Kim's missile men hone craft of killing on scorched earth of Ukraine
Experts believe Pyongyang's army poses a greater threat to South Korea and the US troops stationed there than ever before, having honed the accuracy of its ballistic missiles, developed drone warfare capabilities and accelerated modern arms production with help from President Putin's top scientists.
North Korea's comprehensive military alliance with the Kremlin, cemented over the weekend by Kim Jong-un offering 'unconditional support' to Russia during a visit by Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister, also raises the spectre of Russian troops being deployed to the Korean peninsula should hostilities there be renewed.
'Co-operation with Russia has offered North Korea broad opportunities to modernise its armed forces — especially by allowing units of the Korean People's Army to gain real experience in modern warfare, develop nuclear missile capabilities, establish production of advanced weapon systems, strengthen its naval forces, and enhance intelligence-gathering capabilities,' according to the assessment prepared by the HUR, Ukraine's military intelligence arm.
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Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
North Korea calls South Korea's peace overtures 'great miscalculation'
SEOUL, July 28 (Reuters) - North Korea has no interest in any policy or proposals for reconciliation from South Korea, the powerful sister of its leader Kim Jong Un said on Monday, in the first response to peace overtures by the South's liberal President Lee Jae Myung. There had been cautious optimism in the South that the North might respond positively and even show willingness to return to dialogue after Pyongyang also shut off its propaganda loudspeakers, a move that Lee said came sooner than expected. Kim Yo Jong, a senior official of North Korea's ruling party who is believed to speak for its leader, said Lee's pledge of commitment to the South Korea-U.S. security alliance showed he was no different from his hostile predecessor. "If South Korea expects to reverse all the consequences of (its actions) with a few sentimental words, there could be no greater miscalculation than that," Kim said in comments carried by the official KCNA news agency. Lee, who took office on June 4 after winning a snap election following the removal of hardline conservative Yoon Suk Yeol over a failed attempt at martial law, has vowed to improve ties with Pyongyang that had reached their worst level in years. Among gestures to ease tension, Lee suspended loudspeaker broadcasts blasting anti-North propaganda across the border and banned the balloon drops of leaflets by activists that had angered Pyongyang. Kim, the North Korean official, called those moves merely a reversal of ill-intentioned activities South Korea should never have initiated. "In other words, it's not even something worth our assessment," she said. "We again make clear the official position that whatever policy is established in Seoul or proposal is made, we are not interested, and we will not be sitting down with South Korea and there is nothing to discuss." Following the KCNA comments on Monday, Lee said it was important to restore trust between the neighbours. South Korea's Unification Ministry, charged with handling ties between the two countries, said Kim Yo Jong's comments "show the wall of distrust between the South and the North is very high as a result of hostile and confrontational policy over the past few years". South Korea will keep up efforts for reconciliation and cooperation with the North, ministry spokesperson Koo Byoung-sam told a briefing. Its new unification minister, Chung Dong-young, said he planned to advise Lee to adjust joint military drills with the United States, Yonhap said. The exercises have been criticised by Pyongyang. Still, Lee, whose government is embroiled in tough negotiations with Washington to avert punishing tariffs threatened by President Donald Trump, has called the U.S. alliance the pillar of South Korea's diplomacy. Seoul would make efforts in all areas to "strengthen the South Korea-U.S. alliance that was sealed in blood", Lee said on the anniversary of the Korean War armistice on Sunday. North Korea held a parade in its capital of Pyongyang to mark the event it calls victory day, though state media reports indicated it was on a smaller scale than in some previous years. Columns of marching soldiers held portraits of commanders, including state founder Kim Il Sung, with spectators and frail veterans in historic army uniforms in attendance in state media pictures, which did not show major weapons in the parade. A formation of military jets flew over the Pyongyang Gymnasium square trailing streaks of flares and fireworks. State media made no mention of leader Kim Jong Un's attendance. The two Koreas, the United States and China, which were the main belligerents in the 1950-53 Korean War, have not signed a peace treaty.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Kim Jong Un's powerful sister lashes out at new South Korean president: ‘No reason to talk'
