North Korea

SEOUL, July 18 (UPI) — Just weeks after opening a massive new beach resort, North Korea has banned foreign visitors from the self-proclaimed “world-class” facility, according to a state-run tourism promotion website.

“Foreign tourists are temporarily not accepted at the Wonsan Kalma coastal tourist zone,” a notice on the official DPR Korea Tour site said Wednesday. No explanation was given for the ban.

The information came in a post announcing the July 1 opening of the facility, which runs along 2.5 miles of beachfront and has a capacity for up to 20,000 guests. The tourist zone also boasts recreational facilities such as a water park, gym and concert hall.

When the Wonsan Kalma tourist area officially opened, North Korea promoted it as a destination for both domestic and foreign tourists. A small group of Russian guests visited last week, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un there.

“Our Korean friends have expressed interest in having more Russians at the wonderful resort of Wonsan and other resorts in the DPRK,” Lavrov said at a press conference during his visit, using the official acronym for North Korea. “I have no doubt that this will happen.”

The resort has long been a favored project of Kim, who oversaw its launch in 2014. It was initially slated to open in April 2019 but faced numerous setbacks, including international sanctions on materials.

At a ribbon-cutting ceremony last month, the North Korean leader called the completion of the resort one of the country’s “greatest successes this year” and said it would “play a leading role in establishing the tourist culture of the DPRK.”

International tourism offers a rare chance for the sanctions-hit North to earn foreign currency, but visitors have been almost nonexistent since Pyongyang sealed its borders at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020.

Russian travelers were the first to return post-COVID as North Korean carrier Air Koryo resumed a route between Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East and Pyongyang last year. On Monday, Russia’s Transport Ministry announced that budget carrier Nordwind will begin operating direct service between Moscow and Pyongyang later this month.

In May, the United States extended its ban on travel by American citizens to North Korea for the ninth year in a row, citing “imminent danger” posed by any trips to the authoritarian state.

SEOUL, July 15 (UPI) — North Korea and Russia will begin operating direct flight service linking their capital cities of Pyongyang and Moscow later this month, Russia’s Transport Ministry announced.

Nordwind Airlines, a Russian budget carrier, will begin direct flights between the two cities on July 27, the ministry said Monday night on its Telegram channel. Travel time will be about eight hours.

“For the first time, the capitals of Russia and the DPRK will be connected by direct flights,” the ministry said, using the official acronym for North Korea.

“Further flights will be operated once a month — to create sustainable demand and load flights,” the ministry added.

Currently, the only direct flights between the two countries are operated by North Korea’s Air Koryo, connecting Pyongyang with Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East.

The announcement comes amid growing military and economic ties between Russia and North Korea, highlighted by Pyongyang supplying troops and weapons to Moscow for its war against Ukraine.

North Korea has gradually begun opening up to international tourism after sealing its borders at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020. So far, foreign visitors have come almost exclusively from Russia.

Russian travelers were the first to return to North Korea post-COVID on the Pyongyang-Vladivostok Air Koryo route early last year. Direct rail service between Pyongyang and Moscow also resumed in June after a five-year suspension.

Last week, the North welcomed around 10 Russian guests — including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov — to its sprawling new beach resort on the east coast, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported on Monday.

The Wonsan Kalma coastal tourist area runs along 2.5 miles of beachfront and has a capacity for up to 20,000 guests. At a ribbon-cutting ceremony last month, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called the completion of the resort one of the country’s “greatest successes this year” and said it would “play a leading role in establishing the tourist culture of the DPRK.”

Launched in 2014, the Wonsan project was initially slated to open in April 2019 but faced numerous setbacks, including international sanctions on materials and COVID-19 pandemic closures.

During his visit to Wonsan last week, Lavrov said that Russia also plans to restore maritime passenger routes between the two countries.

“Our Korean friends have expressed interest in having more Russians at the wonderful resort of Wonsan and other resorts in the DPRK,” Lavrov said at a press conference. “I have no doubt that this will happen.”

