TIG Post

Tag: North Korea

  • North Korea fires two cruise missiles toward sea off its west coast, South Korean

    North Korea fired two cruise missiles early Wednesday morning from the coastal town of Onchon into waters off its west coast, according to a South Korean Defense Ministry official.

    Military officials from South Korea and the United States said they were analyzing the launch for further details.
    After the launch, South Korea’s national security adviser held a meeting to assess the security situation and examined the military’s preparedness, according to the presidential office.
    The meeting participants agreed to closely monitor any related movements ahead of joint US-South Korea military drills, planned for early next week, the office added.
    North Korea is not banned from firing cruise missiles under United Nations sanctions and last did so in January.
    Unlike ballistic missiles, cruise missiles are propelled by jet engines and stay closer to the ground, making them harder to detect. Most cruise missiles are not designed to carry nuclear warheads.
    The launch came before a speech by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to mark his 100th day in office, during which he reiterated his willingness to provide North Korea with aid — if it agreed to end nuclear weapons development and start the process of denuclearization.

    Yoon also mentioned this “audacious initiative” to improve North Korea’s economy in exchange for denuclearization in separate remarks earlier this week. He first extended the offer during his inauguration speech in May.

    Building tensions

    North Korea has had a flurry of recent missile tests, with Wednesday’s marking the 18th launch this year, according to CNN’s count.
    By comparison, the hermit kingdom conducted only four tests in 2020, and eight in 2021.
    The last missile launch was on June 5, with eight short-range ballistic missiles — which South Korea and the US responded to by firing eight more missiles into waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula.
    Tensions between the two Koreas have been building this year, with US military and intelligence agencies warning that North Korea appears to be preparing for a nuclear test — which would be its first in five years.
    South Korea and the US have stepped up their cooperation to counter North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, announcing last month that the two countries would resume long-suspended live field training this summer.
    This is a developing story.
    Source: CNN

  • North Korea announces complete victory against Covid-19

    On Thursday, North Korea’s media reported that North Korean President Kim Jong Un has declared victory in the battle against the novel coronavirus, ordering a lifting of maximum anti-epidemic measures imposed in May.

    North Korea has not revealed how many confirmed infections of the virus it has found, but since July 29 it has reported no new suspected cases with what international aid organizations say are limited testing capabilities.
    While lifting the maximum anti-pandemic measures, Kim said that North Korea must maintain a “steel-strong anti-epidemic barrier and intensify the anti-epidemic work until the end of the global health crisis,” according to a report by the state news agency KCNA.
    Analysts said that although the authoritarian North has used the pandemic to tighten social controls, its victory declaration could be a prelude to restoring trade hampered by border lockdowns and other restrictions.

    Kim Yo Jong blamed blamed leaflets from South Korea for causing North Korea's Covid outbreak.

    Kim Yo Jong blamed leaflets from South Korea for causing North Korea’s Covid outbreak.
    Observers have also said it may clear the way for the North to conduct a nuclear weapon test for the first time since 2017.
    North Korea’s official death rate of 74 people is an “unprecedented miracle” compared to other countries, KCNA reported, citing another official.
    Instead of confirmed cases, North Korea reported a number of people with fever symptoms. Those daily cases peaked at more than 392,000 on May 15, prompting health experts to warn of an inevitable crisis.
    The World Health Organization has cast doubts on North Korea’s claims, saying last month it believed the situation was getting worse, not better, amid an absence of independent data.
    Pyongyang’s declaration of victory comes despite rolling out no known vaccine program. Instead, the country says it relied on lockdowns, homegrown medicine treatments, and what Kim called the “advantageous Korean-style socialist system.”
    Is North Korea hiding a bigger problem behind its Covid-19 outbreak?
    The North has said it was running intensive medical checks nationwide, with daily PCR tests on water collected in borderline areas among the measures.
    It also said it has been developing new methods to better detect the virus and its variants, as well as other infectious diseases, such as monkeypox.
    Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, said the North Korean leader himself had suffered from fever symptoms, and blamed leaflets from South Korea for causing the outbreak, KCNA reported.
    “Even though he was seriously ill with a high fever, he could not lie down for a moment thinking about the people he had to take care of until the end in the face of the anti-epidemic war,” she said in a speech praising his efforts.
    On Thursday, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said in a statement it had “strong regrets” over North Korea “repeatedly making groundless claims” about how Covid-19 had arrived in the country.

