This article is the first installment of a two-part series investigating North Korea's food shortages and the political and socioeconomic implications for the people living in the reclusive regime, as well as their geopolitical impact. -- Ed. In North Korea, acute and chronic food shortages have been exacerbated following the triple whammy of economic sanctions, self-imposed border closures and years of extreme weather events. The reclusive state appears to be at a crossroads in regards to

North Korea April 17, 2023

South Korea and Japan on Monday agreed to develop “future-oriented security cooperation” in the face of escalating North Korean threats and a changing security environment in Northeast Asia at the first senior-level security talks in five years. The 12th Security Policy Consultation, held in Seoul, was attended by Director General for Asian and Pacific Affairs Seo Min-jeong and Director General for Asian and Oceanian Affairs Takehiro Funakoshi of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affa

Defense April 17, 2023

OSAN AIR BASE, Gyeonggi Province -- “Refueling mission complete,” South Korean Air Force pilot Maj. Eum Ki-su announced aboard the KC-330 Cygnus tanker aircraft at 4,500 meters over the West Sea on Wednesday. Fueling up fighter jets in the sky, a tricky maneuver that requires extending a pipeline into a fuel cap the size of a golf hole, is essential to reinforce the Air Force’s combat and war-fighting capabilities. Air-to-air refueling and tanking enable Air Force fighter jets

Defense April 16, 2023

North Korea claimed Friday that the country had successfully test-fired a new-type solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time on Thursday., under the guidance of the country’s leader Kim Jong-un. It labeled the ICBM as its “powerful, strategic attack means.” The South Korean military also confirmed that the test-launch aimed to develop a solid-propellant ICBM, although it assessed that North Korea still has a long way to go to complete the weapon developme

North Korea April 14, 2023

North Korea appears to have fired a new, solid-fuel, intermediate- or long-range ballistic missile Thursday, the South Korean military said hours after the launch. The initial assessment suggested that Pyongyang conducted its first test-launch of a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile in the run-up to the anniversary of the birth of the country’s late founder. North Korea fired the intermediate- or long-range ballistic missile into waters off its east coast from an area on the out

North Korea April 13, 2023

The South Korean unification minister on Tuesday strongly warned that North Korea’s unilateral severance of cross-border hotlines will eventually put itself in a predicament, urging North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to stop heightening tensions and make a “wise decision.” Unification Minister Kwon Young-se made the remarks in a rare public statement after North Korea refused to take regularly held inter-Korean calls from South Korea for five days without explanation since last Fr

North Korea April 11, 2023

The remains of the Korean independence fighter who inspired the hit South Korean TV series “Mr. Sunshine,” have returned home and been laid to rest at a national cemetery in South Korea after a century-long wait. Hwang Ki-hwan had been buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in New York after dying alone in 1923. A century after his death, his remains arrived at Incheon Airport early on Monday morning after a 15-hour flight. Honor guards carried Hwang’s casket, which was covered with a

Defense April 10, 2023

North Korea has refused to take regularly held, inter-Korean, military-to-military calls from South Korea for three days without explanation, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Sunday morning. The two Koreas hold calls twice a day, in the morning and afternoon, via liaison and military hotlines. But North Korea has stopped answering regular calls across all inter-Korean communication channels since Friday morning. Inter-Korean military hotlines -- which operate at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. seven

North Korea April 9, 2023

North Korea held a rare conference of the national union of journalists earlier this week for the first time in 22 years to discuss ways to strengthen state-controlled media’s role as a propaganda tool to “maximize the effectiveness of indoctrination and ideological penetration,” state media reported Wednesday. The purpose of the Kim Jong-un regime summoning its journalists to Pyongyang was clear. Journalists in the country with the worst press freedom in the world were urged t

North Korea April 5, 2023

North Korea urged the US to extradite Christopher Ahn, a former US Marine accused of raiding the North Korean Embassy in Madrid, to Spain in a press statement issued Tuesday. Ahn was among a group of people associated with the Free Korea organization opposed to the North Korean regime. The group staged a break-in at the North Korean Embassy in February 2019 and escaped with computer drives, a cellphone and other digital files, which they later handed over to the FBI. Since Ahn was arrested in Lo

North Korea April 4, 2023

South Korea, the United States and Japan kicked off their two-day large-scale combined maritime exercises, mobilizing the US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz, and its strike group to enhance combat readiness and interoperability against North Korea’s continued threats, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Monday. The South Korean and US navies along with Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force started conducting anti-submarine warfare exercises and search and rescue

Defense April 3, 2023

The South Korean government will release a comprehensive report on human rights abuses and violations committed in North Korea, ranging from human experimentation to the public execution of pregnant women, for the first time on Friday. Since the enactment of the North Korean Human Rights Acts in 2016, the Korean government has published classified state reports on the human rights situation in North Korea. The reports were not open to public for years during the liberal-leaning Moon Jae-in admin

North Korea March 30, 2023

BUSAN — Dozens of aircraft were lined up on the flight deck of the USS Nimitz, with a flight deck about the size of three football fields and the top of the mast the equivalent of some 23 stories high from the keel. Aircraft ready for battle on the US Navy’s nuclear-powered supercarrier included the F/A-18 Super Hornet tactical aircraft, E-2 Hawkeye airborne early warning and battle management aircraft, Sea Hawk submarine hunter and anti-surface warfare helicopters and EA-18G Growler

Defense March 28, 2023

North Korea fired two ballistic missiles toward waters off its eastern coast on Monday, in an apparent protest against combined military exercises between the South Korean and US navies that featured a US aircraft carrier in international waters near the Korean Peninsula. The US Navy’s supercarrier USS Nimitz, capable of carrying up to 90 aircraft, and its strike group that includes warships armed with guided-missiles were set to dock at a naval base in Busan on Tuesday, marking the first

Defense March 27, 2023

North Korea fired cruise missiles toward the East Sea on Wednesday in the morning hours. The latest salvo of North Korea’s saber-rattling notably came hours before a US amphibious assault ship, USS Makin Island, arrived in South Korea for the first time to participate in large-scale combined amphibious drills between the allies. The South Korean military detected North Korea firing “several cruise missiles” at around 10:15 a.m. local time from the area of the eastern coastal c

North Korea March 22, 2023