Page 2 - Kim Jong Un

North Korea's Kim calls for key party meeting to review state affairs

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for a major political conference before year's end where he's expected to address his increasingly tense relations with Washington and Seoul over the expansion of his nuclear and missile programs. North Korea's state media said Thursday that Kim presided over a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party's Politburo in which members reviewed the implementation of state policies in 2022 and decided to hold a larger plenary meeting of the party's Central Committee at an unspecified time in late December. Kim in recent years has used political conferences in late December or early January to review state affairs and reveal his most important goals in economic and foreign policy and arms development. It's possible that those meetings are replacing the function of Kim's New Year's Day speeches, which he has skipped since 2020 after using them for years to issue major announcements. During Wednesday's meeting in capital Pyongyang, Kim insisted that the ...

Kim Jong Un's daughter called 'most beloved' child in 2nd appearance

North Korea's leader has taken his daughter to a meeting with missile scientists in her second public appearance, in which state media called her Kim Jong Un's most beloved child, deepening outside debate over whether she is being primed as his successor. The daughter, believed to Kim's second child named Ju Ae and about 9 or 10 years old, was first unveiled to the outside world last weekend in state media photos showing her observing the North's intercontinental ballistic missile launch the previous day with her parents and other older officials. The daughter wearing a white puffy coat and red shoes was shown walking hand-in-hand with Kim past a huge missile loaded on a launch truck and watching a soaring weapon. On Sunday, the North's state media mentioned her for the second time, saying she and Kim took group photos with scientists, technicians, officials and other workers involved in what it called the test-launch of its Hwasong-17 ICBM. KCNA described her as Kim's most beloved

Kim Jong Un's sister makes insulting threats to Seoul over sanctions

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made insult-laden threats against South Korea on Thursday for considering unliteral sanctions on the North, calling the South's new president and his government "idiots" and "a running wild dog gnawing on a bone given by the US". Kim Yo Jong's diatribe came two days after South Korea's Foreign Ministry said that it was reviewing additional unilateral sanctions on North Korea over its recent barrage of missile tests. The ministry said it would also consider sanctions and clampdowns on North Korea's alleged cyberattacks a new key source of funding for its weapons program if the North conducts a major provocation like a nuclear test. "I wonder what sanctions' the South Korean group, no more than a running wild dog gnawing on a bone given by the US, impudently impose on North Korea," Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media. "What a spectacle sight!" She called South Korea's new President Yoon Suk Yeol and his ...

North Korea's Kim boasts new intercontinental missile as US flies bombers

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un boasted that a recently tested intercontinental ballistic missile is another reliable and maximum-capacity weapon to contain US military threats, state media reported on Saturday. The United States responded to the North's weapons launch by flying supersonic bombers in a show of force. The North's Korean Central News Agency said Kim oversaw the launch of the Hwasong-17 missile, a day after its neighbours said they had detected the launch of an ICBM that showed a potential ability to reach anywhere in the United States. KCNA said Kim observed the launch with his wife Ri Sol Ju and their beloved daughter as well as senior officials. State media photos showed Kim walking hand-in-hand with his daughter, who was clad in a white coat, together watching a huge missile loaded on a launch truck. It's the first time for North Korea to publish the photo of Kim's daughter. Observers say Kim observing a weapons launch with his family suggests that he was confide

K-Pop sensation BTS to give what could be last concert of band for years

South Korean boy band BTS will perform together on Saturday for the first time since the shocking announcement in June that the band would take an indefinite hiatus

North Korea says Kim Jong-Un supervised long-range cruise missile tests

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised tests of long-range cruise missiles, which he described as a successful demonstration of his military's expanding nuclear strike capabilities and readiness for actual war", state media said on Thursday. Wednesday's tests extended a record number of weapons demonstrations this year by North Korea, which has punctuated its testing activity with threats to preemptively use nuclear weapons against South Korea and the United States if it perceives its leadership as under threat. Analysts say Kim is exploiting the distraction created by Russia's war on Ukraine, using it as a window to accelerate arms development as he pursues a full-fledged nuclear arsenal that could viably threaten regional US allies and the American homeland. South Korean officials say Kim may also conduct a nuclear test in the coming weeks or months, escalating a pressure campaign aimed at forcing the United States to accept the idea of North Korea as a nuclear power that can

