South Korea has said that in 2022, a 22-year-old man was publicly executed by North Korea for sharing and listening to K-pop music and South Korean films. The information is taken from testimonials of North Korean defectors that were published in a human rights report by the South Korean ministry of unification.

According to the report, the man from South Hwanghae province was accused of listening to 70 K-pop songs, watching 3 South Korean films, and distributing this prohibited media. 

North Korea has strict control over the information its citizens consume, includes strict rules regarding entertainment consumption, and has very harsh punishments for those who violate them.

The report further reveals that North Korea tightened its grip on outside culture in 2020 with a law banning “reactionary ideology and culture.” This law is seen as a tool to shield citizens from Western influences, which the North Korean government considers detrimental.

North Korea has consistently denied accusations of human rights violations, calling them attempts to undermine its leadership.

The ban on K-pop is part of an effort to protect North Koreans from the negative influence of Western culture. This campaign began under the former leader, Kim Jong-il, and has become more intense under his son, Kim Jong-un.

In 2022, Radio Free Asia, funded by the US government, reported that the regime was cracking down on “capitalist” fashion and hairstyles. This included targeting skinny jeans, T-shirts with foreign words, and dyed or long hair.

Experts believe that allowing South Korean popular culture to enter North Korean society could threaten the ideology that demands complete loyalty to the “infallible” Kim dynasty, which has ruled the country since its founding in 1948.

Despite these strict measures, the influence of South Korean culture, including recent television shows, seems unstoppable, according to a recent North Korean defector.

Seoul:

North Korea successfully tested its multiple-warhead missile capability, state media said Thursday, as dozens more trash-laden balloons from Pyongyang landed in the South.

Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with Pyongyang ramping up weapons testing while bombarding the South with balloons full of trash it says are in retaliation to similar missives sent northwards by activists in the South.

The balloons briefly forced Seoul’s major hub Incheon Airport to close on Wednesday, and in response to the successive launches, South has fully suspended a tension-reducing military treaty and re-started propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts and live-fire drills near the border.

North Korea claimed it had “successfully conducted the separation and guidance control test of individual mobile warheads”, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Thursday.

The “separated mobile warheads were guided correctly to the three coordinate targets” during the test, carried out the day before, it said.

“The test is aimed at securing the MIRV capability,” KCNA added, referring to multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle technology — or the ability to fire multiple warheads on a single ballistic missile.

South Korea’s military had previously said the North’s test on Wednesday appeared to be of a hypersonic missile, but that the launch ended in a mid-air explosion.

More smoke than usual appeared to emanate from the missile, raising the possibility of combustion issues, the official said, adding it may have been powered by solid propellants.

According to KCNA, the test “was carried out by use of the first-stage engine of an intermediate-range solid-fuel ballistic missile within a 170-200 kilometre (105 to 124-mile) radius.”

“The effectiveness of a decoy separated from the missile was also verified by anti-air radar,” it said.

Acquiring multiple-warhead missile technology is an ultimate goal for nations seeking ICBM-level missiles to carry nuclear warheads, said Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

It appears the North is “testing such technology step by step over the long haul,” he told AFP.

“They appear to be making technological advancements in the early development stages of multiple-warhead missiles.”

Balloon blitz 

For three consecutive days, North Korea has floated hundreds of trash-carrying balloons southward in a tit-for-tat propaganda campaign.

Seoul’s military said around 70 balloons had landed by Thursday morning, mainly in northern Gyeonggi province and the Seoul area, with the contents found to not be hazardous.

“The payload is about 10 kilograms (22 pounds), so there is a risk if the balloons descend rapidly,” it said, adding the military was ready to respond.

The response to the latest balloons “will be flexible depending on the strategic and operational situation. This depends on North Korea’s actions,” it added.

South Korea’s Marine Corps resumed live-fire exercises on islands near the western inter-Korean border on Wednesday, marking the first such exercises since the 2018 tension-reducing military deal with the North was fully suspended this month.

