Tag: North Korea

As long as the Ukriane-Russia war continues there is no reason for Kim Jong-un to pursue any diplomacy with Trump. Kim is getting the money and military aid he needs from the Russians for now. If he started diplomacy with Trump it would look like he is backstabbing Putin:

Joseph Yun, the acting U.S. ambassador in Seoul, said Tuesday that any renewed talks between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un hinge on mutual willingness.

“I have no doubt that President Trump considers his engagement with North Korea during his first term as unfinished business, and he wants to reengage with North Korea,” Yun said. 

“But it takes two to tango,” he added. “We have not really heard from the North Korean side whether they too want to reengage. And to me, that’s the bigger unknown.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Via a reader tip comes this news that North Korea is discharging enriched uranium wastewater into a river that flows into the West Sea potentially polluting South Korean waters:

North Korea operates a critical uranium refining facility in North Hwanghae province’s Pyongsan county that serves as a critical link in its nuclear weapons chain. The plant converts mined uranium ore into yellowcake concentrate—essentially purified uranium ready for the next stage of weapons production. This yellowcake then travels to the Yongbyon Nuclear Complex, among other facilities, where scientists enrich it to the high levels needed for nuclear bombs.

Waste generated at the Pyongsan uranium facility has historically been sent to a reservoir across the river for sedimentation. However, satellite imagery has captured evidence that as the sedimentation pond reached capacity, North Korea began discharging wastewater directly into the river system.

Daily NK

You can read more at the link, but interestingly I have heard nothing from the Korean left denouncing this pollution unlike what we saw when Japan discharge far less dangerous wastewater from their nuclear facility far from Korean waters.

It appears that the North Koreans are doubling down on their military cooperation with Russia:

North Korea will send 5,000 military construction workers and 1,000 sappers to Russia’s Kursk region, Russian media reports said Tuesday, in another possible sign of their deepening military alignment as Moscow’s security chief visited Pyongyang for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The announcement came as Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu visited the North Korean capital on a special mission from Russian President Vladimir Putin and held talks with Kim earlier in the day, as the two countries prepare to mark the first anniversary of their mutual defense treaty. 

“Chairman of the State Affairs of the DPRK Kim Jong-un has decided to send 1,000 sappers to Russia to clear mines on Russian territory, as well as 5,000 military construction workers to restore infrastructure destroyed by the occupiers,” Tass quoted Shoigu as saying, referring to the North by the acronym of its official name.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I think it can be argued that North Korea’s involvement in the war with Ukraine has been highly successful for them. The Kim regime has received much needed monetary and military aid from Russia and their troops received much needed combat experience. Additionally when their troops do eventually return they can say they defeated the Ukrainians which they have actually largely done in Kursk province.

With the Ukrainians largely defeated in Kursk province now it will be interesting to see if the North Korean Soldiers are used anywhere else on the frontlines of this war:

A wounded soldier, suspected to be North Korean and captured by Ukrainian forces in Russia’s western Kursk region, is seen in this file photo posted on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s X account on Jan. 12, 2025. 

North Korea is estimated to have sustained more than 6,000 casualties in fighting against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, more than half of the troops Pyongyang initially deployed, according to Britain’s defense ministry.

The ministry shared the assessment in an X post Sunday, two months after its earlier estimate of over 5,000 North Korean troop casualties in Russia’s western front-line region of Kursk in early April.

“The total casualties amount to more than half of the approximately 11,000 DPRK troops initially deployed to the Kursk region,” it said. “Significant DPRK casualty rates have almost certainly been sustained primarily through large, highly attritional dismounted assaults.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

THey may have relaunced the destroyer, but it is unclear how much damage this ship still has to be repaired:

North Korea says it has repaired and relaunched a naval destroyer that capsized during a failed launch attempt last month, but defense experts remain skeptical about the regime’s claim of a quick recovery. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the relaunch of the 5,000-ton warship Thursday at Rajin Shipyard on the country’s northeastern coast, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Friday.

