North Korea | Pakistan

North Korea’s defence minister warned on Saturday of more “offensive action”, as Washington and Seoul criticised Pyongyang’s latest ballistic missile launch. North Korea’s missile launch on Friday came just over a week after US President Donald Trump — on a tour of the region — expressed interest in meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Pyongyang did not respond to the offer. Pyongyang’s defence minister No Kwang Chol said Washington “has become brazen in its military moves to threaten the security” of the North, and that it was “intentionally escalating the political and military tension in the region”. “We will show more offensive action against the enemies’ threat,” he said, according to Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Earlier in the week, before Friday’s launch, US Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and his South Korean counterpart visited the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) where they “reaffirmed the strong combined defence posture and close cooperation” between their countries. On Wedn...

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung sought Chinese President Xi Jinping’s help in efforts to resume talks with nuclear-armed neighbour North Korea on Saturday, while Xi told Lee he was willing to widen cooperation and jointly tackle the challenges they face. Lee hosted Xi at a state summit and dinner after an annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) in the South Korean city of Gyeongju, marking Xi’s first visit to the United States’ ally in 11 years. Beijing attaches great importance to relations with Seoul and sees South Korea as an inseparable cooperative partner, Xi said ahead of the summit, according to Lee’s office. Lee, who was elected president in a snap election in June, has promised to strengthen ties with the US while not antagonising China and seeking to reduce tensions with the North. “I am very positive about the situation in which conditions for engagement with North Korea are being formed,” Lee said, referring to recent high-level exchanges between China and North Korea. “...

North Korea fired what appeared to be multiple short-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday, South Korea’s military said, a week before a key Asia-Pacific leaders’ meeting in South Korea. It was the first launch of ballistic missiles since May by Pyongyang, which has defied a United Nations Security Council ban on the weapons. It was also the first such launch since Lee Jae Myung was elected president in South Korea, with a platform of engagement with North Korea. Lee and United States President Donald Trump are expected to meet in South Korea next week at a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. Trump is also expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. South Korea detected several projectiles believed to be short-range ballistic missiles fired from an area near North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, in a northeasterly direction early on Wednesday, its Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. Trump to visit South Korea Lee and Trump have discussed the idea of trying to meet North Korean ...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a large military parade displaying its new intercontinental ballistic missile in front of visiting international dignitaries, state media KCNA said on Saturday. The parade, which began late on Friday, marked the 80th anniversary of the foundation of its ruling Workers’ Party and followed celebrations on Thursday. Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Russia’s former President Dmitry Medvedev, as well as Vietnam’s Communist Party chief To Lam, were seen at Kim’s side at the parade, while other foreign dignitaries looked on. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches a military parade celebrating the 80th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers Party, in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this picture released on October 11, by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency. —KCNA via Reuters In the military parade, nuclear-armed North Korea displayed its most advanced Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile, described by KCNA as the country’s “strongest nuclear strategic wea...

Elite United States Navy SEALs launched an audacious operation in 2019 to plant a listening device in North Korea to spy on the country’s reclusive leader, Kim Jong Un, The New York Times (NYT) reported on Friday, but the mission quickly unravelled and culminated in the deaths of multiple civilians. The operation came in the first administration of US President Donald Trump during sensitive nuclear talks with Kim, whom the US leader met three times. The mission was considered so risky that it required direct presidential approval, the NYT said, but Trump insisted on Friday he had no knowledge of the operation. “I don’t know anything about it. I’m hearing it now for the first time,” the president told journalists. Despite months of practice, the mission still went horribly wrong, the * NYT* reported. The SEALs — from the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 — approached North Korea in mini-submarines that exposed them to frigid water for hours, then swam ashore, according to the newspaper, which inter...

China defended on Thursday its decision to invite the leaders of Russia and North Korea to World War II commemorations, which President Donald Trump accused them of using to conspire against the United States. Trump wrote a testy Truth Social post addressing his Chinese counterpart after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin flanked Xi Jinping at a massive parade in Beijing showcasing Chinese military hardware. “Give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America,” Trump wrote. Asked about Trump’s post, Beijing’s foreign ministry said on Thursday “foreign guests” had been invited to commemorate 80 years since the end of World War II. “It is to work together with peace-loving countries and peoples to remember history, cherish the memory of the martyrs, cherish peace, and create the future,” spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters. “China’s development of diplomatic relations with any country is never directed against any third party...

US President Donald Trump said Monday he hoped to meet again with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, possibly this year, as he held White House talks with South Korea’s dovish new leader that got off awkwardly. Hours before President Lee Jae Myung arrived for his long-planned first visit to the White House, Trump took to […]

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered Moscow his full support for its war in Ukraine during talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Pyongyang state media said on Sunday. Lavrov’s visit to North Korea was the latest in a series of high-profile trips by top Moscow officials as both countries deepen military and political ties amid Russia’s offensive against Kyiv. Pyongyang sent thousands of troops to Russia’s Kursk region to oust Ukrainian forces and has also provided the Russian army with artillery shells and missiles. Moscow said Lavrov’s talks with Kim were held in a “warm comradely atmosphere”. Lavrov expressed “sincere gratitude to Pyongyang” for its role in Kursk and support of Russia’s operation, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. Moscow also said the two sides “agreed” that the West was to blame for “the growing tension” on the Korean peninsula. The ministry earlier posted a video on Telegram of the two men shaking hands and greeting each other with a hug. It said the talks w...