Oct 31, 11:07 AM (IST)
North Korea probably stole South Korean warship blueprints after hacking into Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd’s database in April last year, a South Korean opposition lawmaker said on Tuesday.
Oct 31, 10:54 AM (IST)
North Korea has reportedly threatened the UK after the latter claimed Kim Jong-un was behind the NHS cyber attack.
North Korea has responded to the claims, blasting it as an "attempt to incriminate the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [DPRK]".
Oct 30, 08:38 PM (IST)
The global pitch against North Korea's show of nuclear mettle is getting shriller by the day. The hermit nation's response has been increasingly arrogant as it readily accepts the possibility of more potent nuclear tests and an attack on Guam - an unincorporated and organised territory of the United States.
The discourse among conflict analysts and columnists has gone a step further and considered the possibility of a North Korean nuclear missile attack on mainland United States.
Whether North Korea will take such a step is best left to their conscience but a potential offensive against the world's most powerful military raises a question: Can the US protect itself from such an occurrence?
Oct 30, 07:04 PM (IST)
In another belligerent act of defiance, North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sunday at its Punggye-ri test site.
Even before a formal announcement came from Pyongyang, Japanese and South Korean meteorologists had figured out what the hermit nation was up to after a shallow earthquake was detected near the test site.
North Korea’s hunger for power is evident and it does have nuclear weapons in its arsenal. But how dangerous is the threat?
Oct 30, 05:30 PM (IST)
Kim Jong-un visits cosmetics factory amid geopolitical tensions
Kim Jong-un may or may not be a regular user of exfoliant scrub and moisturiser, but the North Korean leader was every inch the attentive consumer when he swapped ballistic missiles for bars of soap during a visit to a cosmetics factory, reports The Guardian.
While James Mattis, the US defence secretary, was saying Washington would never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea, Kim was offering “field guidance” at the weekend to factory workers in the latest display of his more genteel side, according to the official KCNA news agency.
The visit was notable, too, for the identity of his companions – the two most powerful women in North Korea.
Photographs showed Kim’s wife, Ri Sol-ju, who is rarely seen in public.
His younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, whom he recently appointed to the ruling party’s powerful politburo, was also present but stayed out of shot, reports said. They were accompanied by two senior party officials.
Oct 30, 04:50 PM (IST)
As tensions reach breaking point on the Korean peninsula over Kim Jong-un’s efforts to build up his nuclear arsenal, Iran has waded into the row. Tehran said it will continue to produce missiles for its defence and does not consider that a violation of international accords, the Daily Express reported.
And in a veiled dig, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani took aim at Donald Trump. Rouhani slammed the US over Trump's refusal earlier this month to formally certify that Tehran is complying with the 2015 accord on Iran's nuclear programme, even though international inspectors say it is.
Oct 30, 04:47 PM (IST)
The next test of the China-Russia relationship will be containing the North Korean crisis.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is due to visit China this week to meet President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and other senior officials.
The trip will underline growing bilateral dialogue between Beijing and Moscow, including on key regional and global issues such as the Korean nuclear stand-off and the Syrian conflict. Read more on the South China Morning Post.
Oct 30, 04:35 PM (IST)
Vatican Spokesman Greg Burke on Monday dismissed reports that a meeting on nuclear disarmament set to take place next month was part of attempted "mediation" by Pope Francis between North Korea and the United States, Italian wire service ANSA reported.
Oct 30, 04:06 PM (IST)
North Korea yesterday dropped insulting messages about US President Donald Trump over Seoul, the South Korean capital, IB Times reported.
The Kim-Jong-un led nation delivered these insulting messages via balloons sent across Korea's demilitarized zone. As per reports, the messages have labeled Donald Trump mentally ill and a dotard.
Oct 30, 04:00 PM (IST)
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has said his country is reviewing its fundamental relationship with North Korea and taking steps to sever diplomatic ties with the regime, North Korea Inside reported.
Oct 30, 03:55 PM (IST)
Chinese police arrested several North Koreans dispatched to Beijing on suspicion of plotting to murder Kim Jong Un’s 22-year-old nephew, South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbonewspaper reported.
Two of seven North Korean agents were arrested over the alleged plot to kill Kim Han Sol, whose father Kim Jong Nam was assassinated in Malaysia earlier this year, the newspaper said, citing an unidentified person familiar with North Korean issues.