  • North Korea fires missiles hours after Biden leaves Asia

    North Korea fired three ballistic missiles early on Wednesday morning, South Korea’s military has said.

    Authorities in Seoul said the missiles were fired in the space of less than an hour from the Sunan area in Pyongyang.

    It comes just a day after US President Joe Biden left the region, following a trip that saw him vowing to bolster measures to deter North Korea.

    North Korea has been test-firing a flurry of ballistic missiles since the beginning of this year.

    Japan confirmed at least two launches happened on Wednesday but acknowledged there may have been more.

    Japan’s Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi said the first missile flew about 300km (186 miles) with a maximum altitude of around 550km, while the second, reaching as high as 50km, travelled around 750km.

    Mr Kishi criticised the launches, saying they were “not acceptable” adding that it would “threaten the peace, stability and safety of Japan and the international community”.

    In a meeting convened after the missile launch, South Korea’s National Security Council called the test a “grave provocation”, the presidential office said.

    The launches came hours after Mr Biden departed for the US on Tuesday evening, after a five-day trip that saw him visit South Korea and Japan.

    US and South Korean officials had earlier warned that North Korea appeared ready for another weapons test, possibly during the Biden visit.

    During his visit to Seoul over the weekend, Mr Biden and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol agreed to hold bigger military drills and deploy more US strategic assets if necessary to deter North Korea’s intensifying weapons tests.

    Mr Biden had said the United States was “prepared for anything North Korea does”.

    line
    Analysis box by Jean Mackenzie, Seoul correspondent

    The timing of these launches is not an accident – just hours after President Biden completed his trip to Asia, and days after he agreed with South Korea’s president to bolster their defences against North Korea.

    For weeks intelligence suggested North Korea was planning to test something major while the president was here. Slightly less provocatively, it has waited until he had left, but only just. Air Force One hadn’t touched down on US tarmac before the missiles were fired.

    At their weekend summit, President Biden and President Yoon said they were ready to take on the threat of North Korea together. This was their first test. They have responded quickly, condemning the launches, while joint-firing missiles of their own.

    This marks another escalation by North Korea, which, over the past six months has become increasingly aggressive. But the concern is over what comes next. Evidence is mounting that North Korea is preparing to test a nuclear weapon. This would be its first nuclear test in five years and a major step-up.

    Missiles amidst Covid ’emergency’

    The latest launches come as North Korea struggles to contain a suspected outbreak of Covid amongst its largely unvaccinated population of 25 million.

    More than a million people have now been sickened by what Pyongyang is calling a “fever”, and more than 68 people have died since late April, the authorities say.

    On 12 May, North Korea test-fired ballistic missiles the same day that Mr Kim declared an “emergency” over the Covid outbreak.

    South Korea has said it offered humanitarian aid, but Pyongyang is yet to respond.

    Source: BBC News

  • North Korea fires missiles hours after Biden leaves Asia

    North Korea has fired three ballistic missiles early Wednesday morning, South Korea’s military has said.

    Authorities in Seoul said the missiles were fired in the space of less than an hour from the Sunan area in Pyongyang.

    It comes just a day after US President Joe Biden left the region, following a trip that saw him vowing to bolster measures to deter North Korea.

    North Korea has been test-firing a flurry of ballistic missiles since the beginning of this year.

    Japan confirmed at least two launches happened on Wednesday but acknowledged there may have been more.

    Japan’s Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi said first missile flew about 300km (186 miles) with a maximum altitude of around 550 km, while the second, reaching as high as 50 km, travelled around 750 km.

