A TV screen shows a file image of Ri Il Kyu, a senior North Korea diplomat based in Cuba, during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, on July 16, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

South Korea’s spy agency said on Tuesday that a senior North Korea diplomat based in Cuba has fled to South Korea, the latest defection by members of the North’s ruling elite that likely hurt leader Kim Jong-un’s push to bolster his leadership.

The National Intelligence Service said media reports on the defection of a North Korean counselor of political affairs in Cuba were true. A brief statement by the NIS public affairs office gave no further details.

South Korea’s mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported earlier on Tuesday that diplomat Ri Il Kyu fled to South Korea with his wife and children in November.

Chosun Ilbo cited Ri as telling the newspaper in an interview that he had decided to defect because of what he called disillusionment with North Korea’s political system, an unfair job evaluation by Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry, and the ministry’s disapproval of his hopes to visit Mexico to treat his neural damage. He said that hospitals in Cuba didn’t have the necessary medical equipment to treat his health problem due to international sanctions.

Other South Korean media outlets carried similar reports later Tuesday.

North Korea didn’t immediately respond to South Korea’s announcement of Ri’s defection. North Korea has previously expressed fury over some high-profile defections by accusing South Korea of kidnapping or enticing its citizens to defect. It has also described some defectors as traitors or criminals who fled to avoid punishment.

Ri defected before South Korea and Cuba established diplomatic ties in February, an event that experts say likely posed a political blow to North Korea, whose diplomatic footing is largely dependent on a small number of Cold War-era allies like Cuba.

The Chosun report said Ri had been engaged in efforts to block Cuba from opening diplomatic ties with South Korea until his defection. The report said Ri won a commendation from Kim Jong Un for his role in negotiations with Panama that led to the release of a ship detained in 2013 for allegedly carrying banned items like missiles and fighter jet parts. The report said Ri was then a third secretary of the North Korean Embassy in Cuba.

About 34,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea to avoid economic hardship and political suppression, mostly since the late 1990s. A majority of them are women from the North’s poorer northern regions. But the number of highly educated North Koreans with professional jobs escaping to South Korea has steadily increased recently.

In 2023, about 10 North Koreans categorized as members of the country’s elite group resettled in South Korea — more than in recent years, according South Korea’s Unification Ministry. Ministry officials have said that an increase in high-level defections were likely caused by North Korea’s pandemic-related economic difficulties and its pushes to reinforce state control of its people. Those who had to stay abroad longer than initially scheduled due to COVID-19 curbs were exposed to freer foreign cultures for an extended period.

“This high-level defection adds insult to injury for North Korea, as Ri was instrumental in representing Pyongyang’s interests in Havana,” said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

“The Kim regime is no doubt taking measures to make it more difficult for diplomats overseas to defect, but increased repression is likely to further isolate Pyongyang and may actually encourage more defections,” Easley said.

Moon Seong Mook, an expert with the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, said news of high-level defections like Ri’s would spread to North Korean diplomats and others, potentially dealing a big blow to Kim — though it won’t likely lead to a regime collapse anytime soon.

Few North Korea monitoring groups question Kim’s grip on power. But observers say Kim is grappling with chronic economic difficulties, the influence of South Korean pop cultures and the expansion of the U.S.-South Korean military cooperation.

The most high-profile defection in recent years happened in 2016, when Tae Yongho, then a minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, arrived in South Korea. He said that he decided to flee because he didn’t want his children to live “miserable” lives in North Korea as he also fell into “despair” over Kim’s execution of officials and his pursuit of nuclear weapons.

North Korea has called him “human scum” and accused him of embezzling government money and committing other crimes. Tae was elected to South Korea’s parliament in 2020.

In 2019, North Korea’s acting ambassador to Italy, Jo Song Gil, arrived in South Korea. Also in 2019, North Korea’s acting ambassador to Kuwait came to South Korea with his family.

