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North Korean hackers stole $316 million to fund its nuclear weapons program last year, UN report says

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North Korean hackers stole more than $300 million to prop up the country's flailing economy and fund leader Kim Jong Un's nuclear ambitions last year, according to a draft United Nations report obtained by the Associated Press and CNN

A panel of North Korea experts compiled the report and recommended further sanctions against the country for violating international law in its quest to become a nuclear power, CNN reported.

One unnamed UN member country said in the report that North Korean hackers stole $316.4 million dollars in virtual assets between 2019 and November 2020, according to CNN. 

The hackers targeted global financial institutions and virtual currency-exchange houses to illegally acquire foreign currencies, the report said, according to the AP. This money was then used to support North Korea's nuclear and ballistic-missile programs.

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The report said that North Korea "produced fissile material, maintained nuclear facilities, and upgraded its ballistic missile infrastructure" while continuing "to seek material and technology for these programs from overseas," according to CNN. 

The experts said it's "highly likely" North Korea can at this point mount a nuclear device to a ballistic missile of any range, but it's still uncertain whether those missiles would be able to successfully reenter the atmosphere, the report says, according to CNN. 

Read more: Microsoft said its software and tools were not used 'in any way' in the SolarWinds attacks. New findings suggest a more complicated role.

Kim Jong Un believes that acquiring more nuclear power will stave off international intervention in his country, where more than 40% of the population is malnourished and citizens are regularly sent to forced labor camps as punishment for petty infractions. 

Tensions between North Korea and the US reached new heights in 2017, when North Korea conducted a test detonation of a purported thermonuclear warhead, and tested intercontinental ballistic missiles with ranges to strike the American mainland.

During his four years in office, President Donald Trump sought to deescalate the tensions by conducting one-on-one negotiations with Kim, but those ultimately went nowhere, as the North Korean regime refused to give up its nuclear program outright.

It's still unclear how President Joe Biden hopes to approach the issue. 

Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security advisor, said last week that the administration is conducting a review of North Korean policy, according to CNN.

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North Korea's nukes aren't going anywhere, and the US needs to get over it

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Observers should not mistake the absence of direct engagement between Washington and Pyongyang for disinterest in the fate of US-North Korea relations, State Department representative Ned Price said in a recent press briefing.

Price stressed that the administration's "strategic goals" with the Kim Jong Un regime will be "focus[ed] on reducing the threat to the United States and to our allies as well as to improving the lives of the North and South Korean people. And, again, the central premise is that we remain committed to denuclearization of North Korea."

The Biden team's workmanlike approach is an expedient change from their predecessors' photo-op diplomacy. But this continued insistence on denuclearization as the primary goal in US-North Korea engagement is incredibly counterproductive.

Hwasong 15 North Korean missile (ICBM)

If Biden and his team are serious about making headway on their first two strategic goals — threat reduction and humanitarian gains on the Korean Peninsula — they must drop the third. For progress with North Korea, forget denuclearization.

We can do that safely for three reasons. First, as Price himself noted, "the United States, of course, remains the most powerful and strongest country in the world." Even with nuclear weapons, North Korea's military might is miniscule by comparison. In nuclear and conventional weaponry alike, the US advantage is overwhelming, as the Kim regime well knows.

This is not to say Pyongyang couldn't do real damage. It could — the South Korean capital of Seoul, a city of 10 million, is only 30 miles from the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas, well within North Korea's strike range.

But Kim is unquestionably aware of the consequences unprovoked aggression against a US ally (let alone the United States proper or our military, which has an extensive South Korean presence) would bring. He would not finish the resultant conflict in power; he might not finish it alive.

That glaringly obvious truth creates a powerful deterrence for the United States, and it is a deterrence which maintaining the nuclear status quo indefinitely will not obviate.

Kim Jong Un Missile

Second, Price repeats the longstanding claim that denuclearization is itself a goal. This is not — or, at least, should not be — quite correct. The proper goal is avoidance of horrific, world-changing, history-altering nuclear war.

Denuclearization is one means of accomplishing that avoidance. But it is not the only way, and the mere existence of North Korea's nuclear weapons does not mean they will be used.

The United States is already securely coexisting with a nuclear North Korea. We are stably coexisting with other nuclear powers, too, including several (chiefly China and Russia, but also Pakistan, if conventional wisdom is correct) that are hardly reliably friendly to America.

Russia's nuclear arsenal is of a similar strength to our own, and China boasts a far more powerful military and economy than North Korea ever could. Yet complete denuclearization of these countries is not standard US policy, not only because it is an unachievable aim for Washington but because it is not necessary to avoid nuclear war.

We can likewise avoid nuclear conflict involving North Korea without attaining denuclearization — indeed, we have done it for decades.

Finally, forgetting denuclearization for now may ultimately get us to denuclearization, and it will certainly help us toward the administration's other two goals of de-escalation and improved quality of life for the Korean people.

Joe Biden South Korea troops

If we set aside denuclearization — a concession Pyongyang will not make so long as it perceives any risk of forcible, US-orchestrated regime change like that in Iraq and Libya— a multitude of more practical and feasible goals become accessible to us.

Working-level diplomacy by the Biden administration could accomplish a nuclear freeze, regular inspections of Kim's arsenal, or even some reduction of his nuclear stockpile or missile systems. It could produce, seven decades late, a peace treaty to officially end the Korean War. It could bargain for concessions from Pyongyang by offering cessation of US sanctions that harm ordinary North Koreans. It could permit expanded, Korean-directed engagement between North and South Korea, including trade and reconnection of divided families.

It could take steps toward making North Korea a far more normal country, opening the "hermit kingdom" to the global culture and economy and giving its people a shot at deprograming themselves from their government's sadistic brainwashing. And it could ultimately lay the groundwork for a new era in North Korean foreign relations, one which might mature someday, probably long after this administration is over, into a denuclearized and even democratic Pyongyang.

None of that is possible, however, if the Biden administration insists on denuclearization now. A shortsighted demand for Kim to concede what he views as his sole guarantee against American invasion will ensure Biden leaves office just like former President Donald Trump, having moved the needle on US-North Korean relations not an inch.

Bonnie Kristian is a fellow at Defense Priorities, contributing editor at The Week, and columnist at Christianity Today. Her writing has also appeared at CNN, NBC, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and Defense One, among other outlets.

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Trump offered Kim Jong Un a ride home on Air Force One after their 2nd summit, new series finds

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FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

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President Donald Trump offered North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a ride home on Air Force One after the two met for a second time at a summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2019, a new BBC documentary has reported.

The three-part series, titled "Trump Takes on the World," discloses new details about Trump and Kim's ultimately unsuccessful negotiations over North Korea's nuclear program.

Trump, who had left the meeting abruptly, told the press at the time: "Sometimes you just have to walk."

But Trump is said to have made an unusual offer first.

"President Trump offered Kim a lift home on Air Force One," Matthew Pottinger, the top Asia expert on Trump's National Security Council, told the BBC.

"The president knew that Kim had arrived on a multiday train ride through China into Hanoi, and the president said: 'I can get you home in two hours if you want.' It was a gracious gesture," he added.

Kim declined the offer, according to Pottinger.

Trump Air Force One

The BBC series also included an interview with Trump's national security advisor at the time, John Bolton, who was present at the summit.

Bolton said that as they drove to the meeting, Trump was confident he could forge a deal once he was in the room with Kim.

"Trump obviously thought he had a new best friend in Kim Jong Un," Bolton, who has since fallen out with Trump, said, according to the Sunday Times. "Trump thought that US-North Korea relations were great because he and Kim were buddies. It's a very dangerous perception."

Kim and Trump ended up meeting for a third and last time in the Korean Demilitarized Zone four months later, but there was no further progress.

The pair had a complicated relationship during Trump's four years as president.

Trump referred to North Korea's leader on Twitter as "Little Rocket Man" and made threats of "fire and fury" but later suggested they were very good friends and even described him as "a very smart guy,"as noted by the BBC.

The third episode of "Trump Takes on the World," directed by Tim Stirzaker, will be broadcast on BBC2 on Wednesday.

