N. Korea's spy chief meets top Russian security official in MoscowThe chief of North Korea's spy agency has attended an international security forum in Russia and held a meeting with the country's Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu, the North's state media reported Sunday. A delegation from North Korea's National Intelligence Agency, led by general director Ri Chang-dae, took part in an international meeting of high-level security representatives, the main event of an international security forum in Russia last Thursday, the Korean Central News Agency (KNCA) said. In a speech to the assembly, Ri said "all countries should build up their own security capabilities (and) closely promote ... cooperation in the course of building a multi-polar world" to address the global security crisis, the KCNA said. "The DPRK is stockpiling and steadily bolstering up its strongest strength," the KCNA also quoted Ri as saying, adding that the effort is aimed at "defending its own security and the genuine era of peace without war forever." DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The same day, Ri also held talks with ShMay 31, 2026By Yonhap
Unification minister to be probed over alleged leak of N. Korean nuclear infoUnification Minister Chung Dong-young will face a prosecution investigation over allegations that he leaked classified information related to North Korea's nuclear facilities. The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office said Thursday that it received the case from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office on May 21 and assigned it. Chung is accused of violating laws governing the disclosure of official secrets. During a parliamentary committee session on March 6, Chung said North Korea is operating another uranium enrichment facility in the northwestern region of Kusong, along with previously reported ones in Yongbyon and Kangson. The government has previously officially identified Yongbyon and Kangson as the main locations hosting the North's uranium enrichment facilities, with Kusong being identified as a site for the first time. At the time, the United States was reportedly said to have conveyed its concerns through South Korean diplomatic, security and intelligence agencies. The unification ministry responded that Chung's remarks were based on comments by the head of the InternMay 28, 2026By Yonhap
N. Korea slams Quad statement calling for Pyongyang's denuclearizationNorth Korea on Thursday denounced a recent joint statement by the top diplomats of the United States, Australia, Japan and India that called for the North's complete denuclearization, reiterating that it will never abandon its nuclear weapons. The foreign ministers of the four nations, known as the U.S.-led multilateral security grouping of the Quad, reaffirmed their commitment to the "complete" denuclearization of North Korea in a joint statement issued Tuesday after their meeting in New Delhi. North Korea's foreign ministry said the Quad took issue with the North's legitimate exercise of sovereignty, claiming it is nothing but a political and diplomatic tool serving the realization of U.S. unipolar dominance. "Explicitly speaking once again, the 'denuclearization' of the DPRK will never happen forever," a spokesperson at the ministry said, using the acronym of North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. North Korea said it "resolutely" denounces the U.S.-led Quad's hostile stance against Pyongyang while strongly calling on it to stop the pursuit of confrontaMay 28, 2026By Yonhap
N. Korea's Naegohyang women football team welcomed home after AFC winNorth Korea's women's football team Naegohyang received a grand welcome home ceremony in Pyongyang after winning a recent regional tournament, state media reported Wednesday. Players were greeted Tuesday by government and sports officials, as well as family members, at the airport, before their bus made its way through Pyongyang streets lined with cheering, flag-waving citizens, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, also reported the team's return, with photos of smiling players holding bouquets of flowers. While North Korea's state media lauded the team's victory at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Champions League, they made no mention of the venue. The semifinals and the final of the event were held in Suwon, some 30 kilometers south of Seoul, last week. The players departed South Korea for China on Sunday before returning to Pyongyang, maintaining a stony-faced, restrained demeanor in what appeared to be a carefully staged display amid strained inter-Korean ties. Meanwhile, NorMay 27, 2026By Yonhap
Top diplomats of N. Korea, Singapore hold talks in PyongyangNorth Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui has held talks with her Singaporean counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan in Pyongyang, state media said Wednesday, in the first visit by a Singaporean foreign minister to North Korea in eight years. On Tuesday, the two discussed ways to strengthen bilateral relations and deepen cooperation in "multiple areas," as well as "regional and international matters," according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Balakrishnan was greeted upon arrival at Pyongyang International Airport the previous day by Vice Foreign Minister Pak Sang-gil and Ro Kil-song, North Korea's ambassador to Singapore. North Korea's foreign ministry also hosted a welcoming dinner for the Singaporean delegation, the report said. The Pyongyang stop is part of Balakrishnan's five-day Northeast Asia tour from Sunday to Thursday, which also includes visits to China and South Korea. Singapore has maintained a relatively cordial relationship with North Korea, most notably providing the venue for the historic first summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim JonMay 27, 2026By Yonhap
