SEOUL: North Korea will never change its status as a nuclear-armed state, its leader Kim Jong Un said, state media reported on Tuesday. The declaration -- delivered on Monday -- follows Kim&#39;s reappointment a day earlier as head of the authoritarian nation&#39;s highest policymaking body, the State Affairs Commission. &quot;We will continue to firmly consolidate our status as a nuclear-armed state as an irreversible course, while aggressively stepping up our struggle against hostile forces,&quot; he said in a policy speech at the rubber-stamp legislature in Pyongyang. In a lengthy policy address reported by the official Korean Central News Agency, the third-generation leader addressed a wide range of issues, from nuclear weapons and defence policy to economic goals and relations with South Korea. &quot;We will, in line with the mission entrusted by the Constitution of the Republic &hellip;., further expand and advance our self-defensive nuclear deterrent,&quot; he said, referring to nuclear weapons. Pursuing an expansion of nuclear weapons to consolidate its status as a nuclear-armed state has been &quot;entirely justified&quot;, he added. The isolated country will ensure &quot;precise readiness&quot; of its nuclear forces, he said, to fend off &quot;strategic threats&quot;. Kim did not mince words about his southern neighbour, which he called &quot;the most hostile state&quot;. &quot;We will designate South Korea as the most hostile state and deal with it by thoroughly rejecting and disregarding it,&quot; Kim said. Pyongyang will &quot;make it pay mercilessly -- without the slightest consideration or hesitation -- for any act that infringes upon our Republic,&quot; he added. Kim&#39;s remarks targeting Seoul come despite repeated overtures by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, a dovish leader who took office in June, for dialogue without preconditions. Pyongyang has ignored these gestures. 1.5 timesKim is the third-generation ruler of the state founded by his grandfather Kim Il Sung in 1948, and has ruled the country since his father&#39;s death in 2011. The North&#39;s legislature re-elected Kim as president of state affairs, KCNA reported earlier, without saying whether the decision was unanimous or whether there was any dissent. Critics argue that elections in North Korea are pre-determined and designed to give the leadership a veneer of democratic legitimacy. On the economic front, Kim outlined a goal of increasing industrial output by 1.5 times. Over the next five-year plan period, the isolated country &quot;must significantly strengthen the development foundations of the overall industrial sector&quot;, he said, in order to &quot;raise industrial production by about 1.5 times&quot;. There had been &quot;clear progress in economic growth&quot; over the past five years, he said. &quot;Over the past five years, we have renovated key machine factories... while overcoming various difficulties and deviations&quot;, he noted. Such feats &quot;shattered... false claims of hostile forces that there can be no prosperity without nuclear abandonment&quot;, he said.

A picture of Kim Jong Un taken on December 10, 2025, and released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on December 11, 2025 [KCNA via KNS/AFP]

Asia

In a lengthy policy address reported by the official Korean Central News Agency, the third-generation leader addressed a wide range of issues, from nuclear weapons and defence policy to economic goals and relations with South Korea.

N. Korea's Kim vows 'irreversible' nuclear status, warns Seoul of 'merciless' response

SEOUL: South Korean authorities raided the country&#39;s spy agency on Tuesday as they investigated how a drone was flown across the border and shot down over North Korea.&nbsp;Pyongyang accused Seoul of flying a drone into Kaesong earlier this year, releasing images that purported to show debris from the downed aircraft.&nbsp;South Korea initially denied government involvement, suggesting civilians may have been responsible.&nbsp;But police said on Tuesday they were investigating three active-duty soldiers and one spy agency employee suspected of involvement in the case.&nbsp;Search and seizure warrants have been executed &quot;at a total of 18 locations, including the Defense Intelligence Command and the National Intelligence Service,&quot; authorities said in a statement.&nbsp;Three civilians have been charged for their alleged role in the drone scandal.&nbsp;One of them has publicly claimed responsibility, saying he acted to detect radiation levels from North Korea&#39;s Pyongsan uranium processing facility.&nbsp;South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has previously said flying the drone into North Korea was akin to &quot;firing a shot&quot; across the border.&nbsp;Disgraced ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol is currently standing trial on charges he illegally sent drones into North Korea to help create the pretext for declaring martial law in late 2024.&nbsp;His attempt to overturn civilian rule failed, and Yoon was impeached and ousted from office in April last year.

