Category: North Korea

It appears that North Korea is signaling that they have cluster munitions just like Iran has used against Israel:

North Korea has tested cluster bombs in its latest launch of surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, supervised by leader Kim Jong-un, state media reported Monday.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) published the report of the launch of the Hwasong-11 Ra tactical ballistic missile a day after South Korea’s military detected multiple short-range ballistic missiles launched toward the East Sea at around 6:10 a.m. from North Korea’s Sinpho area.

The KCNA said the purpose of the test-launch was to evaluate the power of the “cluster bomb warhead and fragmentation mine warhead” fitted to the weapon system.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Since Iran has been using cluster bomb munitions it looks like North Korea wanted to show the world they have them too:

North Korea said Thursday that it has test-fired a tactical ballistic missile tipped with a cluster bomb warhead, claiming it can “reduce to ashes” any targeted areas with the highest-density power.

North Korea fired the surface-to-surface missile Hwasong-11Ka tipped with a cluster bomb warhead as part of its tests of “important” weapons systems that were conducted from Monday to Wednesday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The test confirmed that the missile “can reduce to ashes any target covering an area of 6.5-7 hectares with the highest-density power,” the KCNA said.

Korea Times

You can read more at that link.

Here is an interesting bit of history which China clearly saw as empty threats from North Korea:

This photo, taken Nov. 14, 1995, shows then Chinese President Jiang Zemin (L) holding summit talks with South Korean President Kim Young-sam during his visit to Seoul. (Yonhap)

North Korea sharply reacted to growing relations between South Korea and China in the mid-1990s, even threatening to establish formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan in retaliation, declassified dossiers showed Tuesday. 

Pyongyang’s objection came as China was arranging its then leader Jiang Zemin’s visit to Seoul for November 1995, three years after Beijing and Seoul established diplomatic ties in the post–Cold War era, a move that had angered the North, its traditional ally. 

Diplomatic documents from 1995, released by the foreign ministry, revealed that the North had lashed out at China for drawing closer to the South in a June 1995 meeting of state think tank experts. 

When the Chinese side voiced concerns over Pyongyang’s approach to Taiwan at the time, North Korean experts reacted sharply by asking, “Why shouldn’t North Korea develop relations with Taiwan when China and South Korea were engaging in high-level exchanges?” according to the dossiers.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

That is what one academic thinks:

Lee Sung-yoon, principal fellow at the Seoul-based Sejong Institute, whose 2023 book, “The Sister: North Korea’s Kim Yo-jong, the most dangerous woman in the world,” sheds light on the Mount Paektu Bloodline and the dynamics of the brother-sister duo that is Kim Jong-un and Kim Yo-jong, argues the question is a moot one.

“Whether this is a promotion or a demotion, it doesn’t really matter because Kim Yo-jong has been the de facto No. 2 person in the North Korean hierarchy for many years,” Lee said during an interview with The Korea Herald in Seoul on March 18.

In fact, she has been the de facto No. 2 person since 2012, Lee posited. (….)

Kim Yo-jong has issued over 65 formal statements, some of which emphasize that her authority derives from “Comrade Chairman,” her brother Kim Jong-un, the party and the state, according to Lee. Among the statements that she has issued are several that threaten to “nuke” South Korea.

“That kind of unfettered power, access to nuclear weapons by a very powerful woman, among the nine nuclear-weapon-possessing states, we’ve never seen this before. So, I call her the most dangerous woman in the world,” Lee said.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting if anything will be publicly disclosed on what these two leaders discussed during their summit:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has welcomed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Pyongyang, as the Belarusian leader made his first official visit to the North, according to the North’s state media Thursday.

The ceremony to welcome Lukashenko took place at Kim Il Sung Square on Wednesday as he arrived in Pyongyang for a two-day official visit at the invitation of the North’s leader, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Both North Korea and Belarus have supported Russia in its invasion against Ukraine, with Pyongyang sending troops and weapons and Minsk allowing Moscow to uses territory for the invasion.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is going to be interesting to see if over time defectors from this area come down with a higher rate of cancer like what happened to people exposed to radiation at the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing sites:

A quarter of North Korean defectors from regions near the northeastern Punggye-ri nuclear test site have shown chromosome mutations possibly attributable to exposure to radioactivity, data showed Monday. 