Missile launches were 'simulation' of nuclear-strike on South: North Korea

North Korea preparing to hold its first nuclear weapon test in five years: Reports

Kim Jong-un oversaw recent 'tactical nuclear' drills, says North Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw the country's tactical nuclear operation training that was held over the past few days, the state news agency reported

North Korea says new fever cases near China border were flu, not COVID-19

North Korea on Friday said the latest fever cases detected in its border region with China were tested to be influenza, not coronavirus infections as initially feared. The report by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency came a day after the North said it locked down unspecified areas in Ryanggang province after four people had fevers that were suspected to be COVID-19. North Korea maintains it has had no confirmed coronavirus cases since August 10, when leader Kim Jong Un declared a widely disputed victory over the virus, just three months after the country acknowledged an omicron outbreak. KCNA said diagnostic tests of samples, the nature of the symptoms, and information gained from contract tracing led health workers to conclude that the fevers were caused by influenza. The patients have since returned to normal temperatures, it said. North Korean officials lifted the lockdown but urged residents to maintain vigilance by continuing to wear masks and reporting to healt

North Korea sees suspected COVID-19 cases after victory claim by leader

North Korea on Thursday said it found four new fever cases in its border region with China that may have been caused by coronavirus infections, two weeks after leader Kim Jong Un declared a widely disputed victory over COVID-19. North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency said health workers were conducting genetic tests on the samples taken from four people in the Ryanggang Province who exhibited fevers to confirm whether they were caused by the "malignant epidemic." The North often uses that term, along with "malignant virus," to describe COVID-19 and the coronavirus. Authorities immediately locked down the areas where the fever cases emerged and plan to maintain tight restrictions and quarantines until health workers determine the cause of the illness. "(Health authorities) pay attention to the fact that those with fever had not been infected by the malignant epidemic," KCNA said. The country's emergency anti-virus headquarters dispatched "talented epidemiological, virolo

US begins biggest military drills with South Korea since Trump-Kim summit

The US and South Korea will begin their biggest joint military exercise in about five years after a hiatus on large-scale exercises that failed to entice North Korea's Kim Jong Un

North Korea dismisses Seoul's 'foolish' aid-for-disarmament offer

The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says her country will never accept South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's foolish offer of economic benefits in exchange for denuclearisation steps, accusing Seoul of recycling past proposals Pyongyang already rejected. In a commentary published on Friday's edition of North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper, Kim Yo Jong stressed that her country has no intentions to give away its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles program for economic cooperation, saying no one barters its destiny for corn cake. She questioned the sincerity of South Korea's calls for improved bilateral relations while it continues its combined military exercises with the United States and fails to stop civilian activists from flying anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets and other dirty wastes across their border. She also ridiculed South Korea's military capabilities, saying that the South misread the launch site of its latest missile tests on Wednesday, which ca

Kim Jong-un receives congratulatory letter from head of Ukraine's Donetsk

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un received a message stressing bilateral relations from the head of the Russian-backed Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, Pyongyang's state media said on Wednesday.

Kim Jong Un says he is ready to fight with US, 'eliminate' South Korea

Kim has been stepping up his provocations this year while US attention has been diverted toward Russia's invasion of Ukraine by firing off a record number of ballistic missiles

Kim threatens to use nuclear weapons amid tensions with US, S Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned he's ready to use his nuclear weapons in potential military conflicts with the United States and South Korea

North Korea fires another apparent artillery shot on Monday: Source

North Korea fired an artillery shot into the Yellow Sea earlier this week, presumably from a multiple rocket launcher, a defense source said, as the US has deployed six F-35A stealth fighters

Kim Jong-un visits mausoleum to mark Kim Il-sung's death anniversary

Kim Il-sung, who founded North Korea in 1948, ruled the country until his death in 1994

S Korea floats balloons with Covid relief items to North amid animosities

Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector-turned-activist, said his group floated 20 balloons carrying 20,000 masks and tens of thousands of vitamin C and fever-reducing tablets from a South Korea

North Korea slams US-South Korea-Japan trilateral military cooperation

North Korea has long cited what it calls hostility by the United States and its allies as a reason to pursue a nuclear programme

North Korea's Kim Jong Un approves new frontline army duties amid tensions

Members of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Military Commission decided to supplement an important military action plan on the duties of frontline troops