North Korea on Monday fired around 130 artillery shells into inter-Korean maritime buffer zones as South Korea and the US kicked off regular live-fire drills near the border. The artillery shells were fired from Jangsan Cape in South Hwanghae Province and Kumgang County in Kangwon Province from around 2:59 p.m. local time, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Monday afternoon. The artill...

South Korea announced additional sanctions on North Korea on Friday in response to growing security threats from North Korea, highlighted by its long-range missile launch last month. Seoul has decided to impose independent sanctions on eight North Korean individuals and seven institutions involved in the secretive regime's nuclear and missile development programs, according to the foreign minist...

The 10-year-old styled herself like her mother when she inspected the testing site with her father. Like Ri, Ju-ae was photographed alternatively wearing a white coat with white fur and black with black alongside her father, reminiscent of her mother’s fashion style in the 2010s. Ri infused a new wave of change after being photographed in modern Western-style dresses and clothes, including short...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered the promotion of hundreds of officers involved in last month's warplane activities apparently targeting South Korea, according to Pyongyang's state media Thursday. Kim congratulated the commanding officers and pilots of the Air Force who contributed to "strikingly demonstrating" its power against the enemy and its "invincible stamina by successfully conduc...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presided over a politburo session of the ruling party and decided to convene a key party meeting later this month, North Korean state media reported Thursday. During the meeting held the previous day, Kim said the "internal and external circumstances of the year 2022 created on the advance of the Korean revolution were the unprecedented adversity that tested our w...

Another high-profile NK provocation unlikely this week as Pyongyang is in good spirits after ICBM launch on Nov. 18

'A successor should be a legitimate son'

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made a second public appearance with his daughter during a photo session with officials involved in this month's intercontinental ballistic missile launch, state media said Sunday. Photos published by the Korean Central News Agency showed the daughter, presumed to be Kim's second child, Ju-ae, dressed in a long black winter coat with a fur collar and with her hair...

Chinese President Xi Jinping has said he attaches great importance to his country's relations with North Korea in a letter recently sent to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the North's official news agency reported Saturday. Xi made the remarks in a letter sent on Tuesday in reply to Kim's congratulatory message dispatched last month after the Chinese president secured his third term. "Through ...

South Korea said Friday it will cremate the body of a presumed North Korean woman found near the inter-Korean border in July, as there has been no response from Pyongyang on the offer of returning it. The unification ministry handling inter-Korean affairs sought to notify the North of its plan to return the body and had set a deadline of Thursday for Pyongyang to respond. "But North Korea has n...

North Korea has held a five-day national conference of the country's officers in charge of security and counterintelligence affairs, Pyongyang's state media reported Friday, in an apparent move to rally internal loyalty. The 5th Conference of Security Officers opened in Pyongyang on Saturday "to firmly guarantee" the development of the ruling Workers' Party by strengthening its security organ, a...

Unification Ministry lambasts Kim for irrationally shifting blame to Seoul for what Pyongyang has done

The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Thursday lashed out at South Korea's Yoon Suk-yeol administration for seeking more independent sanctions on Pyongyang, calling it a "faithful dog" to Washington. Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, harshly criticized the South for labeling the North's military exercise as a "provocation" a...

With wife Ri, North Korean leader believed to have three children, the second of whom just stepped out of mystery

WASHINGTON -- China is not putting the kind of pressure it can on North Korea to help stop Pyongyang from continuing with its provocative actions, a White House National Security Council official said Tuesday. John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications, made the remark one day after Beijing again blocked an US-led effort to have the United Nations Security Council condemn North Korea's...