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SEOUL, Aug. 20 (UPI) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un‘s influential sister repeated her dismissal of Seoul’s outreach efforts, state media reported Wednesday, saying that South Korea “cannot be a diplomatic partner.”

Kim Yo Jong “sharply criticized the essence of the deceptive ‘appeasement offensive'” by the administration of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, state-run Korean Central News Agency said.

“We have witnessed and experienced the dirty political system of the ROK for decades,” Kim told North Korean Foreign Ministry officials during a meeting on Tuesday, using the official acronym for South Korea.

“The ambition for confrontation with the DPRK has been invariably pursued by the ROK, whether it held the signboard of ‘conservatism’ or wore a mask of ‘democracy,'” Kim said.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.

Kim’s remarks come as the United States and South Korea are holding their annual summertime Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercise. The 11-day exercise began Monday and includes live field maneuvers, computer simulation-based command post exercises and related civil defense drills. Some 21,000 troops, including 18,000 South Korean personnel, are participating this year.

President Lee has stressed that the drills are defensive in nature and has made a series of overtures to North Korea since taking office in June in an effort to improve strained ties.

In a speech Friday marking the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Lee vowed to “respect” North Korea’s political system and said Seoul would not pursue “unification by absorption.”

“We have no intention of engaging in hostile acts,” Lee said. “Going forward, our government will take consistent measures to substantially reduce tensions and restore trust.”

Kim called Lee’s defensive characterization of the joint military exercise “gibberish” and said his administration’s “stinky confrontational nature is swathed in a wrapper of peace.”

“Lee Jae Myung is not the sort of man who will change the course of history,” she added.

The Blue House, South Korea’s presidential office, responded to Kim’s comments Monday, calling them “regrettable.”

“The Lee Jae Myung administration’s preemptive measures for peace on the Korean Peninsula are not self-serving or for the benefit of one side, but rather are for the stability and prosperity of both South and North Korea,” the office said in a statement. “It is regrettable that North Korean officials are misrepresenting and distorting our sincere efforts.”

Kim Yo Jong has made multiple public statements in recent weeks dismissing Seoul’s rapprochement efforts, which include removing its anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeakers from border areas inside the DMZ.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Monday said the U.S.-South Korea joint military exercise demonstrated the allies’ “will to ignite a war” and called for the rapid expansion of Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities

North Korea’s leader threatens to speed up Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal expansion over a sign of ‘hostile intent’.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has threatened to accelerate the expansion of his country’s nuclear arsenal, condemning ongoing United States-South Korea military exercises as a sign of “hostile intent”, according to state media.

Kim, who made the remarks during a visit to a naval destroyer, called the drills “an obvious expression of their will to provoke war”, according to a report published on Tuesday.

He insisted North Korea must “rapidly expand” its nuclear weapons programme, pointing to the inclusion of what he called “nuclear elements” in the drills.

The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield drills began this week, combining large-scale field manoeuvres with upgraded responses to what the US and South Korea claim are North Korea’s growing nuclear capabilities.

The exercises will run for 11 days, with half of the 40 field training events rescheduled to September.

Purely defensive

South Korean officials said the adjustment reflects President Lee Jae Myung’s call to lower tensions, though analysts doubt Pyongyang will respond positively.

Seoul and Washington claim the exercises are purely defensive, but Pyongyang regularly denounces them as preparations for invasion and has often replied with weapons tests.

North Korea’s position is expected to feature in talks between US President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee in Washington later this month, with efforts to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions high on the agenda.

“Through this move, North Korea is demonstrating its refusal to accept denuclearisation and the will to irreversibly upgrade nuclear weapons,” said Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.

Research published by the Federation of American Scientists last year estimated that North Korea may have produced enough fissile material for up to 90 nuclear warheads, though the number actually assembled was likely closer to 50.

Alongside its nuclear ambitions, Pyongyang is also advancing its naval capabilities. The North Korean public broadcaster KCNA reported that the country aims to complete construction of a third 5,000-tonne Choe Hyon-class destroyer by October next year, and is testing cruise and anti-air missiles for the vessels.

