Latest news with #Seoul-led
Barnama
3 days ago
- Business
- Barnama
APEC Preparation Meeting Approves Seoul-Led Action Plan For Development
SEOUL, Aug 15 (Bernama-Yonhap) -- A Seoul-led action plan for the capacity building of developing economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) was approved at a meeting of senior APEC officials held to prepare the upcoming APEC summit in South Korea, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said on Friday. According to Yonhap News Agency, the five-step Capacity Building Need Initiative (CBNI) for developing APEC economies was endorsed at the APEC 2025 Korea Third Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM3), held in Incheon, about 40 kilometres west of Seoul. The two-day SOM3 brought together some 5,800 officials from 21 APEC member economies, delegations from observers and the secretariat to discuss a road map on strengthening the service competitiveness of the Asia-Pacific region and improving the environment for business and trade as well as devising a new financial action plan for APEC.
Korea Herald
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
North Korea sent heavy guns for 3 brigades, 8,000 workers to Russia in 2024 — more planned: report
North Korea provided enough heavy artillery to arm three Russian brigades and dispatched around 8,000 workers to Russia in 2024 alone, with plans to send thousands more in 2025, according to a report by a Seoul-led multilateral sanctions monitoring group released Thursday. The first-ever topic-specific report penned by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team since its launch in Seoul in October 2024 offered the detailed government-level official confirmation of illicit military cooperation and labor transfers between Pyongyang and Moscow. The findings by the MSMT — established with the participation of 11 member countries, including South Korea, the United States and Japan — pointed to clear violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions. The MSMT was launched as an alternative to the now-defunct UN monitoring panel on North Korea sanctions, which was dissolved following Russia's use of its veto power in April 2024. According to notable new findings in the report, over 200 pieces of heavy artillery — enough to equip three brigades — were transferred in 2024 alone. This included fully assembled military vehicles, multiple-rocket launchers, self-propelled guns and ammunition resupply vehicles. Specifically, the transfers included North Korean-made 170 mm self-propelled artillery and 240 mm multiple rocket launchers. In addition, approximately 9 million shells and multiple rocket launcher rounds were transferred from North Korea to Russia between January and mid-December 2024. The report also found that the weapons were delivered in 49 shipments via Russian cargo vessels from North Korea, then transported by rail from ports in the Russian Far East to ammunition depots in central and western Russia. Since September 2023, more than 20,000 containers worth of shells and related materials have been provided, the report said. In detail, North Korea's military supplies include 82 mm, 122 mm, 130 mm, 152 mm and 170 mm shells used in Russia's D-20 and D-30 towed howitzers, M-30 and M-46 howitzers and D-74 guns. The report also highlighted the transfer of weapons from Russia to North Korea. At least one Pantsir-class combat vehicle was transferred, the report found — indicating that Russia provided North Korea with either an actual Pantsir-S1 mobile air defense system or a comparable system with similar capabilities. North Korea has also been dispatching workers to Russia in violation of UN Security Council Resolutions 2375 and 2397 to illegally earn foreign currency. The report underscores North Korea's plans to send several thousand more workers to Russia in the first half of 2025, with personnel expected to be funneled into the construction, toll processing, IT and health care sectors. In 2024, around 8,000 North Korean workers were already dispatched to Russia. Between December 2024 and February 2025, 481 North Korean workers were sent — 198 in construction and 283 in the textile industry, according to the report. The MSMT has agreed to release topic-specific reports, and the first focuses primarily on unlawful North Korea–Russia military cooperation, consolidating information provided by participating member states and open-source intelligence organizations. "The report will assist with the full implementation of UN sanctions by the international community," read a joint English-language statement from the 11 MSMT member countries, issued on the occasion of the report's release. "With the release of the first MSMT report, we underscore once again our shared determination to fully implement relevant UNSCRs." The MSMT was established with the initiative of Seoul around seven months after Russia, using its veto as a permanent member of the UN Security Council in late March last year, blocked the renewal of the 1718 Committee Panel of Experts' mandate. Since 2009, the Panel of Experts has been tasked with overseeing the enforcement of UN Security Council resolutions on North Korea and issuing biannual reports on sanctions violations. We will continue our efforts to monitor the implementation of UNSCRs on the DPRK and raise awareness of ongoing attempts to violate and evade UN sanctions," the joint statement underscored, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Korea Herald
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
North Korea fires strategic cruise missiles from its west coast this week
Missile launch addresses N. Korea policy taking shape under second Trump administration, says expert North Korea test-fired strategic cruise missiles aimed to showcase the reclusive regime's 'powerful striking ability' against its enemies from its west coast earlier this week, Pyongyang's state media said Friday. The launch was supervised by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and was conducted by a missile unit of the Korean People's Army in the western region, according to the Korean Central News Agency. Kim Jong-un was accompanied by Kim Jong-sik, a member of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of North Korea, and Jang Chang-ha, director of the Missile General Bureau. The missiles flew along an oval trajectory of 1,587 kilometers for 7,961 to 7,973 seconds before precisely hitting the targets, the KCNA explained. The latest test was conducted to warn "enemies, who are seriously violating the security environment of the (country) and fostering and escalating the confrontation environment,' the KCNA said. "What is guaranteed by powerful striking ability is the most perfect deterrence and defense capacity," the North Korean leader, quoted by the state media, said. South Korea's military said in a text message sent to reporters that it had detected the launches of several cruise missiles fired toward the Yellow Sea at around 8 a.m. Wednesday. They had been bracing for a possible test-firing of a missile, with relevant signs detected beforehand, the Joint Chiefs of Staff added. The JCS said it is closely monitoring various North Korean activities under the firm South Korea-US combined defense posture so that the North does not misjudge the current security situation. The latest test-firing is a message directed towards the second administration of US President Donald Trump as its North Korea policy has begun to take shape, an expert here said. 'It's a counteraction message against the North Korea policy that has been taking shape under the Trump administration,' Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said. 'The Trump administration has reaffirmed its commitment to the North's denuclearization, an advance in the trilateral partnership scheme between South Korea, US and Japan, and Washington's ongoing participation in the Seoul-led monitoring group implementing UN sanctions against Pyongyang,' he explained. Wednesday's launch marked Pyongyang's first test-firing of cruise missiles since Jan. 25, when it tested sea-to-surface strategic guided cruise missiles, vowing to take the "toughest countermeasure" against the US in the first week of the new Trump administration. It came merely days after Trump expressed his intent to reach out to Kim Jong-un, raising prospects that the US president eyes reviving his personal diplomacy with the North Korean leader. The test-launch also comes ahead of a regular South Korea-US combined Freedom Shield military exercise scheduled for mid-March. The North views the joint military drills as a rehearsal for invasion, but the allies have long claimed that such exercises are defensive in nature.