    Mr Kishi criticised the launches, saying they were “not acceptable” adding that it would “threaten the peace, stability and safety of Japan and the international community”.

    In a meeting convened after the missile launch, South Korea’s National Security Council called the test a “grave provocation”, the presidential office said.

    The launches came hours after US President Joe Biden departed for the US on Tuesday evening, after a five-day trip that saw him visiting South Korea and Japan.

    U.S. and South Korean officials had earlier warned that North Korea appeared ready for another weapons test, possibly during Biden’s visit.

    During his visit to Seoul over the weekend, Mr Biden and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol agreed to hold bigger military drills and deploy more U.S. strategic assets if necessary to deter North Korea’s intensifying weapons tests.

    Mr Biden had said the United States was “prepared for anything North Korea does.”

    Source: BBC

  • Covid in North Korea: No response to US vaccine offer

    President Joe Biden says North Korea has not responded to a US offer of Covid vaccines, as the country battles its first acknowledged outbreak.

    Nearly 2.5 million people have been sickened by “fever” in North Korea and it is under a nationwide lockdown, according to the country’s state media.

    It is thought to be particularly vulnerable because it has little testing or vaccine supply.

    Mr Biden announced the offer at a press conference in South Korea.

    “We’ve offered vaccines, not only to North Korea but to China as well, and we’re prepared to do that immediately,” Mr Biden said in a joint appearance with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.

    “We’ve got no response,” he added.

    The isolated regime of North Korea has previously turned down offers of vaccines from Covax, the global vaccine-sharing scheme, and from South Korea, as well as reportedly declining other offers.

    Instead, it claimed to have successfully kept Covid out of the country by sealing its borders, although experts believe the virus has been present there for some time.

    State media has recommended remedies such as herbal tea, gargling salt-water and taking painkillers such as ibuprofen, while the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has accused officials of bungling the distribution of national medicine reserves.

    China is also struggling to control a wave of infections from the highly transmissible Omicron variant, with tens of millions of people under some form of lockdown.

    At the news conference in the South Korean capital, Seoul, President Biden said he was willing to meet Mr Kim under the right circumstances.

    “It would depend on whether he was sincere and whether he was serious,” Mr Biden said.

    His predecessor, Donald Trump, held a historic summit with Mr Kim in Singapore in 2018 and became the first US president to set foot in North Korea the following year.

    But two years ago, Mr Kim questioned whether there was any need to continue “holding hands” with the US.

    The US and South Korean presidents also agreed to deploy American weapons if necessary to deter North Korea and to increase military drills – which had been scaled down in recent years in an effort to reduce tensions.

    Source: BBC

  • North Korea: Fighting Covid with traditional medicine

    North Korea is grappling with the spread of Covid in an unvaccinated population, without access to effective anti-viral drugs.

    In early 2020, the country sealed its borders to try to insulate itself from the pandemic.

    Its leadership has so far rejected outside medical support.

    We’ve been monitoring state media, which is recommending various traditional treatments to deal with what is referred to as “fever”.

    Hot drinks

    For those not seriously ill, ruling-party newspaper Rodong Simnun recommended remedies including ginger or honeysuckle tea and a willow-leaf drink.

    People sit near a screen showing a news broadcast at a train station in Seoul on May 12, 2022, of North Koreas leader Kim Jong Un appearing in a face mask on television for the first time to order nationwide lockdowns after the North confirmed its first-ever Covid-19 cases.GETTY IMAGES
    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared in a face mask to order nationwide lockdowns

    Hot drinks might soothe some Covid symptoms, such as a sore throat or cough, and help hydration when patients are losing more fluid than normal.

    Ginger and willow leaf also relieve inflammation and reduce pain.

    But they are not a treatment for the virus itself.

    Salt water

    State media recently interviewed a couple who recommended gargling with salt water morning and night.

    A “thousand of tonnes of salt” had been sent to Pyongyang to make an “antiseptic solution”, the state news agency reported.

    Some studies suggest gargling and nasal rinses with salt water combat viruses that cause the common cold.