SEOUL, Aug. 19 (UPI) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said a U.S.-South Korea joint military exercise showed their “will to ignite a war” and called for the rapid expansion of Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities, state media reported Tuesday.

“The U.S.-ROK intensified military nexus and the muscle-flexing are the most obvious manifestation of their will to ignite a war,” Kim said, according to state-run Korean Central News Agency.

Kim made the remark as he inspected the North’s first 5,000-ton destroyer, the Choe Hyon, at Nampo Shipyard on Monday — the same day that the United States and South Korea kicked off an 11-day joint military exercise.

The annual summertime Ulchi Freedom Shield includes live field maneuvers, computer simulation-based command post exercises and related civil defense drills. Some 21,000 troops, including 18,000 South Korean personnel, are participating this year.

Kim said the allies’ joint drills “have always been provocative and dangerous in their nature but the gravity is increasing,” according to KCNA.

“The security environment around the DPRK is getting more serious day by day and the prevailing situation requires us to make a radical and swift change in the existing military theory and practice and rapid expansion of nuclearization,” he said.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.

During his visit to Nampo Shipyard, Kim received a report on the Choe Hyon’s various weapons systems and expressed “satisfaction over the fact that the major tasks for making the navy high-tech and nuclear-armed are progressing on a stage-by-stage basis as planned,” KCNA said.

The destroyer, which was launched in April, is armed with a wide range of weapons including anti-aircraft missiles, 127mm naval guns and nuclear-capable cruise and ballistic missiles, according to North Korean reports.

A second destroyer, named the Kang Kon, was unveiled in May but suffered a launch accident that left it listing on its side.

Kim, who was in attendance at the launch, called the mishap a “criminal act” and warned of serious consequences for those found responsible.

The ship was repaired and relaunched in June, although analysts have questioned whether it is fully operational. At that ceremony, Kim vowed to “commission two destroyers of the same class or higher into the navy every year.”

Kim’s latest comments come as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is making a push to improve inter-Korean relations.

In a speech Friday marking the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Lee vowed to “respect” North Korea’s political system and said Seoul would not pursue “unification by absorption.”

“We have no intention of engaging in hostile acts,” Lee said. “Going forward, our government will take consistent measures to substantially reduce tensions and restore trust.”

North Korea has so far rebuffed Lee’s overtures. Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of the North Korean leader, recently condemned Seoul’s “blind trust” in its military alliance with Washington and mocked reconciliation efforts as “nothing but a pipedream.”

North Korean officials have “reaffirmed their support for all objectives” in the Russia-Ukraine war, says Russian FM.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea, during which Pyongyang reaffirmed its support for Russia’s war in Ukraine in which thousands of its soldiers have been killed.

Lavrov “was received” by Kim, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Telegram on Saturday, posting a video of the two men shaking hands and embracing in Wonsan. Russian and North Korean state media had announced the visit earlier, saying Lavrov would stay until Sunday.

It is the latest in a series of high-profile trips by top Moscow officials to North Korea as the countries deepen military and political ties with a focus on Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.

Pyongyang has become one of Moscow’s main allies during its more than three-year-long war in Ukraine, sending thousands of troops and conventional weapons to help the Kremlin remove Ukrainian forces from Kursk in Russia.

More than 6,000 North Korean soldiers have died in the Russia-Ukraine war, according to British Defence Intelligence.

North Korea has also agreed to dispatch 6,000 military engineers and builders to help reconstruction efforts there.

The South Korean intelligence service has said North Korea may be preparing to deploy additional troops in July or August.

The United States and South Korea have expressed concern that, in return, Kim may seek Russian technology transfers that could enhance the threat posed by his nuclear-armed military.

Earlier on Saturday, Lavrov met with his North Korean counterpart Choe Son Hui in Wonsan, a city on the country’s east coast, where a huge resort was opened earlier this month.

