Category Archives: North Korea

North Korea test-launches its ‘largest intercontinental ballistic missile yet’

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Japan calls testing ‘unforgivable’ as regime fires one of biggest missiles for first time since 2017

North Korea has launched what is thought to be its largest intercontinental ballistic missile to date, in a dramatic return to long-range testing that marks the regime’s most serious provocation for years.

South Korea’s military fired a missile barrage into the Sea of Japan in response to the ICBM launch – the first full-range test of Kim Jong-un’s most powerful missiles since 2017. The launch will lead to fears that the North has made significant progress in developing weapons capable of sending nuclear warheads anywhere in the US.

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Court in Japan rejects claim by people lured to North Korea ‘paradise on Earth’

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Plaintiffs say they endured decades of abuse after resettlement campaign in which Tokyo colluded

A Tokyo court has rejected a lawsuit filed by five people seeking compensation from North Korea for what they said was decades of abuse after they were lured there by Pyongyang’s false promise of living in the “paradise on Earth”.

The five plaintiffs, including ethnic Koreans and Japanese who moved to North Korea under a 1959-1984 repatriation programme and later fled, filed the lawsuit in 2018 seeking 100m yen (about £625,000 today) each in compensation over what they said was illegal “solicitation and detainment”.

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North Korea suspected missile fails after launch, says South Korea

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North Korea recently conducted its ninth weapons test of 2022 but the latest appears to have misfired

North Korea fired an “unknown projectile” on Wednesday that appeared to fail immediately after launch, South Korea’s military said after Japanese media reported a suspected missile launch.

The suspected missile was fired from an airfield outside the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, South Korea’s defence ministry said.

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‘Serious escalation’: US believes North Korea testing intercontinental missile

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Pyongyang launches were to test parts of intercontinental ballistic missile and not satellite surveillance system, US concludes

The US believes North Korea is testing a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in what the Biden administration called a “serious escalation” that would trigger more sanctions.

Pyongyang conducted two recent missile launches which it said were ultimately intended for putting satellites into space. After scrutinising them, however, US intelligence has assessed that the real intention was to test parts of the new ICBM.

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North Korea: satellite images suggest building work at nuclear test site for first time since 2018

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Images captured by satellite showed very early signs of activity at the Punggye-ri site

Commercial satellite imagery shows construction at North Korea’s nuclear testing site for the first time since it was closed in 2018, US-based analysts said on Tuesday, adding to concerns the country could resume testing major weapons.

Images captured by satellite on Friday showed very early signs of activity at the Punggye-ri site, including construction of a new building, repair of another building, and what is possibly some lumber and sawdust, specialists at the California-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) said in a report.

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Sanctions are neither new nor guaranteed to work – just look at Cuba

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Analysis: Economic penalties have been meted out since Napoleon’s day but there’s little proof they achieve the desired outcome

Waging war by economic means is nothing new. Napoleon imposed an ineffective embargo on British exports in the early 19th century and during the first world war there were attempts by both sides to starve each other into submission.

But since 1945 sanctions have been used with increasing frequency as a means of trying to change either the policy stance or the regimes in targeted countries.

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North Korea says latest missile test part of building satellite surveillance system

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Eighth rocket launch this year looked to be fired from area near Pyongyang international airport

North Korea says a test conducted on Sunday was for the development of a reconnaissance satellite system, state media reported a day after a missile launch was detected from the country.

The report from state news agency KCNA did not elaborate on what type of rocket had been used in the test, but authorities in South Korea and Seoul said it appeared to be a ballistic missile fired from an area near Pyongyang where its international airport is located.

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North Korea test fires possible ballistic missile in sea in eighth launch this year

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After pausing launches during the Winter Olympics, North Korea has fired a possible ballistic missile, according to Japan’s coast guard

North Korea has fired what may be a ballistic missile, South Korean and Japanese officials said, after a seemingly quiet month without launches during the Beijing Olympics.

South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff reported on Sunday that North Korea had fired one suspected ballistic missile toward the sea off its east coast from a location near Sunan, where Pyongyang’s international airport is located.

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US and allies condemn North Korea over missile test ‘provocations’

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Joint statement from US, Japan and South Korea urges Pyongyang to return to negotiations and stop its recent spate of ‘destabilising’ missile launches

The top diplomats of Japan, South Korea and the United States declared their unity against North Korea on Saturday after a series of ballistic missile launches by Pyongyang.

After a day of meetings in Honolulu, US secretary of state Antony Blinken, South Korean foreign minister Chung Eui-yong, and Japanese foreign minister Hayashi Yoshimasa condemned the series of seven launches as “destabilising” in a joint statement.

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US urges North Korea to join direct talks after latest missile test by Pyongyang

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  • Biden official: ‘We reiterate our call for diplomacy’
  • South Korean leader fears return to war threats of 2017

The US on Sunday made a direct appeal to North Korea to join direct talks with no preconditions about its nuclear and missile programs, after Pyongyang sent a suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile into space.