South Korea and the United States also staged joint air drills Wednesday involving around 30 aircraft, including Washington’s advanced stealth fighter jet, F-22 Raptor.

President Yoon Suk Yeol visited a US aircraft carrier on Tuesday that arrived in South Korea for joint trilateral military drills this week aimed at countering North Korean threats.

The drills, which run from Thursday to Saturday, involve Washington’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier the USS Theodore Roosevelt, Tokyo’s guided-missile destroyer JS Atago, and Seoul’s fighter jet KF-16s, among other assets.

Pyongyang has routinely criticised such exercises as rehearsals for an invasion

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Seoul:

North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the sea on Wednesday, the South Korean military said, according to the Yonhap news agency.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the launch but gave no details, saying an analysis is under way.

The office of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida confirmed on X that North Korea launched a suspected ballistic missile.

“The suspected ballistic missile from North Korea is not expected to reach Japan,” it said of the projectile filed toward the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.

This launch came amid increased cross-border tension as the reclusive communist state has been sending balloons carrying garbage into South Korea.

North Korea’s last missile launch prior to this one came on May 30, when Seoul accused Pyongyang of firing a volley of around 10 short-range ballistic missiles.

One day later North Korean state media released images of leader Kim Jong Un supervising tests of a multiple rocket launcher system.

Analysts have suggested the nuclear-armed North could be testing and ramping up production of artillery and cruise missiles before sending them to Russia for use in Ukraine.

In a report last month the Pentagon said it had confirmed this behaviour.

North Korea has sent more trash-filled balloons southward this week, Seoul’s military said Tuesday, the latest in a series of border barrages that have sparked a tit-for-tat propaganda campaign.

Pyongyang has already sent more than a thousand balloons carrying trash in what it says is retaliation for balloons carrying propaganda criticising Kim’s rule floated north by activists.

In response, Seoul has fully suspended a tension-reducing military deal and restarted some propaganda broadcasts from loudspeakers along the border.

Kim Jong Un’s sister and key government spokeswoman Kim Yo Jong warned this month that Seoul would “undoubtedly witness the new counteraction of the DPRK” if the leaflet drops and loudspeaker broadcasts continued.

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Washington:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned growing military cooperation between Russia and North Korea and reaffirmed the “vital” importance of the Seoul-Washington alliance during phone talks with his South Korean counterpart, his spokesperson said.

The call between Blinken and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul came on Friday after Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership” treaty on their cooperation in defence and other areas during their summit in Pyongyang on Wednesday, Yonhap news agency reported.

“The Secretary condemned deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, including ongoing arms transfers that violate multiple UN Security Council resolutions, and reaffirmed the vital importance of the ironclad US-South Korea alliance in promoting peace, security, and prosperity around the world,” Matthew Miller, the Spokesperson, said in a statement.

Blinken thanked Cho for Seoul’s continued support for Ukraine while the two sides agreed to continue working together to address the “complex and evolving” security challenges posed by North Korea, as well as to support peace and stability in the South China Sea, according to Miller.

This week’s summit between Putin and Kim has been a major source of concern for both Seoul and Washington due to its implications for regional and global security.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russia must abide by United Nations sanctions on North Korea, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on June 21 after the two countries this week deepened ties and agreed to provide immediate military assistance if either faces armed aggression.

The pact — signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday — follows U.S. accusations that Pyongyang has been transferring weapons to Russia for use against Ukraine, which it invaded in February 2022. Both Moscow and Pyongyang have denied the accusations.

Also read: What’s behind the Russia-North Korea security pact? | Explained

The U.N. Security Council will meet June 28 on North Korea, diplomats said, at the request of the U.S., France, Britain, South Korea and Japan, who want to discuss weapons transfers by Pyongyang in violation of council resolutions.

Formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and those measures have been strengthened over the years — with Russia’s support.