In recent months, tensions on the Korean Peninsula have soared over North Korea’s launches of trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea and its continuation of missile tests. North Korea says its balloon campaigns were a tit-for-tat action against South Korean activists floating political leaflets via their own balloons.

On Tuesday, Kim’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, warned South Korea of unspecified “gruesome” consequences, saying that South Korean-sent leaflets were found again in the North. She issued a similar warning on Sunday. South Korea responded to North Korea’s earlier balloon activities by suspending a 2018 tension-reduction deal with North Korea.

A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea’s missile launch during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, July 2, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

North Korea threatened on July 13 to boost its nuclear fighting capability and make the U.S. and South Korea pay “an unimaginably harsh price” as it slammed its rivals’ new defence guidelines that it says reveal an intention to invade the North.

On Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol authorised the signing of joint nuclear deterrence guidelines as part of efforts to enhance their capabilities to cope with North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal.

The guidelines were adopted a year after the two countries established a consultation body to bolster information-sharing on nuclear operations and discuss how to integrate U.S. nuclear weapons and South Korean conventional weapons in contingencies.

In a statement carried by state media, North Korea’s Defence Ministry said the U.S.-South Korea guidelines betrayed “their sinister intention to step up their preparations for a nuclear war against” North Korea.

The statement said its enemies’ escalating nuclear threats urgently require North Korea to further improve its nuclear deterrent readiness and add unspecified “important elements to the composition of the deterrent.” It said the U.S. and South Korea will “pay an unimaginably harsh price” if they fail to stop provocative acts.

Also read: U.S., allies clash with China and Russia over North Korea’s launches and threats to use nukes

Details of the U.S.-South Korean guidelines weren’t available, but experts say they are largely about how the two countries would integrate U.S. nuclear weapons and South Korean conventional weapons to respond to various potential contingencies caused by North Korean attacks and provocations.

U.S.’ deterrence policy

Experts say the U.S. and South Korea are expected to map out detailed concepts and operation plans based on the guidelines and review them via bilateral military exercises.

The guidelines are the first of a kind between the allies. The U.S. has repeatedly promised to use all its military capabilities to protect South Korea if it is attacked by North Korea, but many experts in South Korea believe the U.S. lacks plans on how it would implement its extended deterrence to its ally. South Korea has no nuclear weapons.

North Korea has argued it was forced to pursue nuclear weapons to deal with U.S.-led nuclear threats. U.S. and South Korean officials have steadfastly said they have no intention of attacking North Korea.

Concerns about North Korea’s nuclear programme have grown in recent years as the North has performed a slew of provocative missile tests and openly threatened to use nuclear weapons preemptively in potential conflicts with its adversaries.

Seoul:

North Korea “most strongly denounces” the declaration at the recent NATO summit, KCNA said on Saturday, citing the country’s foreign ministry spokesperson.

Leaders of NATO countries stressed a membership pledge for Ukraine and took a stronger stance on China’s support for Russia in a declaration this week at a summit in Washington.

“The “Washington Summit Declaration,” cooked up and made public on July 10, goes to prove that the U.S. and NATO, reduced to a tool for its confrontation, pose the most serious threat to the global peace and security,” North Korea’s state media KCNA quoted a foreign ministry spokesperson as saying.

North Korea’s statement added that the U.S. moves to expand military blocs with NATO countries and Asian partners, including South Korea and Japan are “the vicious root cause of seriously threatening the regional peace, extremely exacerbating the international security environment and sparking off worldwide arms race.”

The summit declaration called on China to cease all material and political support for Russia’s war effort. It also accused Iran and North Korea of fuelling Russia’s war in Ukraine by providing direct military support to Moscow.

Separately, South Korea and the United States on the sidelines of a NATO summit signed a guideline on establishing an integrated system of extended deterrence for the Korean peninsula to counter nuclear and military threats from North Korea.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

South Korea on Thursday announced that it is ready to start mass-producing laser weapons like those in the ‘Star Wars’ franchise to shoot down North Korean drones. According to Newsweek, the drone-killing system, called the Block-I, will be deployed later this year. With this, South Korea will become the world’s first country to deploy a technology that is being developed by several armed forces. Moreover, the country’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) announced that an even more powerful version is also being planned, which could be a “game changer” in the future. 