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North Korea is the most isolated country on the planet, but it still finds ways to steal billions of dollars

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The Department of Justice said last month that North Korea has used cyberattacks to steal over $1 billion since 2015 to fund its nuclear weapons program.

Heavy sanctions, imposed by both the US and the UN, prevent North Korea from participating in the formal global economy. The regime often circumvents these sanctions, mostly through secretive ship-to-ship transfers of luxury goods, chemicals, and coal, which is North Korea's primary export.

North Korea's nuclear program is essential to the Kim regime, and it devotes all the resources it can to increasing and improving its arsenal. The rise of digital currencies has created new opportunities to acquire funds for that effort.

To understand how the regime perpetrates financial crimes online and the threat it poses, Insider spoke with Jason Bartlett of the Center for a New American Security.

Insider: Let's start with an overview of how North Korea avoids sanctions. In my mind, there are three main ways: Through traditional over-land means, hacking, and cryptocurrency.

Jason Bartlett: Over the years we've seen a heavier focus on cyber-enabled financial crime that benefits North Korea's nuclear weapons.

That includes hacking of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and more distribution of malware. There was the WannaCry cyber attack, there was the online bank heist in 2016 of a Bangladesh bank. South Korea experiences numerous cyber attacks against its ATMs and other financial institutions.

What we've seen in recent years, North Korea has been upping the ante of its targets. The leaked FinCEN files from 2020 indicated that North Korea was able to launder money through the US financial system.

We're also seeing reports coming out that North Korea may have been able to hack cryptocurrency through DeFi, decentralized finance platforms, which is a new field for them.

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Insider: Has the proportion of sanctions evasions through online means, compared to overland and ship-to-ship transfers, increased recently, especially after coronavirus?

Bartlett: Time will tell. One of the issues with cybercrime is it is very high gains with low risk, because it is hard to be detected, as we see some of the most high-profile attacks. The SolarWinds attack, by allegedly Russia, we found out about that very late, so there might be other hacks that North Korea has already been doing that we're unaware of. 

I would not be surprised if we see that there has been an increase in North Korean state-sponsored cybercrime during coronavirus. One, because of the original track that North Korea was making already with increased online activity, increased cyber-enabled financial crime. Just because of the nature of the world today there's more financial transactions, more people are shifting to conducting their business online and more financial institutions and services are adopting BitCoin and other cryptocurrencies. 

But I'm sure that this shift has also been heavily contributed [to] by coronavirus in terms of people relying more on virtual transactions and digital currencies.

Insider: How does North Korea target crypto exchanges? 

Bartlett: As far as we know, North Korea has several different cyber-crime forces within its intelligence bureaus. There's the Lazarus group, and there's sub-units within that. Some are just cyber, and some within the cyber field focus more on things like espionage, compared to petty financial crime. We don't know exactly which groups are primarily responsible for which ones — we have ideas.

When it comes to smaller transactions, there are so many loopholes in the cryptocurrency exchanges, and in DeFi because it is not regulated. These transactions never go through human hands or human scrutiny. Everything is automated. If you're able to break into that system, and you're able to manipulate the currency price, which is what North Korea allegedly did recently, then you're able to hack as many of these transactions as you like, and you can up and lower the price of the cryptocurrency that you're using to get as much money as possible.

The thing with smaller transactions is that it typically can be easier to steal, because there might not be as many eyes on it, as opposed to some large exchange in New York, or in Bangladesh, or South Korea ... if you're targeting hundreds and hundreds or even thousands of smaller transactions that are all happening at the same time, and then you're able to just shift the currency as you're hacking it for money laundering, it's a very successful way to hack a lot of money at the same time while keeping it below a notification threshold, which is what North Korea tends to be doing.

north korea ship to ship

Insider: How successful is North Korea with this?

Bartlett: They're successful usually in the hack itself. With North Korea what tends to be more impressive is its money-laundering ability. Just because they hack a certain amount of money doesn't necessarily mean they will have access to all of that. Sometimes we're able to freeze the assets, [and] we're able to get the exchange back. 

So if North Korea were to steal $3 million in cryptocurrency, doesn't necessarily mean that then they'll be able to turn that into $3 million of cash that they can use for weapons. It needs to go through money laundering, and that's when the signals can be more detectable. North Korea has gotten significantly better. It's also received help from abroad. We have the case of the two Chinese nationals that were offering professional money laundering services on behalf of North Korea.

North Korea has incredibly sophisticated hacking techniques, but as a country in itself, economically and technologically, it is not advanced, yet it's able to perform all these tasks. It's very impressive, especially when it's targeting more technologically advanced nations such as the US, the UK, and South Korea.

Insider: In what ways do other countries support these North Korean efforts?

Bartlett: This is also a developing field, but China has had a history of hosting North Korean hackers and hacking groups. There were several hotels in China allegedly hosting North Korean hackers until recently. They were apparently closed down and the hackers were repatriated. But that's very difficult to check. China doesn't necessarily abide by all the UN and US resolutions, especially the ones regarding North Korean sanctions.

Russia and China also have a history of evading sanctions targeting North Korean workers abroad. North Koreans have been able to circumvent sanctions, specifically a US resolution that took effect in December 2019 that required UN member states to repatriate all North Korean workers back to their country due to findings that their earnings were going to the nuclear development program.

But recent UN panels, expert reports have shown that these IT workers are still very active in China and Russia. And in the case of the WannaCry attack, there was a North Korean hacker, Park Jin Hyok, who worked in an IT company in China while he was also conducting these cyberattacks against the UK, the US, and various other nations on behalf of North Korea.

There's also talk of technology exchange. Prior to Covid, there was a lot of student exchange between China and Russia, which obviously doesn't necessarily mean that there will be information-sharing, but we see [it] at very high-level science and technology universities. China and Russia have a history of providing North Korea with technological infrastructure, internet connection, so there's both direct and indirect facilitation.

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Insider: How do we go from cryptocurrency to, for example, mid-range nuclear missiles? 

Bartlett: Just because they hack a very substantial amount of cryptocurrency doesn't mean they get all the cash. Typically, they'll turn it into Bitcoin or very commonly used, commonly transacted cryptocurrency. Then they're able to transfer that into funds, and then they take those funds out and it's cash. 

And from that money, after they go through different money-laundering services — which is basically a way of changing the currency and changing the tracking so that it's harder to tell where the money's coming from, where it's going to, what currency is being used — they're able to go through exchanges and withdraw that money in cash. Then they're able to purchase nuclear weapons, pay off other countries or companies that are either helping ship their coal, helping ship some technology to them, or helping ship different parts or chemicals, and pay for oversea exchange. 

There are also luxury goods, we see that a lot with Kim Jong Un having these, I think they're some form of a white stallion, Mercedes-Benz, and things like that. It's not just unique to North Korea. There's also countries in Latin America and across the world that hide funds from money laundering in luxury goods that they're able to keep and then sell.

I believe sometime last year, the Treasury issued one of its first statements about a North Korean art exhibit, and how some of this money that they were receiving for this art exhibit was then being used for its nuclear weapons, or they were hiding money in very expensive art. So it's a way of holding onto ... a reserve, and you can just sell this when you need more funds.

Insider: How are nations like the US, the UK, and the Five Eyes tracking these projects and these crimes? 

Bartlett: The Treasury Department — so FinCEN— as well as the Department of Justice, have been working very hard to track the efforts and, for example, to issue charges against North Korean or other nationals that are supporting North Korea's cyber-enabled financial crime. It's very difficult, because cyber crime is directly connected to North Korea's intelligence bureau and its nuclear development program, to know just how sophisticated and just how successful it is.

It's unique in that it's one of the only cyber programs in the world that its main goal is not necessarily espionage — that's only one of them. It's more about funds for its nuclear program, because nuclear development is a key aspect of North Korea's political identity.

I think there is starting to be more conversation regarding cyber within the counterproliferation field in the United States. It's a little overdue, but it's definitely a step in the right direction. I think, before then, it was separated, or maybe North Korea wasn't taken as seriously because there's cyber giants, like China and Russia, that have done successful election intervention and espionage attacks. But stealing money to build up nuclear weapons is a grave national-security concern ... I think now [the] US government is beginning to get more research to focus on that field.

