South Korea's top envoy to the UN renewed Seoul's criticism of arms transactions between North Korea and Russia during a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, as Russia's top diplomat shifted the blame to the West for the prolonging of the war in Ukraine. South Korean Ambassador Hwang Joon-kook called the weapons transfers between Pyongyang and Moscow "direct" violations of UNSC resolutions during the meeting on the war in Ukraine, where Russian Foreign Minister Sergei

North Korea has defended its measures to bolster military capabilities as a just exercise of the sovereign right against Washington-led military confrontations at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Uganda, state media reported Monday. North Korea claimed it has recently conducted a test of an underwater nuclear attack drone, named the Haeil-5-23, in the East Sea in response to the latest joint naval drills involving South Korea, the United States and Japan. The drills came after North Korea'

North Korea says it is ready to host Russian President Vladimir Putin for a state visit. The state official Korea Central News Agency on Sunday said that Putin has expressed his willingness to visit Pyongyang, reporting the results of its Foreign Minister Choe Sun-hui’s recent trip to Moscow. “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea warmly welcomes the state visit of comrade president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, to our country. We are ready to receive the best friend of the Ko

North Korea on Sunday strongly condemned a recent meeting of the UN Security Council convened to discuss Pyongyang's recent test-fire of a hypersonic missile and other issues. The council held the closed-door meeting Thursday, days after the North launched what it claims was a solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead last Sunday. "The UN Security Council, at the brigandish demand of the US and its vassal states, convened a closed-door negotiation

Choe Thae-bok, a former chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly, North Korea's rubber-stamp legislature, has died, the North's official news agency reported Sunday. Choe was 93. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un paid a visit to Choe's funeral bier with secretaries of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party at dawn Sunday to express his deep condolences over his death, the Korean Central News Agency said. "Kim Jong-un paid silent tribute to Choe Thae Bok w

The United States on Friday called on North Korea to refrain from further "provocative" and "destabilizing" actions, and to return to dialogue, after Pyongyang claimed to have tested an underwater nuclear weapons system under development. The North's defense ministry said the country conducted an "important" test of the Haeil-5-23 system, denouncing this week's naval drills between South Korea, the US and Japan as "reckless confrontation hysteria,&quo

A senior US diplomat made an emphatic call Friday for the international community not to remain silent about human rights abuses in North Korea, as "Beyond Utopia," an Oscar short-listed film on North Korean defectors, was screened at the State Department in Washington. Uzra Zeya, the under secretary of state for civilian security, democracy and human rights, made the call at the film screening event intended to shine a light on the treacherous journeys North Korean defectors make in d

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was spotted getting out of an apparent luxury Mercedes-Benz sport utility vehicle in footage aired by the North's Korean Central Television on Monday, despite ongoing international sanctions on imports of luxury goods to Pyongyang, raising questions as to the effect of international deterrents against North Korea. In the documentary video, Kim is seen exiting a black SUV of which the passenger-side rear door is emblazoned with "Chairman of the State Affa

North Korea's state media Korean Central News Agency reported on Friday it had conducted a test of its underwater nuclear weapon system in the sea off the Korean Peninsula's east coast. The test of "Haeil 5-23," a system of underwater drones capable of covert nuclear attacks on naval forces and ports, was carried out in a show of protest against a joint maritime military drill of South Korea, Japan and the United States held earlier this week, the KCNA reported. The trilatera

The United Nations should break its silence over the growing North Korean provocations, including the latest test-firing of long-range missiles, said Hwang Joon-kook, permanent representative of South Korea to the UN, on Thursday. Hwang was quoted as saying by news reports that "the UN Security Council needs to break the silence over the way it (reacts)" to North Korean issues, adding it has become a "big question" for the UN Security Council to answer. The remarks came after

The nature of North Korean threats could change "drastically" over the next decade due to an "unprecedented" level of military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow, a senior US official warned Thursday. Pranay Vaddi, senior director for arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation at the National Security Council, made the remarks, amid growing concerns about reported arms transactions between the North and Russia in the midst of the war in Ukraine, and their security

Elite defections mark “highest in recent years”

North Korea on Thursday lambasted senior officers of the Japan Self-Defense Forces for visiting a war shrine seen as a symbol of Japan's militaristic past. The criticism came after Lt. Gen. Hiroki Kobayashi, vice chief of staff of the Ground Self-Defense Force, and dozens of officials visited the Yasukuni Shrine last week, prompting Tokyo's defense ministry to investigate whether they violated a regulation that bans military units from visiting religious facilities. The shrine honors J

North Korea's state-run broadcasting station on Wednesday aired a map that highlights only the northern part of the Korean Peninsula in red after its leader vowed to no longer seek reconciliation and unification with South Korea. In the initial segment of a program broadcast on Pyongyang's state-run Korean Central Television, the network presented a map highlighting only the northern region of the Korean Peninsula in red. The station used the same map on another program Monday, which h

Putin's first trip in 24 years could potentially occur after Russia's March presidential election, say experts