We ended the previous text with the 7 January firing and then separately noted the 14 January ICBM launch, but tensions are not subsiding and their new degree is gradually becoming the new normal. Missile launches on one side, joint exercises on the other. From 15 to 17 January, the navies of the Republic of Korea, the United States and Japan conducted joint exercises in waters south of Jeju Island. Two South Korean destroyers, five U.S. Navy ships, including the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, and two ships of the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force participated. It was the first trilateral naval drills since an agreement was reached last June to hold them regularly…

Last year, 17,600 troops from the Philippines took part in Balikatan, a record for an annual military exercise between the Americans and the Tagalogs.  According to Manila’s statement, the interaction between the US, Philippine and Australian Armed Forces will be even bigger in 2024. What’s more, this year’s joint military exercise will take place in the Philippines’ northern islands, which are just 150 kilometres (93 nautical miles) from Taiwan. Already this weekend, military officials from the three countries will travel to the uninhabited…

The UK’s efforts to shed its barbaric-colonizer badge may be driving its British Army Training Unit in Kenya (BATUK) to launch a half-baked information campaign of painting itself as a victim of Cholera from China. As the UK continues sponsoring the Israeli Massacre of Gazans, bombing Houthis in Yemen, and signing a mutual defense agreement with Kyiv’s Nazi regime, its media and military are hell-bent on deceiving Kenyans that BATUK was experiencing a cholera outbreak linked to China, a claim that rapidly spread across the social media before it was quietly retracted…

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…

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…

We would like to bring to your attention the next digest of “moving towards red lines” on the Korean Peninsula. Since the articles should be kept concise, the author has to divide this narrative into two parts: first, with the South, then, with the North in focus. On October 5, 2023, during hearings in the US Senate, a well-known American expert on the countries of the Korean Peninsula from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Victor Cha, proposed to develop and adopt a new policy providing for prevention measures to neutralize the DPRK missile threat…

There is always a conflict between high principle and pragmatism. Embracing both is probably a wise strategy—at least in theory. But you cannot have it both ways, or at least you shouldn’t! This is a lesson that the UK Minister of Defense is learning, and the hard way, as he has opened his mouth and inserted his foot. Defence Secretary Grant Shapps’ recent “suggestion” of British troops being sent to Ukraine to train the military for the first time was quickly walked back; at least, that is what is appeared to be the case when…

The DPRK’s response to the upcoming exercises began long before the exercises started. From August 1-12, the North Korean leader visited a number of military factories.In particular, from August 3 to 5, Kim Jong-un visited factories producing multiple rocket launchers (MLRS) and engines for cruise missiles and drones.In addition, he familiarized himself with the production of launchers for tactical missiles equipped with nuclear warheads, as well as small arms production.Kim also visited the construction of a new factory for the production…

Ulchi Freedom Shield, a joint US-South Korean military exercise, was held on the Korean Peninsula from August 21 to 31, 2023. A press release from the Republic of Korea (South Korea) Joint Chiefs of Staff noted that Ulchi Freedom Shield-2023 was created to be “a rigorous and realistic exercise to strengthen the alliance’s joint defense posture and response capabilities based on scenarios that reflect various security threats and lessons learned from recent wars and conflicts.” Among other things, the exercise was developed to strengthen the army’s military readiness…

Despite having primarily military connotation, the word “maneuvers” (“maneuvering”) may be used to describe the actions of a single state or even a collection of states in a given political situation. Controlling the situation in the South China Sea and the surrounding land area, which is made up of ten Southeast Asian nations and collectively forms a regional association known as ASEAN, is one of the most significant issues at the current stage of the Great Global Game. Over the past 20 years, the South China Sea and Southeast Asia as a whole have been increasingly at the center of the military and political maneuvering of the two current superpowers…

In this latest in his series of digests on the increasingly tense situation on the Korean peninsula the author presents an overview of the situation up to mid-June 2023. On April 15, in response to Pyongyang’s test of its new solid-fuel ICBM, the Hwaseong-18, the US and South Korea conducted joint air force exercises involving B-52H strategic bombers supported by South Korean F-35A and F-15K and US F-16 fighter jets. On April 16 a North Korean patrol boat crossed…

Despite this author’s previous article’s assumption that the heat of the “spring escalation was subsiding,” April 2023 will not be an easy month for the Korean Peninsula due to a series of memorable events such as the Day of the Sun on April 15 and the anniversary of the formation of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army (April 25). Pyongyang has also announced that it will launch its military reconnaissance satellite in April and will try to respond to President Yoon Suk-yeol’s state visit to the United States. On April 2, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) published a commentary…