pyongyang from launching satellites because it sees them as a pretext to test the North's missile technology.

South Korea retrieved debris from the North's first launch in May and said the satellite had "no military utility". After a second attempt in August failed, Pyongyang's space agency said it would try again in October but did not do so.

Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested in September after a meeting with Mr Kim that Moscow could help Pyongyang build satellites, but the details of what was actually promised are unclear.

Earlier this month, South Korea announced plans to launch its own spy satellite by the end of November. The satellite is to be carried by a rocket from US company SpaceX.

This is reportedly the first of five spy satellites Seoul plans to launch into space by 2025.

Source: BBC

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North Korea claims successful launch of spy satellite after prior failures

Its announcement comes after Russia offered Pyongyang help with its space programme.
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South Korea has suspended parts of its 2018 agreement with the North aimed at lowering military tensions.

This comes after Pyongyang claimed to have successfully launched a spy satellite into space.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said the launch threatened South Korea's security.

Seoul said it would resume surveillance flights along its border with North Korea, breaching a no-fly zone established under the military pact.

Some analysts have said these developments could escalate tensions further.

Pyongyang fired a rocket, said to contain its Malligyong-1 spy satellite, late on Tuesday and hailed the launch as a "success".

On Wednesday, South Korea's military confirmed that the satellite had entered orbit but noted that it was too soon to tell if it was actually functioning, though both it and the US strongly condemned the launch.

US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the move risked "destabilising the security situation in the region and beyond."

Developing a functioning spy satellite is a major part of North Korea's five-year military plan, set out by its leader Kim Jong Un in January 2021.

The technology could in theory enable Pyongyang to monitor the movement of US and South Korean troops and weapons on the Korean Peninsula, allowing it to spot incoming threats. It would also allow the North to plot its nuclear attacks with more precision.

North Korea's space agency, the National Aerospace Technology Administration, said the launch was an attempt to bolster the country's self-defence capabilities, in the face of "dangerous military moves" by its enemies. Pyongyang added that it planned to launch several more spy satellites "in a short space of time".

Some analysts are sceptical as to whether the satellite is advanced enough to be effective. Jang Young-geun, who runs the Missile Centre at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, predicted that given past attempts, the resolution of the satellite's camera is "probably not at a level to allow for detailed military reconnaissance."

Nonetheless, he said, a low resolution is "better than nothing", as an attack - regardless of the target - will need information to make it more effective.

Ankit Panda, a nuclear policy expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, also reckoned that while the satellite could enhance the effectiveness of North Korea's armed forces, it could conversely have a "stabilising effect" on the Peninsula.

"It could make Pyongyang act less skittishly in crises," he said. "For instance, it could use its satellites to verify that the US and South Korea were, in fact, not surging their forces to prepare for a major attack."

North claims success after two failed launches

This is the North's third attempt this year to put a spy satellite into orbit, after two previous attempts in May and August failed. South Korean officials said they believed Pyongyang had received technical support from Moscow, which allowed it to overcome the hurdles that had led to its previous failures.

When Kim Jong Un met Vladimir Putin at the Vostochny space centre in Russia's far east in September, the Russian leader hinted he would help Mr Kim build satellites. The US and South Korea believe the North is sending Russia arms to use in Ukraine, and that Moscow may have agreed to share its military expertise in return.

But Mr Panda said there was no evidence that Pyongyang had received Russia's technical assistance and implemented it. "This was North Korea's third launch attempt and they've been carrying out their own research and development on space systems for a while now," Mr Panda noted.

Jo Bee Yun, an associate research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defence Analysis (KIDA), added that the time was too limited for Russia to have provided "game-changing" technology, but that "significant transfers" could be expected in the future.

Mr Kim and then South Korean President Moon Jae-in signed the Comprehensive Military Agreement in 2018, in an attempt to de-escalate tensions between their two countries and prevent a conflict erupting. It limited military movements by both sides near the border, removed guard posts, banned live-fire drills, and created a no fly-zone.

But the South Korean government had recently argued that the deal left it vulnerable to an attack, by prohibiting it from flying surveillance aircraft and reconnaissance drones along the border.

Members of South Korea's National Security Council met in the early hours of Wednesday morning, followed by its defence chiefs and cabinet. All agreed the country should restart surveillance operations along the border with immediate effect and with the president's backing.

This increased surveillance will allow the South to monitor North Korean outposts and long-range artillery, previously hidden behind its mountain slopes. Seoul currently relies on US spy satellites to monitor the North, but is planning to launch its first home-built model into space at the end of November.

Some analysts warn that the suspension of the military pact could escalate tensions and make cross-border skirmishes more likely.

Hong Min, from the Korea Institute for National Unification, pointed out that the deal had significantly reduced the number of cross-border incidents and had been successful in deterring the North. He said Seoul risked providing it with "the justification to carry out further provocations."

However Jo Bee Yun of KIDA, does not believe the suspension would increase tensions, noting that Pyongyang has been regularly launching missiles since 2022. "The cycle of provocations has already resumed. South Korea had to respond sometime or another."

Source: BBC

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North Korea spy satellite: South partially suspends military deal after launch

South Korea will resume surveillance flights along its border with the North.
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Kim Jong-un's obsession with military strength has left people of North Korea in a state of suffering and deprived them of freedom. I can't even imagine how they are living like this
 
North Korea has ripped up a five-year-old deal with Seoul aimed at lowering military tensions, in the latest escalation of a row between the two.

It all started when Pyongyang claimed to have successfully launched a spy satellite into space on Tuesday.

This led to South Korea part suspending the agreement, saying it would resume surveillance flights along the border.

Pyongyang is now vowing to fully suspend the pact and send stronger forces and equipment to the border.

"From now on, our army will never be bound by the September 19 North-South Military Agreement," it said in a statement.