According to Newsweek, South Korea has named its laser program the “StarWars Project”. The country’s DAPA, which handles defence procurement, development and production, announced a 100 billion won contract to build the drone-killing weapon. It touted the weapon as effective and cheap and revealed that the laser is quiet and invisible, and one shot costs only 2,000 won. 

“Our country is becoming the first country in the world to deploy and operate laser weapons, and our military’s response capabilities on North Korea’s drone provocation will be further strengthened,” the agency said. 

The Times reported that Block-I uses fibre optic cables to generate a laser beam intended to be fired at relatively close range against small drones. Each shot is silent and invisible to the naked eye. It lasts 10 to 20 seconds and creates a temperature of more than 700 Celsius, which is enough to damage and disable a drone’s engine or battery. It can be fired wherever there is a sufficient supply of electricity. 

“Cost per fire is extremely cheap compared with other guided weapons,” Jo Yong-jin, a spokesman for the DAPA, told reporters in Seoul. “Responses to low-cost strike assets and weapons, such as small drones, will be able to take place very effectively and efficiently,” he added. 

South Korean aerospace company Hanwha Aerospace Co. is contracted to manufacture the weapons. Newsweek reported that DAPA is already planning to develop a more powerful, longer-ranged anti-aircraft laser weapon: the Block-II. This weapon will involve boosting the power of the laser beam to hundreds of kilowatts, with the aim of taking down larger targets like ballistic missiles and planes.

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Meanwhile, several countries, including the US, UK, Israel, Turkey, Germany and Japan have also developed laser weapons. Earlier this year, the UK’s Ministry of Defence tested a laser weapon, DragonFire, which reportedly destroyed incoming drones from several miles away during a trial. With this, the ministry hopes that it will pave the way for a low-cost alternative to missiles to shoot down targets like drones. It further said that the weapon is precise enough to hit a coin from a kilometre away. 

DragonFire will be used both by the Army and the Royal Navy as part of their future air defence capabilities.

Seoul:

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un slammed Seoul Monday for recent military drills near the border, saying the South must be “suicidal” and warning of a “terrible disaster”.

After Pyongyang sent multiple barrages of trash-carrying balloons across the border, Seoul last month fully suspended a tension-reducing military deal and resumed live-fire drills on border islands and by the demilitarised zone that divides the Korean Peninsula.

Kim Yo Jong, who is a key regime spokesperson, said this was “an undisguised war game (and) an inexcusable and explicit provocation that aggravates the situation,” according to a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

South Korea’s border drills were “suicidal hysteria, for which they will have to sustain terrible disaster,” she added.

Kim Yo Jong said it was “clear to everyone… the riskiness of the above-said reckless live ammunition firing drills of the ROK army coming nearer to the border of the DPRK,” referring to the South by its official name, the Republic of Korea.

If Seoul’s exercises breach the North’s sovereignty, Kim Yo Jong warned: “our armed forces will immediately carry out its mission,” without giving further details.

Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with Pyongyang ramping up weapons testing as it draws ever closer to Russia.

Seoul and Washington have accused Pyongyang of supplying arms to Moscow for use in the war in Ukraine — which would violate rafts of sanctions on both countries.

Earlier this year, the nuclear-armed North declared Seoul its chief enemy, and has jettisoned agencies designed for outreach and diplomacy with Seoul, while ramping up security along the shared border.

North Korean soldiers have crossed the border three times in recent weeks, likely accidentally Seoul’s military says, while they were working to lay mines, clear foliage and build likely anti-tank barriers.

Kim Yo Jong also criticised recent trilateral drills between the United States, South Korea and Japan, saying they were “the height of confrontational hysteria”.