July 12 (UPI) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov traveled to North Korea on Friday to meet with his North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and others during a three-day visit.

He said Moscow respects North Korea’s efforts to develop nuclear arms by using its own scientists amid recent military exercises involving the U.S., South Korean and Japanese forces, according to CNN.

The U.S. and its South Korean and Japanese allies conducted a joint aerial training operation on the Korean Peninsula on Friday.

Lavrov warned the United States and its regional allies against targeting North Korea and Russia, Newsweek reported on Saturday.

“No one is considering using force against North Korea despite the military buildup around the country by the United States, South Korea and Japan,” Lavrov said of the joint military exercise.

“We respect North Korea’s aspirations and understand the reasons why it is pursuing a nuclear development,” Lavrov said.

He said Moscow is aware that President Donald Trump recently expressed support for resuming talks with North Korea at the highest level.

“We exchanged views on the situation surrounding the Ukrainian crisis,” Lavrov told Russian state media outlet TASS.

“Our Korean friends confirmed their firm support of all the objectives of the special military operation,” he said of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry earlier this week invitedLavrov to visit Pyongyang, which is preparing to deploy between 25,000 and 30,000 soldiers for Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine.

North Korea last year deployed 11,000 soldiers to Russia to help repel a Ukrainian incursion in the Kursk region of Russia.

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.

July 9 (UPI) — South Korea on Wednesday repatriated six North Koreans across the maritime border in the East Sea, months after they drifted into southern waters and were rescued.

A repaired wooden boat carrying the North Koreans crossed the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border between the two Koreas, at 8:56 a.m., Seoul’s Unification Ministry said in a statement to reporters.

“A North Korean patrol boat was at the handover point at the time of repatriation, and the North Korean vessel returned on its own,” the ministry said in the statement.

“During the repatriation process, we repeatedly confirmed the North Korean residents’ free will to return, and cooperated with relevant organizations to safely protect the North Korean residents until repatriation,” the ministry said.

Ministry spokesman Koo Byoung-sam said earlier this week that Seoul’s intention was to “repatriate them quickly and safely from a humanitarian standpoint.”

In May, South Korea’s military and coast guard rescued four North Koreans who were drifting in a small boat in the East Sea around 60 miles south of the Northern Limit Line. A pair of North Korean nationals were also rescued under similar circumstances in the Yellow Sea in March.

In a background briefing with reporters on Wednesday, a ministry official confirmed that North Korea never responded to notification efforts about the repatriation plan. The South reached out repeatedly via the U.S.-led United Nations Command, whose duties include controlling DMZ access and communicating with the North Korean military.

Seoul informed Pyongyang of the repatriation time and location through the UNC channel, and the North Korean boats appeared without prior notice, the ministry official said.

North Korea has completely cut off communications with the South in recent years as tensions remain high on the Peninsula.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has made an effort to improve inter-Korean relations since taking office last month and has pledged to restore a military hotline that the North has not responded to since 2023. He recently ordered the suspension of propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts at the DMZ in an effort to lower tensions in the border area.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry also recently used a press briefing to request that the North give advance notice before releasing water from a dam across the border. Ministry spokeswoman Chang Yoon-jeong called the public appeal a form of “indirect communication” with Pyongyang.

South Korean authorities are currently investigating a North Korean man who crossed the heavily fortified land border between the two Koreas and was taken into custody by the South’s military. The man identified himself as a civilian, officials said, but they have not confirmed whether he intends to defect to the South.

North Koreans’ repatriation comes as South Korea’s newly-elected president is working to improve inter-Korean ties.

South Korea has repatriated six North Koreans who were rescued at sea earlier this year after their vessels drifted across the de facto maritime border, Seoul’s Unification Ministry has said.

The North Koreans, who were picked up by South Korean authorities in separate vessels in March and May, were transported across the Northern Limit Line on Wednesday morning with their “full consent” and after they had repeatedly expressed their wish to return home, the ministry said.

The repatriation was successfully completed with the cooperation of North Korean authorities despite repeated failed attempts by Seoul to contact Pyongyang about their return, according to the ministry.

