Category: North Korea

It appears the U.S. and Japan are remaining committed to achieving the fantasy of a denuclearized North Korea:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (front R) inspects a newly launched nuclear material production facility at an unspecified location on June 3, 2026, in this image captured from the website of North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency the next day.

The United States and Japan reiterated their commitment to the “complete denuclearization” of North Korea and rejected Russia’s notion that Pyongyang’s pursuit of nuclear arms was a “closed” issue, as they held key defense talks in Tokyo this week, according to a joint statement.

The allies held the bilateral Extended Deterrence Dialogue at Japan’s foreign ministry on Monday and Tuesday as they seek to reinforce security cooperation in the face of China’s growing assertiveness and North Korea’s advancing nuclear and ballistic missile threats.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If Kim Jong-un wants to improve relations with Xi, strongly stating support for the One China Policy is a way to do it:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said Monday deepening ties with China is his country’s top policy priority, as he held summit talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Pyongyang, according to a report.

The Kim-Xi talks came hours after the Chinese leader arrived in Pyongyang for his first state visit in nearly seven years.

Developing friendship between the North and China is “the people’s choice and the calling of the times,” China’s Xinhua News Agency quoted Kim as saying during the talks with Xi.

Kim said Pyongyang viewed the development of mutual ties as the country’s “most important strategic priority.”

With the international community “going through unprecedented, grand change,” he reaffirmed Pyongyang’s support for Beijing’s “One China” principle and pledged to keep helping safeguard China’s core interests, according to the report.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The North Korean regime has been saying this for years and feel the need to say it yet again:

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said her country’s status as a nuclear-armed state is absolutely irreversible, calling it a “line of no retreat” and vowing not to tolerate any threats against it, the North’s state media reported Sunday.

Kim Yo-jong made the remarks in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), in which she reiterated Pyongyang’s position that its nuclear weapons program is nonnegotiable while rejecting international efforts aimed at denuclearization.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Trump may want to engage with North Korea, but as long as they are allied with Putin they have no reason to engage back:

U.S. President Donald Trump (R) walks with Chinese President Xi Jinping after visiting Zhongnanhai Garden in Beijing on May 15, 2026, in this photo released by AFP. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he discussed North Korea with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their summit in Beijing this week, as he has expressed his desire to reengage with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Trump made the remarks in a meeting with reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Washington after a three-day visit to Beijing.

“I did,” he said, responding to a question about whether he talked about North Korea during his meeting with Xi.

“You know, I have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un. He’s been pretty quiet,” he added.

Asked if he has had any communications with Kim, Trump said, “Yes.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Trump may want to engage with North Korea, but as long as they are allied with Putin they have no reason to engage back:

U.S. President Donald Trump (R) walks with Chinese President Xi Jinping after visiting Zhongnanhai Garden in Beijing on May 15, 2026, in this photo released by AFP. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he discussed North Korea with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their summit in Beijing this week, as he has expressed his desire to reengage with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Trump made the remarks in a meeting with reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Washington after a three-day visit to Beijing.

“I did,” he said, responding to a question about whether he talked about North Korea during his meeting with Xi.

“You know, I have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un. He’s been pretty quiet,” he added.

Asked if he has had any communications with Kim, Trump said, “Yes.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

What if Kim gets assassinated internally? Will North Korea nuke themselves?

North Korea has updated its constitution to require a retaliatory nuclear strike if leader Kim Jong Un is assassinated, according to a report.

The Telegraph reported the change comes amid heightened global tensions following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khameneiand other officials during a recent conflict.

Khamenei was killed in an Israeli strike in Tehran as part of a coordinated U.S.-Israeli military operation earlier this year, Fox News Digital previously reported.

Fox News

You can read more at the link.

This is pretty significant for the North Korean military to be invited to march in this parade:

North Korean troops marched in Russia’s Victory Day military parade held in Moscow on Saturday, according to footage released by Russia’s Tass news agency, in a show of the growing military ties between the two nations. 