“There are sanctions approved by the Security Council in relation to the DPRK,” Mr. Guterres told reporters on Friday. “Any relationship that any country has with DPRK, including the Russian Federation, must entirely abide by those sanctions.”

Russia’s mission to the United Nations declined to comment on Mr. Guterres’ remarks.

For the past several years the 15-member Security Council has been divided over how to deal with Pyongyang. Russia and China say more sanctions will not help and want such measures to be eased. They proposed some sanctions be lifted in December 2019 but have never put their draft resolution to a vote.

In May 2022, the pair vetoed a U.S.-led push to impose more U.N. sanctions on North Korea over its renewed ballistic missile launches. Russia then vetoed in March the renewal of a panel of experts monitoring enforcement of U.N. sanctions.

Before the panel disbanded at the end of April, three of the experts travelled to Ukraine and — in a report to the Security Council seen by Reuters — determined that the debris from a missile that landed in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Jan. 2 was from a North Korean Hwasong-11 series ballistic missile.

China and Russia say joint military drills by the United States and South Korea provoke Pyongyang, while Washington accuses Beijing and Moscow of emboldening North Korea by shielding it from more sanctions.

Washington:

The United States expressed deep concern Thursday over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat to supply North Korea with weapons, warning such a move would “destabilize” the Korean peninsula.

Putin, during a rare visit to Pyongyang, signed a mutual defense pact on Wednesday with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who pledged his country’s “full support” for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking on Thursday in Vietnam, Putin said Moscow would not rule out sending weapons to Pyongyang, calling it repercussions for the West supplying Ukraine.

The threat “is incredibly concerning,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

“It would destabilize the Korean peninsula, potentially, depending on the type of weapons, and might violate UN Security Council resolutions that Russia itself has supported,” Miller said.

Washington and its allies have previously accused North Korea of supplying Russia with missiles and artillery that it has used to attack Ukraine.

Putin warned Seoul on Thursday not to supply Ukraine with weapons, after South Korea said it was reconsidering its current ban.

Seoul has a longstanding policy that bars it from selling weapons into active conflict zones, which it has stuck to despite calls from Washington and Kyiv to reconsider.

Miller said such a decision was “for every country to make in terms of whether they’re going to supply weapons to Ukraine.”

“We welcome any support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression,” he added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Seoul:

North Korea’s state media on Thursday unveiled the full text of a mutual defence pact signed a day ago by its leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which Kim said would elevate bilateral ties to something akin to an “alliance”.

Formally named “Treaty on the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”, the pact takes effect upon ratification unless either side suspends it.

Here are some key points of the agreement:

– Develop a permanent partnership based on the principles of mutual respect for national sovereignty, non-aggression on territory, non-interference in internal affairs and equality, as well as other international legal principles.

– Aim for global strategic stability and a fair and equal new international order, and strengthen strategic and tactical cooperation.

– Activate communication channels without delay if either side faces a direct threat of potential armed aggression.

– Immediately provide military and other assistance using all available means if either side is in a state of war, in line with Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, which covers the individual or collective right of states to self-defence against armed attack.

– Not sign any treaty with a third country that infringes on the other side’s core interests, or allow territories to be used by a third country seeking to violate the other’s security and sovereignty.

– Support peace-loving policies to protect sovereignty, security and stability, and actively cooperate in building a just and multipolar new world order.

– Cooperate at the U.N. and other international organisations on issues of mutual interest and security, and support each other’s accession to relevant entities.

– Prepare measures to take joint actions to strengthen defence capabilities with the aim of preventing war and ensuring regional and international peace and security.

– Work together to tackle challenges and threats on the areas of strategic significance, including food, energy security, information and communication technology, climate change, health and supply chains.

– Expand cooperation in trade, economy, investment and science and technology, support both sides’ special or free economic zones, and develop exchanges and joint research in science and technology, including space, biology, peaceful use of nuclear energy, artificial intelligence and information technology.