It promised to withdraw all measures "taken to prevent military conflict in all spheres including ground, sea and air", and deploy "more powerful armed forces and new-type military hardware" in the border region.

Pyongyang fired a rocket believed to contain its Malligyong-1 spy satellite late on Tuesday and hailed the launch as a "success".

South Korea's military later confirmed that the satellite had entered orbit but said it was too soon to tell if it was actually functioning.

Seoul strongly condemned the launch - and on Wednesday morning top officials agreed to immediately restart surveillance operations along the border, which would allow the South to monitor North Korean outposts and long-range artillery.

That is a breach of a no-fly zone established under the Comprehensive Military Agreement in 2018 - signed by both nations' leaders in an attempt to de-escalate tensions between their two countries and prevent a conflict erupting.

But North Korea has violated the pact multiple times over the past two years, by launching missiles and firing artillery rounds into the sea in the South's direction. Last December, it sent drones across the border into South Korea, with one flying as far as the capital Seoul.

This was part of Seoul's justification to scrap parts of the agreement - that the North was already not abiding by it.

Some analysts therefore argue that Pyongyang officially withdrawing from the deal might not make much of a difference.

"Because North Korea was not adhering to the agreement in the first place, the possibility of limited collision has always been there", said Jo Bee Yun of the Korea Institute for Defence Analysis.

Though both sides are blaming each other for escalating tensions and threatening to retaliate, Jo Bee Yun called this a "political ***-for-tat" that would not necessarily result in a "physical military collision".

The outcome will likely depend on what action the North now takes.

Chun In-bum, a retired South Korean Army lieutenant general, said the North would want to "make life as difficult for the South as the South makes it for them". He predicted that they will start by displaying artillery along the border, and by flying more drones, possibly into South Korean territory.

South Korea's defence minister Shin Won-sik warned earlier that if the North used the suspension as an excuse to carry out provocations, Seoul would "immediately and firmly punish it to the end." He said he would be monitoring the North's behaviour and discussing what counter measures to take with President Yoon Suk-yeol, when he returns from his trip to the UK.

Pyongyang insists the launch of the spy satellite is part of its "right to self-defence" - but it has been strongly condemned by South Korea, the US and Japan.

Developing a functioning spy satellite is a major part of North Korea's five-year military plan, set out by its leader Kim Jong Un in January 2021.

The technology could in theory enable Pyongyang to monitor the movement of US and South Korean troops and weapons on the Korean Peninsula, allowing it to spot incoming threats. It would also allow the North to plot its nuclear attacks with more precision.

North Korean state media has claimed the country's leader Kim Jong Un is already reviewing images of US military bases in Guam sent by the new satellite. The BBC has not verified this.

Source: BBC

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North Korea fully suspends military pact with South

It is the latest escalation of a row after Pyongyang launched a spy satellite into space.
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North Korea makes rare admission after local polls: Dissenting votes​

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Tuesday made a rare mention of dissenting votes in recent elections, although analysts dismissed it as an attempt to portray an image of a normal society rather than signaling any meaningful increase of rights in the authoritarian state.

The reclusive North has one of the most highly controlled societies in the world, with leader Kim Jong Un accused of using a system of patronage and repression to retain absolute power.

Reporting on the results of Sunday’s election for deputies to regional people’s assemblies, the North’s state media said 0.09 percent and 0.13 percent voted against the selected candidates for the provincial and city councils, respectively.

“Among the voters who took part in the ballot-casting, 99.91 percent voted for the candidates for deputies to provincial people’s assemblies.... (and) 99.87 percent voted for candidates for deputies to city and county people’s assemblies,” state news agency KCNA said.

The North’s parliament and regional councils serve as a rubber stamp to the ruling Workers’ Party, with their elections usually registering over 99% voter turnout.

This month’s election marks the first time North Korea has referred to dissenting votes in local polls since the 1960s, an official at South Korea’s unification ministry handling relations with the North said.

Held every four years, the latest regional election was also the first polls since North Korea revised its election law in August to allow multiple candidates.

“The portrayal of a more democratic society, particularly in comparison to South Korea and the U.S., is aimed at reinforcing the regime’s legitimacy and authenticity on the world stage,” the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, a think tank, said in a report.

A photo released by state media showed Kim casting a ballot, standing before two boxes — one in green for approval, and the other in red for dissent.

“Discreet voting will likely remain limited as the boxes will continue to be conspicuously monitored,” the report said, adding that the candidate selection process will remain tightly controlled by Pyongyang.

The voter turnout slightly decreased to 99.63% from 99.98% four years ago, a sign analysts say could indicate a minor weakening in state control in a country where voting is considered mandatory.

Source: Reuters
 
North Korea resumes missile launches in ‘threat to peace and stability’
Pyongyang launched ‘ICBM-class’ missile on Monday, hours after a short-range weapon amid a record year of testing

People watching a giant TV screen showing news about the North Korean missile launch
A news bulletin on the latest North Korean missile launches.

North Korea has resumed its record year of missile tests – launching a long-range ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States hours after firing a short-range weapon – in actions its neighbours condemned as a threat to international peace.

South Korea’s military said on Monday it had detected the launch of a long-range ballistic missile from the Pyongyang area that flew 1,000km (620 miles) before splashing down in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.

Japan, with the test taking place at about 10:38pm (13:38 GMT), according to South Korea. The projectile flew for about 570km (354 miles) before falling into the ocean.

Source : Al jazeera
 
North Korea's Kim warns of 'nuclear attack'

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un says Pyongyang would not hesitate to launch a nuclear attack if an enemy provokes it with nuclear weapons, state media reported on Thursday.

Kim made the remark as he, and his daughter, met with soldiers working for the military's missile bureau.

According to state media, Kim congratulated them on this week's missile launch, which has been widely condemned by the U.S., South Korea, and Japan.

