Pyongyang appears to seek to officialize Russia support, but denies weapons transactions

CHUNCHEON -- A South Korean soldier has mistakenly fired a machine gun during training near the border with North Korea, and the military has immediately informed North Korea that the shooting was not intentional, military officials said Sunday. The South Korean military said four live rounds were fired from the machine gun during a training session by an Army unit along the inter-Korean border in the eastern province of Gangwon at 6:27 p.m. on Saturday. All of the bullets landed in the southe

A senior North Korean official on Sunday rejected alleged weapons transactions with Russia, warning the United States that it will face unsavory consequences if it continues to spread such rumors. Kwon Jong-gun, director-general in charge of affairs to the US at North Korea's foreign ministry, called the allegation a grave provocation and said North Korea cannot tolerate what he describes as a US fabrication meant to hurt North Korea's standing. The angry statement carried by North Kor

The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un issued a statement Friday criticizing the USs' decision to send tanks to Ukraine to help its fight against Russia's invasion, saying that Washington is crossing the "red line." "The U.S., which has exposed the whole continent of Europe to the grave danger of war and caused big and small concerns, is now further crossing the red line," Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Par

The Ministry of Unification aims to disclose more information on North Korea to the general public in 2023, it said Friday during a New Year’s policy briefing to President Yoon Suk Yeol. The ministry said it would focus on improving accessibility and convenience by releasing more North Korean newspapers and broadcasts to the public. It added that it would operate a pilot program by publishing information from Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Workers’ Party and the regime’s

North Korea is making all-out antivirus efforts, its official media said Thursday, amid a news report that it has imposed a lockdown on the capital city of Pyongyang apparently ahead of a military parade to mark the army founding anniversary next month. The Rodong Sinmun, the regime's main newspaper, stressed the need to place the top policy priority on strengthening quarantine efforts, calling on its people to continue fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic with the "greatest sense of

Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote in his new memoir that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un told him in 2018 that he needed US forces in South Korea to protect himself from China. Kim "said that he needed the Americans in South Korea to protect him from the CCP, and that the CCP needs the Americans out so they can treat the peninsula like Tibet and Xinjiang," Pompeo wrote, referring to the Chinese Communist Party, in his book "Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America

Satellite imagery showed “dramatic and ongoing” construction in North Korea’s main missile and rocket launching station on the west coast, a Washington-based think tank said Tuesday, noting that the site could be used for a satellite launch “in the near future.” The construction activities have taken place throughout the eastern and central sections of the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in the Tongchang-ri area, North Pyongan Province, according to Beyond Paralle

A North Korean propaganda outlet on Tuesday criticized President Yoon Suk Yeol's recent remarks on Iran's relations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), noting they drew Tehran's wrath and created a "commotion" in the South. During a recent visit to a South Korean military contingent in the UAE, Yoon said that the UAE's "enemy and biggest threat" is Iran while the South's enemy is North Korea. The Tongil Shinbo, a weekly publication, made the first me

North Korea continues to provide ammunition to Russia in support of Moscow's unprovoked war against Ukraine, a White House official said Friday, calling it a clear violation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions on Pyongyang. John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the National Security Council, said the U.S. has shared its intelligence on the delivery of North Korean ammunition to Russia with the UNSC Panel of Experts on North Korea sanctions. The NSC officia

S. Korea, US should consider redeployment as last resort, however

Commercial satellite imagery can clearly capture North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s office, residence and other key facilities of Pyongyang, US state-owned broadcaster Voice of America reported Wednesday, as it released Google Earth images of those locations. Last month, North Korea disclosed photos of downtown Seoul including the area around President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office and the Incheon port, claiming they were taken by a prototype of its reconnaissance satellite under developme

North Korea has convened a two-day parliamentary session in Pyongyang to discuss budgetary and other issues, including legislation against foreign cultural influences, its state media said Thursday. Without its leader in attendance, the North held the 8th session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. No messages by Kim Jong-un were issued in public in regard to South Korea or the United States. The SPA is the hi

North Korea is scheduled to convene a key parliamentary meeting this week amid keen attention over whether its leader Kim Jong-un will attend it to issue another message of the country's development of nuclear and other major weapons. The secretive North earlier announced its plan to hold the eighth session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly on Tuesday to discuss policy tasks, state budgets and organizational matters for 2023. The North's state media has not reported whether th

Polish ambassador Piotr Ostaszewski said he expects to see further development in bilateral relations this year, noting that the two countries have seen their ties rapidly developing in the wake of $14.7 billion worth of deal to export Korean defense systems and weapons to the European country last year. "The best partnership emerges when both partners understand each other," said Ostaszewski applauding 34 years of Polish-Korea relations that flourished in the 1990s and went through tr