Oct 30, 03:37 PM (IST)
Pyongyang university urgently needs non-US teachers after travel ban leaves staff shortages
The only western-funded university in North Korea is urgently in need to recruit teachers not from the United States after a US travel ban to the isolated country forced the school to start the September semester with only half of its faculty, according to Reuters.
According to a recruitment notice from a faculty member of Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) reviewed by Reuters, the school is on a "vigorous lecturer recruitment campaign" for the spring semester slated to start next year.
Oct 30, 03:22 PM (IST)
US, Japan and South Korea urge North Korea to walk away from its "destructive and reckless path"
Senior defence officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan held trilateral talks and urged North Korea to walk away from its "destructive and reckless path" of weapons development, the U.S. military said in a statement, according to Reuters.
Oct 30, 03:08 PM (IST)
South Korea's unification minister has warned that North Korea could face its biggest ever financial collapse due to Kim Jong-un’s relentless nuclear war programme.
The minister said that the hermit state could suffer even greater economic hardship than during the famine-ridden 1990s, which led to thousands of deaths.
Oct 30, 03:04 PM (IST)
North Korea leader Kim Jong-un has signed off on order demanding nearly 30,000 North Koreans return to the rogue state from China, according to a report by the Daily Star.
The order comes as Beijing takes a tougher line on Pyongyang amid pressure from the US.
Oct 30, 02:53 PM (IST)
The Malaysian government is considering to close its embassy in North Korea due to growing safety and security concerns in the Asia Pacific region, said Prime Minister Najib Razak, according to a report by The Malaysian Insight.
Najib said the intention was relayed to US President Donald Trump during a working trip to Washington DC last month.
Oct 30, 02:49 PM (IST)
The chief of South Korea's weather agency said today that should North Korea detonate another nuclear device, it could trigger a collapse of its mountainous test site and a leak of radioactive materials, Yonhap News reported.
Nam Jae-cheol, the chief of the Korea Meteorological Administration, made the remarks during a parliamentary audit amid reports over a possible implosion at the Punggye-ri site in the North's northeastern region where it has carried out six nuke tests since 2006.
Oct 30, 02:39 PM (IST)
According to the South Korean Ministry of Justice, the North Korean Human Rights Archive has so far documented 245 North Korean officials as having committed human rights abuses,KBS World Radio reported.
Most of the perpetrators were within the regime's secret services, its police force as well as other powerful government bodies. They are believed to have physically abused and tortured citizens, along with cases of sexual assault and forced abortions.
Most of the perpetrators were within the regime's secret services, its police force as well as other powerful government bodies. They are believed to have physically abused and tortured citizens, along with cases of sexual assault and forced abortions.
Oct 30, 02:32 PM (IST)
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is set to hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo, with the North Korean nuclear crisis expected to be high on the agenda, Sky Newsreported.
Duterte said on Sunday that he hoped Japan, the US, South Korea and China would consider sending a representative to sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to avoid a nuclear war, which he said was 'totally unacceptable.'
Oct 30, 02:30 PM (IST)
Diplomacy is the only way to achieve a peaceful resolution of the North Korea nuclear crisis, according to Kelsey Davenport, director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association.
She said that in order to bring North Korea back to negotiations, US President Donald Trump and his administration should send a sincere, consistent message that the offer of engagement is real, Korea Times reported.
She said that in order to bring North Korea back to negotiations, US President Donald Trump and his administration should send a sincere, consistent message that the offer of engagement is real, Korea Times reported.
Oct 30, 02:03 PM (IST)
North Korea held its inaugural Autumn Amateur Marathon marathon event in Pyongyang on Sunday, but the event was marred by extremely poor levels of participation, foreigners present in the city during the event told NK News.
Oct 30, 01:59 PM (IST)
During a visit to South Korea yesterday, Stephen Hadley, Executive Vice Chair of the Atlantic Council, emphasized that a diplomatic solution should be the priority in the North Korean nuclear crisis, The Hankyorehreported.
Hadley had served as the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs under former US President George W Bush.
Oct 30, 01:57 PM (IST)
US Air Force commanders sent the B-2 warplane over the Pacific on Saturday in what was described as a proof of its “commitment” to its allies in Asia, the Daily Starreported.
B-2 bombers are some of the most advanced aircraft in the US Air Force. Flown by two pilots, the B-2 can carry sixteen 1,100 kg nuclear bombs along with a massive arsenal of conventional weapons.
B-2 bombers are some of the most advanced aircraft in the US Air Force. Flown by two pilots, the B-2 can carry sixteen 1,100 kg nuclear bombs along with a massive arsenal of conventional weapons.
