Category: Others

TAIPEI, Taiwan – North Korea’s recent test launches of key weapon systems aboard its new destroyer – including supersonic strategic cruise missiles – suggest possible assistance from Russia, according to a Seoul-based military expert. The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, reported that the country carried out the “combat application test” of weapons systems mounted on Choe Hyon, its new 5,000-ton destroyer. It conducted a test firing of supersonic cruise missiles, strategic cruise missiles, anti-aircraft missiles and 127 millimeter ship-based automatic guns Monday. A test of firing ship-to-ship…

UPDATED 28 April, 2025, 10:50 a.m. ET TAIPEI, Taiwan – North Korea on Monday acknowledged for the first time that it deployed troops to Russia to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine, six months after reports of their presence first emerged. Ukraine estimates as many as 14,000 North Korean soldiers, including 3,000 reinforcements to replace its losses, are in Russia to fight Ukrainian forces who occupied parts of Russia’s Kursk region last summer. “The operations for liberating the Kursk area to repel the adventurous invasion of the Russian Federation by the…

TAIPEI, Taiwan – The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday that North Korea’s nuclear weapons program has grown “exponentially,” and urged talks between Washington and Pyongyang. Since taking office in January, U.S. President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “communication” with North Korea and that Washington “may do something” with Pyongyang. “I have been saying that we need to engage,” said Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA. “You cannot have a country like this which is completely off the…

TAIPEI, Taiwan – North Korea continues to maintain a covert biological weapons program in violation of international treaties, according to a newly released U.S. government report. Biological weapons use pathogens such as bacteria or viruses to sicken or kill. Their invisible nature and devastating potential make them one of the most insidious forms of weaponry. “The United States assesses that the DPRK has a dedicated, national-level offensive [biological weapons] program,” the State Department said in its 2025 report on global compliance with arms control and disarmament agreements. The Democratic People’s…

TAIPEI, Taiwan – North Korean forces deployed in Russia’s Kursk region may soon be sent into annexed regions of Ukraine that remain fiercely contested by Russian and Ukrainian forces, a senior Ukrainian official said. As many as 12,000 North Korean soldiers are in Russia, according to Ukraine and the United States, to fight Ukrainian forces who occupied parts of Russia’s Kursk region in an August counter offensive. Neither North Korea nor Russia have acknowledged their presence. “Russia plans to use the DPRK soldiers for war on the territory of Ukraine,”…

TAIPEI, Taiwan – A growing unofficial power network led by North Korea’s parliamentary chief Choe Ryong Hae is reshaping the country’s political hierarchy, potentially becoming a destabilizing force within leader Kim Jong Un’s regime, according to a new South Korean analysis. Choe, one of North Korea’s most influential officials, is a close ally of the Kim family. He gained major influence after becoming director of the Organisation and Guidance Department, or OGD, in 2017, effectively acting as the regime’s second-in-command with a wide-reaching informal power network. Since then, Choe’s inner…