North Korea on Monday fired an intercontinental ballistic missile that, according to Japanese officials, had a range of more than 9,000 miles and could hit anywhere in the U.S.

At a meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Pyongyang was widely criticized:

“We have used every word to describe the DPRK's continued threats to international peace and security. Flagrant. Unacceptable. Reckless. Egregious. All of these words still apply. But today I offer another word. Ridiculous.

“I must begin by expressing once again our condemnation in the strongest possible terms of the utterly unacceptable provocation by North Korea in violation of multiple Security Council resolutions."

The U.S. and South Korea have increased the intensity of joint military drills, with South Korea's defense ministry releasing footage of soldiers shooting targets.

Along with Japan, they have also activated a new system to detect and assess North Korea's missile launches in real-time.

Washington had until now shared such information separately with South Korea and Japan.

North Korea has slammed the new system as part of U.S. efforts to incite confrontation.

It says it has a sovereign right to operate a ballistic missile program for self defense.

Source: Reuters

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North Korea's Kim warns of 'nuclear attack'

STORY: North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un says Pyongyang would not hesitate to launch a nuclear attack if an enemy provokes it with nuclear weapons, state media reported on Thursday.Kim made the remark as he, and his daughter, met with soldiers working for the military's missile bureau.According...
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He is so obsessed with his nuclear weapons. I'm worried he will actually use them someday.
 
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered its military, the munitions industry and the nuclear weapons sector to accelerate war preparations to counter what he called unprecedented "confrontation moves" by the United States, state media reported on Thursday.

Source: Reuters

 

White House: North Korea recently provided Russia with ballistic missiles, launchers​


North Korea recently provided Russia with ballistic missiles and launchers for use in Moscow's war against Ukraine, the White House said on Thursday, citing newly declassified intelligence.

National security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters the United States will raise the development with the United Nations Security Council.

Kirby called North Korea's arms transfer to Russia a "significant and concerning escalation" and said the United States would impose additional sanctions against those facilitating these arms deals.

Kirby said Iran has not delivered close-range ballistic missiles to Russia but that Washington believes Russia intends to purchase missile systems from Iran.

Moscow has been heavily reliant on Iran for drones and other weaponry for use against Ukraine.

Source : Reuters
 

North Korea's Kim Jong Un abandons unification goal with South​

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said unification with the South is no longer possible, and that the constitution should be changed to designate it the "principal enemy".

Mr Kim also said three organisations dealing with reunification would shut down, state media KCNA reported.

South Korea's president said it would respond "multiple times stronger" to any provocation from the North.

The two Koreas have been divided since the Korean War ended in 1953.

They did not sign a peace treaty and therefore have remained technically still at war ever since.

In a speech delivered at the Supreme People's Assembly - North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament - Mr Kim said that the constitution should be amended to educate North Koreans that South Korea is a "primary foe and invariable principal enemy".

He also said that if a war breaks out on the Korean peninsula, the country's constitution should reflect the issue of "occupying", "recapturing" and "incorporating" the South into its territory.

Mr Kim - who replaced his father, Kim Jong-il, as North Korean leader in 2011 - said the North "did not want war, but we also have no intention of avoiding it", according to KCNA.

He said he was taking a "new stand" on north-south relations, which included dismantling all organisations tasked with reunification.

Speaking to his cabinet on Tuesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said that if the North carried out a provocation, the South "will retaliate multiple times stronger", pointing to the South Korean military's "overwhelming response capabilities".

Dr John Nilsson-Wright, who heads the Japan and Koreas Programme at Cambridge University's Centre for Geopolitics, described Mr Kim's remarks as "unprecedented", and said it was "highly unusual" for a North Korean leader to depart from the policy of unification.

"It's not unusual for relations between the North and South to cool, but this has taken the relationship in a different direction," he told the BBC.

He added that Mr Kim's anti-Western stance can be traced back to the 2019 summit with then-US President Donald Trump in Vietnam, which ended without an agreement.

"This has been an acute disappointment and loss of face for Kim," Dr Nilsson-Wright said.

Heightened tensions
Mr Kim's comments came as relations significantly weakened on the Korean Peninsula in recent months.

In November, North Korea fully suspended a five-year military deal with the South aimed at lowering military tensions. It promised to withdraw all measures "taken to prevent military conflict in all spheres including ground, sea and air", and said it would deploy more forces to the border region.

The South had partly suspended the agreement days earlier after Mr Kim claimed to have successfully launched a spy satellite into space.

The rhetoric - and provocative actions - from the North have only escalated since then.

At year-end policy meetings, Mr Kim said he needed to "newly formulate" the North's stance towards inter-Korean relations and reunification policy, adding that the stated goal was to "make a decisive policy change" related to "the enemy".

He also threatened a nuclear attack on the South, and called for a build-up of his country's military arsenal.

The North has also launched missiles in recent weeks, as well as live-fire exercises close to South Korean territory.

In a report published last week for 38 North, a US-based organisation with a focus on North Korea, former State Department official Robert Carlin and nuclear scientist Siegfried S Hecker said they saw the situation on the Korean Peninsula as "more dangerous than it has ever been" since the start of the Korean War in 1950.

"That may sound overly dramatic, but we believe that, like his grandfather in 1950, Kim Jong Un has made a strategic decision to go to war," it said.

"We do not know when or how Kim plans to pull the trigger, but the danger is already far beyond the routine warnings in Washington, Seoul and Tokyo about Pyongyang's 'provocations'."

It added that it did not see the "war preparation themes" in North Korean media as "typical bluster".

Dr Nilsson-Wright agreed and said the "risk of escalation should be taken seriously".

Meanwhile North Korea's Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui is in Russia where she is expected to meet President Vladimir Putin.