    But there is little evidence they slow the spread of Covid.

    Army personnel in pharmacy in North KoreaREUTERS
    The army has been brought in to distribute medical supplies

    Mouthwash could kill the virus in the lab, a study found.

    But it has not convincingly been shown to help in humans.

    Covid is mainly caught by inhaling tiny droplets in the air via the nose as well as the mouth, so gargling attacks only one point of entry.

    And once the virus has entered, it replicates and spreads deep into the organs, where no amount of gargling can reach.

    Painkillers and antibiotics

    State television has advised patients to use painkillers such as ibuprofen as well as amoxicillin and other antibiotics.

    Boxes of paracetamol on shelfGETTY IMAGES
    Painkillers can help with symptoms – but will not stop the virus

    Ibuprofen (and paracetamol) can bring down a temperature and ease symptoms such as headache or sore throat.

    But they will not clear the virus or prevent it developing.

    Antibiotics, meant for bacterial infections not viruses, are not recommended.

    And using antibiotics unnecessarily risks developing resistant bugs.

    Laboratory research suggests some may slow the spread of some viruses, including Covid.

    But these have not been replicated in the real world.

    And a study of the antibiotic azithromycin found it made little or no difference to Covid symptoms, the likelihood of hospital admission or death.

    There are some approved drugs to prevent people with Covid ending up in hospital:

    • antivirals paxlovid, molnupiravir and remdesivir
    • antibody therapies that mimic the immune system

    But their effectiveness is variable.

    Health system

    North Korea’s health system has been set up to offer free medical care from basic services at village level up to specialised treatment in government hospitals (usually in urban centres).

    But the economy has contracted in recent years because of sanctions and extreme weather such as droughts.

    Closing the country’s borders and strict lockdown measures will also have had a damaging impact.

    Screengrab from Korean state TVKCTV
    State media has reported Covid cases and referred to isolation treatment

    Particularly weak outside Pyongyang, the health system is thought to suffer shortages of personnel, medicines and equipment.

    A report for the UN, last year, said: “Some of the pharmaceutical, vaccination and medical-appliance plants do not reach the level of good practice of the WHO [World Health Organization] and do not meet local demand as well.”

    Many North Korean defectors to South Korea have told of having to pay for medication or finding treatment and drugs limited to privileged members of the ruling party.

    But state media says it is now increasing production.

    International aid

    North Korea turned down three million Chinese-made doses, last year – and reportedly rejected other offers – under Covax, the global vaccine-sharing scheme.

    South Korea says it has had no reply to its offer of vaccines, medical supplies and personnel.

    North Korea has reportedly recently sent three planes to collect medical supplies from Shenyang.

    These had not included “anti-pandemic supplies”, the Chinese foreign ministry said, but it was “ready to work with North Korea… in the fight against the coronavirus”.

    Source: BBC

  • North Korea: More than a million Covid cases feared

    North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un has lambasted health officials and ordered the army to help distribute medicine, as a wave of Covid cases sweeps through the country.

    More than a million people have now been sickened by what Pyongyang is calling a “fever”, state media said.

    Some 50 people have died, but it’s unclear how many of those suspected cases tested positive for Covid.

    North Korea has only limited testing capacity, so few cases are confirmed.

    North Koreans are likely to be especially vulnerable to the virus due to lack of vaccinations and a poor healthcare system. A nationwide lockdown is in place in the reclusive country.

    State media said Mr Kim led an emergency politburo meeting at the weekend where he accused officials of bungling the distribution of the national medicine reserves.

    He ordered that the “powerful forces” of the army’s medical corps step in to “immediately stabilise the supply of medicines in Pyongyang City”.

    The country announced its first confirmed Covid cases last week – although experts believe the virus has likely been circulating for some time.

    Mr Kim has imposed “maximum emergency” virus controls, including lockdowns and gathering restrictions in workplaces.

