North Korea and China tighten diplomatic embrace as Kim seeks global relevance
North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui met with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi in Beijing on Sunday during her second visit to the Chinese capital in just one month, both countries’ official news agencies reported. Wang told Choe that “China is willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea […]
Read MoreWill Kim Jong-un’s ‘good memory’ of Trump lead to US-North Korea deal?
By Park Chan-kyong North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has responded positively to a recent overture by US President Donald Trump, even as analysts say the prospects for another summit between the two leaders remain slim due to their wide differences over denuclearisation. Kim said he could meet Trump again, provided the US were to drop […]
Read MoreNorth Korea threatens ‘unfavourable consequences’ over US-led drills
By Park Chan-kyong North Korea has threatened military retaliation in response to joint drills by South Korea, the United States and Japan, with the powerful sister of ruler Kim Jong-un and a top military official issuing parallel statements. Both denounced the ongoing drills and signalled that Pyongyang was prepared to answer with its own show […]
Read MoreWhy Kim Jong-un travels with his own toilet to battle biometric espionage
By David D. Lee When North Korean leader Kim Jong-un rose from his chair after a two-hour meeting with Vladimir Putin in Beijing last week, aides swooped in almost instantly, polishing the table and scrubbing the seat he had just occupied. The bizarre spectacle was not just political theatre or a quirk of the supreme […]
Read MoreHow Xi-Kim talks marked China’s ‘full-throated endorsement’ of North Korea on world stage
By Shi Jiangtao From a rare multilateral debut at Tiananmen Square to a high-stakes summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, followed by an exclusive banquet, Beijing’s privileged treatment of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was a calculated display of solidarity between the two communist neighbours, analysts said. In a subtle yet seismic shift, Beijing notably […]
Read MoreWhat does North Korea’s Kim want from rare China trip?
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is in China for a high-profile visit, a rare step beyond his country’s borders for prospective meetings with President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The trip could be Kim’s bid to “formalise” ties with Pyongyang’s two main allies — and potentially play a more prominent role […]
Read MoreWhy Kim Jong-un’s military parade presence could signal a China-North Korea realignment
By Shi Jiangtao and Laura Zhou North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s coming visit to China – his first in over six years – for a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II could reinvigorate Beijing-Pyongyang ties and signal a broader strategic realignment, according to observers. For the first time, […]
Read MoreKim Jong-un weeps for North Korea’s Ukraine war dead in display of calculated grief
By Park Chan-kyong For the first time since its founding in 1948, North Korea has openly acknowledged the deaths of its soldiers fighting on foreign soil with a carefully staged ceremony that analysts say betrays supreme leader Kim Jong-un’s deepening domestic anxieties. Kim embraced weeping children, affixed medals to portraits of the dead and even […]
Read MoreNorth Korea’s Kim decorates soldiers from Russia, consoles children with hugs
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un lauded his country’s “heroic” troops who fought for Russia in the war against Ukraine, in a ceremony where he decorated returning soldiers and consoled children of the bereaved with hugs, state media said on Friday. Kim said in a speech quoted by KCNA: “The combat activities of overseas […]
Read MoreNorth Korea’s Kim calls for rapid nuclear buildup
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country needed to rapidly expand its nuclear armament and called US-South Korea military exercises an “obvious expression of their will to provoke war,” state media KCNA reported on Tuesday. South Korea and its ally the United States kicked off joint military drills this week, including testing an […]
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