The Russian president’s visit to Pyongyang signals a deepening relationship between two isolated countries
China accounts for more than 90% of North Korea’s trade and has been its most dependable aid donor and diplomatic ally. But as Vladimir Putin’s imminent visit to Pyongyang proves, the secluded state’s behaviour is being increasingly influenced by its security and economic ties with Russia.
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China has urged Nato to “stop shifting blame” over the war in Ukraine after the western military alliance’s chief accused Beijing of worsening the conflict through support of Russia.
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, on Monday called for China to face consequences for what US officials have called a major export push to rebuild Russia’s defence industry.
There are reports Putin will be staying at the Kumsusan guesthouse in Pyongyang, which also housed Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a 2019 state visit to North Korea in 2019.
The mansion is located near the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where Kim Jong-un’s father Kim Jong Il, and grandfather Kim Il Sung, lie in state.
Continue reading...Russian leader will have talks with Kim Jong-un with shared aim of expanding security and economic cooperation
Vladimir Putin has praised North Korea for supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine, as he travels to Pyongyang to seek continued military support from one of the world’s most isolated nations.
In his first visit to North Korea since 2000, Putin will meet Kim Jong-un for one-on-one talks in Pyongyang as the two leaders pledge to expand their security and economic cooperation in defiance of western sanctions against both countries.
Continue reading...Civilian aircraft have been cleared from Pyongyang’s airport and there are signs of preparations for a possible parade in Kim Il-sung Square
The US and South Korea have warned Vladimir Putin against forging closer military ties with North Korea, as speculation grows that the Russian leader will visit the secretive state in the coming days.
Putin is planning to meet the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, in a reciprocal visit following Kim’s weeklong trip to Russia last September, media reports said. During that trip, the two leaders are believed to have agreed that North Korea would receive Russian help with its space programme in return for providing Russia with armaments for the war in Ukraine, in violation of UN resolutions.
Continue reading...Seoul says it will install loudspeakers on the border with North Korea after detecting 330 more balloons in its territory
South Korea says it will restart loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts into the North, after Pyongyang sent hundreds more rubbish-filled balloons across the border.
“We will install loudspeakers against North Korea today and carry out the broadcast,” the president’s office said in a statement on Sunday.
Continue reading...About 20-50 balloons an hour incoming, warns Seoul’s military, urging public to report but don’t touch
North Korea has sent about 600 more rubbish-filled balloons containing everything from cigarette butts to plastic across the border, Seoul’s military said on Sunday, adding that security personnel were collecting them as they landed.
“North Korea has resumed launching waste balloons towards South Korea” since around 8pm on Saturday, Seoul’s joint chiefs of staff (JCS) said.
Continue reading...South Korea has warned residents to be alert after the military released photos showing inflated balloons with plastic bags tethered to them
South Korea has warned residents living near the border with North Korea to be on alert, after accusing the regime of sending balloons containing what appeared to be rubbish and faeces into its neighbour’s territory.
Photographs released by the South Korean military on Wednesday showed inflated balloons with plastic bags tethered to them. Other images appeared to show trash strewn around collapsed balloons, with the word “excrement” written on a bag in one photograph.
Continue reading...Cause of accident was ‘operational reliability of engine’, says Pyongyang, after two failed attempts last year
North Korea’s latest attempt to put a spy satellite into orbit ended in a mid-air explosion, Pyongyang said late Monday, hours after its announcement of a planned launch was criticised by Seoul and Tokyo.
Japanese broadcaster NHK ran footage of what appeared to be a flaming projectile in the night sky, which then exploded into a fireball. NHK said the footage was taken from northeast China at the same time as the attempted launch.
Continue reading...Song about North Korean leader titled Friendly Father includes lines like ‘let’s brag about Kim Jong-un’
South Korea’s media regulator has banned access to a North Korean propaganda music video that it said idolised and glorified leader Kim Jong-un as a “great leader”.
The catchy tune titled Friendly Father has become an unlikely social media hit around the world, going viral on short-form video app TikTok and other platforms.
Continue reading...Kim Ki-nam was known as ‘the North Korean Goebbels’ in the South due to his role as head of propaganda department
Kim Ki-nam, the propaganda chief who served all three generations of North Korean leaders and cemented their political legitimacy, has died, official media have said.
Kim Ki-nam died on Tuesday aged 94 from multiple organ failure, official KCNA news agency reported.
