North Korea is exploiting cyberspace to circumvent UN sanctions, Gen. Paul Nakasone, commander of the US Cyber Command, said at a cybersecurity videoconference it hosted Thursday. “North Korea sponsors cyber exploitation of international finance via cyber means to evade United Nations sanctions.” North Korea has long been accused of supporting cyberattacks targeting banks to finance its weapons program and prop up its economy. China is believed to be sharing expertise and training

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un set increasing agricultural production as a "primary economic task" as he held the second day of a workshop with regional Workers' Party secretaries, state media reported Friday. During the meeting on Thursday, Kim stressed the importance of increasing production in the farming sector and discussed ways to implement goals put forth during a rare party congress in January, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). "The primary economic ta

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Thursday included North Korea in only a handful of countries that pose threats to the United States and its allies. It marked the first time the US defense chief addressed the North Korean issue since taking office in late January. "Even as we address accelerating competition by China, we will ensure that we remain fully ready to respond to and effectively deter nation-state threats emanating from Russia, Iran, and North Korea," Austin said in

North Korea is the world's least free country in terms of economic freedom for its people and businesses, an annual report from a US think tank showed Thursday. The North ranked 178th or last in terms of economic freedom, according to the report, the 2021 Index of Economic Freedom by the Washington-based Heritage Foundation. "The world's least economically free nation remains North Korea, followed closely by the failed socialist nations of Venezuela and Cuba," it said, without clarif

The United States and others must continue to enforce sanctions on North Korea to prevent the North from proliferating its nuclear capability, the nominee for US under secretary of defense for policy said Thursday. Colin Kahl also highlighted the need for South Korea and the United States to maintain their combined defense posture to deter North Korean threats. "I believe that it is the role of the Department of Defense to maintain a robust defense and deterrence posture, and to ensure th

North Korea's largest youth group held a meeting and discussed ways to help the state-led campaign to eradicate anti-socialist practices in their country, state media reported on Thursday. The Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist Youth League, governed by the Workers' Party, held an enlarged meeting on Wednesday via video conference and urged its members to intensify efforts to execute a "stout and vigorous ideological offensive," according to the Korean Central News Agency. "The meeting d

North Korea adopted laws on social insurance and disinfection at a meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly, state media said Thursday, amid a nationwide campaign against the coronavirus. The North also approved a "master plan" for land development in the east coastal area, possibly including the Mount Kumgang resort area that the country used to run jointly with South Korea. These laws were adopted at a SPA meeting held Wednesday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The soc

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un stressed the role of local party officials in archiving national development as he attended a workshop of chief secretaries of city and county committees of the ruling Workers' Party, state media reported Thursday. The workshop, the first of its kind, was held on Wednesday at the building of the Central Committee of the party in Pyongyang to discuss ways to implement goals put forth during a rare party congress in January, according to the Korean Central News Age

Ruling liberal bloc shows no urgency in dealing with stalemate, watching Pyongyang's face amid stalled peace talks

Unification Minister Lee In-young did not mean that global sanctions are the sole reason for causing a humanitarian crisis in North Korea when he recently stressed the need to review their efficacy, his spokesperson said Wednesday. In an interview with the Financial Times last week, Lee raised the need to see whether sanctions have just ended up causing hardships to North Korean people without achieving their intended purpose of forcing Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons program. The rem

North Korea lost forest area the size of 330,000 soccer pitches in nearly two decades, data showed Wednesday, further accelerating the country's deforestation problem. From 2001 to 2019, North Korea lost a total of 233,000 hectares of tree cover, according to data by Global Forest Watch, a global monitoring service. The country's deforestation area increased sharply in 2019, recording the highest figure during the period with 27,500 hectares of tree loss. The provinces of Ryanggang, Jagang an

North Korea is expected to be supplied with around 1.7 million doses of vaccines against COVID-19 by May through a global vaccine distribution program. According to a vaccine allocation plan unveiled by the COVAX Facility, a total of 1.704 million doses of the AZ-Oxford vaccines manufactured by AstraZeneca will be provided to North Korea from February to May. The amount will be enough to inoculate around 852,000 people given that a person should be shot twice. The COVAX Facility earlier said

Recent satellite images show that North Korea may haven taken steps to hide a facility that the US believes is used to store nuclear weapons, CNN reported Tuesday. The images, captured by a US space technology company, Maxar, on Feb. 11, show new structures at the North's Yongdoktong site to conceal entrances to two underground tunnels, the report said. "Yongdoktong has been previously identified by US intelligence as a suspected North Korean nuclear weapons storage facility and is still

The United States and its allies must maintain maximum pressure on North Korea to make the country realize that it is safer without nuclear weapons than it is with them, a former US national security adviser said Tuesday. H.R. McMaster also said the US must make it clear to the North that its goal is not to remove leader Kim Jong-un. "Multiple diplomatic efforts to ensure that the North Korean regime did not pose a grave threat to the world have resulted in failure and disappointment,&quo

North Korea’s propaganda outlet on Tuesday slammed the Harvard Law School professor who claimed that “comfort women” were voluntary prostitutes. Comfort women is a euphemism for women from Korea and other countries who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military before and during World War II. Mark Ramseyer, Mitsubishi professor of Japanese legal studies at Harvard Law School, earlier prompted international outcry with his paper arguing that the sex slaves will