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N. Korean workers hired by Russian company: report
Russia's largest online retailer, Wildberries, is thought to have hired hundreds of North Korean workers, Russian media outlets reported recently, despite the wide range of economic sanctions imposed by the international community. "Hundreds" of North Korean nationals have been hired by the company, the English- and Russian-language news outlet the Moscow Times reported, citing a report by media platform RTVI. Addressing the allegations, Wildberries acknowledged what it called a pilot project to
April 16, 2025 -
N. Korea's Kim marks completion of new apartments in Pyongyang's new town on founder's birthday
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a ceremony marking the completion of 10,000 new housing units in a newly developed town in Pyongyang on the birth anniversary of his grandfather and national founder Kim Il-sung, the North's state media reported Wednesday. Kim attended the completion ceremony for the third-stage housing section of the newly developed Hwasong area in the capital Tuesday, the day the country celebrated the 113th birth anniversary of its founder, according to the Korean Cent
April 16, 2025 -
N. Korea's Kim skips family mausoleum visit on founder's birthday for 3rd year in row
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears to have skipped a visit to the family mausoleum on the birth anniversary of his grandfather and national founder Kim Il-sung as North Korean media on Wednesday reported only on a visit by other key officials. The Korean Central News Agency reported that Premier Park Thae-song; Choe Ryong-hae, chairman of the North's parliamentary standing committee; and other high-ranking cadres visited the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun the previous day, when the country mark
April 16, 2025 -
N. Korea urges enduring loyalty to state leader on his grandfather's birthday
North Korea recalled the revolutionary feats of late national founder Kim Il-sung on his birth anniversary Tuesday, stressing enduring loyalty to his grandson and current state leader Kim Jong-un. The Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's ruling party newspaper, carried the message in an editorial on the day the country marked the 113th anniversary of the founder's birth. "The juche (self-reliance) ideology, established by the supreme leader (Kim Il-sung) is being continuously developed and enriched by t
April 15, 2025 -
Seoul blacklists Chinese ship operators, Russian firm over N. Korean iron ore smuggling
South Korea's government has decided to impose unilateral sanctions on a non-flagged vessel seized in its waters for illegally transporting North Korean-produced iron ore, as well as on the Chinese nationals operating the ship and a Russian firm that ordered the cargo. These sanctions came about 10 months after the South Korean government intercepted and inspected a ship last June as it transited through its territorial waters en route to China’s Jingjiang Port, a senior Foreign Ministry officia
April 10, 2025 -
S. Korea, US update wartime plans against North Korea’s ‘increasingly sophisticated threats’
South Korea and the US have updated their joint wartime operation plans, in response to North Korea’s “increasingly sophisticated” nuclear weapons program, the commander of US Forces Korea said late Wednesday. Gen. Xavier Brunson, who also leads the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command and UN Command, said that the decades-old allies signed a new joint wartime operations plan last year, in a written statement submitted to the US House Armed Services Committee. "Last year, we took a significant
April 10, 2025 -
Ex-N. Korean commando dies at age 83
Kim Shin-jo, a former North Korean special forces soldier who infiltrated South Korea on an assassination mission and later became a pastor, died Wednesday, his church said. He was 83 years old. Kim passed away early in the morning, according to Sungrak Church in Seoul. Trained in North Korea in the 1960s, Kim was one of 31 commandos sent on a mission to assassinate then South Korean President Park Chung-hee in 1968. He was the only one in the squad to be captured alive, while another survivor f
April 9, 2025 -
North Korea's Kim Yo-jong rejects South Korea-US-Japan denuclearization pledge
Recognition as nuclear state remains key to Kim Jong-un regime, experts say Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, declared Wednesday that denuclearization is a “dead concept,” reaffirming Pyongyang’s hard-line stance as renewed calls for disarmament emerge under the second Donald Trump administration in the US. “Our denuclearization is no more than a delusional fantasy,” Kim said in a statement carried by Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea. “It is a h
April 9, 2025 -
S. Korea's military fires warning shots at N. Korean soldiers as they cross military demarcation line
South Korea's military said Tuesday it fired warning shots at a group of North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the military demarcation line inside the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas. About 10 armed North Korean soldiers returned to the North after the South Korean military aired warning broadcasts and fired warning shots in an eastern front-line area at around 5 p.m., according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The JCS said South Korea's military is "closely monitoring the movement
April 8, 2025 -
N. Korea's under-5 mortality rate rises for 2nd year in 2023 during pandemic
North Korea's estimated mortality rate for children under age 5 reached 18 per 1,000 live births in 2023, marking two consecutive years of increase during the COVID-19 pandemic, United Nations data showed Tuesday. The 2023 rate marks an increase from an estimated 17.72 under-five mortality per 1,000 lives in 2022 and 17.44 in 2021, according to the website of the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. North Korea's under-five mortality rate surged to 107.68 per 1,000 live births i
April 8, 2025 -
Chinese officials managing Korean War memorial facility return to N. Korea after 5 yrs
Chinese officials tasked with managing a memorial facility for troops who fought in the 1950-53 Korean War returned to North Korea for the first time in five years, the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang said Monday. According to the embassy's website, 14 Chinese officials arrived in North Korea last Monday via the border between Dandong in China's Liaoning Province and the North Korean city of Sinuiju. They were welcomed by Kim Chul-young, director of foreign cooperation at North Korea's Ministry of
April 7, 2025 -
First foreign runners since 2019 hit Pyongyang, stirring hopes of North Korea reopening
North Korea opened its doors to foreign participants at the Pyongyang International Marathon on Sunday for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a six-year hiatus. The event has drawn attention to whether the opening is a symbolic gesture toward a broader move to reopen the country to foreign tourism on a full scale. North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Monday that the 31st Pyongyang International Marathon was held to mark the anniversary of the country's la
April 7, 2025 -
N. Korea reports on court ruling to remove Yoon from office
North Korea on Saturday reported on the ouster of former President Yoon Suk Yeol under a Constitutional Court ruling this week. North Korea's state media said the court upheld the impeachment of Yoon in a unanimous vote Friday over his brief martial law declaration in December, immediately removing him from office. Without making its own commentary, the North's official Korean Central News Agency cited major foreign news outlets' headlines on Yoon's ouster. Yoon has become the nation's second pr
April 5, 2025 -
N. Korean leader inspects special operation units' training on day of Yoon's ouster
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspected training activities of special operations units earlier this week, stressing strengthening their capabilities is the key to building a strong army, Pyongyang's state media reported Saturday. Kim visited a training base of the special operation units on Friday -- the day when South Korea's Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, removing him from office. Kim oversaw the general tactical training and small-arms shooti
April 5, 2025 -
N. Korean troops suffer over 5,000 casualties in Kursk region: British defense ministry
North Korean troops have incurred more than 5,000 casualties while fighting Ukrainian forces in Russia's western front-line region of Kursk, Britain's defense ministry has said. As of last month, approximately a third of the total casualties had been killed in action, according to an intelligence update posted on the ministry's X account Friday. The casualty figure amounts to nearly half of the initial 11,000 troops North Korea sent to Russia last year in support of its war against Ukraine. "Sig
April 2, 2025