Oct 30, 01:52 PM (IST)
Read this interesting piece by CBSon defending the United States from North Korea's nuclear threat.
Oct 30, 01:40 PM (IST)
The United States is planning to stockpile its nuclear arsenal and Vice President Mike Pence has hinted the US is ditching the disarmament ambitions of the Obama administration, the Daily Express reported.
The vice-president said: “You can be assured that our administration is committed to strengthen and modernise America’s nuclear deterrent. History attests the surest path to peace is through American strength. There’s no greater element of American strength, there’s no greater force for peace in the world than the United States nuclear arsenal.”
Oct 30, 01:34 PM (IST)
South Korea’s navy will receive the first of its new 230-ton patrol medium rocket (PKMR) ships later today before being deployed to front-line waters near the Northern Limit Line with North Korea early next year.
The warship, which can travel at speeds of up to 75 kph, is armed with 130-mm guided rockets and a 76-mm cannon, according to South Korea’s Defence Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).
Oct 30, 01:27 PM (IST)
The North Korean authorities have ordered the population not to celebrate the traditional Dano holiday, which originated in China and is held on the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar calendar, Daily NK reported.
Stressing their 'independence', the regime is seeking to turn public opinion against China in retaliation for their compliance with international sanctions.
Oct 30, 01:18 PM (IST)
Prime Minister Najib Razak spoke out on Malaysia’s diplomatic relations with North Korea, saying that if the rogue state continued its military aggression, Malaysia may be forced to cut diplomatic ties, according to The Malay Mail.
The premier’s stance comes on the heels of his September trip to the United States, where he met with President Donald Trump. Najib added that the two had discussed the matter in lieu of the murder of the ruler’s half-brother Kim Jong-Nam.
Oct 30, 01:13 PM (IST)
Three local governments in northeastern China have sent home hundreds of South Korean religious people operating there since late last year and taken measures to have their churches closed, as China is expected to implement ramped-up regulations to control religious activities early next year, sources close to the situation said Monday.
Oct 30, 01:09 PM (IST)
This article in the San Francisco Chronicle talks about why the US should not rely on China to force North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programme because North Korea is unlikely to bow to China's demands or instructions.
Oct 30, 01:01 PM (IST)
Seoul's Unification Ministry has emphasized the importance of North Korea's participation in the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Olympics, North Korea Insidereported.
At a press briefing on Monday, spokesman Baik Tae-hyun referred to a Radio Free Asia report that claimed the International Olympic Committee(IOC) had offered to pay all costs for North Korea, if its athletes wish to compete in the sporting event next year.
Oct 30, 12:55 PM (IST)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un took his stylish wife and powerful sister to a make-up plant for a "field guidance trip" amid the country's nuclear standoff with the US.
During a visit to the Pyongyang Cosmetics Factory in the capital, Kim hailed its “world-level” products that realised “the dream of the women who want to be more beautiful,” the official KCNA news agency reported.
Oct 30, 12:40 PM (IST)
North Korea said that it would launch more satellites to boost its economy, despite international opposition, citing its right as a sovereign nation to develop a space programme.
The North Korean regime said that “it is a global trend that a country seeks the economic growth with the space programme”, state-run daily Rodong Sinmun reported. It added that, under its five-year space development plan, it will launch more satellites, Efe news reported.
Oct 30, 12:24 PM (IST)
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg called North Korea a "global threat" Monday and said he backed tighter sanctions against it during a visit to Japan, which has been targeted by Pyongyang's provocations.
Stoltenberg is in Tokyo to meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other senior officials including defence minister Itsunori Onodera later in the day.
Oct 30, 12:18 PM (IST)
The US should stop threatening North Korea and instead assure leader Kim Jong-Un that there are no plans to oust him, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said ahead of his meeting with President Donald Trump next month,Bloomberg reported.
In a televised speech before leaving for Tokyo, Duterte said the US, Japan, China and South Korea should sit down with the North Korean leader to tackle the Pyongyang regime’s weapons development and missile tests. North Korea will be high on the agenda when leaders of the four nations meet their Southeast Asian counterparts in Manila next month, he said.
Oct 30, 12:08 PM (IST)
This October, the US government for the first time imposed economic sanctions on a Chinese company for providing vehicles used to transfer North Korea’s road-mobile nuclear missiles.
