#north-korea

#north-korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has unveiled dozens of nuclear-capable rocket launchers ahead of a key congress of the governing Workers' Party, according to state media. Kim hailed the 600mm-calibre rocket launchers as wonderful and attractive during the ceremony on Wednesday, adding that new military and construction goals will be set during the upcoming congress. list of 4 itemsend of list Fifty such launchers were presented by North Korean munitions workers, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Thursday.

It's been over a year since Ukrainian forces captured two North Korean soldiers in Russia's Kursk, but the fate of the two men still hangs in the balance as activists accuse the South Korean government of dragging its feet. The two have asked to relocate to South Korea. In the North, they could face punishment for letting themselves be taken alive. "I won't survive [going back]. Everyone else blew themselves up. I failed," one of the soldiers told South Korean newspaper Hankook Ilbo.

Kim said he had pushed to finish the project even one day earlier in the hope it might bring some small comfort to the troops' families. In recent months, North Korea has intensified propaganda glorifying troops deployed to fight in Russia's war against Ukraine, including the unveiling of a new memorial complex in Pyongyang adorned with sculptures of troops. Analysts see it as an effort to bolster internal unity and curb potential public discontent.

Little is known about Kim's daughter, Ju Ae, who made her first public appearance in 2022 but appears set to be her father's successor. South Korea's spy agency believes that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is preparing to designate his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, as his successor, increasing the agency's earlier assessment of the teenager being the most likely successor.

North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia are still causing problems for Ukrainian forces more than a year after they were first deployed in support of Moscow's war. The North Korean soldiers who were deployed to Russia's Kursk region to thwart a Ukrainian incursion were initially tasked with brutal infantry assaults that resulted in high casualties. Their role has since shifted to drone reconnaissance and artillery operations.

Hundreds of US military service members, civilians and their families have filed a lawsuit for unspecified damages against British American Tobacco (BAT), one of the world's largest tobacco companies, and a subsidiary, claiming the company spent years illicitly helping North Korea fund terrorism weapons that were used against Americans. BAT formed a joint venture in 2001 with a North Korean company to manufacture cigarettes in the country.

The North Korean military tracked the drone "moving northwards" over South Korea's Ganghwa county, one of the closest territories to the North, Pyongyang's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) cited a spokesman for the Korean People's Army as saying. The drone was shot down inside the North Korean airspace near the city of Kaesong after flying for 8 kilometers, the spokesperson added.

North Korea said it conducted a long-range strategic cruise missile launch drill over the West Sea on Sunday as it continues to showcase its weapons capabilities amid regional tensions. Leader Kim Jong Un observed the drill, which was carried out to test the counterattack readiness and combat capabilities of long-range missile units, train missile operators in maneuvering and fire-mission procedures,

North Korea released new photos Thursday, claiming to show its first nuclear-powered submarine. According to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim Jong Un visited a shipyard to review the construction of what the North describes as an 8,700-ton-class nuclear-propelled submarine. Kim has called the vessel a crucial step in the modernization and nuclear armament of North Korea's navy. Photos released by KCNA show Kim joined by other officials and his daughter, who many observers believe will succeed her fatherImage: Yonhap/YONHAPNEWS AGENCY/picture alliance

Even Amazon isn't immune to North Korean scammers who try to score remote jobs at tech companies so they can funnel their wages to Kim Jong Un's coffers. The cloud giant has stopped more than 1,800 suspected scammers from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, aka North Korea) from joining its workforce since April 2024, Amazon Chief Security Officer Steve Schmidt said Thursday.

Wrapping up the three-day meeting, Kim reserved praise for the North Korean soldiers fighting against Ukraine alongside Russia, of whom at least 600 have been killed and thousands more injured in the war, according to South Korean estimates. Over the past year, various soldiers of our military have participated in overseas military operations to demonstrate the reputation of our military, KCNA said, quoting Kim. The military deployment in support of Russia demonstrated to the world the prestige of our army and state as the ever-victorious army and genuine protector of international justice, Kim added.

During a U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on 3 December, new evidence was presented suggesting that Ukrainian children abducted by Russia have been transferred to North Korea, where they are reportedly held in military-style camps. The information, brought forward by Ukrainian journalist and media adviser Ostap Yarysh, marks one of the starkest escalations yet in Russia's forced displacement campaign, a campaign already recognised internationally as a war crime and the subject of International Criminal Court indictments against Vladimir Putin and Russia's Commissioner for Children, Maria Lvova-Belova.

Audricus Phagnasay, Jason Salazar, and Alexander Paul Travis (the latter being the US Army soldier) each pled guilty to one wire fraud conspiracy for providing their identities to North Koreans between 2019 and 2022 so the Norks could fraudulently get work at US companies. All three provided space in their homes for laptops issued by the companies they supposedly worked for and installed remote access software that allowed their North Korean comrades to appear to be working from the US, the DoJ said.

For 75 years, the US has wielded wartime operational control (OPCON) of South Korean forces. The set-up has its origins in the Korean War which erupted in 1950 and largely ended with the truce of 1953. In simple terms, Seoul can command its troops only as long as there is no open conflict, and despite South Korean leadership taking on more and more responsibility in the intervening decades, a major breakout of hostilities would still see Washington take command.

We will show more offensive action against the enemies' threat on the principle of ensuring security and defending peace by dint of powerful strength, the defence minister said, according to a report on Saturday by the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). All threats encroaching upon the sphere of the North's security will become direct targets and be managed in a necessary way, South Korea's Yonhap news agency also reported the defence minister as saying.

North Korea fired a suspected short-range ballistic missile towards the eastern waters on Friday, South Korea's Military said, as talks between Pyongang, Seoul and Washington remain stalled. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile flew about 700 Kilometers (434 miles) cross-country after being fired from an inland area around the western county of Taekwan. They added South Korean and US intelligence agencies had monitored the launch preparations in advance and were now studying details.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions against eight individuals and two entities within North Korea's global financial network for laundering money for various illicit schemes, including cybercrime and information technology (IT) worker fraud. "North Korean state-sponsored hackers steal and launder money to fund the regime's nuclear weapons program," said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley.

Kim Yong Nam, the former ceremonial head of North Korea for over two decades, has died at the age of 97, state media reported on Tuesday. State broadcaster Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that the former diplomat died of multiple organ failure on Monday. Kim Jong Un visited his remains "to express deep condolences over his death," it said.

Pyongyang says the tests in the Yellow Sea were aimed at impressing its abilities upon its enemies'. North Korea has test-fired several sea-to-surface cruise missiles into its western waters, according to state media, hours before United States President Donald Trump begins a visit to South Korea. The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Wednesday that the missiles, carried out in the Yellow Sea on Tuesday, flew for more than two hours before accurately striking targets.

During talks with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung at the Gyeongju National Museum, Trump expressed concern that "North Korea's nuclear development is significantly threatening the security of the Korean Peninsula and northeast Asia." But Trump also left the door open to dialogue with Pyongyang, claiming he still has a "good relationship" with Kim and was ready to return to meet the North Korean leader "at any time."

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has intensified its nationwide crackdown on schemes involving North Korean information technology (IT) workers who fraudulently obtained employment at U.S. businesses. Over the past few years, the U.S. government issued multiple advisories to detect and combat the North Korean remote IT workers' attempts to infiltrate U.S. businesses, the latest of which came in July this year.