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Li-Ning Responds to Suspicions of Potentially Using Forced Labor in North Korea Shoshy Ciment Tue, March 22, 2022, 1:46 AM·2 min read Updated March 21: Chinese sneaker maker Li-Ning Sporting Goods has responded to the announcement that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will seize products at U.S. ports of entry produced or manufactured by the company. The sanctions, instated March 14, represent an enforcement action against the company after an investigation found that Li-Ning uses North Korean labor for production. Via the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), U.S. law prohibits North Korean goods to enter the country...

North Korea as a Beneficiary of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine BY: RUEDIGER FRANK MARCH 16, 2022 COMMENTARY, FOREIGN AFFAIRS On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine. The world is only starting to understand the resulting geoeconomic and geopolitical consequences, but it is safe to say that they are and will be substantial and that North Korea is likely to benefit in economic, political and military ways. The most significant and tangible gains for North Korea will be economic. It is worth remembering that the severe economic crisis of the mid-1990s resulted from a sudden drop...

Galloping through forest atop a white horse, Kim Jong Un stars in a new North Korean propaganda video that touts his economic leadership but ignores a recent spate of sanctions-busting missile launches. Pyongyang started the year by conducting a record seven weapons tests, including firing its most powerful missile since 2017, raising fears Kim could restart long-range or nuclear testing. But the government-produced documentary released this week highlights Kim's struggle to right the country's battered economy, which is reeling from a years-long blockade due to the coronavirus and international sanctions. "The overriding theme of the documentary is Kim's devotion to...

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated five Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) individuals responsible for procuring goods for the DPRK’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile-related programs. These actions are in line with U.S. efforts to prevent the advancement of the DPRK’s WMD and ballistic missile programs and impede attempts by Pyongyang to proliferate related technologies. They also follow the DPRK’s six ballistic missile launches since September 2021, each of which violated multiple United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs). “Today’s actions, part of the United States’ ongoing efforts to...

North Korea fired what is believed to be a missile into the waters of the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday morning, according to the Japanese government. In response, Fort Greely, Alaska personnel were ordered to find shelter immediately during what was still Tuesday afternoon in Alaska. It’s unknown what kind of projectile it was, but the Japanese Defense Ministry said it was probably a missile. Other MRAK sources said it was a hypersonic missile launched from a submarine. The last missile Pyongyang launched was in October. In 2017, an intercontinental ballistic missile was launched in North Korea that had a range...

North Korea: Kim Jong-un vows to make military ‘invincible’ as he hits out at US Shweta Sharma Tue, October 12, 2021, 8:40 PM Kim Jong-un has vowed to make his country’s military “invincible” to counter what he called persistent hostility from the US. The hermit kingdom’s leader gave mixed signals during a speech at an event on Monday by saying that while his primary objective was to give North Korea an “invincible military capability” no one would dare challenge, these objectives must not be seen as threatening war with its neighbour South Korea or the US, its regional ally. Mr...

Drugs, arms, and terror: A high-profile defector on Kim's North Korea By Laura Bicker BBC News, Seoul The old habits of secrecy haven't left Kim Kuk-song. It has taken weeks of discussions to get an interview with him, and he's still worried about who might be listening. He wears dark glasses for the camera, and only two of our team know what we think is his real name. Mr Kim spent 30 years working his way to the top ranks of North Korea's powerful spy agencies. The agencies were the "eyes, ears, and brains of the Supreme Leader", he says....

Crypto Exchange Bug Reveals North Korean Monero Laundering ShapeShift's Systems Reduced Privacy for Monero, Researcher Says Jeremy Kirk (jeremy_kirk) • September 29, 2021 Weaknesses in the systems of ShapeShift, a U.K.-based cryptocurrency exchange, reveal how a North Korean-linked group laundered cryptocurrency that came from a notorious ransomware attack in 2017. See Also: Automating Security Operations The issues also put at risk the privacy of some other users of Monero, a cryptocurrency designed to provide a high degree of privacy, who transacted on ShapeShift. The bug appears to have been discovered by multiple parties, including Nick Bax, who recently received a...

N.Korea joins race for new hypersonic missile with latest test By Sangmi Cha Tuesday's launch latest in series of new weapons tests U.S., Russia recently tested lower-altitude hypersonic weapons Expert: Speeds suggest N.Korea test may have been a failure SEOUL, Sept 29 (Reuters) - North Korea test-fired a newly developed hypersonic missile this week, state news media KCNA reported on Wednesday, joining a race headed by major military powers to deploy the advanced weapons system. North Korea fired the missile off its east coast towards the sea on Tuesday, South Korea's military said, as Pyongyang called on the United States...

