Kim Jong Un News

North Korea fired artillery rounds near its disputed sea boundary with South Korea on Friday in violation of a fragile 2018 military agreement, officials said, prompting the South to plan similar drills. The rivals' drills are the first in about a year and are expected to deepen their already-serious animosity. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired 200 rounds in the waters north of their disputed western sea boundary.

‘Mistake that…’: N. Korea's Kim Jong Un on seeking reunification with S. Korea In a meeting on Sunday with commanding army officers, Kim said it is urgent to sharpen “the treasured sword" to safeguard national security, an apparent reference to his country’s nuclear weapons program.

2024 with a fireworks display in Auckland on Monday. The fireworks illuminated the cloudy night sky and were accompanied by a laser light and animation show. Here's how some other places and people around the world were bidding farewell to 2023 and welcoming the New Year.

Kim Jong Un wrapped the year with fresh threats of a nuclear attack on Seoul and orders for a military arsenal build-up to prepare for a war that can «break out at any time» on the peninsula, state media reported Sunday. Kim lambasted the United States during a lengthy speech at the end of five days of year-end party meetings that set his country's military, political, and economic policy decisions for 2024. The meeting announced plans for further military development in the coming year, including launching three more spy satellites, building unmanned drones and developing electronic warfare capabilities, as well as strengthening nuclear and missile forces, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Pyongyang this year successfully launched a reconnaissance satellite, enshrined its status as a nuclear power in its constitution, and test-fired the most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in its arsenal. At the meeting that ended Saturday, Kim accused the United States of posing «various types of military threat» and ordered his armed forces to maintain «overwhelming war response capability», according to KCNA. It is a «fait accompli that a war can break out at any time on the Korean peninsula due to reckless moves by the enemies to invade us», Kim said. In an effort to deter Pyongyang, Washington earlier this month deployed a nuclear-powered submarine in the South Korean port city of Busan, and flew its long-range bombers in drills with Seoul and Tokyo. The North has previously described the deployment of Washington's strategic weapons — such as B-52 bombers — in joint drills on the Korean peninsula as the «intentional nuclear war provocative moves». «We must respond quickly to a

By Hyonhee Shin

Beaming at every turn, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un toured the jewels of Russia’s military industries in September. A guest of President Vladimir Putin, he gawked at the plant making Su-35 jet fighters, inspected a Russian Navy frigate and examined the Kinzhal missiles at the Vostochny spaceport. Soon thereafter, trainloads of North Korean artillery shells started rolling to Russian troops in Ukraine—by American calculations, as many as one million munitions, or roughly three times what European nations had been able to supply in a whole year.

North Korea's «reckless» nuclear build-up and missile launches. G7 foreign ministers said in a statement after the launch of Pyongyang's most powerful ballistic missile that «North Korea's repeated reckless actions must be met with a swift, united and robust international response, particularly by the United Nations Security Council».

Kim Jong Un made an impassioned plea to the women of his country to have more children and raise them as communists. During the Fifth National Conference of Mothers in Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un stressed the need to reverse the declining birth rates in the country.

North Korea's Kim Jong Un's satellite snaps White House, Pentagon As per United Nations data, the average number of children being born in North Korea by a mother stood at 1.8 as of 2023 amid an extended fall in birth in recent decades. The figure remains higher than North Korea's neighbours which are also witnessing a downward trend.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket had been scheduled to take place at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base in the United States. The South Korean Defence Ministry said in a brief statement on Tuesday the launch was delayed due to weather conditions. Ministry officials said the launch was tentatively rescheduled for this Saturday but it wasn't a fixed date.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reportedly received images of the White House, Pentagon, and US aircraft carriers captured by the country's newly launched spy satellite, as announced by state media KCNA on Tuesday. As reported by Reuters, the satellite, launched last week, is described by North Korea as a reconnaissance satellite designed for monitoring the military activities of both the United States and South Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected photos taken by the country’s new spy satellite of “major target regions”, including the South Korean capital of Seoul and cities that host U.S. military bases, state media said on Saturday. Nuclear-armed North Korea launched the satellite on Tuesday, but South Korean defence officials and analysts said its capabilities have not been independently verified. Kim examined photos of Seoul and other cities of Mokpo, Kunsan, Pyeongtaek and Osan, where U.S. and South Korean military bases are located. The photos were taken as the satellite passed over the peninsula on Friday morning, state news agency KCNA said.

