SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea is estimated to have earned more than US$6 billion through hacking and other illicit activities over the past seven years despite facing heavy international sanctions, a state-run think tank report showed Tuesday. North Korea’s income through illegal activities from 2017 to 2023, such as smuggling out coal, [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has emphasized the importance of quality over speed in the construction of factories and other modern facilities as part of ongoing efforts to develop underdeveloped regions outside of Pyongyang, state media said Monday. The directive was issued during Kim’s “field guidance” to regional-industry factories [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 27 (Korea Bizwire) – North Korea has sent more than 13,000 shipping containers suspected of carrying arms to Russia since mid-2022 amid deepening bilateral military ties, a lawmaker said Tuesday, citing a military intelligence report. The North delivered the shipments that could hold more than 6 million 152-millimeter artillery shells through its eastern [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 27 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea has increased funding for North Korean defectors to support their early settlement as part of its budget proposal for next year, in line with its new unification blueprint. The unification ministry’s budget proposal, which was approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday, came to 1.55 trillion won (US$1.17 [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered the construction of more modern hospitals as part of ongoing efforts to develop underdeveloped regions outside of Pyongyang, state media reported Monday. The direction was issued during Kim’s visit to various regional factories currently under construction on Saturday and Sunday, where he [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea on Friday denounced the United States’ approval of a potential sale of Apache attack helicopters to South Korea as a provocative act that deliberately aims to increase security instability in the region. A North Korean foreign ministry official issued the statement after the U.S. announced a decision [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Five Russian university students have arrived in North Korea for a language program, marking Russian students’ first entry to Pyongyang after a four-year hiatus since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang said Friday. The students from MGIMO University of the Russian Foreign Ministry visited [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — A North Korean soldier crossed the border into South Korea early Tuesday in the latest defection amid Seoul’s propaganda campaign in response to Pyongyang’s s repeated launches of trash-carrying balloons. The South Korean military detected the soldier from north of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) within the Demilitarized Zone [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 20 (Korea Bizwire) – North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears to be shifting the responsibility for the latest flood damage to provincial officials on concerns that his leadership could be undermined amid increased public discontent, South Korea’s unification ministry said Tuesday. The Rodong Sinmun, the North’s main newspaper, reported that Kim called for [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has exchanged a message with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the occasion of the 79th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule and vowed to bolster ties with Moscow, state media reported Friday. Putin extended a message to Kim earlier this week [...]