The Treasury Department’s little noticed October 13 announcement of sanctions on the Wuhan Sanjiang Import and Export Co. Ltd., focused on the company’s sale of equipment to Iran, however. It only mentions the launcher transfers in passing – a symptom of Washington’s aversion to calling out Beijing on its covert support for the regime in North Korea. Read the full story on Asia Times.
Oct 30, 11:59 AM (IST)
The threat of nuclear missile attack by North Korea is accelerating, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Saturday, accusing the North of illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear programs and pledging to repel any strike.
In remarks in Seoul with South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo at his side, Mattis said North Korea engages in "outlaw" behavior and that the US will never accept a nuclear North.
Oct 30, 11:54 AM (IST)
Senior defense officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan held trilateral talks and urged North Korea to walk away from its "destructive and reckless path" of weapons development, the U.S. military said in a statement.
Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford hosted his South Korean and Japanese counterparts at the U.S. Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii on Sunday to exchange views on North Korea's recent long-range ballistic missile and nuclear tests.
Oct 30, 11:20 AM (IST)
As tensions between the U.S. and North Korea continue to grow, the regime has been conducting safety measures for its people amid threats of nuclear war.
The country has “conducted rare blackout exercises and mass evacuation drills in secondary, tertiary cities and towns last week,”NK News reported Saturday. The drills were not conducted in the nation’s capital of Pyongyang.
Oct 27, 09:42 PM (IST)
Hong Jun-pyo, leader of South Korea's conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party, wants US nukes to be deployed on South Korean soil, something which has not happened since the end of the Cold War in 1991.
Hong said that only “inter-Korean nuclear parity” can solve the current crisis and prevent a war.
Hong said that only “inter-Korean nuclear parity” can solve the current crisis and prevent a war.
Oct 27, 08:26 PM (IST)
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis accused North Korea on Friday of building a nuclear arsenal to “threaten others with catastrophe’’ and said the Trump administration remains committed to compelling the North to accept complete nuclear disarmament.
Oct 27, 06:24 PM (IST)
India has refused to give in to America’s pressure to snap all diplomatic connections with North Korea. In a meeting with the visiting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj categorically said that India has sized down its embassy in DPRK but does not intend to close it down.
Oct 27, 05:57 PM (IST)
President Vladimir Putin personally fired four ballistic missiles during tests of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces, according to the Kremlin.
Putin took part in exercises involving the nuclear triad of strategic bombers, submarines and land-based missiles located in different parts of Russia, his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on a conference call Friday. The drills “aren’t connected with any international events and take place regularly,” Peskov said.O
ct 27, 04:53 PM (IST)
As US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis peered into North Korea from a lookout post on Friday, he was given a blunt reminder by his South Korean counterpart of the vast amount of North Korean artillery within range of Seoul.
Above the faint sound of North Korean propaganda music being blasted from across the border, South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo suggested that US and South Korean missile defenses simply could not stop all of them.
"Defending against this many LRAs (long-range artillery) is infeasible in my opinion," Song told Mattis, citing a need for strategies to "offensively neutralize" the artillery in the event of a conflict.
Mattis replied: "Understood."
Britain said on Friday it believed North Korea was behind the “WannaCry” cyber attack in May that disrupted businesses and government services worldwide, including the National Health Service (NHS) in England.
Security Minister Ben Wallace said Britain believed “quite strongly” that the ransomware attack came from a foreign state.
WannaCry infected more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries in a matter of days, demanding victims pay ransoms starting at $300 to regain access to their machines.
India's diplomatic ties with North Korea could act as a "conduit for communications", US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said.
India had informed the US that it has "minimal" trade with North Korea, and that there was a small Indian embassy in Pyongyang which should stay there so that some channels of communication remain open.
Answering a question about India's refusal to close its embassy in Pyongyang, Tillerson said: "I think they just indicated they think that office has a value as a conduit for communications".
Oct 27, 01:55 PM (IST)
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday there has been no change in U.S. policy protecting South Korea, in the face of missile and nuclear threats from the reclusive North, after a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
In a press release distributed by South Korea's presidential office after the meeting, Mattis was also cited as saying North Korea's obsession with its weapons programmes presented a threat to the United States as well as South Korea.
Oct 27, 01:00 PM (IST)
The decades-long strategic relationship between Beijing and Pyongyang is looking increasingly strained. Find out why.
Oct 27, 12:32 PM (IST)
Mattis has also accused North Korea of building a nuclear arsenal to “threaten others with catastrophe.”
