President Xi is on a diplomatic flurry after first hosting Trump, then Putin, and now he is going to meet with Kim Jong-un:
Chinese President Xi Jinping will likely visit North Korea as early as next week, sources said Wednesday.
“We have obtained intelligence indicating that President Xi Jinping will visit North Korea soon,” a high-ranking government official told Yonhap News Agency.
Another government official also said there is a high possibility of Xi visiting North Korea later this month or early next month, noting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to Pyongyang last month and the recent trips by Xi’s security guards and ceremonial staff to the North Korean capital.
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.
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.
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.
You can read more at the link.
It appears that North Korea is signaling that they have cluster munitions just like Iran has used against Israel:
North Korea has tested cluster bombs in its latest launch of surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, supervised by leader Kim Jong-un, state media reported Monday.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) published the report of the launch of the Hwasong-11 Ra tactical ballistic missile a day after South Korea’s military detected multiple short-range ballistic missiles launched toward the East Sea at around 6:10 a.m. from North Korea’s Sinpho area.
The KCNA said the purpose of the test-launch was to evaluate the power of the “cluster bomb warhead and fragmentation mine warhead” fitted to the weapon system.
You can read more at the link.