“We exchanged views on the situation surrounding the Ukrainian crisis … Our Korean friends confirmed their firm support for all the objectives of the special military operation, as well as for the actions of the Russian leadership and armed forces,” Russian news agency TASS quoted Lavrov as saying.

He also thanked the “heroic” North Korean soldiers, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

In April, the two countries officially confirmed the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia for the first time, saying these troops had helped Russia to recapture the Kursk region – a claim contested by Ukraine.

Since then, Kim has been shown in state media paying tribute in front of flag-draped coffins of North Korean soldiers.

Russia’s Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu has visited Pyongyang multiple times this year.

The two heavily sanctioned nations signed a sweeping military deal last November, including a mutual defence clause, during a rare visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to North Korea. Pyongyang has reportedly been directly arming Moscow to support its war in Ukraine.

In the meantime, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Friday that US weapons shipments to his country had resumed, following the Pentagon’s decision to briefly halt the delivery of certain weapons to Kyiv over fears that US stockpiles were dwindling.

The US will deliver military supplies and send its envoy Keith Kellogg to Kyiv early next week, said Zelenskyy.

The unarmed man was found in the central-west border section before being led to safety by South Korean troops.

A North Korean man has crossed the heavily fortified land border with South Korea and is now being held in custody, the South Korean military has confirmed.

The unarmed individual was located on Thursday in the central-west section of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), before being guided by South Korean troops to safety, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Seoul’s army carried out “a standard guiding operation to secure custody”, a process that involved a considerable number of soldiers, it said.

After the North Korean was detected early on Thursday morning, the task of bringing him to safety took about 20 hours to complete, the Joint Chiefs of Staff added.

He was mainly still during the day, with South Korean soldiers approaching him at night, it noted.

Seoul has not commented on whether it viewed the border crossing as a defection attempt.

There were no immediate signs of unusual military activity in North Korea, the South Korean army said.

Crossing between the two Koreas is relatively rare and extremely risky, as the border area is strewn with mines.

It is more common for defectors to first travel across North Korea’s border with China, before heading on to South Korea.

Last August, a North Korean soldier reportedly defected to the South and was taken into custody in the northeastern county of Goseong.

And then in April, South Korean troops fired warning shots after roughly 10 North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the military demarcation line. Pyongyang’s officers returned to their own territory without returning fire, Seoul said.

The crossing on Thursday comes a month after the liberal politician Lee Jae-myung was elected as the new South Korean president, following months of political chaos, which began with the conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol’s short-lived attempt to impose martial law in December.

Lee has taken a different stance from his predecessor on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, promising to “open a communication channel with North Korea and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula through talks and cooperation”.

“Politics and diplomacy must be handled without emotion and approached with reason and logic,” he said on Thursday. “Completely cutting off dialogue is really a foolish thing to do.”

As part of his attempt to rebuild trust with his neighbour, Lee has banned loudspeaker broadcasts at the border and attempted to stop activists flying balloons with propaganda into North Korea.

However, it remains to be seen whether Kim will cooperate.

In response to Yoon’s decision to strengthen military alliances with Washington, DC, and Tokyo, Kim called South Korea his country’s “principal enemy” last January.

Diplomatic efforts have stalled on the Korean Peninsula since the collapse of denuclearisation talks between Washington and Pyongyang in 2019 during the first US President Donald Trump administration, after a series of Trump-Kim summits, globally watched spectacles that bore little concrete progress.

North Korea President Kim Jong Un was shown honouring coffins of soldiers killed while fighting for Russia in Ukraine. The footage released Tuesday aired during a performance marking the one-year anniversary of a military pact signed by the two countries.

SEOUL. June 30 (UPI) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with visiting Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova in Pyongyang as the two countries continue to strengthen bilateral ties, the North’s state-run media reported Monday.

The meeting took place on Sunday at the headquarters of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea’s Central Committee and was also attended by Russian Ambassador to North Korea Alexandr Matsegora, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

Lyubimova led a ministry delegation to mark the first anniversary of the countries’ comprehensive strategic partnership treaty, under which North Korea has sent troops and weapons to Moscow to aid in its war against Ukraine.