– Support regional and cross-border cooperation, and create favourable conditions for establishing direct economic and trade links between both sides’ border regions, such as by forming business bodies and holding forums and exhibitions.

– Strengthen exchanges in agriculture, education, health, sports, culture and tourism, and seek cooperation in environmental protection, natural disaster prevention and elimination of their consequences.

– Promote mutual recognition of product standards, test records and quality certificates, and develop expert training and exchanges of test results.

– Protect the legal rights and interests of the other party’s legal entities and citizens, and cooperate in providing legal assistance, extradition and transfer of persons, as well as returning assets obtained through criminal methods.

– Deepen exchanges of legislative and law enforcement institutions.

– Oppose unilateral coercive measures targeting each side as illegal and in violation of the U.N. Charter and international legal norms, and coordinate efforts to block them.

– Work together to tackle challenges and threats in the areas of international terrorism, extremism, transnational organised crimes, human trafficking, hostage-taking, illegal immigration, illegal flows of funds, money laundering, financing for dissemination of weapons of mass destruction, illegal acts that pose a threat to the safety of civil aviation and maritime navigation, and production and distribution of drugs and psychotropic products.

– Promote cooperation on information security, advocate equal rights in managing information and communication networks, and oppose the misuse of such technologies to tarnish the dignity and image of sovereign countries and infringe on their rights.

– Promote cooperation in the field of public affairs and publication, and encourage the dissemination of each other’s literature.

– Supply objective information about each other, and work together to combat false information and provocative propaganda activities.

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Moscow:

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Vietnam on Thursday morning for a state visit set to deepen ties between Moscow and Hanoi, Russian news agencies reported.

Travelling from a closely followed trip to North Korea, Putin touched down in the southeast Asian country with a large delegation of senior Russian ministers and business figures.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin visits an exhibition of IT and creative industry at the Labour Quarter creative cluster in Yakutsk, republic of Sakha also known as Yakutia, Russia Far East, Russia, on June 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

NATO is concerned about support Russia could provide for North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs, the alliance’s head said on Tuesday as Russian President Vladimir Putin headed to the reclusive nuclear-armed country for the first time in 24 years.

Putin vowed on Tuesday to deepen trade and security ties with North Korea and to support it against the United States.

His state visit comes amid U.S. accusations that North Korea has supplied “dozens of ballistic missiles and over 11,000 containers of munitions to Russia” for use in Ukraine.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a joint press conference after a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Russia’s war in Ukraine was being propped up by China, North Korea and Iran, who all wanted to see the Western alliance fail.

“We are of course also concerned about the potential support that Russia provides to North Korea when it comes to supporting their missile and nuclear programs,” Stoltenberg said.

He said this and China’s support for Russia’s war economy showed how security challenges in Europe were linked to Asia and added that next month’s NATO summit in Washington would see a further strengthening of the alliance’s partnerships with Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan.

Stoltenberg said there needed to be “consequences” at some stage for China.

“They cannot continue to have normal trade relationships with countries in Europe and at the same time fuel the biggest war we have seen in Europe since the Second World War,” he said.

Stoltenberg said it was too early to say what those consequences might be, “but it has to be an issue that we need to address because to continue as we do today is not viable.”

Blinken said Putin’s visit to North Korea was a sign of his “desperation” to strengthen relations with countries that can support his war in Ukraine.

Blinken added that China’s support had enabled Russian to maintain its defense industrial base, supplying 70% of the machine tools Moscow is importing and 90% of the microelectronics. “That has to stop,” he said.

Last week, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said Washington was concerned by what Russia would give North Korea in return for the weapons Pyongyang has supplied.

“Hard currency? Is it energy? Is it capabilities that allow them to advance their nuclear or missile products? We don’t know. But we’re concerned by that and watching carefully,” he said.

