SEOUL, June 18 (AJP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has held talks with Russia's top security official in Pyongyang to discuss ways to further strengthen military cooperation between the two countries, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Wednesday. According to KCNA, Kim met with Russia's Security Council secretary Sergei Shoigu the previous day, who made his third visit to the isolated country in just three months, following his previous t

SEOUL, June 16 (AJP) - With nuclear-armed countries including China, Russia and the U.S. racing to bolster their nuclear arsenals, North Korea could increase its stockpile of nuclear warheads to as many as 90, according to a recent report. In its annual yearbook released Monday, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said North Korea "had assembled approximately 50 nuclear warheads and had sufficient fissile material to potentially produce up to 90 warhead

SEOUL, June 13 (AJP) - North Korea has launched a large destroyer, after its initial failed attempt last month, state media reported on Friday. The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the 5,000-ton destroyer, named after North Korea’s historical naval hero Kang Kon, was launched at a shipyard in the northeastern port city of Rajin after weeks of repair work. The country's leader Kim Jong-un oversaw the launch along with his daughter, Ju-ae, who was dressed i

SEOUL, June 12 (AJP) - U.S. President Donald Trump "remains receptive" to engaging in talks with North Korea, the White House said Wednesday. When asked to clarify whether North Korean diplomats had refused to accept a letter Trump sent to Kim, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing, "The president remains receptive to correspondence with Kim Jong-un, and he'd like to see the progress that was made at that summit in Singapore, wh

SEOUL, June 12 (AJP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has sent a congratulatory message to Russian President Vladimir Putin as Moscow marked "Russia Day," state media reported on Thursday. The Russian national holiday, which celebrates the 1990 declaration of the country's sovereignty during the Soviet era, is observed annually on June 12. In the message reportedly delivered the previous day by North Korean Ambassador to Russia Sin Hong-chol, Kim called Putin his &

SEOUL, June 11 (AJP) - South Korea suspended its loudspeaker broadcasts along the heavily armed border with North Korea on Wednesday. The halt came about a year after the South Korean military resumed propaganda broadcasts in June last year, in response to a series of North Korean provocations including its bizarre campaign of sending trash-filled balloons toward the South. The latest move also came shortly after the Unification Ministry earlier this week urged North Korean defec

SEOUL, June 7 (AJP) - North Korea experienced a nationwide internet outage on Friday, affecting all routes of online access into the country, according to a British researcher cited by Reuters. Junade Ali, a UK-based analyst monitoring North Korea’s online activities, told Reuters the disruption likely resulted from internal technical issues rather than a cyberattack. Ali said the outage appeared similar to a network overload, suggesting internal problems such as power

SEOUL, June 5 (AJP) - North Korea's state media on Thursday reported the result of this year's South Korean presidential election, which took place here earlier this week. The state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper devoted just two sentences to it, saying that Lee Jae-myung was elected as the next president in the South's June 3 election, "just two months after [former President Yoon Suk Yeol' was impeached" over his botched Dec. 3 declaration of martial law las

SEOUL, May 30 (AJP) - North Korea has supplied Russia with large quantities of munitions and missile-related equipment, according to a report released Thursday by a multinational team that monitors UN Security Council sanctions on the renegade country. In its inaugural report, the Multinational Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) said, "Since began supplying Russia with ammunition in early September 2023, it has transferred over 20,000 containers of munitions and rel