The two countries have boosted ties recently, with both isolated by Western powers, and last September Mr Kim visited Russia where he met Mr Putin.

Source: BBC
 
Kim Jong Un seems to be making all decisions about North Korea and its people alone. It must be hard to live in North Korea with so many restrictions.
 
North Korea: Rare footage shows teens sentenced to hard labour over K-drama

Rare footage obtained by BBC Korean shows North Korea publicly sentencing two teenage boys to 12 years of hard labour for watching K-dramas.

The footage, which appears to have been filmed in 2022, shows two 16-year-old boys handcuffed in front of hundreds of students at an outdoor stadium.

It also shows uniformed officers reprimanding the boys for not "deeply reflecting on their mistakes".

South Korean entertainment, including TV, is banned in the North.

Despite that, some are prepared to risk severe punishment to access K-dramas, which have a huge global audience.

Footage such as this is rare, because North Korea forbids photos, videos and other evidence of life in the country from being leaked to the outside world.

This video was provided to the BBC by the South and North Development (Sand), a research institute that works with defectors from the North.

It suggests authorities are coming down harder on such incidents. The clip has reportedly been distributed in North Korea for ideology education and to warn citizens not to watch "decadent recordings".

The video includes a narrator who is repeating state propaganda. "The rotten puppet regime's culture has spread even to teenagers," says the voice, in an apparent reference to South Korea. "They are just 16 years old, but they ruined their own future," it adds.

The boys were also named by officers and had their addresses revealed.

In the past, minors who broke the law in this way would be sent to youth labour camps rather than put behind bars, and the punishment was usually less than five years.

In 2020, however, Pyongyang enacted a law to make watching or distributing South Korean entertainment punishable by death.

A defector previously told the BBC that he was forced to watch a 22-year-old man shot to death. He said the man was accused of listening to South Korean music and had shared films from the South with his friend.

Sand CEO Choi Kyong-hui said Pyongyang sees the spread of K-dramas and K-pop as a danger to its ideology.

"Admiration for South Korean society can soon lead to a weakening of the system... This goes against the monolithic ideology that makes North Koreans revere the Kim family," she said.

North Koreans started getting a taste of South Korean entertainment in the 2000s, during the years of the South's "sunshine policy" which saw it offering unconditional economic and humanitarian aid to the North.

Seoul ended the policy in 2010, saying it found the aid did not reach the ordinary North Koreans it was intended for, and that it had not resulted in any "positive changes" to Pyongyang's behaviour.

But South Korean entertainment continued to reach North Korea through China.

"If you get caught watching an American drama, you can get away with a bribe, but if you watch a Korean drama, you get shot," a North Korean defector told BBC Korean on Thursday.

"For North Korean people, Korean dramas are a 'drug' that helps them forget their difficult reality," the defector said.

"In North Korea, we learn that South Korea lives much worse than us, but when you watch South Korean dramas, it's a completely different world. It seems like the North Korean authorities are wary of that," said another North Korean defector in her 20s.

Source: BBC

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North Korea: Rare footage shows teens sentenced to hard labour over K-drama

Footage obtained by BBC Korean shows two 16-year-old boys handcuffed and sentenced to hard labour.
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N Korea conducts 'underwater nuclear weapons system' test - state media

North Korea says it has carried out a test of its "underwater nuclear weapons system" in response to drills by the US, South Korea and Japan this week.

The underwater drone, which supposedly can carry a nuclear weapon, was tested off the east coast, state media said.

There is no other evidence of the tests being conducted and Seoul had earlier said the North's descriptions of the drones' capability were exaggerated.

South Korea called the reported tests a "provocation".

It "threatens peace on [the] Korean Peninsula and the world," the South Korea's defence ministry said, adding: "If North Korea directly provokes us, we will respond in an overwhelming manner following the principle of immediate, strong, and terminal action."

The North has claimed tests of its "Haeil-5-23" system before, but the latest incident comes as the North has ramped up military action in recent weeks.

On Sunday, it claimed to have deployed a new solid-fuelled intermediate-range ballistic missile.

That followed live-fire drills at the maritime border with South Korea in the first week of January.

Pyongyang leader Kim Jong Un has also been increasingly aggressive in his policy direction and rhetoric - ending several agreements aimed at peace-keeping in recent months.

On Friday, North Korea said it had been provoked by joint drills by Washington, Seoul and Tokyo to carry out a test of its underwater weapons, according to a report by state agency KCNA.

It accused the exercises of "further destabilising the regional situation" and threatening the North's security.

The US, South Korea and Japan say they have conducted more exercises in the past year as a deterrence response to the increasing frequency of North Korea's military actions, which include multiple tests of its nuclear ballistic missiles and launches of new weapons. All such actions are in breach of UN sanctions.

But Mr Kim has repeatedly said his regime is building up its military arsenal in preparation for war that could "break out at any time" on the peninsula.

Over the New Year period, he signalled some fundamental policy shifts in his regime's stance to South Korea.

And earlier this week he declared the former bedrock goal of re-unification with South Korea was over, designating the South as the "principal enemy".

The rhetoric follows several claimed advances in his country's military and nuclear capabilities - including in its underwater operations.

Since March 2023, it has also claimed tests of its Haeil system - unmanned, underwater nuclear-armed drones. Haeil means "tsunami" in Korean.

Little is known about these weapons or their claimed performance but North Korean media has described them as being able to sneak into enemy waters and cause large underwater explosions.

Analysts have said that if the weapons function as presented by the North, they would be seen as a less significant weapon than the regime's nuclear ballistic missiles.

"Considering North Korea's defence science level and the fact that the weapon is still in a developing stage, it is not yet at a stage to pose a significant threat," Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher at the World Institute for North Korea Studies, told news agency AFP.

Late last year Pyongyang also declared it had successfully put a spy satellite in space after earlier failed attempts and has pledged to put three more up this year.