“The war drumbeats clearly showed that the US and other hostile forces’ rash manoeuvres for military hegemony in the region have crossed the red line,” she added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea’s missile launch during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, July 2, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

North Korea said on July 2 it had test-fired a new tactical ballistic missile capable of carrying a huge warhead, as the country is pushing to modernise its weapons arsenal to cope with what it calls U.S.-led threats.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency called the weapon Hwasongpho-11Da-4.5 which can carry a 4.5 ton-class “super-large warhead.” It said the test-fire on July 1 was meant to verify flight stability and hit accuracy at the maximum range of 500 kilometres (310 miles) and the minimum range of 90 kilometres (55 miles).

South Korea’s military earlier said that North Korea launched two ballistic missiles from one of its southwestern towns in a northeastern direction on July 1 and that the first missile flew 600 kilometres (370 miles) and the second missile 120 kilometres (75 miles). The second missile’s flight distance was too short to reach the waters off the North’s east coast, a typical landing site for North Korean test missiles.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the second North Korean missile possibly travelled abnormally during the initial stage of its flight. It said if the missile exploded, its debris would likely have scattered on the ground though no damages was immediately reported.

The KCNA dispatch didn’t say from where it launched the new missile and where it landed. But the fact that it tested both the missile’s maximum and minimum ranges suggested North Korea performed two launches.

KCNA, citing North Korea’s Missile Administration, reported that North Korea will test-fire the missile again later in July to verify the performances of its simulated warhead at the medium range of 250 kilometers (155 miles).

Since 2022, North Korea has sharply accelerated weapons testing activities to enlarge its arsenal of nuclear-capable weapons designed to strike key sites in the mainland US, South Korea, and Japan. The ranges of the newly tested missile suggest it targets South Korea.

Experts say North Korea would ultimately want to use an expanded nuclear arsenal to increase its leverage in future diplomacy with the US.

July 1st’s missile test was North Korea’s first weapons firing in five days. Last Wednesday, North Korea launched what it called a multiwarhead missile in the first known test of a developmental weapon aimed at penetrating its rivals’ missile defences. North Korea said the launch was successful, but South Korea dismissed the North’s claim as a deception to cover up a failed launch.

The latest launches came a day after North Korea vowed “offensive and overwhelming” responses to a new U.S. military drill with South Korea and Japan.

North Korea launched a ballistic missile off its east coast on Monday, South Korea’s military said, a day after the North vowed to take “offensive and overwhelming countermeasures” in response to a new U.S. military drill with South Korea and Japan.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launch was made on Monday morning, but gave no further details, including how far the weapon traveled.

The launch came two days after South Korea, the U.S. and Japan ended their new multidomain trilateral drills. The “Freedom Edge” drill drew a U.S. aircraft carrier and destroyers, fighter jets and helicopters from the three countries, and the three countries practiced missile defense, anti-submarine and maritime interdiction drills.

On Sunday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a lengthy statement strongly denouncing the U.S., South Korea and Japan over their three-way drill. It called the drill an Asian version of NATO that revealed a U.S. intention to escalate regional military tensions, exert pressure on Russia and lay siege to China.

The North’s Foreign Ministry said it will “firmly defend the sovereignty, security and interests of the state and peace in the region through offensive and overwhelming countermeasures.”

Monday’s launch was the North’s first weapons firing in five days. Last Wednesday, North Korea launched what it called a multiwarhead missile in the first known launch of a developmental, advanced weapon meant to defeat U.S. and South Korean missile defenses. North Korea said the launch was successful, but South Korea dismissed the North’s claim as deception to cover up a failed launch.

In recent weeks, North Korea has floated numerous trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea in what it has described as a tit-for-tat response to South Korean activists sending political leaflets via their own balloons.

Seoul:

North Korea on Monday launched two ballistic missiles, South Korea’s military confirmed — the latest in a series of weapons tests by Pyongyang that have soured relations with Seoul.

A short-range ballistic missile was launched in the early morning hours, the South’s military Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. About 10 minutes later, a second missile, this one as yet unidentified, was detected, it added.

