UN should 'break silence' over NK provocations: S. Korean envoy

The United Nations should break its silence over the growing North Korean provocations, including the latest test-firing of long-range missiles, said Hwang Joon-kook, permanent representative of South Korea to the UN, on Thursday. Hwang was quoted as saying by news reports that "the UN Security Council needs to break the silence over the way it (reacts)" to North Korean issues, adding it has become a "big question" for the UN Security Council to answer. The remarks came after

Jan. 19, 2024

Nature of NK threat could change 'drastically' due to Pyongyang-Moscow cooperation: US official

The nature of North Korean threats could change "drastically" over the next decade due to an "unprecedented" level of military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow, a senior US official warned Thursday. Pranay Vaddi, senior director for arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation at the National Security Council, made the remarks, amid growing concerns about reported arms transactions between the North and Russia in the midst of the war in Ukraine, and their security

Jan. 19, 2024

Increasingly more North Korean dissenters escaping to South

South Korea on Thursday reported a recent increase in defections of elite and younger North Koreans, who say they left because they are anti-regime. The Ministry of Unification in Seoul overseeing inter-Korean affairs said the number of defectors to the South hit 196 in 2023, which is about the triple the number of the two preceding years -- 2022’s 67 and 2021’s 63 -- when COVID-19 was still raging. According to the ministry, the defections of members of the North Korean elite seen l

Jan. 18, 2024

N. Korea slams Japan Self Defense Forces members' visit to Yasukuni Shrine

North Korea on Thursday lambasted senior officers of the Japan Self-Defense Forces for visiting a war shrine seen as a symbol of Japan's militaristic past. The criticism came after Lt. Gen. Hiroki Kobayashi, vice chief of staff of the Ground Self-Defense Force, and dozens of officials visited the Yasukuni Shrine last week, prompting Tokyo's defense ministry to investigate whether they violated a regulation that bans military units from visiting religious facilities. The shrine honors J

Jan. 18, 2024

N. Korea broadcasts map highlighting only northern Korean Peninsula in red

North Korea's state-run broadcasting station on Wednesday aired a map that highlights only the northern part of the Korean Peninsula in red after its leader vowed to no longer seek reconciliation and unification with South Korea. In the initial segment of a program broadcast on Pyongyang's state-run Korean Central Television, the network presented a map highlighting only the northern region of the Korean Peninsula in red. The station used the same map on another program Monday, which h

Jan. 17, 2024

Putin's meeting with NK envoy raises Pyongyang trip possibility

Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with the North Korean foreign minister in Moscow raised the possibility of his trip to Pyongyang, Wednesday, intensifying concerns about deepening bilateral military cooperation posing challenges to the international order. North Korea's Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui, on her first solo overseas trip since her promotion to the position in June 2022, made a three-day trip to Russia that began Monday. The Kremlin announced that Choe and Russia�

Jan. 17, 2024

Inter-Korean ties hit new low as NK calls Seoul 'primary foe'

Inter-Korean relations hit a new low as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered the removal of all symbols of reconciliation and cooperation between the two Koreas, a highly volatile and intricate relationship that endured for over 50 years, despite changes in South Korean governments and hereditary power succession in North Korea. South Korea will also be designated as the "primary foe and invariable principal enemy" in the North Korean constitution by Kim's order on Monday, Nort

Jan. 16, 2024

N. Korea says tests hypersonic missile

North Korean state media on Monday claimed that the country had successfully test-fired a solid-fuel hypersonic missile with an intermediate-range for the first time on Sunday, the same day the country's foreign minister arrived in Russia. The South Korean military said it was evaluating North Korea's claim. Hypersonic missiles fly at lower altitudes, offering greater maneuverability up through the terminal phase, and travel at speeds of at least Mach 5, equivalent to five times the sp

Jan. 15, 2024

N. Korea halts radio station known for sending coded messages to spies in Seoul

North Korea is pressing ahead with measures to disband its inter-Korean organizations, apparently stopping a radio station previously used to send encrypted messages to its spies in South Korea. As of Saturday, the North appears to have stopped broadcasting the state-run Pyongyang Radio and cut off access to its website. The latest move comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered "readjusting and reforming" its organizations in charge of inter-Korean affairs during a key Worker

Jan. 13, 2024

N. Korea holds Cabinet plenary meeting over economic issues

North Korea has discussed ways to enhance the Cabinet's role in implementing this year's economic goals, state media reported Thursday, amid the country's protracted economic difficulties caused by UN sanctions imposed due to Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs. Premier Kim Tok-hun presided over a plenary meeting of the Party Committee of the Cabinet from Monday to Wednesday in a follow-up to a year-end key party meeting, according to the Korean Central News Agency. The

