#north-korea

#north-korea

Hundreds of US military service members, civilians and their families have filed a lawsuit for unspecified damages against British American Tobacco (BAT), one of the world's largest tobacco companies, and a subsidiary, claiming the company spent years illicitly helping North Korea fund terrorism weapons that were used against Americans. BAT formed a joint venture in 2001 with a North Korean company to manufacture cigarettes in the country.

The North Korean military tracked the drone "moving northwards" over South Korea's Ganghwa county, one of the closest territories to the North, Pyongyang's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) cited a spokesman for the Korean People's Army as saying. The drone was shot down inside the North Korean airspace near the city of Kaesong after flying for 8 kilometers, the spokesperson added.

North Korea said it conducted a long-range strategic cruise missile launch drill over the West Sea on Sunday as it continues to showcase its weapons capabilities amid regional tensions. Leader Kim Jong Un observed the drill, which was carried out to test the counterattack readiness and combat capabilities of long-range missile units, train missile operators in maneuvering and fire-mission procedures,

North Korea released new photos Thursday, claiming to show its first nuclear-powered submarine. According to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim Jong Un visited a shipyard to review the construction of what the North describes as an 8,700-ton-class nuclear-propelled submarine. Kim has called the vessel a crucial step in the modernization and nuclear armament of North Korea's navy. Photos released by KCNA show Kim joined by other officials and his daughter, who many observers believe will succeed her fatherImage: Yonhap/YONHAPNEWS AGENCY/picture alliance

Even Amazon isn't immune to North Korean scammers who try to score remote jobs at tech companies so they can funnel their wages to Kim Jong Un's coffers. The cloud giant has stopped more than 1,800 suspected scammers from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, aka North Korea) from joining its workforce since April 2024, Amazon Chief Security Officer Steve Schmidt said Thursday.

Wrapping up the three-day meeting, Kim reserved praise for the North Korean soldiers fighting against Ukraine alongside Russia, of whom at least 600 have been killed and thousands more injured in the war, according to South Korean estimates. Over the past year, various soldiers of our military have participated in overseas military operations to demonstrate the reputation of our military, KCNA said, quoting Kim. The military deployment in support of Russia demonstrated to the world the prestige of our army and state as the ever-victorious army and genuine protector of international justice, Kim added.

During a U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on 3 December, new evidence was presented suggesting that Ukrainian children abducted by Russia have been transferred to North Korea, where they are reportedly held in military-style camps. The information, brought forward by Ukrainian journalist and media adviser Ostap Yarysh, marks one of the starkest escalations yet in Russia's forced displacement campaign, a campaign already recognised internationally as a war crime and the subject of International Criminal Court indictments against Vladimir Putin and Russia's Commissioner for Children, Maria Lvova-Belova.

Audricus Phagnasay, Jason Salazar, and Alexander Paul Travis (the latter being the US Army soldier) each pled guilty to one wire fraud conspiracy for providing their identities to North Koreans between 2019 and 2022 so the Norks could fraudulently get work at US companies. All three provided space in their homes for laptops issued by the companies they supposedly worked for and installed remote access software that allowed their North Korean comrades to appear to be working from the US, the DoJ said.

For 75 years, the US has wielded wartime operational control (OPCON) of South Korean forces. The set-up has its origins in the Korean War which erupted in 1950 and largely ended with the truce of 1953. In simple terms, Seoul can command its troops only as long as there is no open conflict, and despite South Korean leadership taking on more and more responsibility in the intervening decades, a major breakout of hostilities would still see Washington take command.

We will show more offensive action against the enemies' threat on the principle of ensuring security and defending peace by dint of powerful strength, the defence minister said, according to a report on Saturday by the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). All threats encroaching upon the sphere of the North's security will become direct targets and be managed in a necessary way, South Korea's Yonhap news agency also reported the defence minister as saying.