The development comes as South Korea’s newly-elected president, Lee Jae-myung, is working to bolster ties between the two Koreas, which remain in a technical state of war after hostilities in the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Speaking at a news conference to mark his first month in office last week, Lee said that Seoul should work to improve relations in coordination with its ally, the United States, and that cutting off dialogue completely would be a “foolish act”.

Last month, South Korea’s military turned off loudspeakers broadcasting anti-North Korea propaganda across the inter-Korean border in one of the Lee administration’s first steps towards rapprochement.

South Korea’s Ministry of National Defence at the time said the move would help “to restore trust in inter-Korean relations” and “promote peace on the Korean Peninsula”.

SEOUL, July 4 (UPI) — A North Korean man who identified himself as a civilian crossed the heavily fortified military demarcation line between the two Koreas and was taken into custody, the South’s military said Friday.

The individual was picked up by the South Korean military on Thursday night, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters. No motive was immediately given for his crossing.

“The military identified the individual in the MDL area, tracked and monitored him, conducted a normal induction operation and secured the individual,” the JCS said. “The relevant organizations will investigate the details of the southward movement.”

“There have been no unusual movements by the North Korean military as of now,” the message added.

In a background briefing with reporters, a JCS official said the North Korean man was first detected by a military monitoring device on the South Korean side of the border around 3 a.m. Thursday.

The operation to secure and guide the individual out of the demilitarized zone took 20 hours total, the official said.

The two Koreas are separated by the 2.5-mile-wide DMZ, which is one of the most heavily fortified and mined borders on earth.

A North Korean soldier defected across the DMZ in August, but direct land crossings have been historically rare. Most escapees traverse the northern border with China.

Over 34,000 North Koreans have fled to the South to escape dire economic conditions and the country’s brutally repressive regime. However, arrivals plummeted after Pyongyang sealed its borders and ramped up security in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The number of North Korean defectors who arrived in South Korea reached 236 in 2024, up 20% from the previous year, according to data from the South’s Unification Ministry.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung was briefed on the crossing, spokesperson Kang Yu-jun told reporters Friday. Lee has moved to lower tensions in the border area during his first month in office and recently ordered the suspension of propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts at the DMZ.

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.

SEOUL, July 3 (UPI) — South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said Thursday that his government is working hard to strike a trade deal with the United States on impending tariffs but expressed doubt as to whether talks will be concluded before next week’s deadline.

“It is clear that tariff negotiations are not very easy,” Lee said at a press conference marking his first 30 days in office.

“We need to create a mutually beneficial result that is helpful to both parties, but it has not yet been clearly defined what the two parties want,” he said.

South Korea is facing 25% tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump as part of his sweeping package of “Liberation Day” trade measures. Trump announced the tariffs in April but quickly put their implementation on hold for 90 days — a deadline that is approaching on July 8.

Tariffs on steel and automobiles, two key industries in South Korea, are already in place.

South Korea is seeking an extension on the 90-day pause and sent a delegation to Washington last week to ask for an exemption from all U.S. reciprocal and product-specific tariffs.

Lee said Thursday that it was “difficult to confirm whether we can conclude tariff negotiations by July 8.”

“But I can tell you that we are continuing to work hard,” he said. “We are also exploring many topics for our discussion from various perspectives. I can only say that we will do our best.”

Lee took office last month in a snap election precipitated by former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s botched martial law attempt in December. In his first press conference as president, Lee focused his remarks on restoring economic growth and stabilizing people’s livelihoods.

“The top priority is to relieve the suffering of the people and create a country that grows and leaps forward again,” he said.

Domestic political turmoil and an uncertain trade environment have shaken the export-dependent Asian powerhouse, which saw its economy unexpectedly shrink in the first quarter of the year.

In late May, the Bank of Korea lowered its GDP growth forecast for 2025 from 1.5% in February to 0.8%, citing a slow recovery in domestic demand and the expected impact of U.S. tariffs. At the same time, the central bank cut its benchmark interest rate for the fourth time since October, lowering it by a quarter percentage point to 2.5%.

Since taking office, President Lee has pledged to boost the economy through fiscal stimulus and other policy measures.

Last month, the government announced a second supplementary budget worth more than $14.7 billion, which will include cash handouts, debt relief measures and investments in sectors such as construction and artificial intelligence. The move follows a $10.1 billion package that was previously approved by parliament.

Lee also vowed on Thursday to work toward improving relations with North Korea on a tense Korean Peninsula.

“We will thoroughly prepare for provocations, while resuming severed communications between the South and the North and opening the way for peace and coexistence on the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and cooperation,” he said.

The president pointed to his recent order for the suspension of propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts across the DMZ to North Korea as a positive step. Pyongyang responded by stopping its own loudspeaker blasts of bizarre noises such as metallic screeching and animal sounds.

“As North Korea has recently responded to the government’s preemptive suspension of broadcasts to the North, I believe that a virtuous cycle of peace is possible,” Lee said.

SEOUL, South Korea — North Koreans swam, rode water park slides and enjoyed other water activities at a newly opened mammoth beach resort, state media reported Wednesday, as the country largely maintains a ban on the entry of foreign tourists.

The Wonsan-Kalma eastern coastal tourist zone, which North Korea says can accommodate nearly 20,000 people, is at the heart of leader Kim Jong Un’s push to boost tourism as a way to improve his country’s struggling economy. But prospects for the resort, the biggest tourist complex in North Korea, aren’t clear, as the country won’t likely fully reopen its borders and embrace Western tourists anytime soon, observers say.

The official Korean Central News Agency reported the Wonsan-Kalma area began service Tuesday, drawing a large number of North Koreans who enjoyed open water swimming, slides and other attractions at a water park and various water activities in the area.

“The guests’ hearts were filled with overwhelming emotion as they felt the astonishing new heights of our-style tourism culture blossoming under the era of the Workers’ Party,” KCNA said in a typical propaganda-driven dispatch.

Photos released by North Korean state media showed children with tubes and inflatable balls dipping into the sea, while others in colorful swimsuits beamed while sitting beneath red-and-white parasols.

Kim said at the inaugural ceremony last week the site would be recorded as “one of the greatest successes this year” and called its opening “the proud first step” toward realizing the government’s policy of developing tourism.

Since 2022, North Korea has been slowly easing the curbs imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic and reopening its borders in phases. But the country hasn’t said whether and when it would fully resume international tourism.

Chinese group tours, which made up more than 90% of visitors before the pandemic, remain stalled while there are questions about ties between the two socialist neighbors. In February this year, North Korea allowed a small group of international tourists to visit its northeastern border city of Rason, only to stop that tour program in less than a month.

Since February 2024, North Korea has been accepting Russian tourists amid expanding military cooperation between the countries. But Russian government records seen by South Korean experts show a little more than 2,000 Russians, only about 880 of them tourists, visited North Korea last year, a number that is too small to revive North Korea’s tourism.

Russia’s Primorsky region, which borders North Korea, said last week that the first group of Russian tourists to the Wonsan-Kalma resort will depart on July 7 for a eight-day trip that includes a visit to Pyongyang.

Kim writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.

July 1 (UPI) — U.S. State Department representatives met with nuclear forensic scientists from around the world Tuesday at this year’s annual Nuclear Forensics International Technical Working Group meeting in Italy.

The meeting, taking place in Bologna during record heat throughout much of Europe, comes nine days after the United States launched B-2 bomber airstrikes on three nuclear enrichment sites in Iran.

While President Donald Trump said the airstrikes “obliterated” the facilities, the U.N. nuclear watchdog chief said the damage only set back Iran’s nuclear program by a few months.

The State Department released a statement Tuesday, outlining the meeting with no specifics or reference to last month’s strikes.

“Nuclear forensics, the scientific analysis of nuclear materials, deters nuclear terrorism and ensures public safety by identifying the origin and history of nuclear materials,” the statement read.

