Russia has exported to North Korea and air defense system that failed to shootdown any Israeli jets that executed the bombing campaign over Iran. After the Israeli bombing campaign, Kim Jong-un cannot possibly have much faith that this system will protect his capitol against a U.S. bombardment:
North Korea has already been using the Pantsir-S1 air defense system provided by Russia to defend the North’s capital of Pyongyang, a Ukrainian online newspaper reported Wednesday, citing Kyiv’s intelligence chief.
Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR), made the remark in an interview with Hromadske Radio the previous day (local time), according to The Kyiv Independent.
The Pantsir missile system is made up of self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery systems.
Budanov said the first Pantsir-S1 installations have already been deployed in Pyongyang and are on combat duty. He added that the Russians are retraining North Korean personnel, who will soon be working autonomously on this technology.
You can read more at the link.
The North Korean media for the first time is showing that North Korean Soldiers have been killed in Ukraine:
North Korea’s state media aired Monday images of its leader Kim Jong-un mourning over his soldiers believed to have been killed in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The images, released by Korean Central Television, showed Kim solemnly placing a North Korean flag over a coffin during a ceremony for the return of the remains of North Korean soldiers who were deployed and killed in Moscow’s war against Kyiv.
You can read more at the link.
I think Trump was probably referring to any provocation that happens on the peninsula he would use his relationship with Kim Jong-un to get it resolved:
U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States will “get the conflict solved” with North Korea if there is one, reiterating that he has had a “good” relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Trump made the remarks during a press availability, apparently reiterating his openness to reengaging with the recalcitrant regime, as his administration has stated its commitment to the “complete denuclearization” of North Korea.
“If there is a conflict … I get along with him very, very well, and we’ll get the conflict solved with North Korea,” Trump said, when asked to confirm an NK News report that he had sent a letter to Kim, which North Korean diplomats in New York refused to accept.
You can read more at the link.
Foreigners are not supposed to be involved in political activity while in South Korea and doing something like this will likely get their visas cancelled:
Six American nationals were caught early Friday in Ganghwa-gun, Incheon, while attempting to send plastic bottles filled with rice, $1 bills and Bibles to North Korea.
The group, ranging in age from their 20s to 50s, allegedly tried to launch about 1,300 bottles into the sea at around 1 a.m. on Friday, according to South Korean police.
The South Korean military, which had been monitoring the coastline using surveillance cameras, spotted the group and reported them to police. The group was caught before putting the bottles in the ocean.
You can read more at the link.
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.”
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.
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.
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.”
You can read more at the link.