The private sector has continued to be very vigilant of North Korean cyber crime. They tend to also be a large target of it. Hopefully now, with this new presidency and a seemingly strong focus on cyber following the SolarWinds hack, following even the GameStop scandal, I think that's something that the US government is going to be incredibly aware of and how important but how fragile and easy to manipulate virtual currencies can be if they don't have the proper regulations and if there's not proper consensus on how these transactions should be conducted.

FILE PHOTO: Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) are driven past the stand with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and other high-ranking officials during a military parade marking the 105th birth anniversary of the country's founding father Kim Il Sung, in Pyongyang April 15, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj/File Photo

Insider: How do we keep crypto out of the hands of malicious actors?

Bartlett: I think there needs to be a greater consensus of not just the threat but what resources we already have available to us. I'm not exactly sure how informed cryptocurrency exchanges and companies are of what resources they have available to them ... The government and private sector need to come up with a stronger framework to train each other.

Training that financial institutions and banks that work with fiat currency have for anti-money laundering and hacking — I'm not exactly sure if cryptocurrency companies receive that same level of training, in terms of red-flag indicators of financial crime or suspicious activity, how to report, how to freeze, how to track. That would be the first thing, more of an assessment of what do you know, what can you do?

One of the bigger issues is compliance, having not just US companies but also foreign companies being compliant. If US companies are compliant with law, then North Korean actors and other illicit actors will just go to countries and regions that aren't or don't have the legal framework. ...

Once we establish our own protocols and our own way of doing things, and strengthen our own collaboration with the private sector, then we can export that knowledge, not just to our common actors in the Five Eyes but also with countries predominantly in Southeast Asia where there's a lot of North Korean hackers. I think it'll be very difficult to persuade China and Russia to abide by UN and US sanctions, especially cyber, because you have plausible deniability.

Insider: Is there anything we're doing in terms of retaliation?

Bartlett: A cyberattack against Russia's online infrastructure in retaliation to SolarWinds, or in retaliation against China — and I'm not condoning this — I'm just saying that attacks like that would typically be a little bit more plausible because the countries are connected to the internet.

That's not the case for North Korea. North Korea has an intranet; only select individuals, typically in Pyongyang, typically have access to this intranet and cell phones.

So, a direct attack on North Korea's internet infrastructure won't really have the same effect that it would on us. That's not to say it wouldn't have any effect, but it wouldn't be as strong as it could against other countries. I think the majority of our retaliation efforts tend to be more of freezing funds and freezing assets, which then ultimately affect the economy, making it harder for North Korea to divest more resources into expanding its cyber crime. 

North Korea military computer

Insider: It seems like North Korea is always working to stay a little bit ahead of sanctions, so assuming that regulations come in under this administration and security is much tighter, how are they going to get around that?

Bartlett: For the past couple years, the US has been playing catch-up with cyber crime, as opposed to "build up against," so I'm very realistically optimistic in that now, because we have seen, over the years, that the various targets — so, not just North Korean, but Russian and Chinese actors — have on our cyberspace. It ranges from our financial institutions to the security of our citizens and our government, and this is a major threat.

And I think that COVID, because of the shift to more online transactions, more virtual interactions, more widespread adoption of virtual currencies as legitimate forms of payment, there will continue to be a large increase in North Korean cyber crime.

I'm not exactly sure how it will be possible for us to be more ahead of them, because this is a national initiative of North Korea ... nuclear weapons, sanctions evasion, and cyber, because it's high gains with very, very low risk, easy plausible deniability, and you can receive an enormous amount of funds very, very quickly, relatively easily. So I think the next step for us is to really reevaluate our cyber strategy in general, and our cybersecurity — what does cybersecurity really mean for the US ...

On the DeFi platform, that is most likely going to be a new field that will have a high level of risk, because there is no human interaction, there's no regulation, and it's not surprising that North Korea has already started to exploit that, but it is shocking that they're able to do so. 

And it shows that North Korea's also thinking ahead, so I wouldn't be surprised if, in the coming months, there is at least talk of ways to introduce legislation or ways to regulate the DeFi platform, or try to have more coordination with the private sector and with the cryptocurrency companies. In terms of DeFi, in terms of SolarWinds, and as well as GameStop, I'm sure that now the US government is realizing that this is a major threat that we have to address now, because these illicit actors have already begun to exploit this. 

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.

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The Biden administration has been quietly trying to reach out to North Korea, but keeps getting ignored

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President Joe Biden's administration has been trying to contact North Korea via several channels over the past month, but is receiving no response, Reuters, CNN, and the Associated Press reported, all citing a senior administration official.

"To reduce the risks of escalation, we reached out to the North Korean government through several channels starting in mid-February, including in New York," the official said, according to CNN, referring to North Korea's mission to the United Nations.

"To date, we have not received any response from Pyongyang," the official said, per the reports.

The official added that the US and North Korea had had no "active dialogue" for over a year, "despite multiple attempts by the US to engage."

Neither report gave details on what the attempts to contact North Korea entailed or what level of contact the Biden administration wants to have with North Korea. Insider has contacted the White House for comment.

However, the official told CNN that the administration is reviewing the US policy toward North Korea," including evaluation of all available options to address the increasing threat posed by North Korea to its neighbors and the broader international community."

Biden has not shared his North Korea policy since taking office on January 20.

Reports of the attempted US outreach comes as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin travel to Japan and South Korea — North Korea's neighbors — for four days of meetings. They plan to focus discussions on North Korea's nuclear challenge as well as how to deal with China, according to the AP.

North Korea soldiers troops parade

Biden's predecessor, former President Donald Trump, broke with decades of American tradition to become the first sitting US president to meet North Korea's leader.

Trump met with Kim Jong Un three times during his tenure: once in Singapore, once in Vietnam, and once at the Demilitarized Zone between South and North Korea. The last meeting was Trump's idea, and his top advisors said it had caught them by surprise.

Trump's meetings with Kim aimed to rein in North Korea's nuclear-weapons program and denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

Trump repeatedly touted his relationship with Kim as a foreign-policy win. But those meetings yielded few positive results, as North Korea retains its nuclear arsenal and continues development.

A confidential UN report seen by Reuters last month said that North Korea maintained and developed its nuclear and ballistic missile programs through 2020, despite international sanctions forbidding it. The report also said that North Korean hackers stole $316 million in 2020 alone to fund nuclear-weapons development.

Satellite imagery published by CNN early this month also showed that North Korea had been trying to hide a facility that US intelligence agencies believe is a  store for nuclear weapons.

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The US has extradited a suspected North Korean intelligence operative to stand trial on money laundering charges, as tensions rise between Washington and Pyongyang

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Kim Jong Un News Conference North Korea March 25 2021

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The US has for the first time extradited a North Korean national to face a criminal trial in America, according to the Justice Department.

An indictment unsealed this week alleged that Mun Chol Myong, 55, defrauded banks and laundered money in an attempt to skirt US and UN sanctions on North Korea.  

"He is the first North Korean intelligence operative — and the second ever foreign intelligence operative — to have been extradited to the United States for violation of our laws," said John C. Demers, assistant attorney general for the DOJ National Security Division, in a statement

Demers continued: "We will continue to use the long reach of our laws to protect the American people from sanctions evasion and other national security threats."

Mun this week made his initial appearance in federal court in Washington, DOJ officials said. He was detained by local authorities in Malaysia in May 2019. His case has been ongoing in local courts since then.

Biden

The news came as tensions between the two countries flared. On Wednesday, North Korea's military tested two ballistic missiles, according to multiple reports. A US official told NBC News that the test "threatens the peace and security of the region and our nation." 

Earlier in the week, President Joe Biden's administration said it would soon finish its in-depth review of Washington-Pyongyang policy, including the relationship fostered by the previous administration. 

Senior administration officials said last week that they'd spoken with former officials "to get their sense of how their diplomacy with North Korea worked out over the last four years."

