North Korea warns of decisive response to US-South Korea joint military drills SEOUL, August 19 (AJP) - North Korea would decisively respond to military threats posed by its enemies, referring to the ongoing joint military exercise between the U.S. and South Korea, state media reported on Wednesday. In a commentary carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea said its "right to self-defense" would be exercised "clearly" through what it described as "advanced new power" to "fully neutralize militar August 19, 2026

Lee keeps wartime control plan as Trump cuts drills SEOUL, August 18 (AJP) - South Korea will take back wartime control of its own troops on schedule and accelerate work on a nuclear-powered submarine, President Lee Jae Myung said Tuesday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the allies' annual exercise scaled back. Trump said Sunday (local time) that he had instructed U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to "substantially reduce" the drills, writing on his social media platform that it was too late to can August 18, 2026

North Korean leader 'could reengage with Trump after US midterm elections'  SEOUL, August 14 (AJP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could seek talks with Washington if U.S. President Donald Trump's Republican Party loses the U.S. midterm elections this fall, according to a U.S. Korea expert. In a post in a question-and-answer format on the website of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on Thursday, Victor Cha, the think tank's Korea Chair, raised the possibility of renewed talks between Pyoung and Washington. "The conv August 14, 2026

Pyongyang warns of 'new level of deterrent' against US.-South Korea drills SEOUL, August 14 (AJP) - North Korea on Friday denounced an upcoming joint military exercise between South Korea and the U.S., warning that it would respond to the drills with a "new level of deterrent." "It is our consistent principle of ensuring security to respond to a new level of a threat with a new level of a deterrent," a spokesperson for North Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency. August 14, 2026

N. Korea fires ballistic missile ahead of UFS, possible hypersonic weapon tested SEOUL, August 12 (AJP) - North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the East Sea on Wednesday, with analysts raising the possibility that Pyongyang tested a hypersonic short-range ballistic missile or a medium-range weapon flown on a shortened trajectory. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the missile launched from the Wonsan area at around 6 a.m. “Our military detected a ballistic missile launched from the Wonsan area toward the East Sea at around 6 August 12, 2026

North Korea fires ballistic missile ahead of South Korea-US joint drills SEOUL, August 12 (AJP) - North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Wednesday, military authorities here said. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected a missile launched from Wonsan, Kangwon Province at around 6 a.m. that flew more than 700 kilometers. It is analyzing the launch, including details about the missile, in coordination with U.S. authorities. "South Korea, the U.S. and Japan are closely sharing information on the launch and maintaining August 12, 2026

Zelenskyy repeatedly warns of expanded N. Korean role in Russia's war SEOUL, August 11 (AJP) - North Korea's expanding role in Russia's war against Ukraine should raise security concerns in South Korea as Pyongyang gains battlefield experience and improves its weapons through cooperation with Moscow, Ukraine's top military commander has repeatedly warned. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that Russia was preparing to station additional North Korean troops on its territory and had received more ballistic missiles from Pyon August 11, 2026

North Korea's Kimsuky builds local AI for cyberattacks SEOUL, August 10 (AJP) - North Korean hacking group Kimsuky has apparently built its own local large language model environment as it expands its use of artificial intelligence from creating phishing lures to extracting information and automating cyberattacks, a South Korean cybersecurity firm said Monday. Genians said its analysis found signs that the group had deployed local AI tools including Ollama, GPT4All and Msty, as well as retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG, technolog August 10, 2026

A tale of two Koreas: one learns war, the other stumbles at the border SEOUL, August 07 (AJP) - North Korea is gaining first-hand experience in drones, artillery and ballistic missiles on the battlefields of Ukraine while South Korea's front-line forces are confronting failures in something more basic: loaded weapons, reporting and command. The contrast is sharpening as Pyongyang expands military cooperation with Russia and continues developing its nuclear and missile arsenal, while Seoul investigates why some troops guarding the world's most August 7, 2026

South Korean military steps up vigilance after North Korea fires ballistic missile SEOUL, August 7 (AJP) - The South Korean military remained vigilant on Friday, stepping up its readiness against potential additional launches after North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea a day earlier. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the missile was launched from Wonsan in Kangwon Province at around 5 p.m. the previous day, without disclosing details about its flight distance or other specifications, saying that it was analyzing the launch with t August 7, 2026