Tag: North Korea

It sure seems like the North Korean military makes a lot of “mistakes” crossing the MDL:

This file photo, provided by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on March 27, 2025, shows North Korean troops repairing fences at the eastern border. 

South Korea’s military said Tuesday it fired warning shots at a group of North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the military demarcation line (MDL) inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the two Koreas. 

About 10 armed North Korean soldiers returned to the North after the South Korean military aired warning broadcasts and fired warning shots in an eastern front-line area at around 5 p.m., according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

The JCS said South Korea’s military is “closely monitoring the movement of the North Korean military and taking necessary measures in accordance with the operational procedures.” 

The JCS said it suspects the North Korean soldiers’ border crossing occurred accidentally while they were conducting a regular patrol.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Appeasement of North Korea is what one analyst expects and the Korean left’s track record on this issue shows this will likely come true:

Sung-Yoon Lee, a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., said Yoon’s removal “virtually enthrones” Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung as the likely next president. Lee, who has not formally announced a run for the presidency, faced Yoon in the 2022 election.

In December, he famously scaled a wall at the National Assembly to block Yoon’s martial law decree. Yoon defended his decision, accusing the Democrats of obstructing legislation and conducting politically motivated investigations of government appointees. “If Lee Jae-myung or another [Democratic Party] politician takes power, we can anticipate big changes — mostly for the worse for South Korea’s national security and its alliance with the U.S., based on the ignoble record on North Korea policy …,” Sung-Yoon Lee told Stars and Stripes by email Friday. (…..)

“Politicians are prone to switching colors on various issues,” Sung-Yoon Lee said. “But Lee Jae-myung and his fellow lawmakers are united and unswerving when it comes to appeasing Kim …”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It would be foolish of the North Koreans to not test the effectiveness of their weapon systems in Ukraine so this should not be a surprise to anyone:

North Korea is using its support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to test weapons it could deploy against the South in a future conflict, Ukraine’s ambassador to Seoul said in a news report Sunday. Ukraine and South Korea share a common adversary, Ukrainian Ambassador to South Korea Dmytro Ponomarenko said in written remarks published by Yonhap News. South Korea “should not forget that Pyongyang also uses Ukrainian soil as a testing ground for its weaponry, which could be used in future possible standoff,” Ponomarenko said. Seoul “has no reason to hesitate in the development of full-scale military-technical cooperation” with Kyiv, he said. “It’s a matter of interest for both Kyiv and Seoul,” he added.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Let me get this right, North Korea can regularly fire missiles near and over Japan, but Japan when Japan install missiles on its own territory in response North Korea is now upset?:

North Korea warned Japan against stationing long-range missiles on Kyushu, accusing the country of furthering a “history of aggression,” according to a report Thursday from the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

Japan is considering deploying an upgraded version of its Type-12 surface-to-ship missiles there at the end of the next fiscal year, Kyodo News reported Sunday, citing unnamed government sources. Japan’s fiscal year runs April 1 to March 31. The deployment to Japan’s southernmost main island would put the missiles — expected to have a range of about 620 miles, according to Kyodo — within reach of North Korea and China’s coast.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

My assessment is that this disclosure of a nuclear powered submarine is more for PR purposes than any actual near term military benefits. This technology is very difficult to master and they are likely many years from having a working prototype. However, like with their nuclear program if nothing is done to reign their program in over a 10-15 year period, they will likely eventually have a working nuclear powered submarine:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, third from right, smiles during his visit to a shipyard to inspect nuclear submarine construction in this photo released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, Saturday. Yonhap

North Korea has publicly unveiled the construction of a nuclear-powered submarine, a weapons system that could pose a serious security threat to South Korea and allies if successfully developed, due to its ability to operate submerged for months.

On Saturday, Pyongyang’s state-run media, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), released photos of leader Kim Jong-un inspecting shipyards focused on constructing warships, including “a nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine.”

“Kim stressed the need to make overwhelmingly powerful warships to contain hostile forces’ habitual gunboat diplomacy,” the KCNA reported without disclosing the exact location of the shipyards.

It was the first time that North Korea disclosed the ship’s appearance.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This was very predictable that North Korea would fire missiles in response to the start of the US-ROK combined exercise:

 North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles toward the Yellow Sea on Monday, South Korea’s military said, as Seoul and Washington launched their annual military drills, marking the North’s first known ballistic missile test since U.S. President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. 

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch from an area near the western county of Hwangju in North Hwanghae Province at around 1:50 p.m., noting that it may have involved close-range ballistic missiles (CRBMs).

CRBMs refer to ballistic missiles that have a relatively short range of less than 300 kilometers.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Whatever family this North Korean Soldier has are definitely in labor camps now with him providing intelligence information to the ROK:

A North Korean soldier captured by Ukraine said that the North has military training camps that feature mockups of facilities and buildings in Seoul, Busan and Jeju Island, according to a South Korean lawmaker who recently met the soldier on Thursday. 

Rep. Yu Yong-weon of the ruling People Power Party made the remarks in an interview with SBS radio, as he released an audio clip of the North Korean soldier, identified only by his surname Ri. Ri is one of two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukrainian forces in January during combat against Kyiv in Russia’s Kursk region.

“When you go to the place where we train, called the Armed Forces Training Ground, it is filled with buildings modeled after the terrain of Seoul’s Jongno District, as well as Busan, Daegu, Jeonju, and Jeju Island,” Ri said in the audio recording. 

The training site, apparently aimed at simulating raids on South Korea, is located in Koksan County in North Hwanghae Province in North Korea, Ri said. 

Although it has been known that North Korea has built training sites resembling the former presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae for military exercises in the past, Yu said, “The existence of such a facility specifically in Koksan was largely unknown.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this really shouldn’t be surprising that North Korea would have these mock ups. I think the only thing surprising is a mock up of Jeju island. That would be logistically very challenging for the North Koreans to pull off any kind of operation there, but obviously they are training for it.

With North Korea re-opened to Western tourists, applications are now being accepted for the Pyongyang Marathon on 6 April 2025, as per @KoryoTours.

— Raphael Rashid (@koryodynasty) March 3, 2025

Since when has North Korea ever cared about UN resolutions?:

 The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief said Monday there are signs of North Korea continuing to operate uranium enrichment plants in two different locations, as he stressed further development of its nuclear program is a “clear” breach of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi made the remarks in reference to the plants in Kangson near Pyongyang, and Yongbyon, north of the capital, as he delivered an introductory statement during the agency’s Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, Austria.

The assessment came after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was reported in January to have toured a nuclear-material production base and a nuclear weapons institute — a sign that Pyongyang is doubling down on its nuclear program though Seoul and Washington are pursuing the “complete” denuclearization of North Korea.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.