Category Archives: North Korea

Fears Russia using North Korea-supplied ballistic missiles to attack Ukraine

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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.

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North Korea launches ballistic missiles after US and South Korea bolster nuclear deterrence plans

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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.

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South Korea launches first military spy satellite, intensifying space race with Pyongyang

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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.

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North Korea moves heavy weapons to border with South

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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).

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North Korean spy satellite team attend banquet with Kim Jong-un and daughter Ju Ae

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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.

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North Korea to restore ‘all military measures’ on South Korea border

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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.

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North Korea’s spy satellite is a big deal, regardless of how advanced its technology is

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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.

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South Korea to partially suspend military deal with North after launch of spy satellite

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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.

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Kim Jong-un closes slate of North Korea’s embassies as sanctions bite

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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.

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Ukraine reports most extensive Russian shelling of the year

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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.

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Evidence mounts of North Korean arms to Russia in threat for Ukraine

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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.

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North Korean IT workers sent US pay home for weapons program, says FBI

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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.

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Russia’s foreign minister hails ‘new level’ of ties during North Korea trip

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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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North Korea’s halt of nuclear reactor suggests bid to obtain weapons-grade plutonium – report

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Suspension of operations at Yongbyon complex points to reprocessing work for nuclear arms, South Korean government source quoted as saying

North Korea has halted the nuclear reactor at its main atomic complex, probably to extract plutonium that could be used for weapons by reprocessing spent fuel rods, a South Korean news report has said, citing a government source.

The operation of the five-megawatt nuclear reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex has been suspended since late September, according to intelligence assessments by US and South Korean authorities, the report said.

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US soldier who fled to North Korea in July lands at Texas military base

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Travis King arrived on US military flight and will undergo medical review and reintegration process

Travis King, the American soldier who fled across the border from South Korea to North Korea in July, has landed at a US military base in Texas after being taken back into US custody.

CNN reported that King arrived at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston on a US military flight in the early hours of Thursday morning.

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Nato chief warns nations must prepare ‘for a long war’ – as it happened

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Jens Stoltenberg says ‘we must prepare ourselves for a long war’

There are reports from Russia about two further drone attacks in addition to the ones reported earlier near the capital.

Another drone was downed in Russia’s Voronezh region, local governor Aleksandr Gusev and the ministry of defence said. According to Gusev, there were no casualties or damage.

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Kim Jong-un inspects nuclear-capable aircraft on Russia visit

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Moscow’s defence minister shows North Korean leader weapons including hypersonic missiles at airfield near Vladivostok

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, inspected Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers, hypersonic missiles and warships on Saturday, accompanied by Vladimir Putin’s defence minister.

Sergei Shoigu greeted Kim at Russia’s Knevichi airfield, about 50km (30 miles) from the Pacific port city of Vladivostok. The North Korean leader then inspected a guard of honour.

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Belarus leader proposes three-way partnership with Russia and North Korea

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Alexander Lukashenko put forward axis plan during summit with Vladimir Putin in Sochi as rumours of arms deal persist

Alexander Lukashenko has expressed interest in creating a trilateral partnership with Russia and North Korea amid rumours that Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un were negotiating an arms deal to sustain Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Belarusian leader made the remarks during a summit with Putin in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, where the two held their seventh face-to-face meeting this year.

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Belarus’s Lukashenko proposes ‘three-way cooperation’ with Putin and Kim Jong-un – as it happened

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Belarusian president’s suggestion comes during a meeting with his Russian counterpart. This live blog is closed.

In its daily public intelligence briefing on the war in Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence appears convinced of Ukrainian claims to have inflicted significant damage on the Russian Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol. Citing satellite imagery, it writes:

Despite the Russian ministry of defence downplaying the damage to the vessels, open-source evidence indicates the Minsk [landing ship] has almost certainly been functionally destroyed, while the Rostov [submarine] has likely suffered catastrophic damage.

Any effort to return the submarine to service is likely to take many years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars. There is a realistic possibility that the complex task of removing the wreckage from the dry docks will place them out of use for many months. This would present the Black Sea fleet with a significant challenge in sustaining fleet maintenance.

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