Category: North Korea

The statement is not surprising, what is a little surprising is how long it took the Kim regime to make the statement in support of the Russians. I think this may be another indication that the Kim regime is readying for a nuclear test. They support the Russians now and the Russians will support them later in blocking sanctions in the UN Security Council after any nuclear test:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Sunday expressed full support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, the country’s state media reported, despite international condemnation for his invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian people have “achieved great successes in accomplishing the just cause of defending the dignity and security of their country … while braving all sorts of challenges and hardships,” Kim said in a message to Putin on the occasion of the Russia Day holiday, according to North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency. “The Korean people extend full support and encouragement to them.”

Kim’s apparent reference to the unprovoked attack against Ukraine as a “just cause” for defending Russia’s security is the latest sign that illustrates decades-old close bilateral ties between the two countries.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest provocation by North Korea as they likely try and build up tensions leading up towards their suspected nuclear test:

North Korea test-fired suspected artillery pieces into the sea on Sunday, South Korea’s military said, days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for greater defense capability to cope with outside threats.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that it detected several flight trajectories believed to be North Korean artillery on Sunday morning. It said South Korea maintains a firm military readiness in close coordination with the United States amid boosted surveillance on North Korea.

Associated Press

You can read more at the link.

North Korea’s missile launches may get the bigger headlines, but their robust artillery is the real danger to South Korea due to the 25 million people in the Seoul region living within artillery range.

It seems to me that Kim Jong-un is setting conditions to justify a nuclear test:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for stronger “self-defense” measures to tackle “very serious” security challenges as he presided over a key ruling party session earlier this week, Pyongyang’s state media reported Saturday. 

But there was no specific message issued from the fifth enlarged plenary meeting of the party’s eighth Central Committee with regard to the possibility of the secretive regime carrying out another nuclear test. 

The North stopped short of delivering new major messages toward the United States or South Korea through the three-day high-profile session that ended Friday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It seems logical that the Kim regime’s playbook would eventually have them build up to a nuclear test:

South Korea’s National Security Council (NSC) strongly condemned the North’s latest missile launches Sunday, saying Pyongyang will “gain nothing” from its continued saber-rattling.  
   
The remarks came shortly after the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North fired eight short-range ballistic missiles into waters off its east coast. (……)

The latest missiles also came a day after Seoul and Washington completed a three-day combined naval exercise involving the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan. The exercise was held in international waters off the Japanese island of Okinawa. 

The looming question among military experts is when the regime will carry out a nuclear test.  
   
South Korean officials have for weeks floated the possibility of an imminent nuclear experiment, which would be the seventh of its kind if North Korea follows through. Officials in Seoul and Washington have mentioned recent satellite images of ongoing tunnel excavation and construction work at Punggye-ri as signs that the regime is preparing for another test.  
   
The Punggye-ri test site, located in a mountainous region in the country’s remote North Hamgyong Province, is the North’s only known nuclear test site and the location of six nuclear weapons tests between October 2006 and September 2017. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This weekend North Korea decided to attack the fish in the East Sea again:

North Korea on Sunday launched eight short-range ballistic missiles off its eastern coast, according to the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The missiles were fired between 9:08 a.m. and 9:43 a.m. from the Sunan area, where North Korea’s international airport is located, the Joint Chiefs said in a text message to reporters. Further details were not immediately available from the military.

South Korea’s military is prepared for additional missile tests and is “maintaining a full readiness posture” and working closely with U.S. forces, the Joint Chiefs said.

The launches mark the 17th round of missile tests so far this year by North Korea and its first in June.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It looks like a seventh nuclear test by North Korea will happen in the near term:

North Korea has been testing a nuclear triggering device apparently in preparation for what would be the country’s seventh nuclear test, a senior presidential official said Wednesday.

The experiments have been taking place at a location away from Punggye-ri, the site of all six North Korean nuclear tests to date, said Kim Tae-hyo, first deputy director of the National Security Office, without naming the place.

“Operation tests of a nuclear detonation device, which are to prepare for the seventh nuclear test at Punggye-ri, are being detected,” Kim told reporters. “The possibility of an imminent nuclear test in the next day or two is low, but after that, there is certainly a possibility.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The North Korean sent off some fireworks after President Biden left the region:

 North Korea fired three ballistic missiles Wednesday morning off its eastern coast, prompting the United States and South Korea to respond with a show of force of their own launches.

North Korea’s missiles, fired hours after President Joe Biden wrapped up his first presidential trip to Seoul and Tokyo, came from the Sunan area, where the regime’s airport is located, according to the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

The three missiles were fired at 6 a.m., 6:37 a.m. and 6:42 a.m. The first, believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile, flew roughly 224 miles at a peak altitude of 336 miles; the second “disappeared” at an altitude of 12 miles; and the third, believed to be a short-range ballistic missile, flew about 472 miles at an altitude of 37 miles, according to South Korea’s military.

Stars & Stripes

Here is what the US and the ROK did in response:

Following the launches, U.S. Forces Korea announced in an unsigned press release that it had fired surface-to-surface missiles toward its eastern coast “to demonstrate the ability of the combined [U.S.-South Korea] force to respond quickly to crisis events.”

USFK, which is responsible for roughly 28,500 troops on the Korean Peninsula, said in the release it used the Army’s Tactical Missile System and South Korea’s Hyunmu-2 missile system for the live-fire exercise.

South Korea’s military also conducted an armed exercise consisting of 30 South Korean F-15K jets, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement Wednesday.

You can read more at the link, but the missile tests are what I thought was the most likely provocation the Kim regime would do. What to watch for next is a nuclear test. I think this will be tied to any increased rhetoric from the US and ROK condemning the North in the coming days. I guess we will see what happens.