Kim said that “extensive and profound exchanges and cooperation in all fields are further expanding and developing day by day” in the wake of the partnership, according to KCNA.

“It is important for the cultural sector to guide the relations between the two countries,” he said. “It is necessary to further expand the exchange and cooperation in the field of culture and art to know well about each other’s excellent cultural traditions and learn more.”

Lyubimova said her visit came at a time when the “solidity and invincibility of the DPRK-Russia friendship and solidarity are being more clearly proved,” KCNA reported.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.

“Cooperation between the two countries in the cultural field has reached the highest level in history,” she added.

The two discussed future plans for cultural exchanges and attended a concert by North Korean musicians and a visiting troupe of Russian performers, the KCNA report said.

Photos released by KCNA showed images of North Korean troops deployed to Russia used as a stage backdrop.

North Korea has sent some 14,000 troops to help Russia recapture lost territory in Kursk Province from Ukrainian forces, according to a recent report from the 11-country Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team. Pyongyang acknowledged sending the troops for the first time in April.

The cultural meeting came on the heels of a pair of visits by Russia’s Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu this month.

On June 18, Shoigu announced that North Korea would send 6,000 military workers and combat engineers to help rebuild the Kursk region.

North Korea is likely to send additional troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine in July or August, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers in a closed-door meeting on Thursday.

The Wonsan-Kalma beach resort is North Korea’s biggest tourist site. Russia said Thursday it will send its first group of tourists to the site in July

North Korea has unveiled a major coastal tourist attraction which it hopes will be a game-changer for its tourism industry.

The Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist zone boasts an array of hotels and accommodations for nearly 20,000 guests, offering a range of activities including swimming, sports, and dining at on-site restaurants and cafeterias, according to state media reports.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended a grand opening ceremony on Tuesday, cutting the inaugural ribbon, as reported by the official Korean Central News Agency on Thursday.

Kim hailed the project as “one of the greatest successes this year” and described the site as “the proud first step” in implementing the government’s tourism development policy, according to KCNA.

READ MORE: ‘I visited North Korea after its five-year lockdown – these are the ways its become odder’

The Wonsan-Kalma beach resort is North Korea’s largest tourist destination, with KCNA announcing that it will begin operations for domestic tourists next Tuesday. However, no timeline has been provided for welcoming foreign tourists, although Russian officials revealed on Thursday that the first Russian tour to the site is slated for July.

Experts suggest that the resort likely required a substantial investment from North Korea’s limited budget, implying that it will eventually need to cater to Chinese and other foreign tourists to break even. Kim has been striving to transform the nation into a tourist hotspot in a bid to rejuvenate the struggling economy, with the Wonsan-Kalma zone being one of his most frequently mentioned tourism initiatives.

KCNA reported that North Korea will announce plans to construct large tourist sites in other regions of the country as well.

However, North Korea hasn’t completely lifted a ban on foreign tourists implemented in early 2020 to protect against the COVID pandemic. Experts suggest that North Korea’s slow return to international tourism is due to ongoing pandemic restrictions, heightened tensions with the U.S. and South Korea in recent years, and concerns about Western tourists disseminating a negative portrayal of its regime.

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Russia’s Primorsky region, which shares a border with North Korea, announced that the first group of Russian tourists to the resort will set off on July 7. The region’s press service stated that during their eight-day journey, Russian tourists will also have the chance to visit key attractions in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

From February 2024 onwards, North Korea has already started welcoming Russian tourists to other areas amidst flourishing military and other collaborations between the two nations. However, Chinese group tours, which accounted for over 90% of visitors prior to the pandemic, remain on hold.

In February this year, a small contingent of international travellers ventured into North Korea, marking their first visit in five years. However, tour operators announced a pause on trips to the hermit kingdom as early as March.

Amidst global tensions, Kim Jong-un’s regime has been bolstering ties with Russia by sending troops and arms to back its conflict with Ukraine, in exchange for economic and military support. Yet, despite longstanding bonds with China—North Korea’s chief trade ally and aid donor—a cooling period is evident as China shows hesitance to form an anti-Western bloc with North Korea and Russia, according to experts.

