PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA — North Korea rejected on Wednesday condemnation by the United Nations chief of its recent ballistic missile launches, saying it was “unfair and unbalanced” and ignored Pyongyang’s right to self-defence. The nuclear-armed North has fired three banned missiles in the past five days, including an intercontinental ballistic missile test Pyongyang said showed … Read more
The United States military said Sunday missile tests conducted by North Korea over the weekend posed ‘threats’ to the country’s neighbours and beyond. “This activity highlights DPRK’s continuing focus on developing its military program and the threats that poses to its neighbours and the international community,” the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement, using … Read more
North Korea has test-fired what it called a new type of “long-range cruise missile” over the weekend, the country’s state Korean Central News Agency reported early Monday, amid a long standoff with the United States over denuclearization. The test launches, which took place on both Saturday and Sunday, were observed by high-level officials, KCNA said, … Read more
North Korea has rejected around three million doses of a Chinese COVID-19 vaccine, suggesting they should be given to countries in greater need, UNICEF said on Thursday. The impoverished North was the first country to impose a strict lockdown when it sealed its border in January last year to stop the virus spreading from neighbouring … Read more
Nuclear-armed North Korea appears to have restarted its plutonium-producing reprocessing reactor in a “deeply troubling” development, the UN atomic agency has said, a possible sign Pyongyang is expanding its banned weapons programme. The development on the 5-megawatt reactor in Yongbyon — North Korea’s main nuclear complex — comes with nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington … Read more
North and South Korea said Tuesday they had restored cross-border communications, more than a year after Pyongyang severed all official hotlines between the two rivals, who technically remain at war. The North unilaterally cut off all official military and political communication links with the South in June last year after threats over activists sending anti-Pyongyang … Read more
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un replaced several senior officials after a “crucial” coronavirus incident, state media reported Wednesday, in what analysts said was a signal the disease had breached its defences. Pyongyang closed its borders in January last year to try to protect itself against the virus that first emerged in neighbouring China and … Read more
North Korean state television has aired a citizen’s comment about Kim Jong Un’s “emaciated” condition, a highly unusual broadcast in a country where public discussion of the leader’s health and personal life has always been off-limits. Analysts say the remarks showed authorities were seeking to use the change to Kim’s weight to reinforce loyalty to … Read more
The US special representative for North Korea on Monday offered to meet with Pyongyang “anywhere, anytime, without preconditions”, with no public contact so far between the Biden administration and the nuclear-armed nation. Sung Kim’s remarks came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last week gave his first reaction to Washington’s recent review of its … Read more
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said his country needs to prepare for “both dialogue and confrontation” with the United States under President Joe Biden, state media reported Friday. At a plenary meeting of the central committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea on Thursday, Kim outlined his strategy for relations with Washington, … Read more