Jan. 11, 2024

NK leader says he has 'no intention of avoiding war' with S. Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called South Korea the country's "principal enemy" and said he has "no intention of avoiding war," state media said Wednesday. Kim also threatened to annihilate the South if it attempts to use force against the North, as he inspected major munitions factories Monday and Tuesday, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said. "Predicating that the ROK clan is our principal enemy, he said what the DPRK should prioritize in t

Jan. 10, 2024

North Korea makes no mention of leader's 40th birthday

North Korean state media outlets remained silent on the presumed 40th birthday of their leader Kim Jong-un on Monday. The Korean Central News Agency, Rodong Sinmun, Korean Central Television and Korean Central Broadcasting Station have yet to make any report on Kim's birthday. Kim is known to have been born on Jan. 8, 1984, though the North has not officially confirmed the date. Earlier in the day, state media outlets carried reports on Kim's visit to a newly built chicken factory wh

Jan. 8, 2024

N. Korean leader calls for increased poultry production amid food shortages

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has visited a newly built chicken factory and called for increasing poultry production for a "substantial change" in the people's standards of living, state media reported Monday. Kim visited Kwangchon Chicken Farm in Hwangju County of North Hwanghae Province on Sunday, accompanied by his daughter, known as Ju-ae, according to the Korean Central News Agency. He underscored the need to "constantly increase the production capacity so as to provid

Jan. 8, 2024

N. Korea fires artillery shells from western coast for 2nd day: JCS

North Korea fired some 60 artillery shells into waters off its western coast Saturday, South Korea's military said, conducting live-fire drills near the tensely guarded western border for the second consecutive day. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the artillery firings in the North's southwestern coastal areas for an hour from 4 p.m. The shells splashed into the maritime buffer zone north of the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border in the Yellow Sea, the JCS said. The buf

Jan. 6, 2024

NK leader taking offensive policy on S. Korea to divert public attention from internal woes: unification minister

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un appears to have taken a more offensive policy stance toward South Korea to divert internal attention from economic difficulties and discontent over the hereditary power succession, Seoul's top point man on inter-Korean relations said Saturday. Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho made the remarks in an interview with broadcaster KBS when asked about the intentions behind the North's leader defining inter-Korean ties as relations "between two state

Jan. 6, 2024

N. Korea rebuilds destroyed guard posts inside DMZ with concrete

North Korea appears to have rebuilt some of its destroyed guard posts inside the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas with concrete structures, a military source said Friday. Last November, the North began rebuilding the guard posts with wooden material after scrapping a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement designed to reduce tensions along the border, according to Seoul's defense officials. "We have detected that North Korea has built concrete guard posts at the destroyed guar

Jan. 5, 2024

N. Korea recently sent several dozen ballistic missiles to Russia: US official

North Korea recently provided Russia with several dozen ballistic missiles as well as ballistic missile launchers, a US official said Thursday, as Moscow seeks to replenish its weapons stockpiles amid its protracted war in Ukraine. The shipment came in defiance of repeated warnings by Washington, Seoul and other governments that such arms transactions between Pyongyang and Moscow would run afoul of multiple UN Security Council resolutions. "Due in part to our sanctions and export controls,

Jan. 5, 2024

S. Korea to disband foundation for Kaesong industrial park

South Korea has decided to disband the sole government-run foundation tasked with handling matters concerning the now-shuttered Kaesong industrial park, once a pivotal inter-Korean cooperation project, amid simmering tensions between the two Koreas. The Unification Ministry issued a public announcement on Thursday regarding the dissolution of the Gaeseong Industrial District Foundation, which was first established in 2007 under the auspices of the ministry, announcing the decision nearly eight y

Jan. 4, 2024

Unification Ministry's NK election interference warning raises concerns

A statement by the Unification Ministry on Thursday has raised concerns as it urged South Korean voters to remain vigilant against North Korea's attempts to interfere in the upcoming April legislative elections. This remark seems inappropriate for the ministry, the primary role of which is to maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula, and is supposed to maintain political neutrality, according to political commentators here. Stressing that North Korea has consistently sought to interfere in So

Jan. 4, 2024

N. Korean leader attends farm machinery exhibition

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended an exhibition featuring agricultural machinery, such as an unmanned helicopter, and called for the development of farming technology, state media said Wednesday. Kim's remark came as he visited the exhibition at the Three-Revolution Exhibition House showcasing "more than hundreds of kinds of farm machines" the previous day, according to the Korean Central News Agency. During the visit, Kim said it is "most important" to "make

Jan. 3, 2024