The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rebuffed a proposal to hold talks with South Korea 's new liberal government. Kim Yo Jong dismissed South Korean president Lee Jae Myung 's bid to mend ties with Pyongyang. Relations between the neighbours reached a nadir over cross-border tensions last year. 'We clarify once again the official stand that no matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it and there is neither a reason to meet nor an issue to be discussed with' Ms Kim said in an official statement published by the Korean Central News Agency on Monday. Since taking office in June, Mr Lee has taken drastic measures to mend ties with the North. His administration has halted anti-Pyongyang frontline loudspeaker broadcasts, banned activists from flying balloons with propaganda leaflets across the border, and repatriated North Koreans who had drifted south in wooden boats a few months earlier. Ms Kim, who oversees propaganda operations for the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, called Mr Lee's decision to halt the broadcasts a 'reversible turning back of what they should not have done in the first place'. If South Korea 'expected that it could reverse all the results it had made with a few sentimental words', nothing could be a 'more serious miscalculation', Ms Kim said. She acknowledged the 'sincere efforts' by Mr Lee but claimed that his new government would not be much different than its predecessors due to its 'blind trust' in the alliance with the US. Ms Kim referred to next month's South Korea-US military drills. The North views the annual drills as an invasion rehearsal. North Korea has been shunning talks with South Korea and the US since Kim Jong Un 's high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with president Donald Trump fell apart in 2019 due to wrangling over international sanctions. North Korea has since focused on building more powerful nuclear weapons. Pyongyang now prioritises cooperation with Russia by sending troops and conventional weapons to support its war against Ukraine, likely in return for economic and military assistance. South Korea, the US and their allies say Russia may give North Korea sensitive technologies that can enhance its nuclear and missile programmes. Since starting his second term in January, Mr Trump has repeatedly boasted of his personal ties with Mr Kim and expressed intent to resume diplomacy with him. But North Korea hasn't publicly responded to Mr Trump's overtures. In early 2024, Mr Kim ordered the rewriting of the constitution to remove the long-running state goal of a peaceful Korean unification and cement South Korea as an 'invariable principal enemy'. The move caught many foreign experts by surprise because it was seen as eliminating the idea of shared statehood between the war-divided Koreas and breaking away with his predecessors' long-cherished dreams of peacefully achieving a unified Korea on the North's terms. The South Korean president this month said he would discuss further plans with top security officials to resume dialogue with North Korea.
Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
NATO jets scramble after Putin launches huge overnight drone attack on Ukraine
Fighter jets have been scrambled by Poland after Russia's latest blitz on Ukraine where Vladimir Putin sent a wave of kamikaze drones and rockets at Kyiv. Eight people, including a two-year-old girl, have been injured in the attacks with shrapnel wounds after a bomb hit an apartment building. Kyiv's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that all of the people were residents of a multi-storey apartment building in the city's Darnytskyi district on the left bank of the Dnipro River. Poland said in a statement the aircraft were deployed overnight and air defence and radar reconnaissance systems were placed on high alert. It comes a week after both Poland and Sweden scrambled fighter jets after a similar attack from Russia on Ukraine. Russia has been hitting Ukraine with attacks over the past few nights with the United States accusing Moscow of dragging out the war. Putin's forces struck Ukrainian military positions in Kharkiv and Donetsk regions with giant aerial bombs on Saturday night. And the Russians were shown using Grad multiple launch rocket systems in the Krasnoarmeysk section of the frontline in Donetsk region. Separately, Moscow has issued a nuclear war warning to the West, as Putin showcased in the Baltic Sea how his new sea drones could explode NATO ships. With Trump due to discuss the Ukrainian war with UK premier Sir Keir Starmer, US secretary of state Marco Rubio told Fox News that the US president is growing 'impatient' about Putin's delaying tactics and failure to end the war. 'I think he is growing increasingly frustrated that despite having very good interaction with Vladimir Putin in phone calls, it never leads to anything so the time has come for some action here, and I think the president has made that abundantly clear,' said Rubio. 'He's losing his patience, he is losing his willingness to continue to wait for the Russian side to do something here to bring an end to this war. That wasn't his war, but he wants to see it come to an end.'
