Jeongmin Kim

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has held another large-scale event to console the families of soldiers who died after being deployed to fight in Russia’s war against Ukraine, in what state media described as a gesture of honor and remembrance.  Group photos released with families holding portraits appear to suggest the number of confirmed […]

Nuclear deterrence remains North Korea’s “invariable stand,” Kim Jong Un told nuclear scientists, underscoring intent to expand production of nuclear materials through 2025 despite international calls for denuclearization, state media reported Saturday. Meeting with scientists and technicians at the DPRK Nuclear Weapons Institute on Friday, Kim expressed “great satisfaction” with recent progress, with the Korean […]

A majority of South Koreans now say unification with North Korea is “unnecessary,” according to a major new survey, marking the first time that support for unification has fallen below 50%. The 2025 survey by the state-affiliated Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) also found that an even larger number think unification is unnecessary “if […]

North Korea is highly likely to pursue a leader-level summit with the U.S. next year, Seoul’s intelligence agency has assessed, citing signs that Pyongyang is preparing for dialogue. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) shared its assessment with lawmakers during an audit by the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, anticipating that a meeting between leader […]

South Korea has agreed to spend nearly $60 billion to purchase U.S. military equipment and support American forces on the peninsula tasked with countering North Korea, the allies announced on Friday. According to a joint fact sheet released by the White House, Seoul will spend $25 billion on “military equipment purchases” by 2030, as well […]

North Korea’s attack dog Kim Yo Jong has threatened retaliation over South Korea’s alleged drone intrusions, and precedent suggests it would be a mistake to assume she’s all bark and no bite. A day after the Korean People’s Army accused Seoul of sending drones into DPRK airspace to surveil sensitive military sites, the leader’s sister […]

The promotion of the North Korean leader’s sister Kim Yo Jong has put her in charge of a highly secretive party organ that plays a central role in overseeing the implementation of state policies, as well as in governing the flow of information to and from the leader. In other words, to get to Kim […]

Kim Yo Jong’s unusually complimentary remarks to President Lee Jae Myung late Monday suggests North Korea recognizes the domestic political risk Lee took in saying he “felt sorry” for a series of drone incursions, but they do not signal any change in Pyongyang’s stance of treating Seoul as a hostile state. At a cabinet meeting […]

A former National Security Council official who long championed the U.S.’s policy on North Korea’s denuclearization has declared it a “failure,” saying Washington’s “overreliance on sanctions” was a mistake. In a Foreign Affairs essay that drew weeks of editorials and ministerial-level responses in Seoul, Victor Cha, the NSC’s director for Asian Affairs during the George […]

An award-winning Korea studies scholar based in the U.S. is facing scrutiny over allegations that she listed fabricated citations in a recent journal article. Two prominent scholars told NK News that they did not write the works attributed to them in the article by Aram Hur, Kim Koo Chair in Korean Studies at the Fletcher […]