President Donald Trump notably went to the DMZ to meet Kim Jong Un, the reclusive North Korean leader, in 2018. The two talked privately, and reportedly later sent each other "love letters." 

Officials in Biden's administration have reportedly been trying to contact North Korean officials since mid-February, but haven't received a response.

"All I can tell you is that we are on our forward foot, in terms of wanting to clearly signal that we are prepared for continuing engagement in Northeast Asia with key partners and indeed with North Korea," a senior Biden administration official said this week. 

North Korea Embassy Malaysia

In response to the US extradition of one of its nationals, North Korea pulled embassy workers from Malaysia, according to multiple reports. The South China Morning Post reported that the "hermit kingdom was outraged" over the extradition.   

The newly unsealed indictment, which was signed by a grand jury in May 2018, accused Mun and other unnamed suspects of laundering money through the US financial system. While based in Singapore, Mun worked for Sinsar Trading Pte. Ltd., which used front companies to launder more than $1.5 million, the indictment said. 

The DOJ said Mun and others created shell companies to hide their ties to North Korea, giving them access to US correspondent banks and international wire services, breaking sanctions. 

"The indictment further alleges that Mun was affiliated with the DPRK's primary intelligence organization, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, which is the subject of US and UN sanctions," the DOJ said. 

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Biden can't afford to laugh-off Kim Jong Un's provocations

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We can fill a book full of troubling adjectives to describe the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, better known as North Korea, and all of the times they have needless raised international tensions to the point that many analysts worried about the possible resumption of the Korean War — a conflict that almost certainly would go nuclear.

Whatever the case, we rarely talk about the times when US policy toward the DPRK adds unneeded kindling to an already smoldering situation, when policymakers in Washington and even our own chief executive make a rhetorical or tactical mistake that makes a bad situation on the Korean Peninsula even worse.

So when President Joe Biden seemed to laugh off North Korea's latest missile tests over the weekend, missing a chance at more needed diplomacy, the stage was set for what Pyongyang always seems to do best: match pressure or perceived loss of face by a show of strength, or its own style of maximum pressure.

And this is just the beginning. We should expect more back and forth tension-creating events coming from both sides in the months ahead.

joe biden korea

First up is the Biden administration's North Korea policy review findings, which will set the direction for Korean Peninsula strategy for years to come. Having failed to learn from the Trump years that there is a possibility of talking with the Kim regime, Team Biden seems to have all but determined to apply more pressure and double down on sanctions that have so many holes in them one could drive a truck through them.

Washington also seems set to want to try and make China somehow responsible for sanctions enforcement, and is already trying a shaming strategy to get them to punish Pyongyang for its nuclear and missile advances. Clearly this is something Beijing won't do, as it will never allow North Korea to become destabilized in any way — and that is what it would take for the Kim family to come to the bargaining table on its knees.

Sadly it seems we are set to replay what every administration has tried to do for nearly three decades now, apply some sort of new pressure strategy to get North Korea to give up the only weapon it has to fend off its greatest fear, a future US military campaign that seeks to change the regime in Pyongyang.

Considering the billions of dollars invested and likely hundreds of thousands of North Koreans that have died due to a lack of investment in the most basic of societal needs because of its nuclear quest, there is no magic formula to get them to denuclearize.

NOrth Korea missile launch kim may 2017

And yet, we play what politicians here in Washington have determined is a necessary game of posturing, as if we have some way to get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons or missiles, because no administration wants to take on what is perceived as the political fallout of such an admission that only arms control and threat mitigation are the only rational policies left.

What does all of this mean? Well, most likely, North Korea will lash out when it knows for sure the squeeze from Washington is coming once again, and will show off a weapon system that can do real damage, like a new medium or intermediate missile platform that can range US bases in the Pacific, such as Guam.

North Korea could also even show off in some way that its longer-range missiles can survive atmospheric reentry, settling the silly debate once and for all that, yes, even a third-world state like North Korea can develop missile technology from the 1950s to hit the US with a nuclear missile.

This could come in the form of a test that shows off an ICBM going deep into the Pacific Ocean and dropping a dummy warhead into the sea or something more static, but the point would be clear: US cities could be turned into nuclear fireballs within 30 minutes.

North Korea's new ICBM

From here, what would the Biden team decide to do? Clearly with pressure off the table as a viable denuclearization strategy, the administration would find itself historically at the same crossroads as every other group of US policymakers finds itself when it comes to Pyongyang.

My hope is for as short of an escalatory period as possible followed by a push toward diplomacy coming from Washington with major prodding courtesy of the Moon government in Seoul.

If the Biden Administration can learn from its likely mistakes fast enough and pivot toward an agreement that caps the size of the North Korean nuclear and missile arsenal for sanctions relief, the faster it can move to what it seems to be its more important task, figuring out what it will do about China's rise and moves to alter the status quo in Asia to its liking.

The only question now is how many weeks or months we will waste on a pointless pressure campaign, and can we avoid an accidental escalation that could cost lives or spark a horrific war no one wants?

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Trump defends his close relationship with Putin and Kim Jong Un: 'I like him and he likes me'

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Trump has defended his close personal relationship with the leaders of Russia and North Korea, telling Fox News that his ties with them as president were "a good thing and not a bad thing."

Last week the Biden administration released intelligence suggesting that Russia obtained Trump campaign data in 2016, raising further questions about ties between Trump, his associates, and Moscow.

The White House this week also threatened sanctions against Russia if opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was poisoned with Novichok last year, dies in prison.

However, the former president used an hour-long interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News to dismiss all criticisms of his closeness to Russia and its leader.

Of his warm personal relationship with the Russian leader, he told Hannity that: "I got along great with President Putin. I liked him, he liked me. That's a good thing, not a bad thing."

Human rights groups this month warned that North Korea faces imminent famine under the leadership of dictator Kim Jong Un.

However, Trump used his interview with Hannity to praise him, citing their personal correspondence together.

"When I came in President Obama said... 'the biggest problem we have is North Korea. There's going to be a war'. There was no war, we got along great," he told Hannity.

He added: "[Kim Jong Un] writes me letters. I like him, he likes me. There's nothing wrong with that."

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South Korea's president said Trump 'beat around the bush' on North Korea's nukes and his efforts 'failed'

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FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

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South Korean President Moon Jae-in during a new interview with the New York Times said that former President Donald Trump "failed" on the issue of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. 

"He beat around the bush and failed to pull it through," Moon said, referring to Trump's efforts to get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. 

Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider. 

During his single term in the White House, Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un several times to discuss denuclearization. His interactions with Kim were historic — Trump was the first sitting US president to enter North Korea.

But by the time Trump left office, the rogue state had not given up a single nuclear weapon. North Korea has also continued provocative missile tests.

Though he was critical of Trump's efforts on North Korea, Moon during his interview with the Times urged President Joe Biden to engage with Pyongyang to succeed where his predecessor failed. Moon emphasized that denuclearization is a "matter of survival" for South Korea. 

"I hope that Biden will go down as a historic president that has achieved substantive and irreversible progress for the complete denuclearization and peace settlement on the Korean Peninsula," Moon said. 

In late March, the White House said Biden was unlikely to pursue a face-to-face meeting with Kim, though the president has signaled he's open to diplomacy with North Korea. 

Trump excoriated Moon over his comments in a statement on Friday. 

"Kim Jong-un of North Korea, who I have gotten to know (and like) under the most trying of circumstances, never respected the current President of South Korea, Moon Jae-in. I was always the one who stopped the aggression toward the South, but unfortunately for them, I am no longer there," Trump said.  

The former president went on to say that Moon was "weak as a leader and as a negotiator, except when it came to the continued, long term military ripoff of the USA (as is the case with many other countries we protect!)."

Critics of Trump have said his meetings with Kim helped legitimize one of the world's most repressive leaders, while offering virtually no benefits to the US or its allies. 

Trump's relationship with Kim was controversial and perplexing to foreign policy experts. Early on in his presidency, he traded numerous threats and insults with the North Korean leader from across the globe — sparking fears of a nuclear war. But Trump's tone shifted drastically in 2018 ahead of his first summit with Kim. Over the rest of his time in office, Trump repeatedly showered Kim with praise and referred to him as a "friend."