North Korea fired a suspected short-range ballistic missile towards the eastern waters on Friday, South Korea's Military said, as talks between Pyongang, Seoul and Washington remain stalled. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile flew about 700 Kilometers (434 miles) cross-country after being fired from an inland area around the western county of Taekwan. They added South Korean and US intelligence agencies had monitored the launch preparations in advance and were now studying details.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions against eight individuals and two entities within North Korea's global financial network for laundering money for various illicit schemes, including cybercrime and information technology (IT) worker fraud. "North Korean state-sponsored hackers steal and launder money to fund the regime's nuclear weapons program," said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley.

Kim Yong Nam, the former ceremonial head of North Korea for over two decades, has died at the age of 97, state media reported on Tuesday. State broadcaster Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that the former diplomat died of multiple organ failure on Monday. Kim Jong Un visited his remains "to express deep condolences over his death," it said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin received North Korea's top diplomat at the Kremlin on October 27 as Russian forces continued their push in eastern Ukraine, penetrating a key city amid fierce fighting. North Korean media said Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui discussed "many future projects to constantly strengthen and develop" the bilateral relationship while also passing on leader Kim Jong Un's "brotherly regard" to Putin. No further details were given.

Pyongyang says the tests in the Yellow Sea were aimed at impressing its abilities upon its enemies'. North Korea has test-fired several sea-to-surface cruise missiles into its western waters, according to state media, hours before United States President Donald Trump begins a visit to South Korea. The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Wednesday that the missiles, carried out in the Yellow Sea on Tuesday, flew for more than two hours before accurately striking targets.

During talks with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung at the Gyeongju National Museum, Trump expressed concern that "North Korea's nuclear development is significantly threatening the security of the Korean Peninsula and northeast Asia." But Trump also left the door open to dialogue with Pyongyang, claiming he still has a "good relationship" with Kim and was ready to return to meet the North Korean leader "at any time."

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has intensified its nationwide crackdown on schemes involving North Korean information technology (IT) workers who fraudulently obtained employment at U.S. businesses. Over the past few years, the U.S. government issued multiple advisories to detect and combat the North Korean remote IT workers' attempts to infiltrate U.S. businesses, the latest of which came in July this year.

From Kursk, North Korean units are using drones to conduct aerial reconnaissance missions over the neighboring Sumy region in Ukraine, identifying troop positions and supporting Russian follow-on strikes against identified targets, Kyiv said. Ukraine has "intercepted communications between North Korean drone operators and personnel of the Russian army," Kyiv shared in a statement published to the Telegram messaging app. It said that North Korean drone operators "adjusted the fire of multiple launch rocket systems against Ukrainian positions."

Earlier this year, as North Korea began sending more soldiers to Russia to assist in its war against Ukraine, Maggie Feldman-Piltch turned to a group of adult content creators for their help. The creators had noticed an uptick in subscribers from the DPRK who suddenly had access to a less restrictive internet environment than they were used to back home, including adult content recommended by their Russian counterparts.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has pledged to develop additional military measures and allocate more strategic assets to respond to the buildup of US forces in the south, as the country prepares for a major anniversary parade. In direct proportion to the buildup of US forces in [South] Korea, our strategic interest in the region has also increased, and we have accordingly allocated special assets to key targets of interest, Kim was quoted in a report published by the state media KCNA on Sunday.

The measure is part of a trio of regulations that Kim Ilhyuk, a North Korean defector, calls the three evil laws. They were implemented during the Covid pandemic lockdown and intended to impose even stricter control on the population of the country, which Kim Jong Un, North Korea's supreme leader, rules with an iron fist. The focus, to a large extent, was on young people and their interaction with foreign cultures.

The North Korean vessel crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL) near the South Korean border island of Baengnyeong at about 5am local time on Friday (20:00 GMT) and remained on the southern side of the maritime frontier for an hour while also advancing up to 5km (3.1 miles) south of the demarcation line, South Korea's military said. Our military broadcasted a warning and fired warning shots, after which the North Korean merchant ship retreated from our territorial waters, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement.