North Korea/South Korea 2026

The Opening of the North Korean Mind
Pyongyang Versus the Digital Underground
By Jieun Baek
(Foreign Affairs Backstory)  North Korea’s ruling party held a party congress this week, an event that happens just once every five years. Kim Jong Un, the country’s third-generation leader, appeared with his teenage daughter, fueling speculation that she may eventually succeed him. During the congress, he vowed to expand his nuclear arsenal and ruled out negotiations with South Korea, calling it “the most hostile enemy.”
For nearly eight decades, world leaders have tried to “engage, entice, and coerce” the Kim dynasty without success, and any “overt attempts at regime change” are now effectively deterred by the country’s nuclear weapons, the scholar Jieun Baek wrote in a 2016 essay. If change is to come to North Korea, it is more likely to be “change from within.” To be sure, Pyongyang tightly controls information to maintain the “fanatical cult of personality” that the state is built around. Every North Korean household, for instance, has a radio broadcasting state propaganda that cannot be turned off. Anyone caught with foreign media can be sentenced to hard labor, prison, or even death.
But “cracks have appeared in the wall that the state has built around its people,” Baek noted. Many North Koreans “have come to understand that the outside world hardly resembles the wasteland of deprivation, immorality, and criminality that official propaganda depicts” by risking everything to consume smuggled books, movies, and music. “In a totalitarian society where the authorities’ legitimacy and power depend to a large extent on their ability to delude the population, a growing digital underground might represent a long-term existential threat.” 28 November 2016

19 August
Trump says he expects to meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un later this year
The two leaders have met three times, but their diplomacy has not produced an agreement curbing Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
(WaPo) President Donald Trump said he plans to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year and offered an updated assessment of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, saying it possesses “57 very powerful nuclear weapons.”
During an impromptu meeting with reporters outside the White House on Wednesday morning, Trump said his relationship with Kim was an asset for the United States and the world.
“I get along with him well,” Trump said. “And you know what? The fact that I get along with him, that’s a very good thing, not a bad thing.”
Trump said North Korea should never have been allowed to acquire nuclear weapons but suggested that Kim could be managed as long as the U.S. had strong leadership.
China’s top envoy to visit Seoul as Trump shakes U.S.-South Korea ties
(Japan Times) Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit South Korea for two days from Wednesday, stepping up engagement with Seoul as President Donald Trump sows doubts about Washington’s reliability in the region.
Wang will meet South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun to discuss North Korea and bilateral and global issues, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday. The trip follows renewed high-level exchanges after years of friction over Seoul’s deployment of a U.S. missile defense system opposed by Beijing.
The visit comes after Trump ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” joint exercises with South Korea, citing their cost and his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The announcement appeared to catch Seoul by surprise.