Trump's amicable demeanor toward Kim, who maintains power largely via a system of concentration camps, frequently led to criticism in Washington and beyond.

In a recent interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Trump defended his relationship with Kim.

"When I came in President Obama said... 'the biggest problem we have is North Korea. There's going to be a war'. There was no war, we got along great," Trump told Hannity. "[Kim Jong Un] writes me letters. I like him, he likes me. There's nothing wrong with that."

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Biden has a unique opportunity to deal with North Korea, and he's blowing it

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The Biden administration is using an outdated script to justify doing very little about North Korea. As a consequence, it's blowing a unique opportunity to avoid a future crisis, stabilize the Korean Peninsula for the long term and rectify one of America's longest-running foreign policy mistakes.

On April 30, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed that the White House had concluded its months-long policy review on North Korea. There was no official rollout or fanfare, no glossy document with a government logo — just a brief verbal statement to reporters aboard Air Force One.

In this case, the low-key reveal was fitting, not just because the urgency of the North Korean nuclear issue pales in comparison to the others on Biden's plate, but also because the policy review apparently had nothing insightful to offer.

Psaki acknowledged that past approaches to North Korea had failed, though she offered no explanation for why. Was it because of too much pressure, or too little? Because the United States hadn't offered the right incentives to Pyongyang, or because there was nothing enticing enough to convince Kim to give up the ultimate weapon? Because the United States had been too patient in the past, or not patient enough?

An explanation for past failure is necessarily a guide to future policy. Without it, policy is either rudderless or blind to its own assumptions and risks.

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Psaki's remarks were light on details, but she did say the Biden administration was going to distance itself from the approach of the Obama era, dubbed "strategic patience," as well as the grand-bargain approach that former President Donald Trump pursued during his fatuous summits with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in 2018 and 2019.

Biden's way, pitched as a middle ground between two failed efforts, would be "a calibrated practical approach" in continued pursuit of the denuclearization of North Korea.

Kurt Campbell, the coordinator for the Indo-Pacific at the National Security Council, recently confirmed that Biden will honor the June 2018 joint statement Kim made with Trump during their first summit in Singapore.

"Our efforts will build on Singapore and other agreements made by previous administrations," Campbell told South Korea's Yonhap news agency in an interview last week. This is seemingly a positive signal, but the Singapore declaration simply reiterated in a watered-down way what the United States and North Korea had previously agreed to do. It involved no specific commitments, and the gesture of accepting precedent changes nothing on its own.

Biden's cautious approach shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who followed Biden's presidential campaign statements.

In October 2020, he called Kim Jong Un a "thug" and indirectly compared him to Hitler. Throughout the campaign, moreover, Biden's talking points on North Korea were the most conservative among the leading presidential candidates.

Not only did he insist on the well-intentioned but practically impossible goal of denuclearization; he refused to entertain a summit meeting with Kim, distanced himself from proposals to officially end the Korean War — the warring countries only signed an armistice, not a formal peace treaty, in 1953 — and betrayed no willingness whatsoever to consider sanctions relief before North Korea made substantial concessions toward denuclearization.

Joe Biden South Korea troops

There was a time when these positions would have been hailed as responsible and risk averse. But the circumstances have changed dramatically, and Biden's conservatism on North Korea has become dangerously problematic.

His emphasis on pressure and confrontation, mixed with gradualism and probing diplomacy, in pursuit of nothing less than an adversary's unilateral disarmament amounts to an unrealistic, do-nothing posture. Worse, it reflects an imperious mindset that dates back to what is often called America's "unipolar moment."

In the decade or two after the Cold War, the United States was militarily untouchable and acted as the global enforcer of international rules and norms.

The dramatic power imbalance between it and everyone else — not least North Korea — stunted its ability to appreciate how its enemies saw things and consequently made the United States pathologically incapable of accurately assessing the value of nuclear weapons to a regime like North Korea.

Political scientists dubbed this problem, "Goliath's curse." American dominance actually made it harder to influence its adversaries. US officials in Democratic and Republican administrations alike convinced themselves that, when it came to North Korea, they not only had might and right on their side, but time as well. America could keep up pressure on North Korea indefinitely and starve out the regime in Pyongyang, which would eventually capitulate to American demands.

Oh, how wrong they were. So wrong that after Trump took office in 2017, he shifted from strategic patience to the belligerent urgency of "maximum pressure," threatening war in the name of a goal — "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization"— that had long since been overtaken by events.

As US sanctions and military pressure escalated, so did North Korea's defiance. America had failed to understand Pyongyang's strategic culture, which I have previously characterized as "pressure for pressure."

It was a failure that not only caused America to stumble into the worst nuclear confrontation since the Cuban Missile Crisis, but also accelerated North Korea's expansion of its nuclear and missile capabilities.

North Korea missiles

Enter Biden. With the US besieged by an economy in shambles, domestic political turmoil and a pandemic with a higher death toll than most wars, North Korea has been low on the priority list. His presidency deferred any meaningful action on North Korea until after a carefully considered policy review.

In the interim, US officials reached out to North Korean counterparts via the usual channels to probe their willingness to begin working-level talks aimed at denuclearization.

But they were rebuffed, likely because the context was unchanged from the unipolar hostility of the past: Biden had talked tough about Kim, sanctions remained firmly in place, ending the Korean War was not even in the conversation, and the United States and South Korea conducted a very routine joint military exercise in March — which North Korea predictably denounced — before the review was complete.

From Kim's perspective, there has not even been the smallest of signs that Biden would approach North Korea any differently than Obama did. So naturally, Biden's modest overture for working-level talks went nowhere.

What the Biden administration doesn't want to admit is that its "practical diplomacy"is strategic patience — just blandly rebranded. That's why Pyongyang panned Biden's policy review, saying that it"clearly reflects his intent to keep enforcing the hostile policy toward the DPRK as it had been done by the US for over half a century."

The statement from the North Korean Foreign Ministry — which used an abbreviation for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's formal name — added that the US "will face worse and worse crisis beyond control in the near future if it is set to approach the DPRK-US ties, still holding on the outdated policy from Cold War-minded perspective."

The solution to this vexing problem lies not in inflating or ignoring it, but rather in thinking about it in an updated way. America is not a unipolar power anymore. North Korea is no longer a nuclear aspirant, but rather a de facto nuclear state.

Pressure on the Kim regime has proven counterproductive on its own. And given the continued advance of its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, North Korea's ability to threaten US territory — and that of its allies — will only grow.

North Korea Kim Jong Un parade

For decades, the United States has been willing to bear high levels of military risk to keep nuclear weapons out of North Korea's hands, but almost no diplomatic or political risk. This makes little sense on its face.

The possibility that Kim might betray any commitment he makes, or that his regime will pocket concessions from a negotiation without reciprocity, is far more tolerable than the possibility of nuclear war. Yet Washington risks the latter continuously while refusing to countenance the former.

North Korea will not give up its nuclear weapons under any foreseeable circumstance, so denuclearization cannot be the objective of any realistic strategy. But steps can be taken to cap North Korean nuclear capabilities from growing further, gradually reducing its inventory of warheads over time and even inducing restraint in North Korea's military posture.

This would require a genuine effort to undo US-North Korean rivalry through US military restraint, as well as broad-based engagement with North Korean hardliners in key institutions like the Korean People's Army, the State Affairs Commission, the Missile Guidance Bureau and the Reconnaissance General Bureau.

Officials at these organizations, who tend to be anti-American hawks with close ties to Kim, are positioned to nudge North Korean foreign policy in a more aggressive direction and to scupper any negotiating progress made by the Foreign Ministry.

As I argued in a report last fall for the US Institute of Peace, the only way for nuclear talks to meaningfully proceed is to at least engage the hardliners in parallel, possibly even relying on them as the primary interlocutors.

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But diplomacy alone also won't achieve much, regardless of who the counterpart is. There must also be some form of at least symbolic sanctions relief, offered unilaterally.