North Korea appears to have resumed operation of its plutonium-producing reactor at Yongbyon in a move that could enable the reclusive country to expand its nuclear weapons arsenal, the U.N. atomic agency said. The development, disclosed in the agency’s annual report on North Korea’s nuclear activities, adds a new challenge to President Biden’s foreign policy agenda, alongside the dangerous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and stalemated talks on restoring the 2015 deal on Iran’s nuclear program.

Everyone in North Korea is heartbroken over leader Kim Jong Un's apparent weight loss, said an unidentified resident of Pyongyang quoted on the country's tightly controlled state media, after watching recent video footage of Kim. The rare public comment on Kim's health come after foreign analysts noted in early June that the autocratic leader, who is believed to be 37, appeared to have lost a noticeable amount of weight. "Seeing respected general secretary (Kim Jong Un) looking emaciated breaks our people's heart so much," the man said in an interview aired by state broadcaster KRT on Friday. "Everyone is saying...

Otto Warmbier’s mother pleads with the judge to stop the Biden-approved extradition. A former U.S. Marine faces extradition to Spain for breaking into the North Korean embassy in Madrid to help a diplomat defect. It appears Biden’s administration is aiding in this process, despite concerns that North Korea plans retribution for this move. Christopher Ahn, 40, faces his final extradition hearing in federal court in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Two years ago, he was freed on $1.3million bail but was forced to serve home confinement ahead of his possible extradition to Spain. The US government is working to extradite Ahn...

Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe lied about meeting Wang Wenliang, the Chinese donor to his 2013 gubernatorial campaign whose contributions are now the subject of an FBI investigation. McAuliffe told CNN after the story broke that he thinks he has never met Mr. Wenliang.

BREAKING: North Korea appears to have fired ballistic missile, Japanese Coast Guard says - NHK

Unnamed alleged officials in the administration of President Joe Biden confessed to Reuters this weekend that attempts to communicate with the communist regime of North Korea since Biden took office have been met with silence. Reuters, citing the officials, claimed the Biden administration used several traditional “behind-the-scenes” avenues to reach out to dictator Kim Jong-un in an attempt to rekindle diplomatic talks, but Pyongyang did not respond to any of them. Since Biden’s inauguration, North Korean state media — often the only metric for gauging regime sentiment in the highly secretive country — has largely ceased referring to the United...

SEOUL (THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Signs of activity have recently been detected at some North Korean nuclear facilities, the United Nations nuclear watchdog chief has said, expressing serious concern at the reclusive regime's continued activities. Mr Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told the board of governors that there was evidence that the regime has continued construction at an experimental light-water reactor at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex, including testing of the infrastructure for cooling water in late 2020. He added that while there were no signs of producing enriched uranium at the reported...

During an attack on the defense industry, the North Korea-linked threat group known as Lazarus was able to exfiltrate data from a restricted network segment by taking control of a router and setting it up as a proxy server. For initial access, the group used phishing emails featuring COVID-19 themes and containing publicly available personal information of the intended victims. Next, they focused on credential harvesting and lateral movement, including gaining access to and exfiltrating data from restricted network segments. Active since at least 2009, Lazarus has orchestrated multiple high-profile attacks. In 2019, they focused on crypto-currency exchanges, but switched...

The North Korean authorities have reportedly ordered the expansion of political prison camps in the country. A source told Daily NK that North Korea, having declared war on the so-called “anti-socialist and non-socialist phenomenon” during the recent Eighth Party Congress, intends to overhaul its incarceration facilities ahead of a major crackdown. In a phone conversation with Daily NK on Feb. 12, the source, who is based in North Korea, said “the authorities ordered the labor camps to increase capacity at the end of last month,” adding that “this order was handed to the headquarters of all camps managed by the...

The Trump administration will place Cuba back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism on Monday, according to two senior State Department officials, reversing an Obama-era decision and making it harder for President-elect Joe Biden to quickly revive diplomatic ties with Havana.Secretary of State Michael Pompeo is expected to indicate he’s designating Cuba because the country continues to harbor American fugitives including Joanne Chesimard, convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper in 1973, and refuses a Colombian extradition request for National Liberation Army members linked to a 2019 bombing that killed 22.Cuba joins only Syria, Iran and North...

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has assessed that North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) re-entry vehicles are likely to “perform adequately” if flown on a normal trajectory to mainland United States, according to an American think tank report Tuesday. Concurrently, the U.S. Navy intercepted and destroyed an ICBM target using a ship-launched missile over the Pacific Ocean, northeast of Hawaii, announced the Missile Defense Agency Tuesday, part of the Pentagon’s move to build and test a layered missile defense system for the U.S. mainland. The "2021 Index of U.S. Military Strength," an annual report released by the Washington-based Heritage...