    The international community offered to supply North Korea with millions of AstraZeneca and Chinese-made jabs last year, but Pyongyang claimed it had controlled Covid by sealing its borders early in January 2020.

    North Korea shares land borders with South Korea and China, which have both battled outbreaks. China is now struggling to contain an Omicron wave with lockdowns in its biggest cities.

    South Korea has offered to send unlimited aid to the North if requested, including vaccine doses, health workers, and medical equipment.

    On Saturday Mr Kim called the rapidly spreading Covid-19 outbreak a “great disaster”.

    “The spread of the malignant epidemic is [the greatest] turmoil to fall on our country since the founding,” the official KCNA news agency quoted him as saying.

    As well as the direct health impact, fears have been raised for food production in North Korea. It suffered a brutal famine during the 1990s, and today the World Food Programme estimates that 11 million of the country’s 25 million people are undernourished.

    If agricultural workers are unable to tend the fields, analysts say, the implications are extremely serious.

    Source: BBC

  • North Korea ‘blows up joint liaison office’ with South

    North Korea has blown up its joint liaison office with the South near the border town of Kaesong, South Korean officials say.

    The move comes just hours after the North renewed threats of military action against the South.

    The site, which is in the North’s territory, was opened in 2018 to help the two Koreas to communicate.

    The liaison office has been empty since January due to Covid-19 restrictions.

    Tensions between North and South Korea have been escalating for weeks, prompted by defector groups in the south sending propaganda into the north.

    The North Korean leader’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, threatened to demolish the office in a “tragic scene” in a statement at the weekend.

    South Korea’s Unification Ministry in Seoul confirmed that at 2:49pm local time there was an explosion at the liaison office.

    In recent weeks, North Korea has repeatedly condemned the South for allowing propaganda across the border.

    Defector groups regularly send balloons with leaflets and other items, including USB sticks, into the north.

    Last week the North announced it was severing all official communication links with Seoul.

    The two states set up the office in Kaesong after talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his counterpart from the South, President Moon-Jae-in.

    “North Korea’s violent destruction of the liaison office at Kaesong is a symbolic blow to inter-Korean reconciliation and co-operation,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

    “It’s hard to see how such behaviour will help the Kim regime get what it wants from the world, but clearly such images will be used for domestic propaganda.”

    Analysts say Pyongyang may be seeking to create a crisis to increase its leverage as nuclear negotiations with the US are at a standstill.

    North and South Korea are technically still at war because no peace agreement was reached when the Korean War ended in 1953.

    Source: bbc.com

  • North and South Korea in gunfire exchange after Kim Jong-un reappears

    North and South Korea have exchanged gunfire in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) which divides the two countries.

    Seoul’s military said shots from the North hit a guard post in the central border town of Cheorwon. It said it returned fire and delivered a warning announcement.

    Such incidents across the world’s most heavily fortified border are rare.

    US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told US media the shots from the North were believed to be “accidental”.

    Meanwhile South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted a government official as saying the shots were not likely to have been intentional.

    No injuries were reported in the incident. Military officials in the South say there was no sign of unusual troop movements.

    There’s a “low possibility” that the shots fired by North Korea were intentional, according to the South Korean military. But at this stage it is unclear how they’ve made that assessment.

    Even if it was an accident or a miscalculation, it shows just how important it is for troops to keep level heads in the heavily fortified DMZ to ensure the situation isn’t made much worse.

    If it was a more tactical decision by North Korea then that’s a very different matter.

    The timing is interesting. It’s just 24 hours since the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un re-appeared after a 21-day absence. There have also been a large number of military drills in the North in recent months to improve readiness to fight an “actual war”, according to state media.

    Pyongyang has sometimes used the tactic of escalate to de-escalate, using its military posturing as leverage in later negotiations.

    But any sign of direct fire will be a disappointment to many in South Korea. There has been a lot of work in the last two years to ease tensions between the two countries after President Moon Jae-in met Kim Jong-un. The two sides signed a military agreement – any deliberate shots fired would breach that pact.