Biden has to do something meaningful — ideally a number of things in concert — to prove he's not just Obama 2.0. Only then can he realistically pursue limits on North Korea's arsenal through arms control.

This is a uniquely apt time for pursuing a different path with North Korea, given the unqualified support for such an approach from South Korea.

The current government, led by the progressive President Moon Jae-in, has argued for a more conciliatory approach, most recently at a summit with Biden last week. Despite Moon's lobbying, Biden has so far shown no indication of a change of heart. But North Korea policy is a deeply partisan issue in Seoul, and with elections coming up next year, the progressives who control South Korean politics today may not be in power long.

When conservatives eventually come back to power, South Korea will likely readopt a more distrusting, hawkish, uncompromising policy toward Pyongyang. That means Biden has a very limited time window to try and put the North Korea situation on a more stable footing without experiencing blowback from the South.

If Biden is serious about practical diplomacy, he will have to recognize the situation for what it is. If he wants to ward off another nuclear crisis, and if he wants to reduce the risk of nuclear war, he will have to accept the political risk of deep compromises with an enemy.

The most practical step of all is to abandon old, failed habits in favor of proposals with much greater promise.

Van Jackson is author of "On the Brink: Trump, Kim, and the Threat of Nuclear War" (Cambridge University Press, 2018). He is also host of The Un-Diplomatic Podcast, a professor of international relations at Victoria University of Wellington, and an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

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Why North Korea's fleet of outdated submarines is still deadly

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Of all of North Korea's conventional military capabilities, the Korean People's Army (KPA) Navy's fleet of submarines stands out as one of the most threatening.

Like other elements of the KPA's military capabilities, its submarines are largely outdated and would not match up well against their South Korean counterparts.

Even so, North Korean submarines have the potential to pose a significant challenge in either a wartime scenario or as tools used for low-level military aggression or coercion.

According to the Department of Defense, North Korea operates one of the world's largest submarine fleets comprised of roughly 70 attack, midget, and coastal submarines.

That fleet is made up of primarily older, aging vessels including 40 Sang-O and Sang-O II-class coastal submarines, 20 Romeo-class submarines, and 20 Yugo and Yono-class mini-submarines. In addition, the KPA Navy currently operates a single Gorae-class ballistic missile submarine.

kim jong un submarine north korea

North Korea is also believed to be developing a new ballistic-missile submarine capable of carrying up to three submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

The threat from North Korea's submarines stems less from the individual capabilities of its vessels and more from the overall capacity of the entire fleet, and in the event of a conflict, North Korea would likely employ a swarming tactic with its submarines.

At the start of a conflict, North Korea would likely deploy its submarines toward major South Korean ports and would use them to disrupt maritime traffic and trade, lay mines, and to attack enemy surface vessels.

The threat from North Korean submarines is compounded by environmental features in the waters off the Korean Peninsula, and in the East Sea in particular, that make anti-submarine warfare (ASW) challenging. The US and South Korea have taken steps to improve their ASW capabilities, while South Korea has also looked to purchase additional ASW platforms.

kim jong Un submarine

The biggest threat from North Korean submarines may come, however, from their potential use as tools of low-level military aggression or coercion.

North Korea has successfully used a submarine to sink a South Korean naval vessel in the past when in 2010 a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine sank the ROK Navy corvette Cheonan, killing 46 South Korean sailors on board.

North Korea's submarines are also capable of being used as vehicles for the infiltration of North Korean special operations forces into South Korea.

The threat posed by North Korean submarines as tools for low-level aggression — as well as the potential for maritime provocations more generally — has led some analysts to advocate for a renewed focus on the part of the US-ROK alliance at strengthening maritime deterrence and preparedness.

Eli Fuhrman is an Assistant Researcher in Korean Studies at the Center for the National Interest and a current graduate student at Georgetown University's Security Studies Program, where he focuses on East Asian security issues and US foreign and defense policy in the region.

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Kim Jong Un is waging a culture war, and North Korea is cracking down on foreign movies, slang, and even clothes and hairstyles

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This undated picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on April 14, 2017 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un inspecting a Special Operations Forces event.

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The oppressive North Korean regime is cracking down hard on things like foreign movies and slang in a crusade to drive out international influence and anti-socialist behavior, what Kim Jong Un has called a "dangerous poison."

North Korean laws are strict and violations come with harsh punishments, but enforcement can be unpredictable.

The Daily NK, citing its network of sources inside North Korea, reported last summer that authorities had stepped up their efforts to root out things like "dyed hair, earrings, jeans and clothing with foreign lettering."

In December, the South Korean media outlet reported that the North Korean government had put into effect a sweeping new "anti-reactionary thought" law aimed at curbing foreign influence, such as films, music, and even slang from overseas.

The law threatened violators with heavy fines, jail time, and possibly death depending on the severity of the crime.

This past April, the North Korean leader sent a letter to the Youth League, urging it to "resolutely root out the negative sprouts and the poisonous weeds," which apparently include the improper "words and acts, hairstyles and attire" of some of North Korea's young people.

Hairstyles may seem like a weird thing for the North Korean government to fixate on, but as Peter Ward, a North Korea researcher, previously told NK News, "first it's haircuts, then lifestyle choices, then values, and then potentially fundamental questions about power, money and the way society is structured."

The next month, the Rodong Sinmun, the paper of the ruling Worker's Party, published an article warning against the "exotic and decadent lifestyle" of capitalism, stressing that North Korean society "must be wary of even the slightest sign of the capitalistic lifestyle and fight to get rid of them."

North Korea is clamping down on foreign influence in a big way, and the question is why now.

'Re-establish social control in a time of hardship'

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects a military training event.

Expert North Korea watchers explained to Insider that the North Korean leadership appears to be correcting in the aftermath of failed diplomatic engagement with the US and South Korea, as well as reacting to the challenges posed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

As it did in other countries, the pandemic hit North Korea's economy hard, especially with the strict lockdown of the country's borders. But while other countries, such as China, have started to bounce back, North Korea has not.

As North Korea isolated itself from the world, the country has seen tougher enforcement of laws against illicit activities, attire, and materials.

"Part of this is trying to reassert the power of the party and trying to re-establish social control in a time of hardship," Jenny Town, a Senior Fellow at the Stimson Center and the Director of Stimson's 38 North Program, told Insider.

She said "we generally see crackdowns when there is more domestic hardship than usual," times when the leadership is under increased pressure. Choi Jong-hoon, a North Korean defector who escaped last year, told the BBC that "the harder the times, the harsher the regulations, laws, [and] punishments become."

Though it impacted the country's already weak economy, the lockdown response to the pandemic also created an opportunity for North Korean leadership to severely restrict the flow of outside information and influence into the country, which had been on the rise until recently.

'Re-establish the idea that this information is bad'

A handout photo provided by Dong-A Ilbo of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, U.S. President Donald Trump, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the South and North Korea on June 30, 2019 in Panmunjom, South Korea

After a tense year and fears of nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula, the situation shifted in 2018, when President Donald Trump met Kim Jong Un in Singapore. Trump would meet Kim two more times, in Vietnam and later at the Demilitarized Zone.

Amid the unprecedented engagement between the leaders the American president and the North Korean leader, there was also significant engagement between North and South Korea.

South Korean K-pop singers performed for Kim in Pyongyang in the summer of 2018, and then the following month, South Korean president Moon Jae-in visited the North Korean capital.

But that welcome period of decreased tension and rapprochement did not last as talks ran into insurmountable obstacles, and no one walked away from the table pleased with the outcome.

"Things did not work out the way Kim Jong Un had hoped," Jean Lee, a North Korea expert at the Wilson Center, told Insider. In turn, "he has to reshape the message and make clear to the people that we're shifting gears here and we're not ready to open up." 

She explained that Kim Jong Un is "trying to regain control over the people" and "where they're getting their information."

"One of the after effects of the political process falling through is just trying to re-establish the idea that this information is bad," Town said, referring to the influx of foreign culture.

'Tightening and enforcing these rules and retracting'

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspecting defense forces.