The State Department’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation was involved in planning this week’s meeting after having co-chaired the full-working group and all five ITWG task groups.

The ITWG has met for nearly 30 years “to make the world safer through the advancement of nuclear forensics best practices.”

This year’s meeting involves more than 80 experts from 30 countries discussing new developments, in an effort to grow international cooperation “in nuclear forensics exercise and capability development.”

While U.S. airstrikes weakened Iran’s nuclear program, Iran is not the only country targeted for denuclearization. Last week, the State Department said it was committed to the “complete denuclearization” of North Korea.

“President Trump, in his first term, made significant outreach to North Korea,” said State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce.

“They’ve got their own nuclear program in North Korea and we remain committed to the complete denuclearization of North Korea,” she said. “That remains a commitment.”

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.

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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, June 27 (UPI) — South Korea’s Unification Ministry on Friday asked North Korea to give advance notice before releasing water from a dam across the border on the Imjin River, citing safety concerns for residents living in nearby areas.

“We request that North Korea notify us in advance of dam discharges to prevent flood damage in the border area during the rainy season on humanitarian grounds,” ministry spokeswoman Chang Yoon-jeong said at a press briefing. “Joint response to natural disasters is a humanitarian issue, and the South and North have agreed several times to cooperate to prevent flooding in the Imjin River.”

Chang said that the dam issue is directly related to the life and safety of residents in border areas. She noted that an unannounced discharge from the North’s Hwanggang Dam in September 2009 led to damage that killed six South Korean citizens.

The following month, North Korea agreed to provide prior notice before discharging water. Pyongyang sent notices on a handful of occasions in 2010 and 2013, but has not done so since.

The North cut off communications with the South in April 2023, and Chang said sending a message through a press briefing was a form of “indirect communication.”

Recently elected President Lee Jae-myung has said he aims to improve frayed inter-Korean relations. On Wednesday, he called for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula as both countries commemorated the 75th anniversary of the start of the Korean War.

“The most certain form of security is a state where there is no need to fight — in other words, creating peace,” he wrote in a social media post. “The era of relying solely on military power to protect the country is over. What matters more than winning a war is preventing one.”

He has vowed to restore a military pact aimed at defusing military tensions along the border and reestablish a communications hotline with Seoul’s recalcitrant neighbor.

Earlier this month, Lee ordered the suspension of propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts across the DMZ to North Korea in a bid to reduce tensions with Pyongyang.

While requesting advance notice on Friday, the ministry did not mention the North’s most recent suspected dam discharge.

Seoul’s Environment Ministry warned Wednesday that the water level near Pilseung Bridge on the Imjin River, just south of the inter-Korean border, had risen to 3.2 feet — the threshold for evacuating visitors in the area. The ministry said it believed the result was due to a discharge from the Hwanggang Dam.

As of Friday morning at 8 a.m., the water level at Pilseung Bridge stood at 2.5 feet, the Unification Ministry’s Chang said.

Six US nationals were taken into custody in South Korea near a restricted border area with North Korea.

South Korean authorities have detained six United States citizens who were attempting to send an estimated 1,300 plastic bottles filled with rice, US dollar bills and Bibles to North Korea by sea, according to news reports.

The US suspects were apprehended in the early hours of Friday morning after they were caught trying to release the bottles into the sea from Gwanghwa island, near a restricted front-line border area with North Korea, South Korea’s official Yonhap news agency reports.

The six were taken into custody after a coastal military unit guarding the area reported them to the police. The area in question is restricted to the public after being designated a danger zone in November due to its proximity to the north.

Activists floating plastic bottles or flying balloons across South Korea’s border with the north have long caused tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

An administrative order banning the launch of anti-Pyongyang propaganda towards the north is already in effect for the area, according to Yonhap.

On June 14, police detained an activist for allegedly flying balloons towards North Korea from Gwanghwa Island.

Two South Korean police officers confirmed the detentions of the six with The Associated Press news agency but gave no further details.