During Tuesday’s event, celebrating the completion of a new resort, the Russian ambassador to North Korea attended alongside embassy personnel, as reported by KCNA. The dispatch, however, left out whether any Chinese officials were included on the guest list.

“There seems to be issues that North Korea hasn’t yet resolved in its relations with China. But North Korea has put in too much money on tourism and plans to spend more. Subsequently, to get its money’s worth, North Korea can’t help receiving Chinese tourists,” noted Lee Sangkeun, a specialist at South Korea’s Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank operated by the country’s intelligence service.

Kyungnam University’s Far Eastern Studies savant, Lim Eul-chul, has revealed that Russians will kick off foreign tourist footfall at Wonsan-Kalma. Moreover, he predicts that Sino-North Korean exchanges through Chinese tours to the leisure zone are set to commence soon, underpinning the reviving trade relations between Beijing and Pyongyang.

SEOUL — Since beginning his second term earlier this year, President Trump has spoken optimistically about restarting denuclearization talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, whom he met for a series of historic summits in 2018 and 2019 that ended without a deal.

“I have a great relationship with Kim Jong Un, and we’ll see what happens, but certainly he’s a nuclear power,” he told reporters at an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in March.

Earlier this month, Trump attempted to send a letter to Kim via North Korean diplomats in New York, only to be rebuffed, according to Seoul-based NK News. And now, following the U.S. military’s strike on three nuclear facilities in Iran on Sunday, the chances of Pyongyang returning to the bargaining table have become even slimmer.

For North Korea, which has conducted six nuclear tests over the years in the face of severe economic sanctions and international reprobation — and consequently has a far more advanced nuclear program than Iran — many analysts say the lesson from Sunday is clear: A working nuclear deterrent is the only guarantor of security.

“More than anything, the North Korean regime is probably thinking that they did well to dig in their heels to keep developing their nuclear program,” said Kim Dong-yup, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

A TV screen at the Seoul Railway Station shows the launch of a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile on Oct. 31.

(Lee Jin-man / Associated Press)

“I think this strike means the end of any sort of denuclearization talks or diplomatic solutions that the U.S. had in mind in the past,” he said. “I don’t think it’s simply a matter of worsened circumstances; I think the possibility has now gone close to zero.”

On Monday, North Korea’s foreign ministry condemned the U.S. strike on Iran as a violation of international law as well as “the territorial integrity and security interests of a sovereign state,” according to North Korean state media.

“The present situation of the Middle East, which is shaking the very basis of international peace and security, is the inevitable product of Israel’s reckless bravado as it advances its unilateral interests through ceaseless war moves and territorial expansion, and that of the Western-style free order which has so far tolerated and encouraged Israeli acts,” an unnamed ministry spokesperson said.

Trump has threatened to attack North Korea before.

Early in Trump’s first term, when Pyongyang successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach the U.S. West Coast., administration officials reportedly considered launching a “bloody nose” strike — an attack on a nuclear site or military facility that is small enough to prevent escalation into full-blown war but severe enough to make a point.

“Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely,” Trump wrote on social media in August 2017.

While it is still uncertain how much damage U.S. stealth bombers inflicted on Iran’s nuclear sites at Natanz, Isfahan and Fordo — and whether they have kneecapped Iran’s nuclear program, as U.S. officials have claimed — experts say the feasibility of a similar attack against North Korea is much smaller.

“North Korea has been plowing through with their nuclear program for some time, so their security posture around their nuclear facilities is far more sophisticated than Iran,” Kim Dong-yup said. “Their facilities are extremely dispersed and well-disguised, which means it’s difficult to cripple their nuclear program, even if you were to successfully destroy the one or two sites that are known.”

Kim Dong-yup believes that North Korea’s enrichment facilities are much deeper than Iran’s and potentially beyond the range of the “bunker buster” bombs — officially known as the GBU-57 A/B — used Sunday. And unlike Iran, North Korea is believed to already have 40 to 50 nuclear warheads, making large-scale retaliation a very real possibility.