    The last time the North opened fire on the South happened in 2017 when a North Korean soldier made a dash across the military demarcation line to defect.

    The demilitarised zone (DMZ) was set up after the Korean War in 1953 in order to create a buffer zone between the two countries.

    For the past two years, the government in Seoul has tried to turn the heavily fortified border into a peace zone.

    Easing military tensions at the border was one of the agreements reached between the leaders of the two countries at a summit in Pyongyang in September 2018.

    Kim Jong-un’s reappearance in public, reported by North Korean state media on Friday, followed an almost-three-week unexplained absence that sparked intense global speculation about his health.

    Source: bbc.com

  • North and South Korea exchange gunfire at border

    North and South Korea have exchanged gunfire in the Demilitarised Zone which divides the two countries.

    Gunshots fired by North Korea at 07:41 (23:41 BST) hit a South Korean guard post in the central border town of Cheorwon, Seoul’s military said.

    No casualties were reported on the South Korean side.

    In response, South Korea fired “two rounds of gunfire and a warning announcement according to our manual”, the military statement said.

    It added that officials were trying to contact North Korea.

    It is not clear what provoked the initial gunshots.

    This is the first time in five years that North Korean troops have directly fired on the South.

    The demilitarised zone (DMZ) was set up after the Korean War in 1953 in order to create a buffer zone between the two countries.

    For the past two years, the government in Seoul has tried to turn the heavily fortified border into a peace zone.

    This increase in tensions comes a day after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appeared in public, following an almost-three-week unexplained absence that sparked intense global speculation about his health.

    Source: bbc.com

  • North Korea’s Kim makes first appearance in nearly three weeks

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has made his first public appearance since speculation about his health began last month, cutting the ribbon at the opening of a fertilizer factory, KCNA reported Saturday.

    Kim attended the event on Friday in Sunchon, near the capital Pyongyang, after nearly three weeks of swirling rumours that the leader of the nuclear-armed nation was seriously ill or possibly dead.

    The North Korean leader had not made a public appearance since presiding over a Workers’ Party politburo meeting on April 11, and the following day state media reported that he had inspected fighter jets.

    At Friday’s event, “all the participants broke into thunderous cheers of ‘hurrah!’” when Kim appeared, the Korean Central news agency reported.

    He inspected the facility and was “briefed about the production processes,” the report said.

    Kim “said with deep emotion” that his grandfather Kim Il Sung and father Kim Jong Il “would be greatly pleased if they heard the news that the modern phosphatic fertilizer factory has been built,” it added.

    Also in attendance were other senior officials, including his sister and close adviser, Kim Yo Jong. Photos from the ceremony were not immediately released.

    Conjecture over Kim’s health had grown since his conspicuous no-show at April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather, the North’s founder — the most important day in the country’s political calendar.

    His absence unleashed a series of unconfirmed reports over his condition, triggering global fears over the North’s nuclear arsenal — and who would succeed Kim were he unable to lead.

    A top security advisor to South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in said less than a week ago that Kim was “alive and well,” downplaying rumors that he was ill or incapacitated.

    The advisor, Moon Chung-in, told CNN that Kim had been staying in Wonsan — a resort town in the east of North Korea — since April 13, adding: “No suspicious movements have so far been detected.”

    – Rumours of ill health –

    Daily NK, an online media outlet run mostly by North Korean defectors, reported that Kim was undergoing treatment after a cardiovascular procedure last month.

    Citing an unidentified source inside the country, it said Kim — who is in his mid-30s — had needed urgent treatment due to heavy smoking, obesity and fatigue.

    Soon afterwards, CNN reported that Washington was “monitoring intelligence” that Kim was in “grave danger” after undergoing surgery, quoting an anonymous US official.

    US President Donald Trump appeared to confirm that Kim was alive earlier this week.

    On Friday, Trump refused to comment on Kim’s reported re-emergence.

    Previous absences from the public eye on Kim’s part have prompted speculation about his health.

    The North is extremely secretive, and doubly so about its leadership.