Whether the satellite is actually functioning has yet to be independently verified.

But South Korea said the North had managed to get its satellite up with help from Russia, which in turn reportedly received arms from the North for its war in Ukraine.

Mr Kim had high-profile meetings with Russia's leader Vladimir Putin and defence minister Sergei Shoigu last year. North Korea's foreign minister was also in Moscow this week.



Source: BBC
 
North Korea has the right to test out weapons.

If Americans can do it, why can't North Korea?
 
North Korea has fired “several” cruise missiles from its west coast into the sea, according to South Korea.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the missiles were fired on Wednesday morning.

“Our military detected several cruise missiles launched by North Korea towards the Yellow Sea at around 7:00 am today [22:00 GMT on Tuesday],” the JCS said in a statement.

“The detailed specifications are being closely analysed by South Korean and US intelligence authorities.”

Pyongyang, which is under strict United Nations sanctions over its nuclear weapons programme, has continued to conduct weapons tests this year including a solid-fuelled hypersonic ballistic missile and the test of a purported nuclear-capable underwater attack drone.

Cruise missile tests are not banned under the UN sanctions but the JCS said it was monitoring further activities by North Korea. Cruise missiles tend to be jet-propelled and fly at a lower altitude than more sophisticated ballistic missiles, but analysts say they could pose a risk to South Korea and Japan because they are harder to detect by radar.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have increased in recent months as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continues to accelerate his weapons development and issue provocative threats of nuclear conflict with the United States and its allies in the region.

Japan, South Korea and the US, meanwhile, have been expanding their combined military exercises – which Kim portrays as invasion rehearsals – and sharpening their deterrence strategies built around nuclear-capable US assets.

The latest launches came as the South Korean Navy’s special warfare unit was taking part in training on the east coast near the border with North Korea.

The 10-day training, which ends on Thursday, is designed to strengthen operational readiness, the JCS said, following North Korea’s recent military activities.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
North Korea fires multiple cruise missiles off east coast


North Korea has fired several cruise missiles off its east coast, South Korean military officials said, continuing a streak of weapons tests that have drawn condemnation from the United States, South Korea and Japan.

The missile launches follow North Korea’s test launch on Wednesday of the strategic cruise missile “Pulhwasal-3-31”, which Pyongyang has suggested is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement on Sunday that it detected several missiles over waters near the North Korean port of Sinpo, where Pyongyang operates a shipyard that manufactures naval assets including missile-firing submarines.

“While strengthening surveillance and vigilance, our military is cooperating closely with the United States and monitoring additional signs and activities from North Korea,” the JCS said.

Pyongyang has ramped up weapons tests in recent weeks, including the launches of a purported “underwater nuclear weapon system” and a solid-fuelled hypersonic ballistic missile.

While North Korea is not banned from testing cruise missiles under UN sanctions, which prohibit more sophisticated ballistic technology, the launches are likely to inflame tensions in Pyongyang’s already strained relations with Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.

Despite international sanctions and censure, Kim has made major strides in advancing his country’s illicit ballistic missile programme, which analysts say has been bolstered by cooperation with Russia.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un earlier this month said that South Korea was his country’s “principal enemy” and that peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula was no longer possible.

The US, South Korea and Japan have responded to Pyongyang’s tests by carrying out expanded joint military exercises, which Kim has cast as rehearsals for an invasion.

North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on Sunday condemned the drills, vowing “merciless” consequences and warning that the country was “fully prepared for a deadly war”.



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North Korea fires multiple cruise missiles off east coast

Missile launches come days after Pyongyang announced test of the ‘Pulhwasal-3-31’ strategic cruise missile.
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North Korea fires multiple cruise missiles into the sea, extending recent testing spree

North Korea on Friday extended a provocative series of weapons tests by firing cruise missiles into the sea, as leader Kim Jong Un called for his military to step up war preparations and toured a shipyard.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the U.S. and South Korean militaries were analyzing the North Korean launches into its western sea. It said South Korea's military detected multiple missiles but didn't immediately provide a specific number or an assessment of their flights.

The launches, which were North Korea's fourth round of cruise missile tests in 2024, came hours after state media reported that Kim reiterated his focus on strengthening his naval forces as he inspected unspecified naval projects at a shipyard in Nampho on the west coast.

Kim in recent months has emphasized efforts to build a nuclear-armed navy to counter what he portrays as growing external threats posed by the United States, South Korea and Japan, which have stepped up their military cooperation in response to Kim's nuclear weapons and missile program.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency didn't specify when Kim visited Nampho. It paraphrased Kim as saying the strengthening of the navy "presents itself as the most important issue in reliably defending the maritime sovereignty of the country and stepping up the war preparations."



www.cbsnews.com

North Korea fires multiple cruise missiles into the sea, extending recent testing spree

Pyongyang's latest tests come with tensions on the Korean Peninsula at their highest point in years as Kim Jong Un hastens the North's weapons development — and threats.
www.cbsnews.com www.cbsnews.com
 
North Korea hacked South Korea chip equipment makers, Seoul says

North Korean hackers have broken into South Korean chip equipment makers, according to South Korea's spy agency.

Pyongyang is trying to make semiconductors for its weapons programmes, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) says.

It comes a month after President Yoon Suk Yeol warned North Korea may stage provocations such as cyber attacks to interfere with upcoming elections.

Last year, North Korea hacked into the emails of an aide to President Yoon.

"We believe that North Korea might possibly be preparing to produce its own semiconductors in the face of difficulties in procuring them due to sanctions," the NIS said in a statement.

It added that Pyongyang's efforts could be driven by the need to chips for its weapons programmes, including satellites and missiles.

The NIS believes North Korea penetrated the servers of two chip equipment companies in December and February, stealing product designs and photographs of their facilities.

