Category Archives: North Korea

North Korea blows up liaison office in row over defectors’ leaflet campaign – video

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North Korea has blown up a liaison office set up to improve communications with South Korea in a row over defectors’ plans to send anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the heavily armed border. North Korea appears to have acted on a warning by Kim Yo-jong, the increasingly influential sister of the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, to destroy the 'useless' office.

The office opened in September 2018 to facilitate inter-Korean cooperation after successful talks between Kim Jong-un and the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in.

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North Korea blows up liaison office in row over defectors’ leaflet campaign

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Kim Jong-un’s sister had said office, set up to improve co-operation with South Korea, was ‘useless’

North Korea has blown up a liaison office set up to improve communications with the South, media reports said, in a row over defectors’ plans to send anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the heavily armed border.

South Korea’s unification ministry said the North had set off an explosion at the joint liaison office at 2:49 pm, in the North Korean border town of Kaesong. The reports, from the Yonhap news agency, added that military sources had heard an explosion and seen smoke rising from the building.

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No future benefit in Kim’s relationship with Trump, says North Korea

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Pyongyang says since summit two years ago US has appeared friendly but has instead sought regime change

North Korea sees no future benefit in maintaining a relationship between its leader, Kim Jong-Un, and Donald Trump, the country’s state media has said on the two-year anniversary of the pair’s first summit.

US policies prove Washington remains a long-term threat to the North Korean state and its people, foreign minister Ri Son Gwon said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA.

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North Korea to cut all communications with ‘enemy’ South

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Pyongyang has said it will make Seoul ‘suffer’ during worsening spat over anti-North Korean leaflets sent from South

North Korea says it will sever hotlines with South Korea as the first step toward shutting down all means of contact with Seoul, state news agency KCNA has reported.

For several days, North Korea has lashed out at South Korea, threatening to close an inter-Korean liaison office and other projects if the South does not stop activists and defectors from sending leaflets and other anti-Pyongyang material into the North.

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Kim Yo-jong warns South Korea to tackle ‘evil’ propaganda balloons

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North Korean leader’s sister says continued air drops by defectors could jeopardise peacekeeping agreement

Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has warned South Korea to stop propaganda leaflets coming over the border, warning it could wreck an agreement to reduce military tensions.

Her statement came after anti-Pyongyang leaflets were sent across the border earlier this week by a group of North Korean defectors. The leaflets concealed in 500,000 balloons criticised Kim Jong-un’s nuclear threats, according to the Yonhap news agency. Previous messages have also condemned North Korea’s human rights record.

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North Korea’s Kim Jong-un holds talks on increasing ‘nuclear war deterrence’

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Leader makes first appearance in several weeks to talk about ‘considerably increasing the firepower’ of the military, state media reports

North Korea discussed new policies for increasing its “nuclear war deterrence” during a military meeting presided over by leader Kim Jong-un, state news agency KCNA reported on Sunday.

KCNA did not specify what the nuclear deterrence entailed, but said that “crucial measures” were taken at the meeting “for considerably increasing the firepower strike ability of the artillery pieces of the Korean People’s Army”.

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North Korean defectors say sorry after false Kim Jong-un speculation

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Thae Yong-ho and Ji Seong-ho both said in South Korea that leader was gravely ill or dead

A former senior North Korean diplomat has apologised after saying Kim Jong-un was probably so ill he could not stand, days before he emerged on state media smoking and walking briskly at an event attended by hundreds of officials.

Kim disappeared from state media for three weeks, an unusually long time, leading to concerns over the nuclear-armed state in the event of an unexpected succession.

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North and South Korea exchange fire across demilitarised zone – video

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North and South Korea exchanged gunfire over the demilitarised zone between the two countries. South Korea confirmed it fired towards the North after it discovered four bullets in the wall of a guard post. The shots come after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un appeared in public for the the first time in 20 days following speculation over his health

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Shots fired from North Korea at guard post across border in DMZ, says South

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Joint chiefs of staff says no one was injured and that South responded with two shots and a warning broadcast

Multiple gunshots have been fired from North Korea towards a South Korean guard post in the demilitarised zone that separates the two countries, military chiefs in the South reported.

South Korea responded by firing two shots towards North Korea, the South’s joint chiefs of staff said on Sunday. No injuries were reported.

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North and South Korea exchange gunfire across DMZ at border

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Seoul says military responded with shots after North Korean soldiers fired towards the South

North and South Korea exchanged gunfire over the demilitarised zone between the two nations, South Korean military officials have said.