    Kim’s father and predecessor had been dead for two days before anyone outside the innermost circles of North Korean leadership was any the wiser.

    In 2014, Kim Jong Un dropped out of sight for nearly six weeks before reappearing with a cane.

    Days later, the South’s spy agency said he had undergone surgery to remove a cyst from his ankle.

    Source: france24.com

  • US ‘hasn’t seen’ North Korean leader Kim Jong-un recently, Mike Pompeo

    US officials “haven’t seen” North Korean leader Kim Jong-un recently and are watching reports about his health “closely”, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said.

    He also expressed concern that the hermit state could be hit either by the coronavirus outbreak or a famine.

    Mr Kim, 36, last appeared in state media on 12 April, triggering speculation that he was seriously ill.

    But officials in South Korea later said such reports were not true.

    There have also been suggestions that North Korea’s “supreme leader” may be staying at the sea resort of Wonsan to protect himself from possible exposure to coronavirus.

    The secretive state shut its borders in late January due to the pandemic.

    What did Mike Pompeo say?

    Asked on Wednesday by Fox News to comment on the recent reports on Mr Kim’s health, Mr Pompeo said: “We haven’t seen him. We don’t have any information to report today, we’re watching it closely.

    “There is a real risk that there will be a famine, a food shortage, inside of North Korea too,” he added.

    “We’re watching each of those things closely, as they have a real impact on our mission set, which to ultimately denuclearise North Korea,” the secretary of state said.

    In the 1990s, a devastating famine is believed to have killed hundreds of thousands of North Koreans.

    On Monday, President Donald Trump said he had a “very good idea” about Mr Kim’s condition, but added that “I can’t talk about it”.

    “I just wish him well,” he added.

    Mr Trump has met Mr Kim three times since 2018 – but the denuclearisation talks have stalled in recent months.

    When did speculation start?

    Kim Jong-un recently failed to appear for the celebration of his grandfather’s birthday on 15 April. This is one of the biggest events of the year, marking the birth of the nation’s founder.

    Kim Jong-un has never missed this event – and it seemed very unlikely that he would simply choose not to turn up.

    Inevitably, his absence prompted speculation and rumour, none of which is easy to substantiate.

    Kim Jong-un last appeared in state media on 12 April “inspecting a pursuit assault plane group” in a handout that is undated. As ever, the images portrayed him as relaxed and at ease.

    He chaired a key political meeting the day before, from state media despatches. But he has not been seen since.

    The claim about Mr Kim Jong-un’s ill health first surfaced in a report for a website run by North Korean defectors earlier this month.

    An anonymous source told the Daily NK that they understood he had been struggling with cardiovascular problems since last August “but it worsened after repeated visits to Mount Paektu”.

    This led to a chain of reporting by international media on a single-sourced story.

    News agencies then began to run with that claim, and it was all they had until some reports emerged that intelligence agencies in South Korea and the US were monitoring the claim.

    But then came a more sensational headline in US media that the North Korean leader was in a critical condition after heart surgery.

    However, a statement from the South Korean government, and sources at Chinese intelligence – speaking to the Reuters news agency – said this was not true.

    Source: bbc.com

  • North Korea’s Kim ‘alive and well’ – Seoul

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is “alive and well”, a top security adviser to the South’s President Moon Jae-in said, downplaying rumours over Kim’s health following his absence from a key anniversary.

    “Our government position is firm,” said Moon’s special adviser on national security Moon Chung-in, in an interview with CNN on Sunday. “Kim Jong Un is alive and well.”

    The adviser said that Kim had been staying in Wonsan; a resort town in the country’s east, since April 13, adding: “No suspicious movements have so far been detected.”

    Conjecture about Kim’s health has grown since his conspicuous absence from the April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather Kim Il Sung, the North’s founder, the most important day in the country’s political calendar.

    Kim has not made a public appearance since presiding over a Workers’ Party politburo meeting on April 11, and the following day state media reported him inspecting fighter jets at an air defence unit.