South Korean authorities raided the spy agency and military intelligence command, executing search warrants at 18 locations, over a case involving three civilians accused of sending drones into North Korea.

South Korea police raid spy agency over drone flights into North

UNITED NATIONS: South Korea&rsquo;s president has asked President Donald Trump to become &ldquo;a peacemaker&rdquo; and use his leadership to get North Korea to talks to reduce military tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the South&rsquo;s top diplomat said Friday.&nbsp;Trump &ldquo;welcomed&rdquo; the request from President Lee Jae-myung, and &ldquo;expressed his willingness to be engaged with North Korea again,&rdquo; Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said in an interview with The Associated Press. There was no immediate word from the White House.&nbsp;Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met three times as North Korea was building a nuclear weapons stockpile, which Kim views as key to the country&rsquo;s security and his continued rule of the northeast Asian nation.&nbsp;There were two summits in Singapore in June 2018 and in Vietnam in February 2019, where Trump and Kim disagreed about US-led sanctions against the North. A third meeting that year at the border between the two Koreas failed to salvage their nuclear talks &mdash; and Kim has since shunned any diplomacy with the US and South Korea.&nbsp;&ldquo;It would be fantastic if they met with each other in the near future,&rdquo; Cho said. &quot;And President Lee Jae-myung made it clear to President Trump that he will not be sitting in the driver&rsquo;s seat. He asked President Trump to become a peacemaker, and he relegated himself to become a pacemaker,&rdquo; the foreign minister said. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t mind. On the contrary, we want President Trump (to) exercise his leadership to pull North Korea to the dialogue table.&rdquo;&nbsp;Can a meeting happen?Since Trump returned to power in January, he has repeatedly expressed hope of restarting talks with Kim. The North Korean leader said Monday he still has &ldquo;good memories&rdquo; of Trump but urged the United States to drop its demand that the North surrender its nuclear arms as a precondition for resuming long-stalled diplomacy.&nbsp;Trump is expected to visit South Korea next month to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which has prompted media speculation that he might meet Kim again at the border. Trump is also expected to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during that meeting.&nbsp;The foreign minister said Lee asked Trump to take the lead because the world has changed and become &ldquo;much more precarious&rdquo; since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.&nbsp;&ldquo;Accordingly, we are equally worried about any possible military skirmish on the Korean Peninsula,&rdquo; Cho said. &ldquo;So, we are compelled to explore dialogues with North Korea to reduce the military tension, and at least we want to have a hotline.&rdquo;&nbsp;He stressed that denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula &ldquo;is the imperative &ndash; we cannot let it go.&rdquo;&nbsp;Tensions between the Koreas continue apaceEarly Friday, South Korea&rsquo;s military said it fired warning shots to drive away a North Korean merchant ship that briefly crossed the disputed western sea boundary between the two countries, amid continuing high tensions.&nbsp;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not surprised at all,&rdquo; Cho said, &ldquo;but this incident justifies the policy of the new government that we need to have a hotline between the militaries, reduce the military tension and build confidence between the two parties.&rdquo;&nbsp;Lee, who headed the left-leaning Democratic Party, won a snap election in June following the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk Yeol after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December. Cho, a career diplomat and former UN ambassador, took office as foreign minister on July 19.&nbsp;In Lee&#39;s speech to the annual meeting of world leaders at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, he stated that South Korea has returned to the international community as a normal state after the domestic turmoil and has demonstrated its commitment to democracy.&nbsp;Cho said he felt &ldquo;a bit uncomfortable&rdquo; talking about the previous government compared to the current government, since Yoon was elected. But Cho recalled that when Yoon, who had been a prosecutor, was elected, he was convinced &ldquo;he would become an aberration.&rdquo;&nbsp;Peace is the priority, the diplomat saysSince becoming foreign minister, Cho said he has been explaining to neighboring countries, including during visits to Japan and China, that the new government &ldquo;is determined to seek peace on the Korean Peninsula and also in northeast Asia.&rdquo;&nbsp;He said the government wants to engage China, and he had a &ldquo;very good constructive meeting&rdquo; with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, &ldquo;but I made it clear that there are certain things we cannot accept.&rdquo;&nbsp;Cho referred to China&rsquo;s installation of &ldquo;something&rdquo; in the Yellow Sea that infringes on South Korea&rsquo;s sovereignty. &ldquo;So we made it clear that it be removed. Otherwise, we would think about taking proper measures,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;Cho flew to Washington immediately after a massive raid by US immigration officers at a Hyundai plant in southeast Georgia detained 475 people, the majority of them South Koreans. It became a major diplomatic issue between the two countries.&nbsp;The minister said Trump intervened and wanted them to remain, but they were chained and handcuffed, and his primary objective was to get them back home.&nbsp;Cho said his talks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio ended up having &ldquo;a silver lining&rdquo; because obtaining visas for South Korean workers has been a longstanding problem, and &ldquo;we were able to address this issue squarely, and we will be able to sort out the problem.&rdquo;