The exchange began when North Korean soldiers shot at a South Korean guard post at 7.41 am local time on Sunday. The South Korean military shot back twice, Seoul’s joint chiefs of staff said in a statement.

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Kim Jong-un makes reported reappearance after health speculation – video

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The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has appeared in public for the first time in almost three weeks, according to state media, following speculation that he had been seriously ill following heart surgery. The authenticity of the images, taken at a fertiliser factory opening and published on the website of the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper, could not be immediately verified

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Kim Jong-un reappears in North Korea after weeks of speculation – reports

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North Korean state media has released pictures purportedly showing the leader attending the opening of a fertiliser factory

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has appeared in public for the first time in almost three weeks, according to state media, following speculation that he had been seriously ill following heart surgery.

The state news agency KCNA released photographs purportedly showing Kim opening a fertilizer plant in Sunchon, north of the capital Pyongyang.

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Kim Jong-un could be sheltering from Covid-19 pandemic, say US and Seoul

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Despite North Korean leader’s absence from key events, experts in the South say he is most probably at resort town of Wonsan

Kim Jong-un is not ill and could be sheltering from the coronavirus pandemic, according to South Korean and US officials, in the latest possible explanation for the North Korean leader’s recent absence from public life.

North Korea insists it has yet to identify a single case of Covid-19, despite sharing a border with China, where the outbreak is believed to have started.

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Kim Jong-un is ‘alive and well’, says South Korea’s security adviser

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Moon Chung-in quashes health rumours, saying North Korean leader has been in Wonsan – a resort town in the country’s east – since 13 April

South Korea has said that Kim Jong-un, is “alive and well”, downplaying rumours that that the North Korean leader was seriously ill after undergoing heart surgery.

“Our government position is firm,” Moon Chung-in, a special adviser on national security to the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, said in an interview with CNN on Sunday. “Kim Jong-un is alive and well.”

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Kim Jong-un’s train possibly spotted at North Korean resort

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As rumours persist that ruler is in poor health, satellite images emerge showing train parked at Wonsan’s ‘leadership station’

A special train possibly belonging to the North Korean ruler, Kim Jong-un, has been spotted at a resort town, according to satellite images reviewed by a Washington-based North Korea monitoring project, amid conflicting reports about Kim’s health and whereabouts.

The monitoring project, 38 North, said in its report on Saturday that the train was parked at the “leadership station” in Wonsan on 21 April and 23 April. The station is reserved for the use of the Kim family, it said.

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Kim Jong-un: China sends doctors to check on health – report

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Speculation continues about dictator’s condition after reports of heart surgery and absence from important events

China has sent a team to North Korea including medical experts to check on Kim Jong-un, according to three people familiar with the situation.

The trip by the Chinese doctors and officials comes amid conflicting reports about the health of the North Korean ruler. It was not immediately clear what the trip by the Chinese team signalled in terms of Kim’s health.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has heart surgery – report

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Speculation about health builds after Kim misses key event honouring country’s founder, Kim Il-sung

Kim Jong-un underwent heart surgery earlier this month and is recovering at his private villa, according to a South Korean report, with US media citing officials as saying the North Korean leader was in “grave danger” after the procedure.

If accurate, the surgery claim, made by the Daily NK website, would explain Kim’s absence from an event to mark the anniversary of the birth of his grandfather – and the country’s founder – Kim Il-sung.

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North Korea defies sanctions with China’s help, UN panel says

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International report claims Pyongyang has been transferring coal exports to Chinese barges

North Korea sharply stepped up trade in coal and oil products last year in defiance of UN sanctions through the apparent help of China’s shipping industry, a UN panel has said.

The annual report to the UN Security Council by sanctions experts went online on Friday and inexplicably disappeared later in the day, with the text itself noting China’s reservations about the findings.

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Kim Jong-un’s sister returns to key role in North Korean reshuffle

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Kim Yo-jong reinstated to position she lost last year after collapse of US summit

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s powerful younger sister has been reinstated to a key decision-making body, state media have reported, marking her rise in the isolated nation.

Long one of her brother’s closest advisers, Kim Yo-jong was reappointed an alternate member of the political bureau of the central committee in a reshuffle of top officials on Saturday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

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North Korea’s coronavirus-free claim met with scepticism

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‘Not one single person infected,’ claims official but US general in South Korea says that is ‘impossible’

North Korea remains totally free of the coronavirus, a senior health official in Pyongyang has insisted, despite mounting scepticism over the claim as known cases of infection topped one million worldwide.

The already isolated, nuclear-armed North quickly shut down its borders after the virus was first detected in neighbouring China in January and imposed strict containment measures.

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