The latest cultural crackdown and campaign to cut foreign influence on North Korean society is not a new phenomenon in the country's history. There have been others, not just under Kim Jong Un, but also under his father and grandfather.

For countries like North Korea, leaders have to find a balance between opening up and cracking down on what actually gets in the country.

"Kim Jong Un recognizes that in order for the economy and the country to grow and progress, it needs interaction with the outside world," Lee said. "But with that comes the risk of losing control."

"They've created this world with such a specific narrative, and the risk of exposing people to the reality of how the real world works is a risk that they are afraid to take," she said. So, when "things are precarious, politically or economically, you see them tightening and enforcing these rules and retracting."

Speaking with the BBC recently about the "anti-reactionary thought" law, Daily NK editor-in-chief Lee Sang Yong said that the goal is to "shatter" any fascination or interest in South Korean culture and lifestyle that could create a "sense of resistance" in the younger generation.

Although the latest efforts to crack down on foreign influence is not new, Lee told Insider that it does appear rather extreme. "We all want to see North Korea open up," she said. "So, when you see them tightening down like this, it's very worrying."

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It looks like North Korea's Kim Jong Un may have lost some weight — here's why the world watches his waistline

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a meeting with senior officials from the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee and Provincial Party Committees in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this undated photo released on June 8, 2021 by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appears to have lost some weight after years of rather substantial weight gain, according to North Korea watchers and an NK News analysis of state media.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service, the country's spy agency, reported in November that Kim weighed just over 300 pounds.

The South Korean spy service reported that Kim weighed under 200 pounds when he took power about a decade ago.

Kim is believed to be about 5 foot 7 inches tall, so at more than 300 pounds, the North Korean leader, assessed to be in his mid-30s, would be considered severely obese and potentially at risk for various health problems.

Last April, during an unexplained absence, there was rampant speculation that Kim was in "grave danger" after an operation, that he was dead, or in a coma or brain-dead.

It turns out Kim was actually alive and well, but he definitely has not been the picture of perfect health. The following photo is one of Kim in late February or early March of this year.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un speaks during the first short course for chief secretaries of the city and county Party committees in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this undated photo released on March 4, 2021 by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)

The North Korean leader appeared on state-run KCTV on June 5, as NK News Senior Analytic Correspondent Colin Zwirko noted on Twitter, and expert North Korea watchers pointed out that he looks to have shed some weight.

NK News conducted an analysis of multiple state media photos of Kim wearing his $12,000 Portofino Automatic watch made by IWC Schaffhausen, noticing that the length of the strap past the buckle appears longer in recent photos than it did last November, indicating that he was able to wear it tighter on his wrist.

Though this type of analysis is not always an exact science, analysis of state media images and video have provided a wealth of information about developments within North Korea, especially the country's nuclear warhead and missile programs.

"You have to use all available resources," Su Mi Terry, a North Korea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Insider.

"For a very difficult country like North Korea, where they tightly control information, you have to do what you can," she said, calling attention to the value of open-source intelligence.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a meeting with senior officials from the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee and Provincial Party Committees in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this undated photo released on June 8, 2021 by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)

In recent photos, Kim's face looks a little smaller, and his clothes appear to fit a little more loosely than they do in some other pictures from past events.

"On the surface, noticeable weight loss may not mean much," Michael Brodka, a US military intelligence officer in South Korea, told NK News, "but it can provide clues to other information that intelligence collectors look for," 

"It may be a simple matter of a healthy lifestyle change or a more complex issue," he said. "Right now, we do not know, but it raises enough serious questions that we must pay attention to events over the next couple of months to find out."

Kim Jong Un's weight and related health concerns, as well as his reported affinity for chain smoking cigarettes and drinking heavily, have long been considered risk factors for the North Korean regime, and they have fueled a lot of speculation about succession in the event the man dies suddenly.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during a plenary meeting of the Workers' Party central committee in Pyongyang, North Korea in this photo supplied by North Korea's Central News Agency (KCNA) on February 9, 2021

The perceived fragility of the North Korean leadership, which commands a nuclear-armed country, is considered cause for at least some level of concern.

"Succession is very unclear if something were to happen to Kim Jong Un," Terry told Insider. "We know he's unhealthy. So we need to care" about his weight gain, loss, and overall health.

In one passage in seasoned reporter and North Korea expert Ana Fifield's 2019 book "The Great Successor: The Secret Rise and Rule of Kim Jong Un," she described the young leader as looking "like a heart attack waiting to happen." His father, Kim Jong Il died of a heart attack after apparently suffering a stroke a few years earlier.

Terry said that leadership health is probably "one of the most important indicators" of regime stability. For North Korea, she said, "Kim Jong Un's health is the biggest wild card."

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Kim Jong Un declared K-Pop a 'vicious cancer' that threatens North Korean culture

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called K-Pop a "vicious cancer" and painted it as a threat to his country.

The New York Times reported that Kim made the comments as part of a broader campaign against the catchy music genre that originated in South Korea.

He said it harmed the "attire, hairstyles, speeches, behaviors" of North Koreans. The Times reported that state media said it could make North Korea "crumble like a damp wall."

Insider previously reported that North Korea has been cracking down on foreign cultural influences.

The Times reported that North Korea made a new law in December that could give people up to 15 years in a labor camp for consuming South Korean entertainment.

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Kim Jong Un warns that North Korea is running out of food as reports say a bunch of bananas now costs $45

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Kim Jong Un has warned that North Korea is struggling to maintain food supplies, as reports say prices of everyday goods are skyrocketing.

Speaking at a party meeting Tuesday, Kim said the food situation was "now getting tense" because of grain shortages brought about by typhoons last year, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday, according to Reuters.

Experts have warned over the past month that food was running short in North Korea.

The Seoul, South Korea-based outlet NK News reported that price spikes had been seen in Pyongyang, the nation's capital, with a kilogram of bananas now costing $45.

One kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, is the weight of approximately seven bananas, meaning each banana most likely costs just over $6.40.

Some North Korean farmers were asked to contribute 2 liters of their urine each day to help produce fertilizer, Radio Free Asia reported last month.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a meeting with senior officials from the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee and Provincial Party Committees in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this undated photo released on June 8, 2021 by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)

It is rare for Kim to acknowledge food shortages, the BBC and The New York Times reported, and, though such shortages are concerning, experts don't believe they will lead to a country-wide famine, The Washington Post reported.

Earlier this month, Tomás Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, told the UN Security Council that it should consider lifting sanctions on the country, Reuters reported.

Ojea Quintana said that the COVID-19 pandemic had caused North Korea "drastic economic hardship" and that North Korean trade with China fell 90% in March and April.

The country is expected to be 1.35 million tons short of food this year, the Korea Development Institute, a Seoul-based government-run think tank, said earlier this month, as South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported.

North Korea needs about 5.75 million tons of food every year to feed its people, the think tank said, per Yonhap.

The shortages, the agency said, are caused by summer typhoons and flooding, as well as a shortage of farming equipment and the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw North Korea close its land borders.

Despite warning of shortages, Kim said North Korea's economy had "shown improvement as a whole," NK News reported.

An analysis of Kim's media appearances, and length of his watch strap, by NK News showed that Kim appeared to have lost weight over the past year.

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Kim Jong Un told North Korea's government to 'get fully prepared for confrontation' with the US

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North Korea's leader told his government to prepare for confrontation with the United States.

Kim Jong Un addressed his government Thursday, and the Korean Central News Agency reported he "stressed the need to get prepared for both dialogue and confrontation, especially to get fully prepared for confrontation,"according to the Associated Press.

He said this was needed "in order to protect the dignity of our state and its interests for independent development and to reliably guarantee the peaceful environment and the security of our state."

G7 leaders demanded the "verifiable and irreversible" disbandment of North Korea's nuclear program when they met in the UK earlier this month.

A confidential UN report seen by Reuters in February said North Korea maintained and developed its nuclear and ballistic-missile programs through 2020, even in the face of international sanctions.

Reports in May said US President Joe Biden's administration had been trying to contact North Korea"to reduce the risks of escalation" but didn't get a response.