A preemptive strike against North Korea would also do irreparable damage to the U.S.-South Korea alliance and would likely also invite responses from China and, more significantly, Russia.

A mutual defense treaty signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un last June states that the two countries “shall immediately provide military and other assistance” to the other if it “falls into a state of war due to armed invasion from an individual or multiple states.”

Yet talk of such an attack in Trump’s first term was soon replaced by what he has described as a friendship with Kim Jong Un, built over the 2018-19 summits, the first ever such meetings by a sitting U.S. president. Though the talks fell apart over disagreements on what measures North Korea would take toward disarmament and Trump’s reluctance to offer sanctions relief, the summits ended on a surprisingly hopeful note, with the two leaders walking away as pen pals.

An undated photo provided on Sept. 13 by the North Korean government shows its leader, Kim Jong Un, center, visiting what the country says is a facility for nuclear materials in an undisclosed location in North Korea.

(Associated Press)

In recent months, administration officials have said that the president’s goal remains the same: completely denuclearizing North Korea.

But the attack on Iran has made those old sticking points — such as the U.S. negotiating team’s demand that North Korea submit a full list of its nuclear sites — even more onerous, said Lee Byong-chul, a nonproliferation expert who has served under two South Korean administrations.

“Kim Jong Un will only give up his nuclear weapons when, as the English expression goes, hell freezes over,” Lee said. “And that alone shuts the door on any possible deal.”

Still, Lee believes that North Korea may be willing to come back to the negotiating table for a freeze — though not a rollback — of its nuclear program.

“But from Trump’s perspective, that’s a retreat from the terms he presented at the [2019] Hanoi summit,” he said. “He would look like a fool to come back to sign a reduced deal.”

While some, like Kim Dong-yup, the professor, argue that North Korea has already proven itself capable of withstanding economic sanctions and will not overextend itself to have them removed, others point out that this is still the United States’ primary source of leverage — and that if Trump wants a deal, he will need to put it on the table.

“Real sanctions relief is still valuable,” Stephen Costello, a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a Washington-based think tank.

While he agrees that immediate denuclearization may be unrealistic, Costello has argued that even halting production of new fissile material, nuclear weapons and long-range missiles are “well worth ending nonmilitary sanctions,” such as those on energy imports or the export of textiles and seafood.

“Regardless of U.S. actions in the Middle East, the North Koreans would likely gauge any U.S. interest by how serious they are about early, immediate sanctions relief,” he said.

The attack on Iran will have other ramifications beyond Trump’s dealmaking with Kim Jong Un.

Military cooperation between North Korea and Iran, dating back to the 1980s and including arms transfers from North Korea to Iran, will likely accelerate.

Lee, the nonproliferation expert, said that the attack on Iran, which was the first real-world use of the United States’ bunker-buster bombs, may have been a boon to North Korea.

“It’s going to be a tremendous lesson for them,” he said. “Depending on what the total damage sustained is, North Korea will undoubtedly use that information to better conceal their own nuclear facilities.”

North Korean leader says restoration of new vessel named Kang Kon has not delayed Pyongyang’s bid to boost naval power.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has promised to build more warships and deploy them to the Pacific Ocean, as he officiated at the relaunching of a destroyer that partially sank during its inauguration last month, state media reports.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Friday that Kim presided over the ceremony for the 5,000-tonne destroyer at the Rajin shipyard in the country’s far north. The ship has been named Kang Kon after a senior North Korean military official who was killed in action during the Korean War.

In a speech at the ceremony on Thursday, Kim was quoted as saying that repairs to the destroyer “had not delayed” North Korea’s attempts to enhance naval power.

“In two weeks’ time, the vessel was brought upright safely and set afloat, accomplishing its complete restoration today as planned,” Kim said, according to KCNA.

The North Korean leader also announced that plans were in place “to build two more 5,000-tonne destroyers next year”, as he called for his country to strengthen its maritime military presence in the Pacific Ocean in the face of what he said were provocations by the United States and its allies.

