A 2018 military tension reduction agreement with North Korea restricts South Korea's surveillance of the North due to no-fly zones set along the heavily fortified border under the deal, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Thursday. Gen. Kim Seung-kyum made the assessment during a parliamentary audit, as newly appointed Defense Minister Shin Won-shik has been pushing to suspend the 2018 agreement signed when then-President Moon Jae-in traveled to Pyongyang for summit talks w

A number of North Korean hacking groups were found to have made hacking attempts targeted at a head of a defectors' group in South Korea, according to a report by a U.S. cybersecurity company Thursday. Pyongyang's hacking groups, including APT37, APT43 and hybrid clusters under the Reconnaissance General Bureau, have targeted Lee Min-bok, head of a defectors' group that sends propaganda leaflets to the North, Mandiant, Google's cybersecurity unit, said in the report. Mandiant

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin have pledged to move relations between the two countries further forward as they exchanged messages marking the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties after a summit last month, Pyongyang's state media reported Thursday. Kim expressed his firm belief that North Korea-Russia relations will steadily develop to a new level in the future in a letter to Putin to celebrate the anniversary, according to the Korean Central News Agenc

South Korea's unification minister said Wednesday the government is closely looking into a media report that China forcefully repatriated over 600 North Korean defectors earlier this week. "We are keeping close tabs on the issue," Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho said during a parliamentary audit of the ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs. "We are continuing to verify the facts," he said, adding the ministry expressed its position on several occasions via diplomat

A North Korean official on Tuesday called the country's military spy satellite an "indispensable strategic option" to counter the United States, which is "getting hell-bent on space militarization." Following two botched attempts to launch the military spy satellite, named the Malligyong-1, mounted on the Chollima-1 rocket in May and August, North Korea has announced plans for a third attempt in October without specifying a specific launch date. "The space developme

North Korea on Tuesday lauded leader Kim Jong-un for "exceptionally" strengthening the country's combat power as Pyongyang marked the 78th founding anniversary of its ruling Workers' Party. The Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the North's ruling party, said Kim "exceptionally strengthened the combat power" over the past decade to "firmly secure the party's future that would successfully carry on for thousands of millions of years." Noting how the Nort

North Korea’s state media, including Rodong Sinmun and Korean Central Television, dropped the term “Nam Joseon” -- South Joseon -- when referring to South Korea in a recent sports broadcast. Instead, North Korea’s state media used the term “goeroe,” which means “puppets” to indicate South Korea. A score graphic televised by Korean Central Television referred to South Korea as such during a women’s quarterfinal soccer match during the Hangzhou

The unification ministry on Sunday urged North Korea to immediately send a South Korean pastor and five other nationals back home, condemning their yearslong detention as "illegal and inhumane." The ministry made the appeal in a statement marking 10 years after South Korean pastor Kim Jung-wook was arrested in Pyongyang in 2013 and then sentenced to hard labor for life on charges of spying for South Korea's spy agency. In 2014, two other South Korean missionaries, Kim Kuk-gi and C

This week's satellite imagery showed a "dramatic" surge in rail traffic along the border between North Korea and Russia, a US monitor said Friday, amid concerns about possible arms transfers following last month's summit between the two countries. Citing imagery captured on Thursday, Beyond Parallel, a project of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, reported an "unprecedented" number of freight railcars totaling roughly 73 in number a

North Korea may launch its military spy satellite between Tuesday and Oct. 26 following its previous two failed launches, as it will likely take into account key political and diplomatic events, a South Korean state-run think tank said Friday. The potential launch window, projected by the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, appears to reflect North Korea's key anniversary and China's hosting of an international forum on its Belt and Road initiative later this month. Nort

North Korea has held an enlarged plenary meeting of the Cabinet to assess economic performances in the third quarter, stressing the need to attain this year's goal of grain output without fail, state media reported Friday. Premier Kim Tok-hun presided over the meeting held via a video link on Thursday to discuss ways to better implement the country's economic plan for this year, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. The North discussed how to seamlessly achieve the goal

North Korea has started sending artillery to Russia as Moscow continues its war in Ukraine, a US broadcaster reported Thursday, after last month's summit between the two countries reinforced concerns about a potential bilateral arms deal. Citing an unnamed US official, CBS reported on the apparent arms transfer that came in the wake of a rare summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a Russian spaceport last month. The s

A pro-North Korean newspaper said Thursday that Pyongyang's status as a nuclear state has become "irreversible" with the recent stipulation of a nuclear force-building policy in its constitution. In a key parliamentary meeting attended by leader Kim Jong-un last week, the North stipulated the policy of strengthening its nuclear force in the constitution, a year after it enacted a new nuclear law authorizing the preemptive use of nuclear arms and called its status as a nuclear stat

South Korea's Defense Ministry on Wednesday issued a stern warning against North Korea that any attempts to use nuclear weapons against South Korea would result in the downfall of the Kim Jong-un regime. Seoul's warning came a week after Pyongyang's decision to incorporate its policy of bolstering its nuclear capabilities into its constitution. The decision was made during a two-day meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly, the North's rubber-stamp parliament, which was

North Korea reaffirmed that it will launch a military reconnaissance satellite this month, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday. The third attempt to put the satellite into orbit after two previous failures, each in May and August, could take place as early as next week when the regime marks the founding of the country’s ruling Workers’ Party. Leader Kim Jong-un has used such events to tout his achievement. The regime -- banned by United Nations Security Council reso