North Korea

Seoul, Jan 28 (AP) North Korea said Friday its two latest rounds of weapons tests this week were successful while vowing to bolster its nuclear war deterrent and speed up the development of more powerful warheads.

It appeared North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not attend the tests on Tuesday and Thursday, which were detected by the militaries of neighbours South Korea and Japan.

Seoul, Jan 12 (AP) North Korea says leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a successful flight test of a hypersonic missile he claimed would remarkably increase the country's nuclear war deterrent.

The report by North Korean state media on Wednesday came a day after the militaries of the United States, South Korea and Japan said they detected North Korea firing a suspected ballistic missile into its eastern sea.

Seoul, Oct 3 (AP-PTI) North Korea has warned the UN Security Council against criticising the isolated country's missile programme, in a statement Sunday that included unspecified threats against the international body.

During an emergency closed-door meeting of the top UN body Friday, France circulated a proposed statement that expresses concern over North Korea's missile launches and calls on it to fully implement council resolutions that ban its ballistic missile firings.

PYONGYANG, Sept 20 (NNN-KCNA) – The Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) today criticised the United States for transferring the technology of building nuclear-powered submarines to Australia.

Chief of the Foreign News Section of the Department of Press and Information said, the U.S. decision was “extremely undesirable and dangerous acts, which will upset the strategic balance in the Asia-Pacific region and trigger off a chain of nuclear arms race.”

PYONGYANG, August 4. /TASS/: Russia and North Korea will make efforts for the soonest possible resumption of trade when the pandemic situation will make it possible to open borders between the two nations, the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang said on Wednesday.

PYONGYANG, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Sunday night urged South Korea to cancel its regular joint military exercises with the United States and said a North-South leader-level summit remains unlikely in the short term, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

PYONGYANG, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Kim Jong Un, the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), presided over a party plenary meeting Tuesday to review the execution of major state policies for the first half of this year under current international situation, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday.

Kim, General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), said at the third Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of WPK that he highly appreciated the positive achievements by the party and the state work over the past six months.

(Reuters) --- North Korea's ruling party has amended its rules to create a de facto second-in-command under leader Kim Jong Un as he looks to revamp domestic politics, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said on Tuesday.

Citing an unidentified source familiar with North Korea, the agency said the holder of the new post of "first secretary" would chair meetings on behalf of Kim Jong Un.

(Reuters) --- Orphans, conscripted soldiers, and students - some appearing to be children - are "volunteering" to work manual labour in North Korea, including in coal mines, farms, and large construction projects, the country's state media have reported.

Hundreds of graduates of orphan schools "volunteered to work in difficult fields", according to reports by state news agency KCNA.

(Reuters) --- North Korean defectors and activists urged Joe Biden to ramp up pressure on North Korea over human rights as South Korean President Moon Jae-in headed to Washington on Wednesday for his first summit with the U.S. president.

Moon is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Thursday for a four-day stay, which will include a series of summits with Biden and congressional leaders, as well as a visit to SK Innovation's (096770.KS) battery plant in Georgia.