Category: North Korea

The reelection of Kim Jong-un is the type of election Xi likes, one with no opposition because anyone that thinks of opposing is killed:

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday sent a congratulatory letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on his reelection as the ruling party’s general secretary, vowing to strengthen strategic cooperation with Pyongyang, a Chinese news report said.

Xi sent the celebratory telegram to Kim after the North Korean leader was reelected as general secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during the ongoing party congress, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

 I definitely think of better place to spend Lunar New Year’s than in North Korea:

China’s Ambassador to North Korea Wang Yajun and other embassy officials have visited a beach resort area in North Korea on the occasion of the Lunar New Year, state media reported Sunday, raising views on whether Pyongyang is seeking to attract Chinese tourists.

Wang and other members of the Chinese Embassy in North Korea attended the friendly meeting that took place at the Wonsan-Kalma beach resort area the previous day, also attended by the North’s Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong-ho, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Pyongyang’s foreign ministry hosted a banquet to mark the Lunar New Year at a landmark hotel in the coastal tourist district, the KCNA said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

You know things are bad on the North Korea engagement front when former President Moon’s point man on Kim regime appeasement, Moon Chung-in has largely given up on bilateral talks:

Prospects for inter-Korean dialogue are even more constrained, Moon said, noting that North Korea has formally labelled South Korea a hostile state and cut off nearly all communication channels. Symbolic or technical measures, he added, are unlikely to alter Pyongyang’s broader strategy.

“Suspending loudspeaker broadcasts or softening rhetoric will not change North Korea’s strategic calculus,” Moon said, “The problem is structural, not tactical.”

When assessing the Lee Jae Myung administration’s North Korea policy, Moon said that the government’s intentions matter less than the external environment that shapes Pyongyang’s choices. He pointed out that North Korea currently has little incentive to engage, given that it can withstand pressure with the backing of Russia and China.

“It’s not that Seoul is unwilling to talk,” Moon said. “North Korea simply does not feel the need to respond.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I have been saying for months that these attempts to start talks with North Korea are pointless. They have no reason to pursue talks with the ROK when the Russians are currently filling all their economic and security needs.

At this point I don’t think there is much to talk about in regards to DPRK missile launches other than just confirming what was fired:

South Korea, the United States and Japan discussed North Korea’s latest missile launch and coordination efforts in three-way phone talks the previous day, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Wednesday. 

Baek Yong-jin, director general for the Korean Peninsula policy, spoke by phone with Dan Cintron, acting U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state, and Otsuka Kengo, deputy director general of the Japanese foreign ministry’s Asia and Oceania bureau, the ministry said. 

On Tuesday, South Korea’s military said the North fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea, in yet another military muscle-flexing by Pyongyang ahead of its upcoming key party congress. 

North Korean state media said Wednesday it has test-fired an upgraded large-caliber multiple rocket launcher system, with leader Kim Jong-un in attendance.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

These guys seem pretty dumb by admitting to flying these drones over North Korea on TV and thinking nothing was going to happen:

This photo, carried by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 10, 2026, shows what North Korea claimed was a drone sent by South Korea on Sept. 27, 2025

A joint team of police and military investigators on Wednesday raided the homes and offices of three civilian suspects accused of flying drones into North Korea, police said.

The team carried out search and seizure warrants against the three civilian suspects on charges of violating the Aviation Safety Act at 8 a.m., according to the National Police Agency’s National Office of Investigation.

The joint investigation was launched last week after North Korea claimed South Korea infringed on its sovereignty with drone incursions in September and on Jan. 4. South Korea’s military has denied involvement, saying it does not operate the drone models in question.

Police said they would conduct a thorough investigation while keeping all possibilities open but declined to identify the suspects.

The raid comes after a 30-something graduate student, surnamed Oh, claimed to have flown the drones himself in a media interview aired last Friday. The team also questioned a civilian suspect over the alleged incursions the same day.

The two, who attended the same university in Seoul, were found to have worked at the presidential office under former President Yoon Suk Yeol and to have co-founded a drone manufacturing startup with university support in 2024.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Kim Jong-un appears to continue to groom his daughter for future leadership in North Korea:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter Ju-ae has paid tribute at the family mausoleum for the first time, accompanied by her father, the North’s state media images showed Friday. 

Her first known attendance at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where the North Korean leader’s late father and grandfather lie in state, came amid growing speculation about her presence in the North Korean communist dynasty’s potential succession. 

Kim, his wife and Ju-ae, as well as key party and government officials, visited the family mausoleum on New Year’s Day.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is pretty clear that the North Korean regime was sending a message to the Trump administration with these missile launches to not try to launch an operation against Kim Jong-un like what was done to Maduro. Honestly as long as Kim Jong-un doesn’t threaten America Trump will leave him alone:

The launch of missiles came as President Lee Jae Myung was set to depart for Beijing for summit talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. It also came after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Washington has captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a large-scale military strike. 

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the missiles launched from near Pyongyang at around 7:50 a.m.

The missiles flew some 900 kilometers, the JCS said, adding the South Korean and U.S. authorities were analyzing the exact details of the launch.

The missiles reportedly landed at sea, according to a JCS official.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It has been as busy year for Kim Jong-un:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made the most public appearances in nine years in 2025, as he increased diplomatic engagement and on-site supervision of the implementation of a five-year national development plan, data showed Sunday. 

Kim’s public appearances, as reported by North Korea’s state media, totaled 118 as of the end of November, according to data from the Korea Institute for National Unification. 

Including additional public activities reported by state media between Dec. 1 and 27, the total number rose to 131.

This year’s total marks a slight increase from last year’s 127 and matches the previous high recorded in 2016.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.