It also warned other companies in the chip making industry to take precautions against cyber attacks.

However, the spy agency did not name the firms effected and or suggest that North Korea was able to obtain anything of value.

The NIS said South Korea's companies had been a key target of North Korean hackers since late last year.

It believes hackers employed a technique called "living off the land," which minimises malicious codes and uses existing, legitimate tools installed within servers, making it difficult to detect with security software.

Last month, President Yoon's office said that the breach of an aide's email account was caused by a violation of security regulations and that its official system had not been hacked.

Pyongyang has always denied involvement in cyber-crimes but Seoul has blamed North Korean hackers for stealing large sums of money, often in cryptocurrency, to fund the regime and its nuclear weapons programme.

North Korea is estimated to have stolen as much as $3bn (£2.36bn) since 2016.

It is also thought to carry out hacks with the purpose of stealing state secrets, including details of advanced weapons technology.

The country, which is subject to extreme international sanctions, is becoming increasingly more sophisticated in the way it carries out cyber attacks.

BBC
 
Another war loading?

-----------------

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un orders heightened war preparations

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered heightened readiness for war after inspecting troops at a major military operations base in the country’s west.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) did not reveal the location of the base in its report on Thursday.

The North Korean leader said the military must “dynamically usher in a new heyday of intensifying the war preparations in line with the requirements of the prevailing situation”, according to KCNA.

“Our army should … steadily intensify the actual war drills aimed at rapidly improving its combat capabilities for perfect war preparedness,” he added.

Kim’s visit took place as forces from the United States and South Korea continued their annual Freedom Shield large-scale military exercises.

The drills, expected to involve 48 field exercises including missile interception drills, bombing, air assault and live-firing, began on Monday with twice the number of troops participating compared with last year.

North Korea has long condemned military drills by the US and South Korea, claiming they are rehearsals for an invasion, and has conducted weapons tests in response to previous exercises.

On Monday, KCNA quoted an unnamed spokesperson for North Korea’s Ministry of Defence urging Seoul and Washington to cease their “reckless” and “frantic war drills”.

The US and South Korea “will be made to pay a dear price for their false choice”, the spokesperson added.

In Thursday’s report, KCNA did not mention whether Kim directly referred to the Freedom Shield drills.

It said the troops at the base were conducting manoeuvres under conditions simulating actual war.

North Korea has continued to carry out missile tests this year as it modernises its military.

ALJAZEERA
 
BouncerGuy said:
Another war loading?

-----------------

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un orders heightened war preparations

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered heightened readiness for war after inspecting troops at a major military operations base in the country’s west.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) did not reveal the location of the base in its report on Thursday.

The North Korean leader said the military must “dynamically usher in a new heyday of intensifying the war preparations in line with the requirements of the prevailing situation”, according to KCNA.

“Our army should … steadily intensify the actual war drills aimed at rapidly improving its combat capabilities for perfect war preparedness,” he added.

Kim’s visit took place as forces from the United States and South Korea continued their annual Freedom Shield large-scale military exercises.

The drills, expected to involve 48 field exercises including missile interception drills, bombing, air assault and live-firing, began on Monday with twice the number of troops participating compared with last year.

North Korea has long condemned military drills by the US and South Korea, claiming they are rehearsals for an invasion, and has conducted weapons tests in response to previous exercises.

On Monday, KCNA quoted an unnamed spokesperson for North Korea’s Ministry of Defence urging Seoul and Washington to cease their “reckless” and “frantic war drills”.

The US and South Korea “will be made to pay a dear price for their false choice”, the spokesperson added.

In Thursday’s report, KCNA did not mention whether Kim directly referred to the Freedom Shield drills.

It said the troops at the base were conducting manoeuvres under conditions simulating actual war.

North Korea has continued to carry out missile tests this year as it modernises its military.

ALJAZEERA
Click to expand...

It is probably nothing.

North Korea is unlikely to go to a war. They have not much to gain and everything to lose if a war takes place.
 
North Korean official lambasts US over sanctions, state media says

North Korea will take more action to maintain its military power despite U.S. sanctions pressure that has only made the country stronger, a North Korean foreign ministry official said on Thursday.

"U.S. heinous sanctions served as a catalyst and driving force that unleashed a gradual increase in our national strength," state KCNA news agency cited a North Korean senior foreign ministry official as saying, referring to its nuclear tests prompted by international sanctions led by Washington.

The country "will protect its sovereign rights and security interests from increasing hostile threats and sanctions pressure from the United States, and take stronger real actions to make its already established military and technological strength irreversible," the official added.

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said on Wednesday that the country would press on with its "overwhelming" military buildup in response to frequent U.S. military drills with South Korea.

The U.S. and South Korean militaries have conducted a range of drills with greater scale and intensity in recent months under a pledge by the two countries' leaders to upgrade military readiness against North Korea's military threats.

North Korea says U.S. military exercises are preparations for a nuclear war against it.

"We are used to U.S. sanctions, and we have the ability and great power to stand up to any harsh sanctions," the foreign ministry official said, according to KCNA.


Reuters
 

North Korea denounces alleged surveillance by US allies amid UN sanctions​


North Korea denounced on Monday what it called increased surveillance of North Korea by US allies under the guise of monitoring UN sanctions violations, and said it will take necessary steps to protect its sovereignty and security, according to state media KCNA.

Pyongyang called out the UK, Canada, Germany, France, New Zealand and Australia to immediately stop their “blatant military intervention in the Asia-Pacific” by using UN sanctions as an excuse, in a statement by its foreign ministry via KCNA.

“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will take necessary measures to thoroughly protect its sovereignty and safety” concerning such surveillance, KCNA said without elaborating, using North Korea’s official name.