17 August
Facing Quagmire in Iran, Trump Turns to a Familiar Face: North Korea’s Kim Jong-un
Seven years ago, President Trump failed to disarm North Korea and walked away. Could the same thing happen with Iran?
(NYT) The last time President Trump vowed to halt a country’s nuclear weapons program, he held three face-to-face meetings with Kim Jong-un of North Korea, declared that the two men had developed a “great relationship” and walked away empty-handed.
That was in Mr. Trump’s first term. Not only did the diplomatic effort fail, but Mr. Kim immediately hit the accelerator on his program and today possesses roughly 60 nuclear weapons, by some estimates, as well as missiles that appear capable of reaching the United States — exactly the combination Mr. Trump had vowed to dismantle.
Mr. Trump’s social media declaration on Sunday night, praising Mr. Kim and publicly ordering Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to diminish America’s role in an annual military exercise with South Korea, one of America’s allies in the Pacific, appeared intended to signal that he wants to resume negotiations. A day later, it remained unclear just how the Pentagon would scale back its role in the 11-day exercise, and a one-line statement sent to reporters by the Pentagon press office on Monday afternoon did not provide any clarity.
NPR offers this analysis: Experts suspect that Trump’s decision to reduce the scale of Ulchi Freedom Shield was not only a direct response to that threat but also likely part of a larger effort to convince North Korea to rejoin nuclear disarmament talks that broke down in 2019. South Korea similarly expressed such hope on Monday, stressing wishes that Trump and Kim’s “friendly relationship” lead to “meaningful dialogue” about the security of the Korean Peninsula.
Yet such engagement is unlikely unless the White House is prepared to offer major concessions, which Kim said in September 2025 would have to include the United States dropping “its delusional obsession with denuclearization” of North Korea. In recent years, Kim has expanded Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, accelerated weapons testing, prioritized cooperation with Russia and China, and shunned any talks with Washington and Seoul.
Trump’s move to gut South Korea alliance is ‘inane, haphazard decision’, lawmakers say
US president’s abrupt order to scale back joint exercises with Seoul is meant to ‘flatter’ North Korea’s dictator, top Democrat says
(The Guardian) Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, called it “another inane, haphazard decision by President Trump and his chaotic administration”.
“When President Trump cuts military exercises to flatter a dictator or punishes South Korea for declining to join a war he started, all of our allies – and adversaries – think that America’s commitments are negotiable,” Reed said in a statement, describing the move as punishing Korea “for no reason beyond Trump’s ego”.
Reed’s warning was echoed by Mark Kelly of Arizona, who sits on the same committee, and argued that the drills were not symbolic but the basis of the alliance’s ability to function in a crisis. “North and South Korea are still technically at war,” Kelly said. “Our ability to help defend our ally against the North Koreans is because our forces are well trained and able to coordinate with the South Koreans. Hollowing out these joint exercises is shortsighted and a mistake.”
Thom Tillis, the outgoing Republican senator from North Carolina, chimed in making the point that the butterfly effect of Trump’s decision would inadvertently benefit Russia. “South Korea has been a solid military ally for over 70 years that possesses exquisite military capabilities,” Tillis wrote on social media. “Reducing joint exercises with South Korea does nothing more than free up thousands of North Korea’s troops to support Putin’s systematic kidnapping, torture, rape and murder of innocent Ukrainian citizens.”
South Korea wants peace
(International Intrigue) South Korea’s Lee Jae Myung just used Saturday’s Liberation Day formalities (marking the 1945 end of Japanese colonial rule) to suggest
a) direct talks to formally end the [Korean War — there has been a ceasefire since 1953, but never a formal peace treaty.]
b) new safeguards to stop accidental border clashes, and
c) practical discussions to halt the North’s nuclear build-up.
Lee says he hopes the two can finally “sit face-to-face for peaceful coexistence and mutual growth”.
… how has the autocratic North responded to all this? Complete silence so far, unless you count yet another ballistic test, plus the North’s first violation of the DMZ dividing line this year (drawing warning shots from the South).
Maybe the North’s initial silence is because Kim is busy counting his lucky stars: the US would ordinarily only trade drill reductions for Northern concessions, but here those US reductions are seemingly arriving not only free of charge, but paired with a dunk on America’s own allies, right as they were extending an olive branch!
It also comes just as Kim sends yet another batch of troops and missiles to help Putin’s flailing invasion of Ukraine, while Kim’s own home economy booms with Russian payments, and all amid persistent rumours the US president actually wants to take another stab at Kim-Trump summitry.
Or to put it another way… go help invade Europe, cash the Russian cheques at home, then watch while your rivals dangle even more concessions plus maybe even the prospect of yet another US presidential summit further legitimising your own regime.
Perhaps the hope in Seoul and DC is that if you throw enough carrots Kim’s way, it might coax him towards dialogue and even restraint. And yet history suggests dictators are always happy to eat carrots and smile for photos, but they’ll eventually start demanding dessert.

