South Korean military says it is analysing the launch along with US intelligence authorities
North Korea has fired multiple cruise missiles off an eastern military port, South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff have said.
The missiles were launched about 8am (2300 GMT Saturday) and were being analysed by South Korean and US intelligence authorities, South Korea said, without specifying how many missiles were fired.
Continue reading...The Arch of Reunification – built in 2000 after a landmark inter-Korean summit – has disappeared from satellite imagery
North Korea has demolished a monument that symbolised hope for reconciliation with the South, days after the regime’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said the peaceful reunification of the two Koreas was no longer possible.
In the latest sign of rising tensions on the peninsula, the Arch of Reunification – built in 2000 after a landmark inter-Korean summit – has disappeared from satellite imagery, according to the NK News website. It was not immediately clear when or how it had been taken down, NK News said.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Report shows Russian ships loading at North Korean port, amid accusation that Pyongyang supplies missiles and shells
The UK has provided satellite photographs of North Korean cargo shipments to Russia to a panel of UN experts as part of an attempt to trigger an official investigation into arms deals in violation of international sanctions.
North Korea has been accused of supplying ballistic missiles and hundreds of thousands of artillery shells to the Russian government for its war in Ukraine since Vladimir Putin met with Kim Jong-un in Russia’s far east in September.
Continue reading...Footage shows two 16-year-olds being sentenced in front of hundreds of their peers in an amphitheatre
Video footage released by an organisation that works with North Korean defectors shows North Korean authorities publicly sentencing two teenagers to 12 years’ hard labour for watching South Korean videos.
The footage, which shows the two 16-year-olds in Pyongyang convicted of watching South Korean films and music videos, was released by the South and North Development Institute (Sand).
Continue reading...South Korea says backgrounds of recent defectors including some ‘elite class’ indicate growing discontent with regime of Kim Jong-un
The number of North Koreans who defected to South Korea tripled last year, as the easing of border closures imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic encouraged students, women and diplomats to make the perilous journey.
At 196, the number was still well below the pre-pandemic average, but South Korean authorities said the backgrounds of many recent defectors pointed to growing discontent with the regime of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un.
Continue reading...In a speech, the North Korean leader has called for constitutional change to identify the south as ‘number one hostile state’
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has called for a change to the constitution to identify South Korea as the “number one hostile state”, ending the regime’s commitment to unifying the Korean peninsula.
In a speech to the supreme people’s assembly – North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament – Kim said he no longer believed unification was possible and accused the South of attempting to foment regime change and promote unification by stealth.
Continue reading...Intense speculation over future role for Kim Jong-un’s daughter, who is reportedly 10, comes as North Korea fires shells near South Korean islands
The young daughter of Kim Jong-un is seen as her father’s heir apparent, South Korea’s spy agency has said for the first time, after speculation that the North Korean ruler is grooming her to become the fourth member of the dynasty to lead the country since its foundation more than seven decades ago.
There has been intense international speculation about Kim Ju-ae, who is reportedly about 10 years old, since she made her first public appearance in November 2022 when she watched a long-range missile test launch with her father.
Continue reading...Washington and Kyiv claim Moscow turning to other states under sanctions to sustain its war effort
Russia has started using ballistic missiles supplied by North Korea to attack Ukraine, Washington and Kyiv have claimed, in an indication that Moscow plans to further expand its arms deals with regimes under sanctions in order to sustain its war effort.
Washington also alleged Russia was in talks with Iran to buy short-range ballistic missiles. The US intelligence assessment is that Iranian missiles have not yet arrived in Russia, but that the deal will eventually be done.
Continue reading...Japan’s government has called a meeting of its national security council in response to the launches
North Korea has tested a long-range ballistic missile that is theoretically capable of striking anywhere on the US mainland, Japan officials said, in the regime’s first round of missile tests for about a month.
The missile appeared to have flown about 1,000km (620 miles) and reached a maximum altitude of more than 6,000km before landing in the sea east of the Korean peninsula on Monday.
Continue reading...Seoul’s satellite was launched into orbit on one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets
A SpaceX rocket has launched South Korea’s first military spy satellite, intensifying a space race on the peninsula after Pyongyang launched its own first surveillance satellite last week.
Seoul’s reconnaissance satellite, carried by one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, lifted off from the Vandenberg US Space Force Base in California at 10.19am local time on Friday.
Continue reading...Seoul condemns ‘provocative acts’ as tensions rise after launch of spy satellite in defiance of UN sanctions
North Korea has started rebuilding guard posts and stationing heavy weapons along its border with South Korea, the defence ministry in Seoul has said, after the countries’ withdrawal from a key confidence-building agreement designed to prevent a war.