South Korea and the UK carried out joint maritime patrols in waters near the Korean Peninsula in April to enforce UN Security Council sanctions resolutions against North Korea, South Korea’s defense ministry had said.

Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited arms factories on Saturday and Sunday, personally inspecting weapons such as sniper rifles and rocket launchers, KCNA said on Monday.

Kim, accompanied by high-ranking officials including his powerful sister Kim Yo Jong, praised the quality of the weapons and called for the factories to implement production plans without fail, KCNA said.

 

North Korea cracking down on wedding dresses and slang - report​


North Korea is carrying out a widespread crackdown on everything from wedding dresses to slang as it seeks to counter the South's influence, a new report has revealed.

The report - released by South Korea's Unification Ministry - is based on the testimony of hundreds of defectors.

It includes the case of a 22-year-old who was executed after admitting listening to South Korean music and distributing films, first reported by the BBC last year.

North Korea described last year's report as "slander and fabrication", but has yet to respond to the new document.

According to the collected accounts, searches of homes have increased since 2021, with officials looking for signs of outside culture, news agency Yonhap reports.

Signs are said to include wearing a white wedding dress or the groom lifting the bride on his back.

People's phones are also being searched and checked for slang from South Korea in messages and contacts, it adds.

Sunglasses have also been deemed counter-revolutionary, the report says, despite North Korean leader Kim Jong Un being know to don a pair. His father, however, also labelled certain everyday clothes items as counter-revolutionary - including jeans.

What exactly the punishment is for these infractions is unclear.

However, the crackdown on South Korean-made culture appears more severe.

A 2020 law made watching or distributing South Korean entertainment punishable by death.

This year's report includes an account of a public execution which had earlier been revealed by the BBC, where a 22-year-old farmer was killed for listening to 70 songs, watching three films and distributing them.

It is thought to be the only account of an execution being carried out under the "reactionary ideology and culture rejection law" to emerge so far.

A video from earlier this year showed two teenagers being sentenced to hard labour for a similar crime.

The South Korean report has been released at a time of increasing tensions between the neighbouring countries.

The North has sent more than 2,000 balloons filled with rubbish across the border since last month - some of which were found to have parasites inside.

A meeting between Kim Jong Un and Russia's Vladimir Putin last week has further strained relations.

It is notable, then, that this is only the second time the report has been released, despite having been compiled annually since 2018.

They were previously not released in order to avoid provoking North Korea.

www.bbc.com

North Korea censors sunglasses, weddings and slang - report

The South Korean report uses defectors' accounts to build a picture of human rights in the North.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 

North Korea switches TV transmission to Russia satellite from Chinese​

SEOUL, July 1 (Reuters) - North Korea has switched the transmission of state TV broadcasts to a Russian satellite from a Chinese one, South Korea's unification ministry said on Monday, making the monitoring of such broadcasts a challenge for the South's government agencies and media.

Signals from North Korea's Korean Central Television were carried by a Russian satellite, Express 103, from June 29 instead of the ChinaSat 12 satellite, a South Korean satellite dish service provider told Reuters.

It declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

The satellite change follows Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to North Korea in June, during which he met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and signed a treaty to deepen cooperation in all areas including a mutual defence pledge.

While it remains possible to watch North Korean TV online, the quality may be delayed or of low quality.

South Korean government agencies and media monitor North Korean state media as a limited source of information from inside the reclusive state, despite its highly politicised and choreographed content.

"North Korea stopped using an existing Chinese satellite and began transmitting broadcasts through a Russian satellite, and reception of satellite broadcasts is being restricted in some areas on our side," a unification ministry official said, adding the ministry was looking to resolve the technical issue.

Authorised entities in the South need access to satellite service to watch North Korean broadcasts, and the general public is banned from accessing the North's media.

Reuters has been unable to receive North Korean TV signals since Monday morning.

While Russia and North Korea have made dramatic overtures showcasing deepening ties and vowed to resist the U.S.-led West, China has avoided any trilateral arrangement that might complicate its relations with other countries.

Source: Reuters
 

North Korea: Kim's daughter being trained to succeed him​


South Korean media reported on Monday that the leader of North Korea was having his oldest daughter officially trained to take over for him one day.

Yonhap news agency, citing the National Intelligence Service, said Kim Ju Ae was receiving training after having been seen with her father on several public outings in the last few years.

The family of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is notoriously secretive, and little is known about his wife Ri Sol Ju and their three children, of which Kim Ju Ae is reportedly the middle.

Indeed, the name of the heir apparent is only known in the West from reports by American basketball player Dennis Rodman, who was allowed to visit Kim in 2013. Kim Ju Ae is believed to be 11 or 12 years old.

She began accompanying her father to various public engagements in 2022, such as a tour of a missile factory and greeting troops.

Analysts believe her heightened public profile was either meant to silence rivalries inside Pyongyang or to present the Kim family in the style of a monarchy. Kim Jong Un has himself inherited his position as leader from his father Kim Jong Il, the son of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung.

www.dw.com

North Korea: Kim's daughter being trained to succeed him – DW – 07/29/2024

Kim Ju Ae is reportedly receiving an education to become the next leader of the country. Her father, Kim Jong Un, is the grandson of the country's founder Kim Il Sung.
www.dw.com www.dw.com
 
For those interested in exploring North Korea

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

North Korea to open border for foreign tourists in December, tour operators say​


North Korea will resume international tourism to its northeastern city of Samjiyon in December, and possibly the rest of the country, tour companies said on Wednesday.

The move is a sign that the reclusive country is readying to reopen borders to bigger groups of foreign tourists after years of strict COVID border controls.

“We have received confirmation from our local partner that tourism to Samjiyon and likely the rest of the country will officially resume in December 2024,” the Beijing-based Koryo Tours said on its website.