“Soon, enemies will experience, themselves, how provocative and unpleasant it is to sit and watch the ships of an adversary run rampant on the fringes of sovereign waters,” Kim said.

“I’m sure that in the near future, the routes of our battleships … will be opened on the Pacific Ocean toward the outposts of aggression,” he said.

Recent satellite images had shown ongoing repairs of the Kang Kon destroyer that had partially capsized in May during a botched inaugural launch that Kim described as a “criminal act”.

The newly launched Kang Kon is North Korea’s second known destroyer and is seen as a crucial asset in Kim’s goal of modernising his country’s naval forces.

The South Korean military estimates, based on its size and scale, that the new warship is similarly equipped to the 5,000-tonne destroyer-class vessel Choe Hyon, which North Korea built with Russian assistance and launched in May.

Kim has been pushing for the modernisation of his military and calling for an aggressive response to threats from the US and South Korea, who are key allies and regularly conduct military drills together.

On Wednesday, the White House said that US President Donald Trump would welcome communications with Kim after having had friendly relations with him during his first term in office.

But the South Korea-based NK News, which monitors North Korea, reported recently that Pyongyang’s delegation at the United Nations in New York had repeatedly refused to accept a letter from Trump to Kim.

June 4 (UPI) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he would “unconditionally support” Russia’s war against Ukraine, state-run media reported Thursday, in the latest sign of growing military ties between the two countries.

Kim made the remark during a meeting Wednesday with Russia’s Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu in Pyongyang, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

The North Korean leader “affirmed that the government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea would … unconditionally support the stand of Russia and its foreign policies in all the crucial international political issues including the Ukrainian issue,” KCNA said, using the official name of North Korea.

Pyongyang sent over 11,000 troops to Russia in 2024, and another 3,000 in the early months of this year, a report from the 11-country Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team said last week.

North Korea acknowledged sending the troops for the first time in April, claiming they helped recapture lost territory in Kursk Province from Ukrainian forces.

Shoigu “conveyed the special thanks of the Russian leadership for the matchless heroism and self-sacrificing spirit displayed by the Korean people’s excellent sons who participated in the operations for liberating the Kursk area,” KCNA said.

The North Korean troops “defended the precious part of the Russian territory as they would do their own motherland, fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Russian soldiers in the same trench,” Shoigu, the former Defense Minister, added.

In addition to troops, the North has shipped as many as 9 million rounds of mixed artillery and multiple rocket launcher ammunition and at least 100 ballistic missiles, according to the MSMT report.

Pyongyang’s military assistance has “contributed to Moscow’s ability to increase its missile attacks against Ukrainian cities including targeted strikes against critical civilian infrastructure,” the MSMT said.

South Korea, the United States and its allies believe North Korea is receiving advanced weapons technology and economic assistance in return.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Kim “expressed expectation and conviction that Russia would, as ever, surely win victory in the just and sacred cause for defending its national sovereignty, territorial integrity and security interests.”

SEOUL, May 26 (UPI) — Conservative South Korean presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo would ”proactively support” a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un if elected, a key policy adviser said Monday.

Kim Hyung-suk, co-chair of the Unification and Foreign Affairs Committee of the candidate’s People Power Party, made the remark during a briefing with foreign media in downtown Seoul. South Korea’s presidential election will be held on June 3, with Kim trailing liberal frontrunner Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party in polls.

“If Mr. Trump seeks to re-engage with Kim Jong Un on talks of denuclearization [and] addressing peace and prosperity issues on the Korean Peninsula … [Kim Moon-soo] will proactively support the communication between the two,” Kim said.

“We [would] respect and highly approve of their communications,” he added.

The White House has not prioritized North Korea in its foreign policy agenda since Trump returned to office, but there has been speculation that the president may look to revive nuclear negotiations with Kim Jong Un.

During Trump’s first term, the two leaders held a pair of high-profile summits and met briefly a third time at the DMZ. The diplomatic outreach failed to result in a nuclear deal, however, and Pyongyang has accelerated the development of its weapons programs in the intervening years.