Media reports cited the South Korean military as saying it had detected troops from the North repairing camouflaged guard posts that the regime had destroyed as part of a comprehensive military agreement in 2018 designed to lower the risk of a confrontation along the heavily armed demilitarised zone (DMZ).
Continue reading...Dictator seen with daughter at celebration for scientists and technicians who finally put Malligyong-1 into space after two failed attempts
The North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, has celebrated a “new era of a space power” with his family including daughter Ju Ae and the scientists who put the North’s first spy satellite into orbit.
Pyongyang’s launch of the Malligyong-1 on Tuesday was its third attempt after failures in May and August.
Continue reading...As Seoul claims Russia helped Pyongyang carry out spy satellite launch, North Korea warns of stronger armed forces on border
North Korea has warned it will deploy new weapons and stronger armed forces along its heavily armed border with South Korea, as officials in Seoul claimed that Russia had helped Pyongyang carry out a satellite launch.
In a sign of rising tensions on the peninsula, North Korea said on Tuesday it would restore “all military measures” it had halted under a 2018 confidence-building agreement with South Korea.
Continue reading...Rocket launch underlines Kim Jong-un’s ability to sidestep UN sanctions and suggests ballistic missile building abilities have reached a higher level
North Korea is already believed to be capable of striking the US mainland with a nuclear weapon; now it claims that it can spy on enemy troops, after state media reported the regime’s first successful launch of a surveillance satellite, drawing an immediate response from South Korea.
While Japan, South Korea and the US could not immediately confirm if the satellite’s payload had entered orbit late on Tuesday, a North Korean presence in space would add to military tensions on the peninsula and highlight the ineffectiveness of international sanctions.
Continue reading...Pyongyang claims success on third attempt – breaching a 2018 agreement meant to reduce tensions, says South
South Korea has moved to partially suspend a 2018 military agreement with North Korea, which said it had successfully launched its first military spy satellite into orbit, the Yonhap news agency reported.
“North Korea is clearly demonstrating that it has no will to abide by the 19 September [2018] military agreement designed to reduce military tension on the Korean Peninsula and to build trust,” the South’s prime minister, Han Duck-soo, told an extraordinary cabinet meeting that approved suspending the deal.
Continue reading...Regime can no longer afford all its diplomatic missions, including some to longtime allies such as Angola where it has maintained ties since 1975
While Kim Jong-un basks in the afterglow of his recent visit to Russia, North Korea is scaling back its presence overseas, with reported plans to close almost a quarter of its diplomatic missions blamed on its sanctions-hit economy.
While the regime moves closer to China and Russia amid new tensions on the Korean peninsula, years of UN-led sanctions have forced it to close embassies and consulates in as many as a dozen locations, including those in countries Pyongyang views as longtime allies.
Continue reading...Russia bombards 100 settlements within 24 hours as top Ukrainian commander warns war has become deadlocked
• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates
Russia has carried out its biggest artillery attack so far this year, Ukraine has said, as Kyiv’s top general admitted the war had reached a deadlock, with little prospect that his troops would make “a deep and beautiful breakthrough”.
Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s commander in chief, gave a bleak assessment of the situation on the battlefield, 20 months after Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion.
Continue reading...Despite questions over quality, scale of munition shipments indicates Moscow plans to continue conflict for long time
In pouring rain, a jubilant crowd waving pompoms and flowers greeted the Russian foreign minister as he stepped on to the airport asphalt in Pyongyang.
While the heavily choreographed welcoming scenes were a familiar sight in totalitarian North Korea, Sergei Lavrov’s rare visit to the country came amid mounting evidence that Pyongyang has started to provide artillery rounds to Russia, opening up a supply line that could have profound implications for the war in Ukraine.
Continue reading...Authorities say thousands of people dispatched by North Korea to work for US companies fed millions of dollars to missile program
Thousands of information technology workers contracting with US companies have for years secretly sent millions of dollars of their wages to North Korea for use in its ballistic missile program, FBI and Department of Justice officials said.
The justice department said Wednesday that IT workers dispatched and contracted by North Korea to work remotely with companies in St Louis and elsewhere in the US have been using false identities to get the jobs. The money they earned was funneled to the North Korean weapons program, FBI leaders said at a news conference in St Louis.
Continue reading...Sergei Lavrov praises Kim Jong-un for ‘unambiguous support’ for Ukraine war on visit that could pave way for summit with Vladimir Putin
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has said Moscow’s relations with North Korea have reached a “new level”, as concern grows over deepening military ties between the two countries amid the war in Ukraine.
Speaking on Thursday in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, Lavrov hailed last month’s summit in Russia’s far east between Vladimir Putin and the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, as evidence that bilateral ties were at a “qualitatively new, strategic level”.
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