International flights in and out of North Korea resumed last year and a small group of Russian tourists flew to North Korea for a private tour in February. Top foreign officials, including Russian President Vladimir Putin in June, have been visiting the country.

But North Korea has not been fully open to international tourists since 2020.

“Having waited for over four years to make this announcement, Koryo Tours is very excited for the opening of North Korean tourism once again,” the firm said, adding its
local partner would confirm itineraries and dates in coming weeks.

North Korea has been building what it called a “socialist utopia” in Samjiyon, a city near the Chinese border, and “a model of highly-civilized mountain city” with new apartments, hotels, a ski resort and commercial, cultural and medical facilities.

Leader Kim Jong Un in July sacked or demoted some senior officials for their “irresponsible” handling of his flagship Samjiyon project.

Another travel agency, KTG Tours, also announced that tourists would be able to go to Samjiyon from this winter.

 
North Korea's Kim Jong Un says he will speed up steps to become a nuclear weapons superpower

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country will speed up steps toward becoming a military superpower with nuclear weapons and would not rule out using them if enemies attacked it, state media KCNA said on Tuesday.

Kim made the comments in a speech on Monday at a university, which was printed in full by KCNA.

He said he has no intention of attacking South Korea, but "if the enemy attempts to use force against our country" North Korea's military will use all aggression without hesitation, which "does not preclude the use of nuclear weapons".


 
N Korea's Kim calls Putin 'closest comrade'

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has sent a birthday message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling him his "closest comrade".

Kim, congratulating Putin on his 72nd birthday, added that relations between both countries would be raised to a new level.

Relations between Pyongyang and Moscow have deepened since the start of the Ukraine war - in a move that has worried the West.

Separately on Tuesday, Kim said Pyongyang would speed up steps to make his country a military super power with nuclear weapons.

According to Yonhap News quoting North Korean state media KCNA, Kim praised relations between both countries, saying they had become "invincible and eternal", since Putin's visit to Pyongyang in June.

"Meetings and comradely ties between us... will make a positive contribution to further consolidating the eternal foundation of the DPRK-Russia friendship," he added, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The relationship between North Korea and Russia goes back decades - to Stalin and Kim Il-sung, the current Kim's grandfather. The Soviet Union supported North Korea in its early days with weapons and technology, and Pyongyang has never wanted to completely rely on China - which it does not fully trust.

Earlier this year, Putin and Kim signed an agreement pledging that they would help each other in the event of "aggression" against either country - though it was unclear what would constitute aggression.

Kim has been accused of helping Russia in the war against Ukraine by supplying it with weapons in exchange for economic and technological assistance.

There has been growing evidence that Russia has been deploying North Korean missiles in Ukraine.

For Putin, the relationship is likely more tactical than strategic. He needs support for his war in Ukraine and North Korea will certainly be willing to sell him whatever munitions he is willing to pay for.

Jeffrey Lewis, a director at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, had earlier said both Kim and Putin were "trying to reduce the pain of international sanctions by creating an alternate network of friends and partners beyond the reach of US sanctions".

North Korea certainly can benefit enormously from access to Russian military technology – which despite Russia’s problems is still far more advanced than North Korea’s homegrown and reverse-engineered systems.

North Korea is primarily trying to perfect its nuclear and missile arsenal. It has made very surprising progress in the last decade in producing new missile systems and miniaturising its nuclear devices.

But Russia has far more advanced thermonuclear warhead designs, re-entry vehicle designs and solid rocket motor designs.

During a visit by Kim to Russia in September 2023, Putin had promised to help North Korea develop its satellites, after several failed launches by Pyongyang.

A South Korean lawmaker also separately on Tuesday claimed that Seoul's military had detected apparent signs that North Korea had started to build a possible nuclear-powered submarine.

Citing Korea's intelligence agency, Rep Kang Dae-sik said construction was still in its early stages and "further confirmation is needed on whether it is nuclear powered".

BBC
 
N Korean constitution now calls South 'hostile state'

North Korea's constitution now defines the South as a "hostile state", according to state media, in the first mention of what Pyongyang's recent constitutional revisions entailed.

State newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported the change as an "inevitable and legitimate measure", at a time when tensions between the Koreas are at their highest point in years.

The North on Tuesday blew up roads and railways connecting it to South Korea - a move which state media described as "part of the step-by-step implementation to thoroughly separate [the Koreas]".

Some observers see the constitutional amendment as a largely symbolic move, given North Korean leader Kim Jong Un renounced unification as early as December 2023.

At the time, state media reported Kim saying that inter-Korean relations had become "a relationship between two hostile countries and two belligerents at war".

Then, in January, he declared unification with South Korea as impossible, and hinted at constitutional changes to designate the South as the "principal enemy".

A string of exchanges between the Koreas since then, particularly in the last few months, has seen tensions steadily rise.

The term "hostile states" has characterised North Korean communications for almost a year now, said Bruce Bennett, a defence analyst at Rand Corporation.

"It was a significant development when announced at the end of 2023, as it raised the risks of confrontation and the potential for an escalation spiral," Mr Bennett told the BBC.

"Since then, Kim and his sister have made a number of nuclear weapon threats against [South Korea] and United States, and have escalated tensions with many actions. So the risks have grown."

Many onlookers had expected Pyongyang to make constitutional amendments to unification and border policies at a Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) meeting last week - but no such changes were publicised until now.

Still, analysts are sceptical about the prospect of a full-blown war.

"I doubt that the situation would escalate to the level of war," said Professor Kang Dong-wan, who teaches political science and diplomacy at Dong-a University in Busan. "North Korea is exploiting military confrontation to strengthen internal cohesion."

Professor Kim Dong-yup from the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul meanwhile questioned Pyongyang's ability to initiate a full-scale war.

"The regime is well aware of the severe consequences such a conflict would bring,” he said.

BBC
 
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