The top U.S. arms control official, Under Secretary of State Bonnie Jenkins, has said she believes North Korea is keen to acquire fighter aircraft, surface-to-air missiles, armored vehicles, ballistic missile production equipment or materials, and other advanced technologies from Russia.

Washington:

Russian President Vladimir Putin landed in North Korea early Wednesday, the Kremlin said, kicking off a visit set to boost defence ties between the two nuclear-armed countries as Moscow pursues its war in Ukraine.

Just after the pre-dawn touchdown, Russian TV showed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un greeting Putin in the dark, on a red carpet at Pyongyang’s airport, with the pair shaking hands and embracing before a motorcade took Putin along streets lined with Russian flags.

The trip is Putin’s first to the isolated nation in 24 years, with a recent confrontation between North and South Korean troops on the countries’ shared border highlighting regional security tensions.

Moscow and Pyongyang have been allies since North Korea’s founding after World War II and have drawn even closer since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 led to the West isolating Putin internationally.

The United States and its allies have accused North Korea of supplying Russia with much-needed arms, including ballistic missiles to use in Ukraine.

The North has denied giving Russia military hardware, but ahead of his trip, Putin thanked Kim’s government for helping the war effort.

“We highly appreciate that the DPRK (North Korea) is firmly supporting the special military operations of Russia being conducted in Ukraine,” Putin wrote in an article published by Pyongyang’s state media Tuesday.

Russia and the North are “now actively developing the many-sided partnership”, Putin wrote.

Both countries are under rafts of United Nations sanctions — Pyongyang since 2006 over banned nuclear and ballistic missile programmes and Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine.

Putin praised North Korea for “defending their interests very effectively despite the US economic pressure, provocation, blackmail and military threats that have lasted for decades”.

He also hailed Moscow and Pyongyang for “maintaining the common line and stand at the UN”.

North Korea said the visit showed bilateral ties “are getting stronger day by day”, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

– US concern –

Pyongyang has described allegations of supplying weapons to Russia as “absurd”.

However, it did thank Russia for using its UN veto in March to effectively end monitoring of sanctions violations just as UN experts were starting to probe alleged arms transfers.

The United States voiced “concern” Monday about Putin’s trip because of the security implications for South Korea as well as Ukraine.

The two Koreas have remained technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict and the border dividing them is one of the most heavily fortified in the world.

“We know North Korean ballistic missiles are still being used to hit Ukrainian targets (and) there could be some reciprocity here that could affect security on the Korean peninsula,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Highlighting those security concerns, South Korea said its troops fired warning shots at soldiers from the North who briefly crossed the border Tuesday and then retreated.

The South’s military said it believed the North Korean soldiers accidentally crossed as they were fortifying the border, but said some of them were wounded after detonating landmines.

– ‘Lonely bromance’ –

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Putin’s trip showed how he was “dependent” on authoritarian leaders.

“Their closest friends and the biggest supporters of the Russian war effort — war of aggression — (are) North Korea, Iran and China,” Stoltenberg said.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged the international community to counter “the lonely bromance” between Putin and Kim by increasing arms supplies to Kyiv.

“The best way to respond to it is to continue strengthening the diplomatic coalition for just and lasting peace in Ukraine and delivering more Patriots and ammunition to Ukraine,” Kuleba told AFP.

North Korea is eager for high-end military technology to advance its nuclear, missile, satellite and nuclear-powered submarine programmes, according to experts.

The Kremlin released a document on Tuesday confirming that Russia plans to sign a “strategic partnership” treaty with North Korea.

Given North Korea’s chronic resource shortages, Pyongyang is expected to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation in areas such as tourism, agriculture and mining, “in exchange for providing military supplies” to Russia, a report from the Seoul-based Institute for National Security Strategy said.

Other issues including “cooperation on the deployment of North Korean workers or the supply of energy to North Korea — both of which would violate sanctions… are also likely to be discussed” behind the scenes, INSS researcher Kim Sung-bae wrote.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)