N. Korea’s industrial plant opening ceremony An industrial plant opens its doors in the North Korean border city of Kaesong as part of Pyongyang’s local development plan on Feb. 1, 2025, in this photo released by the North’s Korean Central News Agency the following day. (Yonhap)
It was only a matter of time before someone in the Trump administration said something that the Kim regime could latch on to, to justify future provocations:
North Korea on Monday condemned U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio for calling Pyongyang a “rogue state” and vowed powerful counteraction in its first official criticism against the Trump administration.
A spokesperson at North Korea’s foreign ministry issued the statement after Rubio said the United States has rogue states to deal with, such as Iran and North Korea, during his recent interview with U.S. journalist Megyn Kelly.
North Korea condemned Rubio’s remarks for tarnishing the image of a sovereign state, calling them a “grave political provocation,” according to the Korean Central News Agency.
“It is necessary to mention how absurd and illogical it is that the most depraved state in the world brands another country a rogue state,” the spokesperson said, stressing that Rubio’s remarks reaffirmed the U.S. hostile policy toward the North remains unchanged.
Just like the previous administration the Trump administration is negotiating from a starting point of fantasy if they think the Kim regime will ever negotiate away their nuclear weapons program:
U.S. President Donald Trump will pursue the “complete denuclearization of North Korea,” a White House official said Tuesday, amid questions over whether Trump’s recent reference to the North as a “nuclear power” signaled any policy shift.
National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes made the remarks shortly after the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited a nuclear-material production base and a nuclear weapons institute in an apparent move to highlight its military capability.
“President Trump will pursue the complete denuclearization of North Korea, just as he did in his first term,” Hughes said in response to a question from Yonhap News Agency.
It looks like the Kim regime may be preparing more Soldiers for the meat grinder in Russia’s war agaisnt Ukraine:
North Korea may be accelerating plans to send more troops to replace frontline casualties incurred fighting Ukraine on behalf of Russia. Pyongyang plans to send Moscow an unspecified number of troops to replace those killed, wounded or imprisoned, according to a Friday report from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The North Korean reinforcements are expected to arrive within two months, according to a New York Times report published Wednesday that cited an unnamed U.S. defense official.
Roughly 12,000 North Koreans may have deployed to Russia as early as October to fight in the nearly 2-year conflict, U.S. and Ukrainian authorities have said. Of those, around 3,000 were killed or wounded in fighting in Russia’s western front, South Korean lawmakers Lee Seong-kweun and Park Sun-won, citing a closed-door National Intelligence Service briefing, told reporters earlier this month.
On the North Korean provocation scale, testing a cruise missile is pretty low:
North Korea on Sunday said it tested sea-to-surface strategic cruise-guided missiles, the previous day, in its first provocation since US President Donald Trump officially began his second term.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Missile Administration test-fired the missiles on Saturday, which flew 1,500 kilometers over their flight trajectories for 7,507 to 7,511 seconds before precisely hitting their targets, according to the Korean Central News Agency. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or DPRK is North Korea’s official name.
This really is not surprising that the rank and file North Korean Soldiers did not know they were being sent to fight against Ukraine:
One of the two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine this month has claimed that he arrived in Russia without knowing whom he would be fighting, according to another video of his interrogation released by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Earlier this month, Zelenskyy disclosed that his forces had captured the North Korean soldiers in Russia’s western front-line region of Kursk, sharing videos of their interrogation on the social media platform X.
In the latest video posted on Monday (local time), one of the captured soldiers said he arrived in Russia aboard a ship with around 100 others before being transported inland by rail with them.
“Even after coming here, I didn’t know that I would be fighting the Ukrainian people,” the man said in the video in Korean. The video could not be independently verified.
Kim Jong-un decided to have an early fireworks show for the upcoming U.S. Presidential innauguration. It will be interesting to see if Kim decides to fire something next week as well:
North Korea fired several suspected short-range ballistic missiles off its eastern coast Tuesday morning in its second day of testing so far this year, according to the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The missiles were launched around 9:30 a.m. from Chagang province, roughly 140 miles north of Pyongyang, and flew approximately 155 miles before splashing into the Sea of Japan, or East Sea, the Joint Chiefs said in a text message to news agencies. South Korea and the United States had been monitoring the North’s preparations for Tuesday’s launch and “immediately” began tracking the missiles, according to the Joint Chiefs.
Here is a DeepL translation (UA->EN) of that part. It reveals that the soldier’s motivation to fight was not connected to Russia’s war itself but stemmed from his loyalty to the NK regime – loyalty that appeared partly driven by a sense of guilt over something he had done back… pic.twitter.com/Rx0ZDCYm1A
Here is what South Korean intelligence is saying is the estimated casualty numbers for North Korean troops fighting in Russia against Ukraine:
National Intelligence Service chief Cho Tae-yong (C) attends a plenary session of the intelligence committee at the National Assembly in Seoul on Jan. 13, 2025. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
At least 300 North Korean soldiers dispatched to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine have been killed, with some 2,700 others injured, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers Monday.
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) shared the information with lawmakers during a closed-door meeting by the parliamentary intelligence committee, according to Rep. Lee Seong-kweun of the ruling People Power Party.
The NIS said it attributed the “massive casualties” of North Korean soldiers to their “lack of understanding of modern warfare,” including their “useless” act of shooting at long-range drones, based on the agency’s analysis of a combat video it obtained recently.
There is really nothing I don’t agree with in Jake Sullivan’s statement:
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Friday portrayed impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol’s botched martial law bid as “shocking” and “wrong,” but voiced confidence that “structurally,” the South Korea-U.S. alliance is “incredibly healthy.”
Speaking in a press meeting, he also noted that the Biden administration was not able to make “substantial” progress in the efforts toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula with the security trend moving in the “wrong” direction, but stressed America and its allies are in a “materially better” position to deter North Korean threats.
He also expressed concerns over the “risk” of North Korea using the ongoing political turmoil in South Korea to engage in provocative activities, but underscored that Pyongyang “should make no mistake” given the strength of the bilateral alliance.