In 2023, South Korea’s Constitutional Court struck down a 2020 law that criminalised the sending of leaflets and other items to North Korea, calling it an excessive restriction on free speech.

But since taking office in early June, the new liberal government of President Lee Jae-myung is pushing to crack down on such civilian campaigns with other safety-related laws to avoid a flare-up in tensions with North Korea and promote the safety of front-line South Korean residents.

Lee took office with a promise to restart long-dormant talks with North Korea and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula. His government has halted front-line anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts, and similar North Korean broadcasts have not been heard in South Korean front-line towns since then.

It remains unclear if North Korea will respond to Lee’s conciliatory gesture after it pledged last year to sever relations with South Korea and abandon the goal of peaceful Korean reunification.

Official talks between the Koreas have been stalled since 2019, when the US-led diplomacy on North Korean denuclearisation derailed.

SEOUL, June 26 (UPI) — North Korea has completed construction of a massive “world-class” beach resort on its east coast and will open it to the public next week, state-run media reported Thursday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un cut the ribbon at an opening ceremony for the Wonsan Kalma coastal tourist area on Tuesday, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

The complex, described by KCNA as a “world-class cultural resort,” stretches along 2.5 miles of coastline and features houses, hotels and hostels for nearly 20,000 people. Attractions include “sea-bathing service facilities, various sports and recreation facilities and commercial and public catering facilities fully equipped with all conditions … for providing the beauty of the scenic spot on the east coast in all seasons,” KCNA said.

In remarks at the opening ceremony, Kim called the completion of the resort one of the country’s “greatest successes this year.”

“The Wonsan Kalma coastal tourist area should play a leading role in establishing the tourist culture of the DPRK,” he said, using the official name for North Korea.

Kim was accompanied by his daughter, Ju-ae, and his wife, Ri Sol-ju. The public appearance was Ri’s first since a New Year’s Day arts performance on Jan. 1, 2024.

In photos released by KCNA, Ri is seen holding what appears to be a Gucci handbag worth nearly $3,000, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported. The export of luxury goods to North Korea is prohibited under a United Nations Security Council resolution.

Russian Ambassador to North Korea Alexander Matsegora also attended the ceremony.

Launched in 2014, the sprawling Wonsan tourist zone was initially slated to open in April 2019 but faced numerous setbacks, including international sanctions on materials and COVID-19 pandemic closures.

The resort will open for domestic visitors on July 1, KCNA said, without mentioning foreign tourists. International tourism offers a chance for the sanctions-hit North to earn foreign currency, but visitors have been almost nonexistent since Pyongyang sealed its borders at the start of the pandemic in January 2020.

In the wake of growing military and economic ties between Moscow and Pyongyang, Russian travelers were the first to return to North Korea post-COVID, when an Air Koryo passenger flight arrived from Vladivostok early last year.

Russia’s TASS news agency reported on Wednesday that a train from Pyongyang arrived in Moscow, marking the resumption of direct rail service between the two capitals for the first time in five years.

In February, a handful of Western travel agencies began offering small group tours to Rason, a special economic zone in the northeast of the country near the borders of China and Russia. However, North Korea abruptly halted the visits after less than three weeks.

The United States last month extended its ban on travel to North Korea for the ninth year in a row, citing “imminent danger” posed by any trips to the authoritarian state.

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.”

SEOUL, June 20 (UPI) — South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Friday that its defense spending as a share of gross domestic product is already “very high” compared to other U.S. allies, as Washington calls for NATO members and Asian countries to increase their military budgets.

“Among major U.S. allies of the United States, South Korea has a very high ratio of defense spending to GDP,” the ministry said in a message to reporters. “We have continuously increased our defense budget in consideration of the serious security situation, including North Korea‘s nuclear and missile threats.”

“South Korea will continue to make efforts to secure the capabilities and posture necessary for the defense of the Korean Peninsula and peace and stability in the region,” the ministry added.

In 2024, South Korea spent $47.6 billion, or 2.6% of GDP, on defense, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. That share is higher than Britain’s 2.3%, France’s 2.1%, Germany’s 1.9% and Japan’s 1.4%.