In footage posted on Tass’ social media accounts, North Korean soldiers were seen marching in formation through Moscow’s Red Square while carrying the North Korean national flag and a banner marking Russia’s Victory Day, which commemorates the Soviet victory over Germany in World War II.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Hegseth is not wrong about his overall point in regards to North Korea developing nuclear weapons. What he is wrong about is why no prior president struck the Kim regime to stop their nuclear program. It was not because of ballistic missiles, it was because of the country’s massive artillery capacity located along the DMZ that effectively held the millions of people who live in the Seoul area hostage. No U.S. President was willing to strike the Kim regime’s nuclear program and put that many lives at risk from retaliation:

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday described North Korea’s menacing nuclear program as “the lesson” to learn, as he defended the U.S. military operation against Iran, which a Pentagon official said has cost an estimated $25 billion.

Hegseth made the remarks during a House Armed Services Committee hearing, stressing that Iran’s strategy to build nuclear weapons mirrors that of North Korea, as he pointed out that like Pyongyang, Tehran had been building a “conventional shield” of missiles to double down on its nuclear program.

“North Korea is the lesson. Everybody thought North Korea shouldn’t have a weapon,” he said.

“Under the Clinton administration, they gathered so many ballistic missiles that their ballistic missile shield allowed them to blackmail the region and the world (and) to say, ‘We’re going to get a nuke and you can’t do anything about it,'” he said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I always caveat information like this coming from activist groups because it is so hard to know with certainty what is going on in North Korea:

 Executions rose sharply in North Korea for offenses including watching South Korean cultural content during the COVID-19 pandemic, a report showed Tuesday.

The report, released by the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG), a Seoul-based NGO, examines executions and death sentences over the 13 years of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s rule from 2011 to 2024.

Of the 144 confirmed executions during the period, 65 occurred after the North closed its borders at the start of the pandemic. The findings are based on testimonies from 265 North Korean defectors and reporting from five media organizations covering North Korea through in-country contacts. SEOUL, April 28 (Yonhap) — Executions rose sharply in North Korea for offenses including watching South Korean cultural content during the COVID-19 pandemic, a report showed Tuesday.

The report, released by the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG), a Seoul-based NGO, examines executions and death sentences over the 13 years of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s rule from 2011 to 2024.

Of the 144 confirmed executions during the period, 65 occurred after the North closed its borders at the start of the pandemic. The findings are based on testimonies from 265 North Korean defectors and reporting from five media organizations covering North Korea through in-country contacts.

Executions had declined from 2015 to 2019 amid heightened international scrutiny following the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on human rights in North Korea, according to the report.

But they surged again after the COVID-19 border closure in 2020. Over the five years that followed, executions and death sentences rose by 116.7 percent and the number of individuals affected also rose by 247.7 percent. Notably, executions linked to South Korean cultural content, including K-dramas, films and K-pop, as well as religious practices, surged by 250 percent after the border closure, the report said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

When you think about it, it is kind of embarrassing for Moscow to have relied on North Korea to recapture Russian territory. It would be like the U.S. relying on Canada to recapture part of Arizona if Mexico ever attacked the U.S.:

North Korea and Russia are dramatically expanding high-level exchanges, with three Russian ministers visiting the North at the same time, as they mark the first anniversary of the recapture of the Kursk region next week amid Moscow’s war with Ukraine, according to Pyongyang’s state media Thursday.

Sectoral working-level meetings to boost North Korea-Russia cooperation and exchanges were held at a hotel in the Wonsan-Kalma eastern seaside resort region the previous day, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

The meetings brought together Russian Natural Resources Minister Alexander Kozlov, who serves as the Russian chair of the bilateral committee on trade and economic cooperation; North Korea’s External Economic Relations Minister Yun Jong-ho; Russia’s Health Minister Mikhail Murashko; North Korea’s Public Health Minister Kim Tu-won and others.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.