Tag: Korea

A North Korean city on the border with China is no longer completely dark at nighttime, satellite imagery and eyewitness accounts revealed. Experts told Radio Free Asia it is a sign that North Korea is turning to solar power to solve its chronic energy problems. “As recently as about ten years ago, vehicle traffic would stop around midnight, and lights were barely visible,” Park Jongchol, a professor at Gyeongsang National University in South Korea, told RFA. Park recently visited the Chinese city of Dandong, which lies across the Yalu River…

North Korea is expanding shipyards in two key port cities, satellite imagery analyzed by Radio Free Asia has revealed, an indication that experts say falls in line with a five-year plan announced earlier this year to modernize the country’s navy. Though the North Korean navy is one of the largest in the region, most of its fleet is made up of ships constructed in the Cold War era. The new five-year plan includes orders from the country’s leader Kim Jong Un to build two new destroyers per year, the state-run…

Satellite imagery has revealed that North Korea and Russia are scrambling to complete a new high-capacity road bridge across their Tumen River border, and experts told Radio Free Asia that the fervor for completing the project quickly is a sign of increased cooperation and warm relations between Pyongyang and Moscow. Until now, the only bridge connecting the two countries has been the Bridge of Friendship, a much smaller rail-only bridge that was built in 1959 and had been intended to be a temporary measure until a permanent bridge could be…

At North Korea’s Yongbyon Nuclear Complex, heightened activity observed on satellite imagery indicates that Pyongyang is increasing its capacity to produce nuclear weapons, experts told Radio Free Asia. The imagery shows new buildings and plumes of steam in previously inactive areas of the complex, which lies roughly 90 kilometers (56 miles) north of the capital. North Korea has long claimed that Yongbyon serves peaceful, civilian energy purposes, but the international community and monitoring organizations say that the complex produces fissile materials to produce nuclear weapons. The increased activity observed in…

Months after North Korea unveiled the country’s largest-ever greenhouse farm, analysts told Radio Free Asia that satellite imagery shows less than half of the farm is operational, likely due to power shortages. According to state media, the country’s leader Kim Jong Un personally guided the construction of the Sinuiju Greenhouse Farm Complex. It has been touted as a way to rejuvenate Wihwa, Mado and Kumdong islands in the Yalu River, near the border with China, which were leveled by flooding in 2024. At the farm complex’ dedication in February, Kim…

Nuclear-armed North Korea displayed its most advanced Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile, described by the North Korean government as the country’s “strongest nuclear strategic weapon system,” state media said on Saturday. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the large military parade displaying its new intercontinental ballistic missile in front of visiting international dignitaries. A military parade celebrates the 80th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this image released October 11, 2025 by the North Korean government.(KCNA via Reuters) The parade,…

RFA Perspectives — North Korean soldiers who fought alongside Russian troops against Ukraine marched through Kim Il Sung Square on Friday, carrying the flags of Russia and North Korea as part of the Workers’ Party 80th Anniversary celebrations. Video: North Korea soldiers who fought alongside Russia celebrated at Workers’ Party anniversaryThe soldiers marched to the Russian patriotic song “To Serve Russia,” a rare and symbolic display of solidarity between Pyongyang and Moscow. According to estimates, around 2,000 North Korean soldiers were killed while supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine. And reports…