Latest news with #Pyongyang
Wall Street Journal
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Shifting World Order Threatens to Expand the Nuclear-Arms Club
When it came to nuclear weapons, the U.S. had two top priorities in the 1990s. One was to ensure that newly independent Ukraine handed over its vast arsenal to Russia. The other was to prevent North Korea from obtaining its own nukes. The first effort was a success, but today, many regard Ukraine's disarmament as a strategic blunder, leaving it vulnerable to a Russian invasion that has triggered the bloodiest European war in generations. The second attempt was a failure: Pyongyang deftly exploited American reluctance to use military force and became a nuclear-armed state that can challenge global security.
Al Bawaba
2 days ago
- Politics
- Al Bawaba
North Korea fires 10+ ballistic missiles near U.S.-South Korea bases
ALBAWABA- North Korea launched over 10 short-range ballistic and subsonic missiles early Thursday from Sunan, near Pyongyang, aimed northwest, away from direct targets but near U.S.-South Korea military zones. Also Read Israel's Soroka hospital hit in latest Iranian missile barrage While officially unacknowledged by Pyongyang, the timing raises alarms amid rising global instability. On May 9, 2025, North Korea conducted a joint striking drill involving long-range artillery and missile systems from the Korean People's Army's eastern front division. The drill, held at an undisclosed location, showcased coordinated firepower and further underscored the North's continued military readiness amid escalating regional tensions. The launches come just as Iran retaliates with heavy missile strikes on Tel Aviv and Beersheba, targeting Israeli military infrastructure, such as the Soroka medical wing and stock exchange, causing unprecedented damage and casualties. The overlapping escalations in East Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe fuel concerns of a broader regional, even global, conflict.
NHK
2 days ago
- Politics
- NHK
NHK obtains Russian-language manual for N.Korean artillery piece
NHK has obtained what is believed to be an operation manual written in the Russian language for a self-propelled artillery piece made in North Korea. Pyongyang continues to assist Russia's invasion of Ukraine by providing Moscow with large amounts of weapons and ammunition. NHK was given the manual by the intelligence organization of the Ukrainian military. The document is believed to be for the "Juche Cannon," a gun with a caliber of 170 millimeters. The manual is described as being created by a Russian Army artillery unit and others. It contains detailed explanations featuring photos. The reader is told how to adjust and maintain parts needed to operate the system and how to aim the gun. It says the artillery piece has a range of more than 50 kilometers and can fire two shells in one minute. The manual also contains a table of firing angles. The North Korean gun is believed to have been deployed on battlefields, and Ukraine's drones have captured images of it. Koizumi Yu is an associate professor of the University of Tokyo's Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology and an expert on the Russian military. He said the Russian manual is very detailed, possibly nearly to the extent of the original North Korean edition. Koizumi noted that powerful long-range weapons are useful in the conflict, because drones provide both sides a full view of each other's movements on the battlefield. He said military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang has deepened significantly.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
How Kim Jong Un left North Koreans to die of COVID: Citizens left to 'fend for themselves', imprisoned for years if they defied lockdown rules and sent to labour camps for not wearing masks
More than two years after the world was blighted by the outbreak of Covid-19, North Korea finally declared it had recorded its very first case of the virus. In reality, North Koreans had been suffering the effects of Covid since 2020 like everyone else, often without access to basic medicine and food, according to a new report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). They were also reportedly punished for reporting Covid symptoms, sent to labour camps for not wearing masks or breaking quarantine and in some cases sentenced to years in prison for violating lockdown rules. The announcement of the first Covid case on May 12, 2022, followed by the acknowledgement of the Hermit Kingdom's first coronavirus-related death a day later, saw Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un declare a national emergency. North Korea had already spent some 25 months in lockdown, having sealed its borders in January 2020 - cutting all humanitarian aid - amid concerning reports of the virus from China. The 'maximum emergency epidemic prevention system' plunged Kim's people into an even stricter lockdown regime and was not lifted until the following summer. As the restrictions were relaxed, CSIS, a Washington-based think tank, collected testimonies of 100 North Koreans reached via discreet micro surveys conducted by covert interviewers on the ground. Its report, conducted in partnership with the George W. Bush Institute, found Kim's regime effectively left the population to fend for themselves in the face of mass infection and rising death tolls and brutally cracked down on cries for help. Despite Pyongyang's official claim of 'zero cases' until May 2022, 92 out of the 100 North Koreans surveyed said they or someone they knew had been infected before that date - many as early as 2020. Entire military battalions, civilian factories and schools were reportedly overwhelmed with sick people. A woman working in the student/education sector highlighted that conditions were particularly bad in winter 2020 'with a lot of cases across the country'. Within nursing homes, she said, 'there were so many deaths that there weren't enough coffins, so I thought it was serious'. One respondent recounted how half the soldiers in a military communications battalion fell ill during a November 2021 outbreak. Another said students were collapsing in classrooms. 'Fevers were happening everywhere and many people were dying within a few days,' they said. In the absence of any testing regime, diagnosis came down to guesswork. 'They said it was Covid if you have a fever and cough,' one person told survey collectors. At the hospital, if a person had a fever and cold symptoms, it was suspected to be coronavirus,' said another. One soldier described how doctors were instructed not to prescribe medicine even when symptoms were obvious. And 20 of the 100 respondents said they were aware of damage, and even death, caused by medicines that were either folk remedies, fake, or not taken properly. One respondent noted: 'There were a lot of fake medicines, and people died because they couldn't use real medicine.' Another said, 'There are a few people who died because they should have taken medicine that suits their illness, but if they hear a medicine is good, they start taking it without looking into what it really is.' With most of the weakened population struggling to access enough food, let alone adequate medicine or vaccines, honesty became just as dangerous as the virus itself. Official government policy before May 2022 stated that the country had 'zero' cases. Respondents indicated that local reports of outbreaks were therefore met with censure and punishments. 