Radioactive exposure tests conducted in 2024 by the Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences (KIRAMS) on 35 North Korean defectors from eight regions near the Punggye-ri nuclear test site found that 12 of them, or 34 percent, showed chromosome mutations possibly linked to radiation exposure, according to the unification ministry.

The regions include Kilju, Kimchaek and Paekam. Since 2006, the North has conducted all of its six nuclear tests at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, located in Kilju County.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

All the appeasement by President Lee hasn’t matter as Kim Jong-un continues to bash South Korea:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un formally called South Korea the “most hostile state” and warned of merciless consequences if provoked, the North’s state media reported Tuesday.

South Korea “is officially designated as the most hostile nation,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted Kim as saying on the second and final day of the first session of the Supreme People’s Assembly. 

Kim said South Korea will pay the price for any provocation if Seoul provokes Pyongyang, according to the KCNA. 

Kim also said his country’s status as a nuclear weapons state will never change, vowing to make efforts to fight “hostile forces” against Pyongyang.

Yonhap

An authoritarian cult of personality like what North Korea has must have a threat to justify its rule. No matter what President Lee does the Kim regime is going to label South Korea as an enemy. The best they can hope for is to be called a puppet regime of their other enemy the United States. Notice though that Kim has been real quiet about bashing Trump. He seems to understand better than many leaders in the West that if you don’t bash Trump he won’t bash you. Pretty simple.

The irony of a country that regularly fires missiles that land off the coast of Japan and have even fired missiles over the country complaining about Japan deploying their own missiles to protect themselves in response:

North Korea on Friday condemned Japan’s plan to deploy upgraded long-range missiles across the country, calling the move a dangerous military escalation, according to the communist regime’s state-run media. The criticism was reported by the Korean Central News Agency, which said the deployments would allow Japan to target neighboring countries from multiple locations. The missile deployments are “undoubtably an extremely dangerous military act,” KCNA said. “If this becomes reality, Japan would be deploying missiles capable of targeting neighboring countries across the entire nation.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but what the Japanese should do is for every North Korean missile tests that lands near Japan, they should fire a Type-12 missile that lands near North Korea in response.

North Korea is likely spending their limited resources on what is a prestige project instead of a real military capability for them. As Iranian found out, the U.S. military will sink the North Korean navy very quickly during any conflict:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has overseen a test-firing of strategic cruise missiles from a new destroyer ahead of its commissioning, noting that equipping the navy with nuclear weapons is making “satisfactory progress,” state media reported Thursday.

Kim inspected the Choe Hyon at a shipyard in the western port city of Nampho on Tuesday and Wednesday to review its crew members’ combat training and assess its operational capabilities, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Kim oversaw the launch of sea-to-surface strategic cruise missiles from the destroyer Wednesday, assessing the test as a “core” element of the warship’s operational capabilities.

North Korea’s reference to “strategic” weapons suggests that they could have nuclear capabilities.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I don’t think Kim is concerned at all about being next. If anything he is pointing out to everyone that he was correct to advance their nuclear and missile programs. Additionally he still has a positive relationship with Trump which is important:

North Korea’s sharply worded condemnation of recent US strikes on Iran has fueled debate over whether its leader Kim Jong-un feels unsettled by the dramatic downfalls of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

And experts said the lesson for Kim may be less about fear than survival. Rather than pushing him toward talks with Washington, such events could reinforce his belief that only a credible nuclear deterrent guarantees regime security — a strategic difference that may embolden, rather than frighten, Pyongyang as it watches both the military action and its political aftermath, they pointed out. (………)

The removal of Maduro in January and the subsequent US-backed operation that eliminated Khamenei marked a rare sequence of regime-toppling actions against leaders openly hostile to Washington. Some experts say the developments inevitably resonate in Pyongyang and that the back-to-back removals of anti-US leaders complicate Kim’s calculus, particularly regarding whether to accept a potential summit.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.