The event came just three weeks after that vessel capsized and sustained hull damage during a launch attempt at Chongjin Shipyard, about 50 miles south of Rajin. In a rare admission, KCNA acknowledged the failure, quoting Kim at the time as calling it a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Despite the setback, KCNA on Friday portrayed the relaunch as a testament to North Korea’s maritime strength. The rapid repairs are proof of the communist regime’s “progress and lead of the warship-building industry,” the report said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It looks like things are going to be a little quieter along the DMZ:

North Korea stopped broadcasting propaganda along the inter-Korean border late Wednesday, hours after the South took the first step by silencing its own loudspeakers — a move aimed at easing tensions. South Korea halted its broadcasts along the 160-mile Demilitarized Zone at 2 p.m.

Wednesday, according to a statement from the presidential office the following day. By that evening, no North Korean broadcasts were heard along the border, South Korean army Col. Lee Sung-jun said during a news conference Thursday. The South’s loudspeakers have typically played K-pop music, news and other content intended to challenge Pyongyang’s ideological control. North Korea’s broadcasts, in contrast, feature political monologues condemning South Korean society and democratic governance.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This guy is definitely rotting away in a gulag somewhere judging by these actions:

 North Korea appears to have edited recent state media images to remove a top naval commander after last month’s failed launch of a new warship, NK News has reported.

In state media footage aired Friday on the relaunch ceremony of the 5,000-ton Kang Kon destroyer, Kim Myong-sik, the North’s former chief navy commander, was notably absent from images showing leader Kim Jong-un’s earlier inspection of the warship’s construction.

Hong Kil-ho, manager of the Chongjin Shipyard — where an incident involving the destroyer reportedly occurred — also appeared to have been deleted from the images.

NK News said state media has not commonly deleted officials from photos since the 2013 execution of Jang Song-thaek, an uncle of the North’s leader who was purged from senior leadership.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

With North Korea currently assisting Russia with an active war against Ukraine, it doesn’t make sense for Kim Jong-un to try and pursue diplomacy with the U.S. at this time:

 U.S. President Donald Trump is “receptive” to correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and wants to see the progress that was made during their first summit in 2018, a White House spokesperson said Wednesday.

Karoline Leavitt, the spokesperson, made the remarks after NK News reported, citing an “informed high-level source,” that North Korean diplomats in New York had refused to accept a letter from Trump, which was aimed at reestablishing communication channels between Washington and Pyongyang.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

As long as Russia continues to be North Korea’s major patron there is no reason for the Kim regime to pursue any negotations with the ROK and the U.S. That is unless the new Lee Jae-myung administration plans to make unilateral concessions for little to nothing in return from North Korea:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has vowed to “unconditionally” support Russia over the war against Ukraine and “responsibly” observe the articles of a mutual defense treaty signed between Pyongyang and Moscow, the North’s state media reported Thursday.

Kim made the remarks during his meeting with Russia’s Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu the previous day in Pyongyang, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Shoigu, Russia’s top security official, arrived in North Korea on Wednesday, amid deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, highlighted by the North’s troop dispatch to Russia to support the war against Ukraine.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

That is what one analyst is claiming the North Koreans are trying to do:

Decker Eveleth, a researcher at the Center for Naval Analyses, theorized that North Korea is attempting to lift up its 5,000-ton destroyer with methods inspired by Pixar’s 2009 film “Up” in his account on X, along with a satellite image of the damaged warship. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

In a scene that evokes Pixar’s 2009 animation film “Up,” North Korea seems to be using balloon-like devices to lift a 5,000-ton warship that capsized during its launch at Chongjin Shipyard, according to a military expert. 
  
Decker Eveleth, a researcher at the Center for Naval Analyses, posted satellite imagery on his X account on Monday showing the damaged warship partially covered with a blue tarp and surrounded by several white objects.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.