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Confrontation With North Korea

North Korea Fires Anti-aircraft Missile

  • North Korea fired a new anti-aircraft missile yesterday, its second weapons test this week (Reuters)

Inter-Korean Communications to be Restored in Early October

  • North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said that cross-border communication lines with South Korea, which Pyongyang severed in August, will be restored in early October (Yonhap)

North Korea Fires Short-Range Missile Into the East Sea

  • North Korea launched a short-range missile from its northern Jagang province towards the northeastern coast. U.S. and South Korean authorities are analyzing whether it was a ballistic launch, which would violate a UN Security Council ban (Associated Press)

North Korea Indicates Willingness to Enter Inter-Korean Summit

  • Kim Yo Jong, North Korean politician and sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, said North Korea is ready to consider an inter-Korean summit if “respect can be assured” (Al Jazeera)

South Korean President Calls for Formal End to Korean War

  • In his UN General Assembly speech, President Moon Jae-in called for a declaration to formally end the Korean War in order to move nuclear negotiations with North Korea forward. The United States has resisted such a declaration (Yonhap)

Koreas Test Missiles as Nuclear Negotiations Remain Stalled

  • North Korea and South Korea both tested ballistic missiles today, adding new pressure to restart nuclear negotiations with North Korea that have been stalled since 2019 (CNN)
  • South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Seoul’s missile test was prescheduled and not a reaction to provocations from Pyongyang, while South Korean security officials voiced concern over the North Korean tests (Yonhap)

Japanese, South Korean, U.S. Envoys Meet After North Korean Missile Tests

  • In Tokyo, the diplomats affirmed their countries’ commitments to nuclear diplomacy with North Korea a day after Pyongyang said it tested a new long-range cruise missile (Kyodo)

North Korea Reportedly Conducts Long-Range Missile Test

  • State media said North Korea fired a new type of long-range cruise missile over the weekend, apparently Pyongyang’s first testing activity in months (Yonhap)
  • South Korea’s military said it is analyzing the results (Associated Press)

Nuclear Monitor: North Korea Restarted Its Nuclear Reactor

  • The United Nations’ atomic watchdog said that a nuclear reactor at North Korea’s Yongbyon complex has been in operation since July. Washington and Seoul have signaled that they are open to restarting a dialogue with Pyongyang, and a top South Korean nuclear envoy flew to Washington this weekend to meet with U.S. officials (Yonhap)

North Korea Fails to Answer Military Hotline

  • North Korea did not answer a daily call on a newly established military hotline with South Korea hours after Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, criticized joint military exercises between Seoul and Washington (Yonhap)

North Korea Wants Sanctions Lifted Before Restarting Talks With U.S.

  • North Korea wants several international sanctions lifted before it restarts denuclearization talks with the United States, according to South Korean lawmakers. The sanctions include bans on metal exports and refined fuel imports (Reuters)

North Korea, South Korea Restore Military Hotlines

  • North Korea and South Korea reopened cross-border military hotlines that had been severed last year (Yonhap)
  • The move came after the countries’ leaders exchanged a series of letters. North Korean state media said the countries aim “to make a big stride in recovering the mutual trust” (Bloomberg)

U.S. Diplomat Calls for North Korea to Resume Nuclear Dialogue

  • U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman called for Pyongyang to resume a denuclearization dialogue with Washington. She made the remarks after a meeting among the United States, Japan, and South Korea in Tokyo during which the three countries agreed to increase cooperation (Yonhap)

China, North Korea Pledge Greater Cooperation

  • Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pledged greater cooperation between their countries on the sixtieth anniversary of a joint defense treaty (South China Morning Post)
  • Some analysts expect Pyongyang will seek increased support from Beijing to deal with pandemic-related economic hardship (Associated Press)

Kim: “Great Crisis” in North Korea, Believed to Be COVID-19

  • North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said a “great crisis” occurred due to a lapse in pandemic-related measures. Analysts believe this could mean there was a COVID-19 outbreak in the country, though it has reported no cases of the disease (Yonhap)

South Korea to Develop Missile Defense Shield

  • South Korea’s defense ministry announced it will develop a $2.6 billion interceptor system similar to Israel’s Iron Dome to defend itself from long-range North Korean artillery (Yonhap)

North Korea Dismisses Talks

  • After the U.S. envoy for North Korea offered to meet with North Korean officials “anywhere, anytime, without preconditions,” Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said Washington has the “wrong” expectations about dialogue (Yonhap)

Kim: North Korea Should Prepare for Dialogue, Confrontation With U.S.

  • North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said the country should be ready for both dialogue and confrontation with the United States, which observers said could signal a willingness for talks. The comments were Kim’s first toward the United States since President Joe Biden took office (Yonhap)

Kim Jong-un Warns of Impending Food Crisis in North Korea

  • Leader Kim Jong-un said the country’s food situation is becoming “tense.” South Korean think tank Korea Development Institute estimates that a grain-production slump has caused a 1.5-million-ton food shortage since last year. UN Special Rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana last week warned of “drastic economic hardship” in North Korea (Washington Post)

North Korea Calls New U.S. Policy With South Korea ‘Hostile’

  • The country’s state news agency carried an article by an international affairs analyst that said a new U.S. permission for South Korea to develop longer range missiles amounts to a “hostile policy” toward North Korea (Yonhap)
  • A U.S. State Department spokesperson said Washington remains committed to diplomacy with Pyongyang (Yonhap)

North Korea: Biden Made a ‘Big Blunder’ by Calling Its Nuclear Program a Threat

  • A North Korean government official said U.S. President Joe Biden made a “big blunder” by labeling North Korea’s nuclear program a threat in his address to Congress last week. The official warned that the United States will face a “worse and worse crisis beyond control” (Yonhap)
  • The Biden administration recently concluded a review of U.S. policy toward North Korea. Biden is reportedly seeking a middle ground between President Donald Trump’s emphasis on personal diplomacy and President Barack Obama’s approach of conditioning engagement on North Korean concessions (Washington Post)
  • North Korea’s statement yesterday was one of three aimed at the United States and South Korea. Pyongyang also blasted Washington for criticizing its human rights record and Seoul for failing to stop anti–North Korea leaflets from being sent across the border (New York Times)

North Korea’s Kim Warns of Hardship

  • North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un told members of the ruling Workers’ Party to brace for “many obstacles and difficulties,” state media reported (Yonhap)
  • He referenced the so-called Arduous March, a period of widespread poverty and famine in the 1990s. Experts say North Korea faces its biggest economic slump in decades (Financial Times)

White House Signals Biden Will Not Meet With North Korea’s Kim

  • Amid mounting bilateral tensions, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that President Joe Biden has no intention of “sitting” with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Psaki indicated Biden will take a different approach to North Korea than did former President Donald J. Trump, who met with Kim three times (Reuters)

North Korea Confirms Ballistic Missile Test

  • State media confirmed that the country tested ballistic missiles yesterday. The UN Security Council’s sanctions committee will discuss the test today, and President Biden said the United States would “respond accordingly” if tensions escalate further (Yonhap)

North Korea Appears to Launch Ballistic Missiles

  • Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said North Korea fired two ballistic missiles early this morning. He called the move a threat to regional security and a violation of UN resolutions. South Korea’s military confirmed the launches and said the projectiles were short-range ballistic missiles (Wall Street Journal)
  • U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the incident illustrates the threat posed by North Korea’s weapons program and pledged to defend Japan and South Korea. The launches were North Korea’s first firings of ballistic missiles in nearly a year and came days after it reportedly tested cruise missiles, which was not a violation of UN resolutions and which U.S. President Joe Biden played down (New York Times)