“We believe it is completely appropriate and completely correct to start having some serious discussions,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters.

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US condemns North Korea after it launches longest-range missile test since 2017

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Test marks Pyongyang’s seventh weapons launch this month, highlighting expanding arsenal amid stalled denuclearisation talks

North Korea fired what appeared to be the most powerful missile it has tested since the US president, Joe Biden, took office, possibly breaching a self-imposed suspension on the testing of longer-range weapons and sparking condemnation from the United States and its allies.

The Japanese and South Korean militaries said the missile launched on Sunday travelled on a lofted trajectory, apparently to avoid the territorial spaces of neighbours, and reached a maximum altitude of 2,000km (1,242 miles) and traveled 800km (497 miles) before landing in the sea.

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North Korea confirms barrage of missile tests as Kim Jong-un visits arms factory

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Pyongyang’s regime has carried out six tests in January ‘confirming the power of conventional warhead’

North Korea has test-fired more long-range cruise missiles and short-range ballistic missiles, state media says, part of a record-breaking streak of launches this year.

Pyongyang has conducted six weapons tests since the start of the year, including hypersonic missiles, one of the most intense barrages in a calendar month on record, while ignoring US offers of talks.

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No ‘fire and fury’ yet, but a game of nuclear brinkmanship with North Korea looms

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Analysis: Kim Jong-un’s pressure on Joe Biden has so far elicited only fresh sanctions. Pyongyang has now signalled it may resume nuclear and ICBM tests

North Korea has already conducted four test launches of ballistic missiles this year, but they could be a mere precursor to more serious provocations, as Kim Jong-un’s regime attempts to break the nuclear stalemate with the US.

Superficially, the recent tests were a reminder of the North’s ability to manufacture more sophisticated weapons – perhaps including those capable of evading missile defences – despite years of international sanctions.

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‘Second thoughts’: what makes North Korean defectors want to go back?

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South Korea is no promised land for escapees from a brutal regime – loneliness and poverty are common fates

No one knows what awaited Kim Woo-joo when he arrived back in North Korea, just over a year after he had fled the world’s most oppressive regime for a life of freedom in the South.

Earlier this month, the 29-year-old former gymnast approached the border separating the two Koreas, scaled a tall barbed-wire fence and walked the 2.5 miles across the heavily armed demilitarised zone (DMZ), dodging landmines but not security cameras, which captured his escape no fewer than five times.

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North Korea tests possible ballistic missile in third launch in two weeks

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South Korean military says projectile was fired into the sea, and comes after US imposed further sanctions on regime officials

North Korea has fired a possible ballistic missile, Japan’s Coast Guard said on Friday, which would be the country’s third such launch in two weeks.

South Korea’s military said an unidentified projectile had been launched into the sea off its east coast.

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North Korean hackers stole $400m in digital assets last year, says report

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The regime has launched at least seven cyber-attacks on cryptocurrency platforms, say blockchain experts

North Korea has launched at least seven attacks on cryptocurrency platforms that extracted nearly $400m worth of digital assets last year, one of its most successful years on record, according to a new analysis.

“From 2020 to 2021, the number of North Korean-linked hacks jumped from four to seven, and the value extracted from these hacks grew by 40%,” said the report by blockchain experts Chainalysis, which was released on Thursday.

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North Korea conducts fresh ‘hypersonic missile’ launch

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Second launch in less than a week designed to put pressure on US and follows condemnation at UN

North Korea has test-fired a suspected ballistic missile that may be an improved version of a “hypersonic missile” it launched only last week, in a move designed to increase pressure on the US amid stalled nuclear talks and mounting economic problems for the regime.

Tuesday’s launch was detected at 7.27am on Tuesday from an inland area of North Korea toward the ocean off its east coast, South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff (JCS) said in a statement.

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North Korea has launched possible ballistic missile, say Japan and South Korea

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Regime conducts first such launch of the year, with South Korea’s military saying the missile appears to have landed in the sea

North Korea has fired what could be a ballistic missile early on Wednesday, the first such test by Pyongyang of the new year.

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of staff and the Japanese government said the projectile “appears” to be a ballistic missile, with South Korea saying it landed in the East Sea.

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Man who crossed into North Korea ‘defected to South in 2020’

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Seoul defence ministry says it is in the process of verifying facts about incident at the weekend

A man observed crossing the heavily fortified border from South Korea into North Korea last week is believed to be a North Korean who previously defected to the South in 2020 in the same area, Seoul’s defence ministry has said.

South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff (JCS) said it carried out a search operation after detecting the person on Saturday on the eastern side of the demilitarised zone (DMZ) separating the two countries.

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South Korean crosses demilitarised zone in rare defection to North

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The fate of the defector is unknown after they crossed the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas

A South Korean has crossed the heavily fortified border in a rare defection to North Korea, South Korea’s military has said.

Years of repression and poverty in North Korea have led more than 30,000 people to flee to the South in the decades since Korean war hostilities ended with an armistice, but crossings in the other direction are extremely rare.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

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