Commercial satellite imagery shows an uptick in construction work at North Korea’s Sohae Satellite Launching Station. Several new projects around the coastal launch pad area have begun, while work continues on longer-running projects. Despite the new and ongoing construction around the site, the coastal launch pad—where the last three satellite launch attempts were conducted—appears ready to use at any time. The South Korean military recently suggested launch preparations may be ongoing, but no signs of imminent launch have been observed. Moreover, North Korea has not filed any impact exclusio ..read more

A misconfigured North Korean Internet cloud server has provided a fascinating glance into the world of North Korean animation outsourcing and how foreign companies might be inadvertently employing North Korean companies on information technology (IT) projects. The incident also underlines how difficult it is for foreign companies to verify their outsourced work is not potentially breaking sanctions and ending up on computers in Pyongyang. A Month of Animation The story begins in late 2023 with the discovery of a cloud storage server on a North Korean Internet Protocol (IP) address. The server ..read more

The South Korean parliamentary election was everything it was hyped up to be, except for the result. With the conservative ruling party adding just five seats, the People Power Party (PPP) fell short of their desired 110+ seats, which would have been a face-saving loss for the leadership. By securing just 90 single-member district seats and 18 semi-proportional representation seats, the ruling party barely prevented the opposition front from achieving a veto-proof supermajority. For this reason, the result was interpreted as a disappointing one for the ruling party. However, one bright spot in ..read more

(Source: United Nations Photo Flickr) On March 28, 2024 and due to a veto cast by Russia, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) failed to adopt a resolution to extend the mandate of the Panel of Experts (PoE), which was established pursuant to UNSC resolution (UNSCR) 1718 (2006) to monitor (UN member states’ compliance with and enforcement of) the UN sanctions regime on North Korea. Among the five permanent and 10 non-permanent members of the UNSC, Russia was the only country that rejected the annual renewal of the multinational PoE, as China abstained. Russia’s veto will effectively end ..read more

(Source: United States Mission to the United Nations) The United Nations (UN) Panel of Experts (POE) established under UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1874 published its final report on March 7 of this year. Following the Russian veto of the Council resolution renewing the Panel’s mandate, the finality of that report has to be taken quite literally. This will be a loss for those interested in the health of the global nonproliferation regime, the state of the UN, and stability on the Korean Peninsula. At a lower level of abstraction, students of sanctions will lose a valuable resource. Th ..read more

(Source: Official Website of the Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet, https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/101_kishida/actions/202206/29nato.html) In recognition of the growing importance of the Indo-Pacific, its economic and technological prowess, and against the background of the Sino-US rivalry, NATO has intensified its relationships with partners, the Republic of Korea (ROK or South Korea), Australia, Japan and New Zealand (AP4). Issues like nonproliferation, cyber defense, science and technology, counterterrorism, interoperability, defense against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclea ..read more

On April 2, North Korea conducted the second flight test of a solid-propellant intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), which it designated the Hwasong-16B (HS-16B). The missile carried a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) payload akin to one first flown in September 2021 on a liquid-propellant booster. The booster portion of the April test appears to have succeeded, but the success of the HGV payload is unclear. The North probably considers the booster portion of the solid IRBM system ready for operational deployment, or will after one more flight test. In the near term, however, a deployed s ..read more

South Korea and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) seem destined for greater partnership. At the NATO summit in Vilnius in 2023, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg adopted the Individually Tailored Partnership Program (ITPP) that committed deepened cooperation in 11 areas ranging from non-proliferation to emerging technologies. In February, Defense Minister Shin Won-sik met with General Christopher Cavoli, commander of US European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe, in Seoul. They agreed to bolster cooperation between the m ..read more

(Source: Korean Central News Agency) In June 2017, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) announced that it had opened its own Foreign Ministry website. Although the website’s launch was announced in June, website content goes back as far as April that year. Similar to websites of other countries’ foreign ministries, it contains information on the structure of the ministry itself as well as documents, statements, and reports relevant to Pyongyang’s foreign policy. Unsurprisingly, some of the website’s content is aimed at putting the North in a favorable light. Apart fr ..read more

With less than one month to go until the South Korean general election on April 10, all eyes are on the National Assembly. The outcome of this election looks to be a referendum on the Yoon Suk Yeol government and a setup for the next presidential election in 2027. The latest polling suggests that the election will be close, with neither major party appearing to give any ground. However, things can change quickly in the coming weeks: The South Korean political landscape looks as fluid as ever with the formation of new parties and new scandalous facts being reported about the leadership of both ..read more