'The clinic doctor told me I have Covid,' one respondent said, 'but said if I admit it, I'll be taken away.' The report also laid out in chilling detail the array of punishments meted out for even the most minor breaches of lockdown rules, based on the interviews with respondents. Citizens caught breaking curfew were sentenced to 10–15 days in forced labour camps, while holding a gathering, like a birthday party, could earn two weeks behind barbed wire. The smallest breaches, such as failing to wear a mask would result in two days of hard labour - even as respondents said most people simply couldn't lay their hands on a mask. Others fared far worse. Attempting to smuggle food across the border during lockdown was punishable by six months in a forced labour camp. A harsher penalty was handed to those charged under the regime's sweeping Emergency Quarantine Act - a deliberately vague and catch-all statute. The punishment was reportedly three years' imprisonment 'as an example to others'. One of the most disturbing entries in the report details the case of a quarantine official who failed to properly disinfect the isolation ward under their supervision. They were immediately dismissed under wartime law and had their family detained. However, the largest category of frustrations expressed by the respondents focused on the general ineffectiveness of Pyongyang's refusal to accept vaccines or other forms of aid from other countries, the report found. One respondent said: 'Only my country has closed borders and doesn't allow travel between regions, and I heard that other countries offered vaccines, but we refused. They don't care whether the people live or die because they have good quality medicine and got jabs.' Another noted: 'The UN said they were going to give our country medicine and rice, but the Supreme Leader stopped them.' The CSIS report laid out in chilling detail the array of punishments meted out for even the most minor breaches of lockdown rules, based on the interviews with respondents When vaccines finally did arrive, respondents to the survey claimed that only a select few were able to access them. 'In my country, only the central party cadres are considered people, and the real people are treated worse than pigs,' one person said. 'It was rumoured that everyone would be jabbed when the vaccine came in from China, but only the top officials got it,' another said, while a third respondent added: 'Central Committee cadres were jabbed with (vaccines) made in the US. The people are treated like animals.' The CSIS report did not hold back in its assessment of Pyongyang's approach to the pandemic. 'We believe that if the government had spoken truthfully about the pandemic and accepted outside help from 2020, many deaths could have been avoided. Survey respondents all noted increased access to COVID-19 testing and vaccines after May 2022 when Pyongyang admitted to cases of COVID-19 and reportedly accepted some assistance from China. 'Prior to the regime's long-delayed announcement of an outbreak in May 2022, citizens reported having virtually no access to vaccines, no antiviral medications, and minimal supply of personal protective equipment. Moreover, lockdowns of markets and restrictions on internal movements exacerbated food and medicine shortages. It's likely the national government dealt with the pandemic crisis by shirking responsibility and compelling the populace to fend for themselves. 'The government's negligence was nothing short of abominable,' it concluded.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
North Korea launches multiple rockets, Seoul says
SEOUL, June 19 (UPI) -- North Korea fired around 10 rounds from multiple-launcher rocket systems, Seoul's military said Thursday, one day after South Korea held joint air drills with the United States and Japan. The rockets were launched around 10 a.m. from the Sunan area near Pyongyang, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message sent to reporters. "The detailed specifications are being closely analyzed by South Korean-U.S. intelligence authorities," the JCS said. "In the current security situation, our military is closely monitoring various trends in North Korea under a strong South Korea-U.S. military posture." Further details were not immediately provided. News agency Yonhap reported that the weapons appeared to be fired from 240mm multiple rocket launchers in the direction of the Yellow Sea. Last year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test-firing of an updated 240mm system with new guidance and maneuverability capabilities -- a demonstration that South Korean officials speculated was made in anticipation of sales to Russia. North Korea has deployed troops, artillery and weapons to Russia to aid in Moscow's war against Ukraine. Pyongyang is believed to be receiving much-needed financial support and advanced military technology for its own weapons programs in return. On Tuesday, Moscow's top security official said that North Korea would send 6,000 military workers and combat engineers to help rebuild Russia's war-torn Kursk region. Russia's Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu made the announcement while meeting Kim in Pyongyang for the second time this month. His visit came ahead of the one-year anniversary of the signing of a comprehensive strategic partnership by Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The North's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper celebrated the June 19 anniversary in an article touting the "absolute solidity" of its alliance with Russia. "The traditional DPRK-Russia friendship has been upgraded to a true alliance and solid strategic partnership," the article said, using the official acronym for North Korea. Thursday's weapons test came one day after South Korea, the United States and Japan conducted a combined military air exercise. The drills, which involved South Korean F-15K, U.S. F-16 and Japanese F-2 fighter jets, marked the first trilateral exercise under the administration of new South Korean President Lee Jae-myung. Lee met with his Japanese counterpart, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, on the sidelines of the Group of Seven meeting in Canada on Tuesday. The two leaders vowed to strengthen three-way cooperation with the United States to respond to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, Lee's office said.