Kim Jong Un inspected photos taken by the country's new spy satellite of «major target regions», including the South Korean capital of Seoul and cities that host U.S. military bases, state media reported on Saturday. Nuclear-armed North Korea launched the satellite on Tuesday, but South Korean defence officials and analysts said its capabilities have not been independently verified. Kim examined the photos, as well as imagery taken of some areas within North Korea, during a visit to the control centre of the National Aerospace Technology Administration (NATA) in Pyongyang on Friday, state news agency KCNA said. The photos were taken as the satellite passed over the peninsula on Friday morning, KCNA said, and included images of Seoul, and Mokpo, Kunsan, Pyeongtaek and Osan, where U.S.

South Korea said on Wednesday it would suspend parts of a 2018 military agreement with North Korea designed to curb the risk of inadvertent clashes along their shared border, in response to Pyongyang's claim to have successfully launched a spy satellite. Among the concrete steps stemming from the move, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said South Korea would immediately resume reconnaissance of the North's forces in border areas. Such surveillance had been curtailed under the pact, South Korean officials said. WHAT HAPPENED IN 2018? The so-called Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA) signed between the two Koreas in 2018 was the most substantive deal to result from months of historic meetings between leader Kim Jong Un and then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

North Korea said Wednesday it had succeeded in putting a military spy satellite in orbit after two previous failures, as the United States led its allies in condemning the launch as a «brazen violation» of UN sanctions. A rocket carrying the satellite blasted off Tuesday night from North Phyongan province and «accurately put the reconnaissance satellite 'Malligyong-1' on its orbit», state-run news agency KCNA reported. Images in state media showed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un smiling and waving, surrounded by white-uniformed scientists and engineers who cheered and clapped after watching the successful blastoff. The United States led condemnation of the launch, saying it was a «brazen violation» of UN sanctions, while South Korea responded by partially suspending a 2018 military deal with the North, saying it would resume surveillance operations along their border. Japan said that Pyongyang's claims of success could not immediately be independently verified. Tokyo is still analysing the launch and «at this point is not confirming whether the satellite had entered into an orbit around the Earth», chief government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno said. North Korea's previous efforts to put a spy satellite into orbit in May and August both failed.

North Korea fires unspecified ballistic missile off its east coast, 12th this year Japan will work with the United States, South Korea and others to "strongly urge" North Korea not to go ahead with the launch, Kishida said. North Korea had attempted to launch what it called spy satellites twice earlier this year but failed, and South Korean officials have said in recent days that it appeared set to try again soon.

SEOUL—Russia said it supports holding regular security talks with North Korea and China to address the threat posed by the U.S. on the Korean Peninsula, as Moscow draws closer to its partners and attempts to counter Western isolation. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov backed the idea during his two-day trip to North Korea that ended Thursday, according to Russian state media.

South Korean Unification Ministry has been closely monitoring the import of luxury items into North Korea, revealing a noticeable surge in conspicuous wealth among the country's elite. The Kim Dynasty and other high-ranking individuals in North Korea have demonstrated an enhanced appetite for designer imports and luxury products.

entered North Korea in nearly three and a half years were the Chinese ambassador and a handful of his staff. In recent weeks speculation has grown that seclusion may at last be easing. The rumours have been fuelled by Chinese customs statistics, satellite imagery and reports from the border that suggest a modest rise in trade between China and North Korea.

ALSO READ: North Korea's Kim Jong Un orders steps to boost ties with Russia amid US, Seoul warning of weapons deal “The North Korean regime’s obsession with the development of nuclear weapons aggravates the North Korean people’s suffering," Yoon said. “The North Korean regime must realize that nuclear weapons will never be able to guarantee its security." To mark the anniversary, South Korea held its first military parade in a decade in Seoul that featured thousands of troops and its latest military hardware such as domestically made long-range surface-to-air missiles.

Russia's top diplomat denounced the United States and the West on Saturday as self-interested defenders of a fading international power structure, but he didn't discuss his country's war in Ukraine in his speech to the UN General Assembly. «The US and its subordinate Western collective are continuing to fuel conflicts which artificially divide humanity into hostile blocks and hamper the achievement of overall aims. They're doing everything they can to prevent the formation of a genuine multipolar world order,» Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. «They are trying to force the world to play according to their own self-centered rules,» he said. As for the 19-month war in Ukraine, he recapped some historical complaints going back to the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, and alluded to the billions of dollars that the US and Western allies have spent in supporting Ukraine.