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UN aviation agency voices grave concerns over N. Korea's GPS signal jamming
The UN aviation agency has voiced grave concerns over North Korea's recent jamming of GPS navigation signals and called for measures to prevent a recurrence, the South Korean foreign ministry said Monday. During its latest council session held in Montreal, Canada, from March 10 to April 4, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) adopted a decision against North Korea's GPS signal jamming, the ministry said in a press release. The agency also decided to send a letter, under the counc
April 21, 2025 -
North Korea criticizes Trump's easing of US weapons exports
North Korea on Sunday denounced United States President Donald Trump's recent easing of domestic weapons export regulations, calling it a move aimed at "expanding war." The state-run Korean Central News Agency issued the criticism, citing Trump's April 9 executive order that mandates a review of rules governing US military equipment exports, aimed at facilitating easier overseas sales of defense products. The KCNA claimed that weapons sales serve as a key tool in advancing the US foreign policy
April 20, 2025 -
ICAO dismisses N. Korea's request to investigate alleged drone infiltration into Pyongyang
The UN civilian aviation agency has dismissed North Korea's request to investigate its claim of South Korean drones infiltrating Pyongyang's airspace last year, a Seoul official said Thursday. Earlier this year, North Korea submitted the request to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for a probe into the alleged drone infiltrations in October. "At the ICAO Council meeting on April 1, North Korea's claim was not accepted and the council decided by consensus that no measures were
April 17, 2025 -
N. Korea criticizes S. Korea-US air drills
North Korea's defense ministry has accused South Korea and the United States of raising tensions on the Korean Peninsula with their joint military drills, warning the North would deter any aggressive attempt by the allies. The North's defense ministry issued the warning in a statement dated Wednesday, a day after South Korea and the US conducted joint air drills involving US B-1B bombers over the peninsula in a show of force against North Korean military threats. The North's ministry called the
April 17, 2025 -
Seoul should bolster diplomatic ties with Moscow to deter N. Korean threats: think tank
South Korea needs to bolster relations with Russia to deter North Korean threats stemming from its deepening military cooperation with Moscow, a think tank here said Wednesday. A report by the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses noted that following Russia’s prolonged war against Ukraine since February 2022, Moscow has been advancing its ties with Pyongyang, while some countries attempt to isolate Russia diplomatically and economically. The recent war that advanced Moscow-Pyongyang ties has als
April 16, 2025 -
N. Korean workers hired by Russian company: report
Russia's largest online retailer, Wildberries, is thought to have hired hundreds of North Korean workers, Russian media outlets reported recently, despite the wide range of economic sanctions imposed by the international community. "Hundreds" of North Korean nationals have been hired by the company, the English- and Russian-language news outlet the Moscow Times reported, citing a report by media platform RTVI. Addressing the allegations, Wildberries acknowledged what it called a pilot project to
April 16, 2025 -
N. Korea's Kim marks completion of new apartments in Pyongyang's new town on founder's birthday
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a ceremony marking the completion of 10,000 new housing units in a newly developed town in Pyongyang on the birth anniversary of his grandfather and national founder Kim Il-sung, the North's state media reported Wednesday. Kim attended the completion ceremony for the third-stage housing section of the newly developed Hwasong area in the capital Tuesday, the day the country celebrated the 113th birth anniversary of its founder, according to the Korean Cent
April 16, 2025 -
N. Korea's Kim skips family mausoleum visit on founder's birthday for 3rd year in row
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears to have skipped a visit to the family mausoleum on the birth anniversary of his grandfather and national founder Kim Il-sung as North Korean media on Wednesday reported only on a visit by other key officials. The Korean Central News Agency reported that Premier Park Thae-song; Choe Ryong-hae, chairman of the North's parliamentary standing committee; and other high-ranking cadres visited the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun the previous day, when the country mark
April 16, 2025 -
N. Korea urges enduring loyalty to state leader on his grandfather's birthday
North Korea recalled the revolutionary feats of late national founder Kim Il-sung on his birth anniversary Tuesday, stressing enduring loyalty to his grandson and current state leader Kim Jong-un. The Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's ruling party newspaper, carried the message in an editorial on the day the country marked the 113th anniversary of the founder's birth. "The juche (self-reliance) ideology, established by the supreme leader (Kim Il-sung) is being continuously developed and enriched by t
April 15, 2025 -
Seoul blacklists Chinese ship operators, Russian firm over N. Korean iron ore smuggling
South Korea's government has decided to impose unilateral sanctions on a non-flagged vessel seized in its waters for illegally transporting North Korean-produced iron ore, as well as on the Chinese nationals operating the ship and a Russian firm that ordered the cargo. These sanctions came about 10 months after the South Korean government intercepted and inspected a ship last June as it transited through its territorial waters en route to China’s Jingjiang Port, a senior Foreign Ministry officia
April 10, 2025 -
S. Korea, US update wartime plans against North Korea’s ‘increasingly sophisticated threats’
South Korea and the US have updated their joint wartime operation plans, in response to North Korea’s “increasingly sophisticated” nuclear weapons program, the commander of US Forces Korea said late Wednesday. Gen. Xavier Brunson, who also leads the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command and UN Command, said that the decades-old allies signed a new joint wartime operations plan last year, in a written statement submitted to the US House Armed Services Committee. "Last year, we took a significant
April 10, 2025 -
Ex-N. Korean commando dies at age 83
Kim Shin-jo, a former North Korean special forces soldier who infiltrated South Korea on an assassination mission and later became a pastor, died Wednesday, his church said. He was 83 years old. Kim passed away early in the morning, according to Sungrak Church in Seoul. Trained in North Korea in the 1960s, Kim was one of 31 commandos sent on a mission to assassinate then South Korean President Park Chung-hee in 1968. He was the only one in the squad to be captured alive, while another survivor f
April 9, 2025 -
North Korea's Kim Yo-jong rejects South Korea-US-Japan denuclearization pledge
Recognition as nuclear state remains key to Kim Jong-un regime, experts say Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, declared Wednesday that denuclearization is a “dead concept,” reaffirming Pyongyang’s hard-line stance as renewed calls for disarmament emerge under the second Donald Trump administration in the US. “Our denuclearization is no more than a delusional fantasy,” Kim said in a statement carried by Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea. “It is a h
April 9, 2025 -
S. Korea's military fires warning shots at N. Korean soldiers as they cross military demarcation line
South Korea's military said Tuesday it fired warning shots at a group of North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the military demarcation line inside the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas. About 10 armed North Korean soldiers returned to the North after the South Korean military aired warning broadcasts and fired warning shots in an eastern front-line area at around 5 p.m., according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The JCS said South Korea's military is "closely monitoring the movement
April 8, 2025 -
N. Korea's under-5 mortality rate rises for 2nd year in 2023 during pandemic
North Korea's estimated mortality rate for children under age 5 reached 18 per 1,000 live births in 2023, marking two consecutive years of increase during the COVID-19 pandemic, United Nations data showed Tuesday. The 2023 rate marks an increase from an estimated 17.72 under-five mortality per 1,000 lives in 2022 and 17.44 in 2021, according to the website of the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. North Korea's under-five mortality rate surged to 107.68 per 1,000 live births i
April 8, 2025