Continue reading...South Dakota governor says she met North Korean dictator in same book in which she describes killing her dog
The South Dakota governor, Republican vice-presidential hopeful and self-confessed dog-killer Kristi Noem’s bizarre claim in a new book to have met the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has been dismissed by experts as “dubious” and not “conceivable”.
The Dakota Scout first reported Noem’s claim, which is in her forthcoming book, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward.
Continue reading...Report to United Nations security council says remnants of Hwasong-11 violate arms export embargo on Russian ally
The debris from a missile that landed in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on 2 January was from a North Korean Hwasong-11 series ballistic missile, UN sanctions monitors told a security council committee in a report seen by Reuters.
In the 32-page report, the UN sanctions monitors concluded that “debris recovered from a missile that landed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on 2 January 2024 derives from a DPRK Hwasong-11 series missile” and is in violation of the arms embargo on North Korea.
Continue reading...Top-ranking Chinese official Zhao Leji met Kim Jong-un during three-day visit to Pyongyang
A top ranking Chinese official reaffirmed ties with North Korea during a meeting in Pyongyang on Saturday with the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, China’s state media reported, in the highest-level talks between the allies in years.
The visit by Zhao Leji, who ranks third in the ruling Communist party hierarchy and heads the ceremonial parliament, came as North Korea has test-fired missiles to intimidate South Korea and its ally, the US.
Continue reading...Ukraine’s foreign minister calls veto ‘guilty plea’ amid claims Pyongyang is aiding Moscow’s war against Kyiv
Russia has blocked the renewal of a UN panel monitoring sanctions against North Korea, weeks after the body said it was investigating reports of arms transfers between Moscow and Pyongyang.
The move was met with a flurry of criticism, including by Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, who took to social media to call the veto “a guilty plea” amid allegations that Pyongyang is aiding Moscow in its war against Kyiv.
Continue reading...Footage of green-fingered BBC presenter obscured from waist down to hide ‘symbol of US imperialism’
His calm demeanour and wholesome vocation have apparently endeared him to one of the most authoritarian regimes in the world. But there is something about Alan Titchmarsh that North Korea’s censors can’t quite forgive – his jeans.
The green-fingered broadcaster and author of raunchy novels has been a fixture on state television since 2022, albeit with the addition of a blurred effect from the waist down.
Continue reading...Last-minute decision on Tuesday’s match leaves football bodies searching for alternative venue
North Korea has abruptly cancelled its 2026 World Cup qualifying match with Japan next week, leaving organisers frantically searching for an alternative venue.
North Korea reportedly decided it would no longer host the match, which had been scheduled for next Tuesday at the Kim Il-sung Stadium in Pyongyang, a day before the teams met in Tokyo on Thursday in the first of their two Asian qualifying Group B qualifiers.
Continue reading...Changes in orbit of Malligyong-1 suggest Pyongyang is successfully maneuvering the satellite
North Korea’s first spy satellite is “alive”, space experts have said, after detecting changes in its orbit that suggested Pyongyang was successfully controlling the spacecraft – although its capabilities remain unknown.
After two fiery failures, North Korea successfully launched the Malligyong-1 satellite into orbit in November. Pyongyang’s state media claimed it has photographed sensitive military and political sites in South Korea, the US and elsewhere, but has not released any imagery. Independent radio trackers have not detected signals from the satellite.
Continue reading...State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters in Washington he ‘didn’t know there was such a thing as a Russian luxury car’
A US spokesperson has mocked president Vladimir Putin’s gift of a Russian car to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, as he accused Moscow of violating UN resolutions.
North Korean state media said on Tuesday that Kim was “presented with a car made in Russia for his personal use by Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, president of the Russian Federation.”
Continue reading...Exclusive: Jin Guanghua was arrested by the AFP in Melbourne last year and is facing extradition to the US
A Chinese national has been quietly arrested and detained in Australia for 11 months at the request of US authorities investigating an alleged tobacco smuggling conspiracy that generated an estimated A$1.1bn (US$700m) in revenue to North Korea.
Jin Guanghua, 52, was arrested by the Australian federal police in Melbourne last March. Described in US court documents as an Australian resident, Jin was kept in custody in Melbourne for several months before being transferred to immigration detention while awaiting extradition.
Continue reading...North Korea’s leader has increased his displays of military aggression but analysts are split on whether it’s a sign of electoral interference or a war footing
When a highly militarised dictatorship fires artillery shells in the direction of its neighbour, which it has just denounced as its “greatest enemy”, then tests cruise missiles and underwater nuclear attack drones, it is reasonable to believe that armed conflict could follow.
But when that country is North Korea, conventional geopolitical punditry is often left wanting.
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