At the beginning of April, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that there has been communication with North Korea and that the two sides would “probably do something at some point.”

“I have a very good relationship with [Kim],” Trump said. “I think it’s very important. He’s a big nuclear nation and he’s a very smart guy.”

Relations between the two Koreas have deteriorated dramatically in recent years, with Pyongyang officially designating the South a “hostile state” in a 2024 constitutional revision.

On Monday, Kim Hyung-suk said that a Kim Moon-soo administration would aim to “normalize inter-Korean relations” while maintaining Washington and Seoul’s longtime stance calling for North Korea to dismantle its nuclear arsenal.

“The Kim Moon-soo administration will consistently strive for a phased and actionable solution for the complete denuclearization of North Korea in close cooperation with the Trump administration,” he said.

The policy adviser added that Kim is eager to engage with North Korea and is making outreach plans with or without involvement from the Trump administration.

“As we know, President Trump is very busy these days due to a long list of different engagements internationally,” Kim said. “I don’t think we can wait years and years for the two to meet. In order to bring North Korea to the table, we are going to actively pursue communication, whether it be three-party or two-party.”

Kim’s opponent in the election, Lee Jae-myung, also voiced his support for engaging with North Korea while on the campaign trail Monday, but called the prospect of his own summit with Kim Jong Un “very difficult.”

Lee announced a campaign pledge on Monday to improve inter-Korean communications, including restoring a military hotline that North Korea has not responded to since 2023, but said that a face-to-face meeting with Kim would pose a challenge.

“It is something that should obviously be done, but I am not sure if it would be possible,” he told reporters at Ajou University in Suwon, south of Seoul. “It would be very difficult in the current situation.”

SEOUL, May 14 (UPI) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised combined tactical drills of special operations forces and stressed “full preparations for war,” state media reported Wednesday.

Kim watched tactical drill demonstrations and a joint fire strike demonstration by tank units at an undisclosed location on Tuesday, Korean Central News Agency reported.

“Making full preparations for war is the most crucial task,” Kim said, according to KCNA.

The North’s combat training has evolved “in keeping with the developing patterns and changing trend of modern warfare, strengthening the integral system of organizing, judging and reviewing training, and putting main stress on the actual war drills,” he said.

North Korean troops have gained real-world combat experience on the battlefield in Russia, where they have been sent to aid Moscow in its war against Ukraine.

Pyongyang has deployed around 15,000 troops to Russia, Seoul’s spy agency said recently. Some 600 of the soldiers have been killed and another 4,100 injured, the National Intelligence Service told lawmakers in a briefing on April 30.

North Korea acknowledged sending the troops for the first time last month, claiming they helped recapture lost territory in Kursk Province from Ukrainian forces.

“Our involvement in the war was justifiable,” Kim said during a visit to the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang on Friday in honor of Moscow’s Victory Day holiday.

“If [Ukraine] had not committed a heinous crime of encroaching upon the Russian territory, the invaders could have avoided the fate of becoming dead souls, hit by our swords and spears,” he said, according to a KCNA report.

In addition to troops, Seoul and Washington accuse North Korea of supplying artillery and missiles to Russia. A launch of short-range ballistic missiles and long-range artillery last week may have been a test of weapons systems meant for export to Russia, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

In exchange, North Korea is believed to be receiving much-needed financial support and advanced military technology for its own weapons programs.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon warned that North Korea may have up to 50 intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads by 2035.

“North Korea has successfully tested ballistic missiles with sufficient range to reach the entire Homeland,” the Defense Intelligence Agency said in a report on current and future missile threats to the United States.

The agency defined an ICBM as “a ground-based missile with a range exceeding 5,500 km (3,417 miles) that flies on a ballistic trajectory and is typically armed with a nuclear warhead or warheads.”

Pyongyang is projected to increase its arsenal to 50 ICBMs from its current inventory of 10 or fewer, the DIA report said. China, Russia and Iran were also included in the threat assessment.