North Korea | Pakistan

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the ground test of an upgraded rocket engine, state media reported on Sunday, marking another key step in its weapons programme. Defence experts believe North Korea is planning to use its solid-fuel rocket engines for launching intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). The engines enable faster missile launches as they require little preparation before ignition. The latest test was “part of the national defence development plan in the period of the new five-year plan”, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, without elaborating on the date or location of the test. It was the first officially confirmed high-thrust solid-fuel engine test since September last year, when state media said an engine generated a maximum thrust of 1,971 kilonewtons. KCNA reported the recent test had achieved a higher thrust of 2,500 kilonewtons. The development demonstrates North Korea’s “resolve to acquire missiles capable of hitting targets around the globe”, Hong Min,...

North Korea and Belarus’s strongmen leaders signed a “friendship and cooperation” treaty after Kim Jong Un gave a lavish welcome to President Alexander Lukashenko on his maiden visit. Besides supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine — around 2,000 North Korean soldiers are thought to have died — both nations are under Western sanctions and are accused of gross human rights violations. The two men met last year in China. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, attend a banquet for Lukashenko in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this picture released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on March 27, 2026. —AFP “In the modern realities of global transformation — at a time when the world’s major powers openly ignore and violate the norms of international law — independent countries must cooperate more closely and consolidate their efforts aimed at protecting their sovereignty and improving the well-being of their citizens,” Belarusian state news agency Belta quoted Lukashe...

North Korea will never give up nuclear weapons, leader Kim Jong Un said, indicating that it will soon designate South Korea the “most hostile state”, according to a state media report on Tuesday. Kim also told the country’s legislature in a policy address on Monday that the United States was committing “state terrorism”, in an apparent reference to its military attacks on Iran. “We will continue to firmly consolidate our status as a nuclear-armed state as an irreversible course, while aggressively stepping up our struggle against hostile forces,” Kim told the Supreme People’s Assembly. “We will, in line with the mission entrusted by the Constitution of the Republic… further expand and advance our self-defensive nuclear deterrent,” Kim said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). While the United States and Israel have insisted that their attacks on Iran are to stop the Islamic republic from developing nuclear weapons — an aim Tehran denies — Pyongyang is thought to be light years ahead b...

North Korea’s ruling party has elevated leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful younger sister to a top position, state media said on Tuesday, a sign of her far-reaching influence within the reclusive nation. Thousands of party elites have packed the capital Pyongyang for a once-in-five-years summit of the ruling Workers’ Party, a gathering that directs state efforts on everything from diplomacy to war planning. Kim Yo Jong — long considered one of her brother’s closest lieutenants — was promoted to department director within the party’s apex central committee, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. Although it was not clear which department she would lead, she has previously held a senior role within the party’s propaganda unit. Kim Yo Jong has in recent years emerged as one of the most powerful figures in North Korea, playing a highly visible role in diplomacy, nuclear negotiations and other matters of state. “Kim Yo Jong is one of the very few people Kim Jong Un can trust and rely on,” said Ahn Chan-il, a resea...

North Korea launched ballistic missiles on Sunday, the day the leader of rival South Korea starts a state visit to China, Pyongyang’s chief ally, and just hours after the US attacked Venezuela. The firings of at least two missiles, the country’s first in two months, further heighten global tensions after US President Donald Trump launched the attack that captured President Nicolas Maduro. South Korea said peace on the Korean peninsula would be on the agenda during President Lee Jae Myung’s visit to Beijing, which will include a summit with his counterpart, Xi Jinping. The launches from the capital Pyongyang into the sea between the Koreas and Japan represent “a message to China to deter closer ties with South Korea and to counter China’s stance on denuclearisation”, said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul. North Korea signals ‘we are different from Venezuela’ Eul-chul said North Korea also wanted to send a message that “we are different from Venezuela” — as a nuclear a...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a nuclear submarine factory and received a message from Russia’s Vladimir Putin hailing the countries’ “invincible friendship”, Pyongyang’s state media said Thursday. North Korea and Russia have drawn closer since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, and Pyongyang has sent troops to fight for Russia. In return, Russia is sending North Korea financial aid, military technology and food and energy supplies, analysts say. The “heroic” efforts of North Korean soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region “clearly proved the invincible friendship” between Moscow and Pyongyang, Putin said in a message to Kim, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Their work demonstrated the nations’ “militant fraternity”, Putin said in the message received by Pyongyang last week. The provisions of the “historic treaty” the two leaders signed last year, which includes a mutual defence clause, had been fulfilled “thanks to our joint efforts”, Putin wrote. S...

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...