“Our military has strengthened surveillance and vigilance in preparation for further launches,” the JCS said, adding it had shared information about the incidents with the United States and Japan. 

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) did not offer immediate confirmation of the launches.

Last week, North Korea claimed to have successfully tested a multiple warhead missile, but the South said that launch ended in a mid-air explosion.

Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with the North ramping up weapons testing while bombarding the South with balloons full of trash.

Pyongyang says those missives are in retaliation for balloons loaded with anti-regime propaganda leaflets sent northwards by activists in the South.

In response to the North’s repeated launches, South Korea has fully suspended a tension-reducing military treaty. It also resumed propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts and live-fire drills near the border.

South Korea also has grown anxious over the North’s warming relations with its isolated neighbour Russia.

North Korea is accused of breaching arms control measures by supplying weapons to Russia to use in its war in Ukraine, and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a summit with leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang in June in a show of unity.

On Sunday, Pyongyang condemned joint military drills by South Korea, Japan and the United States, calling them an “Asian version of NATO” and warning of “fatal consequences”.

The three-day “Freedom Edge” exercises included preparation in ballistic missile and air defences, anti-submarine warfare and defensive cyber training.

Pyongyang has always decried similar combined exercises as rehearsals for an invasion, but Seoul said Sunday the latest exercises were a continuation of defensive drills held regularly for years.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A North Korean official is seen wearing a pin featuring the portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during a key meeting of the country’s ruling party in Pyongyang, North Korea, June 28, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

North Korean officials wore pins with a portrait of Kim Jong Un in public for the first time in pictures released by state media on June 30, the latest step in the development of a cult of personality about the leader.

The officials, speaking at a key meeting chaired by Mr. Kim of the reclusive state’s ruling party, wore the typical party logo pin on the right lapel and, on the left chest, the pin with Mr. Kim’s face against a flag-shaped red background.

The 10th Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, which reviews the party’s performance for the first half of the year, began on Friday, state news agency KCNA said.

The Kim dynasty that has ruled North Korea since its founding after World War Two has sought to strengthen its grip on power by building cults of personality around itself.

In an apparent push to solidify Kim Jong Un’s status as a leader equal to his father and grandfather, North Korean media published photographs showing leader his portrait hanging prominently next to those of Kim Jong Il and national patriarch Kim Il Sung earlier this year.

In April, the music video for a propaganda song praising Kim Jong Un as a “friendly father” and a “great leader” was aired on the state-controlled Korean Central Television, which has been banned by South Korea.

South Korea has said that in 2022, a 22-year-old man was publicly executed by North Korea for sharing and listening to K-pop music and South Korean films. The information is taken from testimonials of North Korean defectors that were published in a human rights report by the South Korean ministry of unification.

According to the report, the man from South Hwanghae province was accused of listening to 70 K-pop songs, watching 3 South Korean films, and distributing this prohibited media. 

North Korea has strict control over the information its citizens consume, includes strict rules regarding entertainment consumption, and has very harsh punishments for those who violate them.

The report further reveals that North Korea tightened its grip on outside culture in 2020 with a law banning “reactionary ideology and culture.” This law is seen as a tool to shield citizens from Western influences, which the North Korean government considers detrimental.

North Korea has consistently denied accusations of human rights violations, calling them attempts to undermine its leadership.

The ban on K-pop is part of an effort to protect North Koreans from the negative influence of Western culture. This campaign began under the former leader, Kim Jong-il, and has become more intense under his son, Kim Jong-un.

In 2022, Radio Free Asia, funded by the US government, reported that the regime was cracking down on “capitalist” fashion and hairstyles. This included targeting skinny jeans, T-shirts with foreign words, and dyed or long hair.

Experts believe that allowing South Korean popular culture to enter North Korean society could threaten the ideology that demands complete loyalty to the “infallible” Kim dynasty, which has ruled the country since its founding in 1948.

Despite these strict measures, the influence of South Korean culture, including recent television shows, seems unstoppable, according to a recent North Korean defector.