South Korea, North Korea, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun

Trump “welcomes” the request from President Lee Jae-myung, and “expresses his willingness to be engaged with North Korea again,” says Foreign Minister Cho Hyun.

South Korea asks Trump to be 'peacemaker' with North Korea, says top diplomat

Reuters

<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; float: none; display: inline !important;" id="isPasted">SEOUL:&nbsp;South Korea fired warning shots on Friday at a North Korean commercial vessel that crossed the maritime border in disputed waters off the Korean peninsula&#39;s west coast, and the vessel subsequently retreated, the South&#39;s military said. The incursion early on Friday also involved South Korean military transmitting verbal warnings, and the operation followed standard protocol, the South&#39;s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. The waters around the so-called Northern Limit Line border, which was drawn up after the 1950-53 Korean War, have been the scene of deadly naval clashes in the past. North Korea does not recognize the line as the border. South Korea says North&#39;s long-range missiles at &#39;final stage&#39;Separately, South Korea&#39;s president said on Thursday that Pyongyang is at the &quot;final stage&quot; of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile which could hit the United States with nuclear weapons. Seoul and its Western allies have failed to stop North Korea&#39;s weapons program, and Pyongyang says it will never give up its nuclear arsenal. &quot;Whether to gain leverage in talks with the United States or to secure its own regime, North Korea has kept developing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) capable of carrying nuclear bombs to the US,&quot; President Lee Jae Myung said during a visit to the New York Stock Exchange. &quot;It does not seem to have succeeded yet, but it is said to be at the final stage, with only the re-entry technology left, and that too looks likely to be solved,&quot; he said. Since taking office in June, Lee has reversed the stance of his hawkish predecessor and vowed to improve ties with North Korea. Speaking in New York, he said that &quot;the goal should be to freeze nuclear development, ICBM development and exports.&quot; Halting further production and development of nuclear weapons would bring &quot;major security gains,&quot; he said. The South Korean president estimated his northern neighbor was producing enough material for &quot;about 15 to 20 additional nuclear bombs each year.&quot; &quot;If left unchecked, the number of nuclear bombs would keep growing each year and its ICBMs would become more advanced,&quot; he said. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ruled out denuclearization and has strengthened military ties with Russia in recent years. Kim said this week that he was open to talks with Washington, but only if he can keep his nuclear weapons, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

South Korea's President says North Korea is at the "final stage" of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile which could hit the United States with nuclear weapons.



Articles tagged with "South korea"

N. Korea's Kim vows 'irreversible' nuclear status, warns Seoul of 'merciless' response

South Korea police raid spy agency over drone flights into North

South Korea asks Trump to be 'peacemaker' with North Korea, says top diplomat

South Korea fires warning shots at North Korean ship crossing sea border