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South Korea's spy agency says North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may have lost more than 40 pounds

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a meeting with senior officials from the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee and Provincial Party Committees in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this undated photo released on June 8, 2021 by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has lost a lot of weight, possibly more than 40 pounds, according to South Korea's spy agency.

The National Intelligence Service believes Kim has lost 10 to 20 kilograms (22 to 44 pounds), a South Korean lawmaker briefed by the agency told reporters Thursday, Bloomberg reported.

The intelligence agency said in November that Kim weighed just over 300 pounds. When the young leader took power about a decade ago, it estimated that he weighed just under 200 pounds.

Kim is said to be about 5 feet 7 inches tall, so at more than 300 pounds, the North Korean leader, who is said to be in his mid-30s, would be considered severely obese and at risk for a variety of health problems. The risk is higher given that he is known to chain-smoke and drink heavily, not to mention the high stress of running a government facing significant international pressure for its illegal weapons programs and human-rights abuses.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during a plenary meeting of the Workers' Party central committee in Pyongyang, North Korea in this photo supplied by North Korea's Central News Agency (KCNA) on February 9, 2021

In the 2019 book "The Great Successor: The Secret Rise and Rule of Kim Jong Un," Anna Fifield, a seasoned reporter and North Korea expert, described the young leader as looking "like a heart attack waiting to happen."

But after a decade of substantial weight gain, his weight now appears to be dropping.

An NK News analysis said in June that Kim appeared to be losing weight. In photos, his face looked smaller, his clothes fit looser, and he was clearly able to cinch his $12,000 Portofino Automatic watch made by IWC Schaffhausen much tighter on his wrist.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a meeting with senior officials from the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee and Provincial Party Committees in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this undated photo released on June 8, 2021 by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)

A few weeks later, North Korean state media reported that some in North Korea were concerned about Kim's weight loss.

"Seeing respected general secretary (Kim Jong Un) looking emaciated breaks our people's heart so much," a Pyongyang resident said during a Korean Central Television broadcast, Reuters reported. "Everyone is saying their tears welled up."

While it is possible that a noticeably slimmer Kim could be the result of an illness, the South Korean lawmaker who discussed the intelligence community's view of the situation said there did not appear to be any health abnormalities, Bloomberg reported.

Specifically, there is nothing strange about how he walks, and he has not stopped holding "hours-long meetings," the lawmaker said.

Kim's health, his weight included, gets a lot of scrutiny from the intelligence community because it offers insight into the health and stability of the North Korean government, especially considering the uncertainty surrounding succession if its third leader dies young.

"Succession is very unclear if something were to happen to Kim Jong Un," Sue Mi Terry, a North Korea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, previously told Insider. "We know he's unhealthy. So we need to care" about his weight gain, loss, and overall health.

Terry said leadership health was probably "one of the most important indicators" of stability. For North Korea, she said, "Kim Jong Un's health is the biggest wild card."

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Satellite images show Kim Jong Un's waterslide yacht in action, while North Korea struggles with famine and COVID-19

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Kim Jong Un's 260-foot luxury yacht has been spotted moving toward his private compound as North Korea struggles with famine and COVID-19. 

Satellite-imaging company Planet Labs captured pictures of the yacht, as well as a second 200-foot yacht, moored at the private beach near Kim's palace at Wonsan on July 12.

The images were published by the South Korean outlet NK News, which marked up the images on its website. The weather around Wonsan in July is warm, and the temperature on Tuesday was 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

A tweet from May about the yacht's movements included an image of the yacht.

The larger of the yachts is constructed as a floating amusement park, with a double waterslide, an Olympic-size pool, and a multistory lounge, the outlet reported. 

Satellite image of Kim Jong-Un's luxury compound in Wonsan, North Korea, as of 2021

It is unclear who is using the luxury boats, which have been lent to friends and family in the past.

The yachts' movements coincide with days the leader did not make public appearances and can be a reasonably reliable indicator of his movements, NK News reported. 

In April last year, during an extensive withdrawal from public view, Kim's 200-foot yacht was spotted moving around the same spot.

Less than a month ago, Kim made a rare announcement. He said there was a "tense" situation with North Korea's food supply, which he attributed to typhoons in the past year. Food prices have skyrocketed, prompting one UN official to propose lifting sanctions in order to prevent mass starvation, Reuters reported

The country also recently hinted at a COVID-19 surge, after Kim reshuffled his senior officials, blaming them for a "great crisis" in their response to the pandemic.

North Korea does not release COVID-19 data, and it's long said that it's free of the virus, but reports from outside the country suggested that there have been surges in the past year.

The country has been sluggish in attempting to access vaccines, despite being entitled to 2 million doses through the UN's COVAX scheme, Voice of America News reported

US and South Korean officials said that it's plausible that Kim used the resort to shelter from the virus in May last year, Sky News reported.

Kim is a heavy smoker, a high risk factor in complications for COVID-19. 

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Kim Jong Un was pictured with a strange green mark and a band-aid on the back of his head, fueling further theories about his health

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Two side by side images of Kim Jong Un at a July conference, viewed from side on. A visible band aid on the back of his head is circled by Insider.

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Kim Jong Un, North Korea's supreme leader, was pictured with a strange mark on the back of his head, which was later covered with a band-aid. 

The state media images were spotted by NK News, a South Korea-based outlet dedicated to covering the country. They were tweeted by its founder Chad O'Carroll:

Insider watched back a July broadcast — from the state-run KCTV network — showing Kim with the band-aid at a military event.

 

NK News published several more images showing the marking, which in some images appears dark green, at earlier events.

Much official footage appeared to avoid showing the back of his head, despite it appearing in some state media photographs, the outlet reported. 

It's not clear exactly what the bruise-like marking is. According to a report South Korea's Chosun Ilbo news outlet, intelligence officials in the south did not consider the marking or band-aid to indicate a major issue.

The images follow intense speculation over Kim's health in early July, when South Korea's spy agency said that he had lost around 44 pounds in a short amount of time.

Kim had appeared to have become obese over the years of his leadership, weighing an estimated 300 pounds before his sudden weight loss. 

Kim's weight — and his health in general — are watched carefully worldwide as potential indicators of the health and power base of his secretive regime, as Insider's Ryan Pickrell reported.

When the leader was unusually absent from public view in April 2020, CNN reported that US intelligence believed he may be in "grave danger" after undergoing surgery. Kim returned to public duties in apparent good health, then lost weight in the following months. 

In mid-July, two of Kim's luxurious party yachts were spotted in satellite images of the area around his Wonsan palace, suggesting he or close friends were vacationing there at the time. 

North Korea claims to be free of COVID-19 and has released no figures concerning cases there. However, in early July Kim admonished several of his senior cabinet for causing a "great crisis" relating to the pandemic, without offering specifics.

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Kim Jong Un's sister threatened to boost North Korea's military, saying 'a dear price should be paid' as the US and South Korea restart war games

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The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued a threat to the US and South Korea as they are set to restart their joint military exercises.

Kim Yo Jong said in a statement on Tuesday that the exercises were "an act of betrayal" and vowed to strengthen the country's military in response.

"The dangerous war exercises pushed ahead by the US and the South Korean side disregardful of our repeated warnings will surely make them face more serious security threat," she said.

The drills take place every year, according to Reuters.

Kim described them as "the most vivid expression of the US hostile policy towards the DPRK, designed to stifle our state by force, and an unwelcoming act of self-destruction for which a dear price should be paid as they threaten the safety of our people and further imperil the situation on the Korean peninsula."

She later added: "We will put more spur to further increasing the deterrent of absolute capacity to cope with the ever-growing military threats from the US"

She also accused the US of being "a chief architect destroying peace and stability in the region."

"In order to cope with the ever-growing US military threats, we will further strengthen absolute deterrence, namely national defense power aimed at responding quickly to any military act against us as well as preemptive strike capabilities," she added.

Ankit Panda, an Asia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told The Washington Post that the phrase "deterrent of absolute capacity" likely referred to North Korea's nuclear arsenal as well as other weapons.

 

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