The author barely completed one digest, when events on the peninsula rapidly developed. The New Year vacations were not much different from work in terms of preparing materials for the New Eastern Outlook. On December 17, mere thirty minutes after launching a short-range missile towards the Sea of Japan, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a statement from the military department. The statement claimed that the results of the second meeting of the South Korea-US Nuclear Security Consultative Group constituted an open declaration of nuclear confrontation…

The development of relations between the Russian Federation and the DPRK continues to deepen after the Chairman of State Affairs, Comrade Kim Jong-un, paid a visit to Russia. A mirror response to the visit to Pyongyang by the Russian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was the visit of North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui to Moscow on January 14-18, 2024, during which she was received by the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin…

Building on the tensions of early 2024, North Korea began “missile season.” The KCNA reported that on the afternoon of January 14, DPRK’s General Administration of Rocket Science conducted a test launch of a medium-range solid-fuel ballistic missile with a hypersonic maneuverable guided warhead. The successful launch was aimed at “confirming the characteristics of the gliding and maneuvering flight of a hypersonic maneuverable guided warhead of medium-long range and the reliability of the new multi-stage super-powered solid rocket motors,” had no impact on the security…

As reported by the KCNA, the launch was in response to the second meeting of the “nuclear consultative group” which proposed a “large-scale joint exercise to prepare a ‘nuclear counterstrike’ against our Republic.” As we previously reported, at the event, the allies agreed on a plan to include nuclear operation scenarios in the 2024 military exercises, including the Ulchi Freedom Shield summer exercise. Kim Jong-un, his daughter and commanders from the DPRK’s General Department of Missile Engineering attended the drill: at 8:24 a.m…

This is the second part of the digest on inter-Korean tensions, dedicated to the DPRK actions. See the previous article to learn what the United States and the Republic of Korea did during the same period. Early in the morning on September 2, 2023, “a missile launch exercise was conducted to simulate a tactical nuclear attack to warn enemies of an actual nuclear war danger.” The launch came two days after the US and the ROK completed their 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise…

North Korea’s successful launch of a satellite on November 21 has led to another wave of speculation both about the satellite’s capabilities and about potential military-technological cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang. This is largely due to the syndrome noted more than once, in which anti-Pyongyang propaganda first comes up with certain clichés and then begins to believe in them. The DPRK is seen as an “Evil State” and thus incapable of real success. Any real achievements are therefore dismissed – “the new housing developments were built to distract the population from economic…

The author finished the text “waiting for the satellite” very timely, because four hours after the article was submitted to the editorial office, the North Korean missile took off, after which what was expected happened as predicted. In this text we will talk about the launch itself and its technical assessments, and in the next text we will talk about the international reaction and the expected cancellation of the inter-Korean military agreement. As reported by the KCNA, at 22 hours 42 minutes and 28 seconds on 21 November 2023, the DPRK’s State Aerospace Engineering Directorate…

The internal politics of the DPRK is a rather closed thing, and quite often we draw conclusions about the processes taking place there and the state of affairs in the administrative system from indirect signs. For example, watching Kim Jong-un during negotiations with Putin or Shoigu, one can see that he turns to the interpreter on purpose and speaks louder and clearer so that the interpreter can better understand his thoughts and convey them to his interlocutor. At the same time, the standard cultural code, which is very noticeable in the Republic of Korea, says that a high-ranking Korean…

On December 1, 2023, the KCNA reported that the DPRK had launched its first military reconnaissance satellite, Malligyong-1, into low Earth orbit, and that the adjustment procedure had been completed. And on December 2, the Satellite Operations Office which will act as an autonomous military intelligence agency, began to perform its tasks. The information received by the new Office will be reported to the relevant executive department of the Central Military…

The style of North Korean propaganda is peculiar enough that many people cling to it rather than the substance of the messages, preferring to declare them propaganda statements denouncing non-existent enemies. However, over time, what the audience perceived as propaganda fairy tales turned out not to be fairy tales at all. Suffice it to recall the “blowing up statues of leaders by drone” repeatedly quoted by the author. When the North Koreans first announced the disclosure of such plans, most people marvelled at their absurdity: blowing up statues of leaders with drones sent from China…

On November 8, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Seoul after the G7 foreign ministers meeting in Tokyo. It was the first visit to Seoul by the US Secretary of State since the Yoon Suk-yeol government took office in May 2022. Blinken last visited Seoul in March 2021 to attend a summit of the two countries’ foreign and defense ministers, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s visit in 2023 came soon after, but we’ll discuss it and its outcome separately…

Following the summit, two conceptual documents were adopted, called the “Camp David Principles” and the “Spirit of Camp David.” They overlap in many ways, with the first containing guidelines for trilateral cooperation and the second laying out their detailed vision for trilateral cooperation and a plan for its implementation. At their core, such documents aim to achieve consensus on policy issues and develop a single course so that “Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the United States are united in their goals and actions, creating their common potential.”…