Seoul’s statement suggested concerns over remarks by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this week calling for a “new standard” for allies in NATO and Asia to spend 5% of GDP on defense.

“We expect NATO allies to commit to spending 5% of GDP on defense or defense-related investment,” Hegseth said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday.

“We now have a new standard for ally defense spending that all of our allies around the world, including in Asia, should move to,” Hegseth said. “It’s only fair that our allies and partners do their part. We cannot want their security more than they do.”

Hegseth also called for Asian countries to increase their spending in remarks at a defense forum in Singapore last month.

“It doesn’t make sense for countries in Europe to [spend 5% of GDP] while key allies in Asia spend less on defense in the face of an even more formidable threat, not to mention North Korea,” he said at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue.

The defense spending issue looks to be a potentially contentious topic at next week’s NATO Summit in The Hague. NATO countries committed to a goal of 2% of GDP in 2014, which two-thirds have reached, but U.S. President Donald Trump has long called for an increase and has been demanding the 5% figure since his reelection.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said last week he expected the allies to agree to the 5% target.

“It will be a NATO-wide commitment and a defining moment for the alliance,” he said in a speech at Chatham House in London.

However, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez pushed back on the proposal, which must be agreed to unanimously, in a letter to Rutte this week.

“For Spain, committing to a 5% target would not only be unreasonable, but also counterproductive,” Sanchez wrote Thursday, according to El Pais. “It would move Spain away from optimal spending and would hinder the EU’s efforts to strengthen its security and defense ecosystem.”

South Korea’s newly elected President Lee Jae Myung has not confirmed whether he will attend the NATO Summit, which will be held on June 24-25. His office had anticipated a meeting with Trump on the sidelines of last week’s Group of Seven meeting to discuss tariffs and defense cost-sharing issues, but the U.S. president departed early.

SEOUL, June 19 (UPI) — North Korea fired around 10 rounds from multiple-launcher rocket systems, Seoul’s military said Thursday, one day after South Korea held joint air drills with the United States and Japan.

The rockets were launched around 10 a.m. from the Sunan area near Pyongyang, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message sent to reporters.

“The detailed specifications are being closely analyzed by South Korean-U.S. intelligence authorities,” the JCS said. “In the current security situation, our military is closely monitoring various trends in North Korea under a strong South Korea-U.S. military posture.”

Further details were not immediately provided.

News agency Yonhap reported that the weapons appeared to be fired from 240mm multiple rocket launchers in the direction of the Yellow Sea.

Last year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test-firing of an updated 240mm system with new guidance and maneuverability capabilities — a demonstration that South Korean officials speculated was made in anticipation of sales to Russia.

North Korea has deployed troops, artillery and weapons to Russia to aid in Moscow’s war against Ukraine. Pyongyang is believed to be receiving much-needed financial support and advanced military technology for its own weapons programs in return.

On Tuesday, Moscow’s top security official said that North Korea would send 6,000 military workers and combat engineers to help rebuild Russia’s war-torn Kursk region.

Russia’s Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu made the announcement while meeting Kim in Pyongyang for the second time this month. His visit came ahead of the one-year anniversary of the signing of a comprehensive strategic partnership by Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The North’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper celebrated the June 19 anniversary in an article touting the “absolute solidity” of its alliance with Russia.

“The traditional DPRK-Russia friendship has been upgraded to a true alliance and solid strategic partnership,” the article said, using the official acronym for North Korea.

Thursday’s weapons test came one day after South Korea, the United States and Japan conducted a combined military air exercise. The drills, which involved South Korean F-15K, U.S. F-16 and Japanese F-2 fighter jets, marked the first trilateral exercise under the administration of new South Korean President Lee Jae-myung.

Lee met with his Japanese counterpart, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, on the sidelines of the Group of Seven meeting in Canada on Tuesday. The two leaders vowed to strengthen three-way cooperation with the United States to respond to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, Lee’s office said.