    His absence unleashed a series of unconfirmed media reports over his condition, which officials in Seoul previously poured cold water on.

    “We have nothing to confirm and no special movement has been detected inside North Korea as of now,” the South’s presidential office said in a statement last week.

    South Korea’s unification minister Kim Yeon-chul reiterated Monday that remained the case, adding the “confident” conclusion was drawn from “a complex process of intelligence gathering and assessment”.

    ‘Grave danger’

    Daily NK, an online media outlet run mostly by North Korean defectors, has reported Kim was undergoing treatment after a cardiovascular procedure earlier this month.

    Citing an unidentified source inside the country, it said Kim, who is in his mid-30s, had needed urgent treatment due to heavy smoking, obesity and fatigue.

    Soon afterwards, CNN reported that Washington was “monitoring intelligence” that Kim was in “grave danger” after undergoing surgery, quoting what it said was an anonymous US official.

    US President Donald Trump on Thursday rejected reports that Kim was ailing but declined to state when he was last in touch with him.

    On Monday, the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported that Kim had sent a message of thanks to workers on the giant Wonsan Kalma coastal tourism project.

    It was the latest in a series of reports in recent days of statements issued or actions taken in Kim’s name, although none has carried any pictures of him.

    Satellite images reviewed by 38North, a US-based think tank, showed a train probably belonging to Kim at a station in Wonsan last week.

    It cautioned that the train’s presence did not “indicate anything about his health” but did “lend weight” to reports he was staying on the country’s eastern coast.

    Reporting from inside the isolated North is notoriously difficult, especially regarding anything to do with its leadership, which is among its most closely guarded secrets.

    Previous absences from the public eye on Kim’s part have prompted speculation about his health.

    In 2014 he dropped out of sight for nearly six weeks before reappearing with a cane. Days later, the South’s spy agency said he had undergone surgery to remove a cyst from his ankle.

    Source: france24.com

  • ‘Grave moment’ as North Korea fires missiles from sea

    North Korea has confirmed it test-fired a new type of a ballistic missile, a significant escalation from the short-range tests it has conducted since May.

    The missile – which was able to carry a nuclear weapon – was the North’s 11th test this year.

    But this one, fired from a platform at sea, was capable of being launched from a submarine.

    Being submarine-capable is important as it means North Korea could launch missiles far outside its territory.

    According to South Korean officials, the missile flew about 450km (280 miles) and reached an altitude of 910km before landing in the sea.

    That means the missile flew twice as high as the International Space Station, but previous North Korean tests have gone higher.

    Read:North Korea tells United Nations to cut international aid staff letter

    It came down in the Sea of Japan, also known in South Korea as the East Sea. Japan said it landed in its exclusive economic zone – a band of 200km around Japanese territory.

    The test came hours after North Korea said nuclear talks with the US would resume.

    What do we know about this missile?
    The missile was launched from the sea soon after 07:00 on Wednesday (22:00 GMT Tuesday), about 17km north-east of the coastal city of Wonsan.

    North Korea’s state news agency KCNA said on Thursday the missile was a Pukguksong-3 test-fired at a high angle, designed to “contain external threat and bolster self-defence”.

    It added there was “no adverse impact on the security of neighbouring countries”.

    Unlike previous tests, there were no pictures of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the launch.

    Read:North Korea fires two more missiles South says

    In the previous 10 missile tests carried out this year, only short-range projectiles were fired.

    Why is ‘submarine-capable’ significant?
    If the missile was launched on a standard trajectory, instead of a vertical one, it could have travelled around 1,900 km (1,200 miles). That would have put all of South Korea and Japan within range.

    But being launched from a submarine can make missiles harder to detect, and allows them to get closer to other targets.

    North Korea’s existing Romeo-class submarines, which were built in the 1990s, are believed to have a range of about 7,000 km, the Reuters news agency said.

    This would make a one-way trip to near Hawaii possible.

    The north’s submarines are, however, diesel-powered – which makes them noisier and easier to detect.

    Source: bbc.com