16 August
Trump Orders Pentagon to Curtail Military Exercises With Ally South Korea
President Trump on Sunday instructed the Pentagon to reduce its joint military exercises with South Korea, a key U.S. ally in Asia. He also touted his good relationship with Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader.
(NYT) The announcement may heighten growing worries among Asian allies over what the United States is now willing to do to deter China, given the enormous distraction and resource drain of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran. The United States is running low on critical weapons and has been moving military resources out of Asia to the Middle East.
In a convoluted social media post, Mr. Trump complained that Seoul did not “join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” In the same post, he said that North Korea under Kim Jong Un had been “unthreatening and respectful” while he has been president.
In his post Mr. Trump did not mention a rift in relations in 2017, when the North Korean leader called him a “mentally deranged dotard” after Mr. Trump delivered a speech at the U.N. threatening to “totally destroy” North Korea if the United States had to defend itself or its allies.

8 June
Xi Jinping arrives in Pyongyang on trip to revitalise China-North Korea ties
Kim Jong-un welcomes Chinese leader on visit to renew relations strained amid Pyongyang’s closeness with Russia
(The Guardian) A red carpet lined with North Korean honour guards greeted Xi and his entourage, which included the foreign minister, Wang Yi, and Cai Qi, the Chinese leader’s de facto chief of staff.
Xi and Peng made their way to Kim Il-sung Square in central Pyongyang, where they were greeted by the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, and his wife, Ri Sol-ju. Children presented them with flowers at a colourful welcome ceremony featuring a military band playing the countries’ national anthems along with a 21-gun salute.
After the ceremony, Kim and Ri reportedly escorted Xi and Peng to the Kumsusan guesthouse, a luxurious state-owned villa compound completed in 2019 to host visiting world leaders.
There, the leaders held talks on trade and cooperation. On Monday evening, Xi released a statement in which he affirmed China’s support for North Korea “no matter how the international situation changes”.
Xi also called on China and North Korea to “expand pragmatic cooperation in economy and trade”, according to the state media agency Xinhua. “The two sides should take the opportunity of the full reopening of border ports and the resumption of operation of civil aviation flights and international passenger trains to expand personnel exchanges and realise two-way travel,” he said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping pledges ‘unwavering’ support for North Korea and Kim Jong-un
The Chinese leader begins his first foreign trip of the year by pledging that the ‘traditional friendship’ between the countries will not change.
(SCMP) Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing’s commitment to North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-un was “unwavering” as he began a two-day trip to the country on Monday.
It is Xi’s first foreign visit of the year, and during talks with Kim in the afternoon, he expressed strong support for the North Korean leader.
He called for stronger exchanges at all levels in areas such as foreign policy, law enforcement and the military.

12 May
Russian ship that sank near Spain may have been carrying nuclear reactors to North Korea
Western military may have targeted the Ursa Major, which went down after mysterious explosions, reports suggest

28 February
With sniper rifle photos, Kim Jong Un intensifies spotlight on his daughter, a potential successor
(CNN) North Korea on Saturday released pictures showing leader Kim Jong Un and his teenage daughter at a rifle range, the latest propaganda images to promote the child touted as a potential successor.
State media KCNA said Kim and his daughter – along with Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister Kim Yo Jong and other officials – fired the rifles after the North Korean leader gifted them to military leaders to salute their service to the reclusive state’s ruling party.

25 February
North Korea warns it could destroy South if threatened, but leaves door open for U.S. dialogue
(CTV) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un claimed his nuclear-armed country could “completely destroy” South Korea if its security were threatened, reiterating his refusal to engage with Seoul, state media said Thursday. However, he left the door open to dialogue with Washington as he concluded a ruling party congress outlining his policy goals for the next five years.
The official Korean Central News Agency said that Kim also called for developing new weapons systems to bolster his nuclear-armed military, including intercontinental ballistic missiles that could be launched from underwater and an expanded arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons, such as artillery and short-range missiles, targeting South Korea.
He said the accelerated development of his nuclear and missile program in recent years “permanently cemented” the country’s status as a nuclear weapons state, and called for the United States to discard what he perceives as “hostile” policies toward the North if it wants to resume long-stalled dialogue.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry said it was regrettable that the North continues to define inter-Korean relations as hostile and that Seoul will “patiently” pursue efforts to stabilize peace.