N. Korea tests new lightweight missile launcher, tactical cruise missiles under Kim's watchNorth Korea has tested a newly developed lightweight multipurpose missile launching system and multiple tactical cruise missiles, state media said Wednesday, with leader Kim Jong-un overseeing the test as part of Pyongyang's ongoing weapons modernization drive. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) published the report a day after South Korea's military detected the launch of multiple close-range ballistic missiles (CRBMs) and artillery rockets toward the Yellow Sea from the Jongju area of North Phyongan Province. CRBMs refer to ballistic missiles that have a relatively short range of less than 300 kilometers. Tuesday's test was "part of the plan for modernizing the artillery and missile armed forces to attain the five-year goal for national defense development," the KCNA report said. The test "analyzed and estimated the power of special mission warhead of tactical ballistic missile, the reliability of 240mm controlled artillery rocket with expanded firing range which employed an ultra-precision autonomous navigation system, and the AI-guided hit accuracy of tactical cruise missile," itMay 27, 2026By Yonhap
Unification ministry produces documentary series on N. Korean newspaperThe unification ministry said Tuesday it has produced an online documentary series aimed at helping the public better understand the Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's key newspaper, as part of a government initiative to expand public access to North Korean media content. The first of the five-part series, titled "Reading Rodong Sinmun," was released on the ministry's official YouTube channel, with the rest of the series set to be released sequentially in the coming weeks. The first episode features Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies of Kyungnam University, delivering an overview of the official newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea. The series will also feature former Unification Minister Kang In-duk, who played a key role in the working-level negotiations for the July 4 inter-Korean Joint Statement adopted in 1972. The ministry said it expects the series to help promote objective understanding of Rodong Sinmun, and spur broader public interest in North Korea and issues concerning the Korean Peninsula.May 26, 2026By Yonhap
Foreign ministry urges N. Korea to respond to peace efforts following missile launchThe foreign ministry urged North Korea to cooperate with Seoul's efforts to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday, shortly after Pyongyang fired multiple missiles in its latest missile launch. According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), North Korea launched multiple close-range ballistic missiles (CRBMs) from the Jongju area in North Pyongan Province toward the West Sea at around 1 p.m., marking its eighth missile launch this year. "We once again call on North Korea to respond to our peace policy and efforts to ease tensions," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Park Il said at a regular press briefing. "As a government that firmly supports nuclear nonproliferation, we will continue efforts to make substantive progress in resolving the North Korean nuclear issue through a phased and practical approach in close coordination with the international community while maintaining the goal of complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."May 26, 2026By Yonhap
Cheering for two Koreas: How South Koreans welcomed North in football clashChoi Seon-hee sat in the pouring rain at the Suwon Sports Complex on a cold Wednesday evening, watching something that hadn’t happened in South Korea in nearly eight years: a North Korean sports team competing for a trophy on the South’s soil. “We are still one people. We are compatriots,” Choi, a woman in her 50s who travelled from Ansan city, told NK News at the stadium about 20 miles south of Seoul. “I want them to leave with that kind of warm feeling.” Choi was one of roughly 5,760 spectators who gathered at the stadium as Suwon FC Women hosted the Pyongyang-based Naegohyang Women’s Football Club in the 2026 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s Champions League semifinals — the first inter-Korean women’s club football match held in the South. At the half-filled stadium, the visiting team won 2-1 in a match that prompted speculation over whether football could become an alternate channel for inter-Korean contact, despite deepening political tensions. Naegohyang’s captain Kim Kyong-yong pounced on Suwon’s defensive error in the second half to score the winnMay 26, 2026By NK News
Pro-Pyongyang Korean group in Japan drops reunification goal at 1st congress in 4 yearsChongryong, the largest organization of pro-Pyongyang ethnic Koreans in Japan, has stripped all references to unification on the Korean Peninsula from its rules, signaling an ideological shift in line with North Korea's hardened stance toward Seoul. The organization held its 26th general congress in Tokyo over the weekend, its first in four years, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, on Tuesday. Unification language was notably absent from the meeting, marking a sharp contrast to the previous session four years ago, where "independent unification movement" featured prominently as a key objective. References to cooperation with the pro-Seoul Mindan organization were also removed. Instead, Chongryong vowed to protect members' rights, nurture younger generations and uphold the ethnic identity, according to the reports. The shift mirrors North Korea's increasingly adversarial view of the South, which it now treats as a separate, hostile state, rather than a partner for reconciliation. Seoul's unMay 26, 2026By Yonhap
