Informal Institute for National Security Thinkers and Practitioners

Quotes of the Day:

"The first step and liquidating of people is to be a race it's memory. Destroy its books, it's culture, it's history. Then have somebody right new books, manufacturing, new culture, invent a new history. Before long that nation will begin to forget what it is, and what it was… The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

– Milan Kundera.

"Assembled in a crowd, people lose their power of reasining and their capacity for moral choice."

– Aldous Huxley

"The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant."

– Maximilian Robespierre

1. Report on the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy (CAPS) Presentations to the Asia-Pacific Policy Strategy Dialogue and the All Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea in the UK

2. As South Korea becomes a key arms supplier to US allies, its best customer is on the edge of a warzone

3. Ukraine Spy Chief Says 40% of Russian Ammunition Is North Korean

4. North Korea Ships 28,000 Containers of Weapons to Russia, Says South Korea’s Intelligence

5. World War 3 Fears: North Korea Says Ready To Take Military Action Against ‘Any’ Threats From US, Japan, South Korea

6. My night with the guerrilla balloonists of South Korea

7. Unification minister nominee says not see N. Korea as 'main enemy'

8. Unification minister nominee raises need to change name of unification ministry

9. Russia's FM leaves N. Korea after 3-day visit

10. Drone command raided in sign that martial law probe involving ex-President Yoon expanded to treason charges

11. North Korea hosts rare event celebrating China ties at luxury Beijing hotel

12. Lee Jae-myung vows to boost support for North Korean escapees on Defectors’ Day

13. N. Korea’s underground economy crackdown intensifies

14. N. Korea’s cruise boats balance profit and propaganda

15. Allies under fire: Why do Trump tariffs target Korea, Japan first?

1. Report on the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy (CAPS) Presentations to the Asia-Pacific Policy Strategy Dialogue and the All Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea in the UK

Report on the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy (CAPS) Presentations to the Asia-Pacific Policy Strategy Dialogue and the All Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea in the UK

Asia-Pacific Policy Strategy Dialogue – UK Parliament

Hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea

UK House of Parliament

July 01, 2025

https://apstrategy.org/2025/07/13/appsd/

On July 1, 2025, the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy (CAPS) received a formal invitation to the United Kingdom House of Parliament. This invitation was extended to request expert testimony from CAPS on Asia-Pacific security policy. This engagement establishes a significant precedent, marking the inaugural instance in which a U.S. policy group has been formally invited to address the UK Parliament. Previously, American invitees have included high-level officials such as the United States Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights, sitting Members of Congress, and Special Policy Advisors from both the Department of State and the White House. This event provided a timely and critical platform for discussing the prevailing international geopolitical landscape.

CAPS provided three presentations that can be found in the report.

Part 1: Introduction to the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy

By Hee-Eun Kim, CAPS President & CEO

Part 2: “Opportunities, Engagement and Challenges in Relation to North Korea”

By Dr. Thomas Schäfer, CAPS Senior Advisor

Part 3: “America First, Allies Always: Securing the Asia/Indo-Pacific Together”

By David Maxwell, CAPS Vice President

The report can be accessed online here: https://apstrategy.org/2025/07/13/appsd/

The 19 page report can be downloaded in PDF here: https://apstrategy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Asia-Pacific-Policy-Strategy-Dialogue_20250701.pdf

Read the Report

CAPS Media

July 13, 2025

2. As South Korea becomes a key arms supplier to US allies, its best customer is on the edge of a warzone

Again (and I know I am beating the horse more dead), South Korea is a strong and important partner in the arsenal of democracies.

As South Korea becomes a key arms supplier to US allies, its best customer is on the edge of a warzone | CNN

CNN · by Brad Lendon, Yoonjung Seo · July 12, 2025

Polish soldiers ride the South Korean-made K2 Black Panther tank during a practice in Braniewo, Poland, on June 24, 2025.

Kacper Pempel/Reuters/File

Seoul, South Korea CNN —

Poland has finalized a deal to acquire a second batch of 180 South Korean tanks under a 2022 agreement that will eventually see Warsaw boost its arsenal with almost 1,000 of the armored vehicles.

The deal underlines Poland’s emergence as a substantial European military force, as well as South Korea’s status as a major arms supplier – especially to US allies as wars around the world exhaust American stockpiles.

It comes as Russia ramps up attacks on Ukraine, some of which have come within 100 miles of Polish territory on Ukraine’s western border.

Warsaw has been increasing defense spending since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, acquiring new weaponry while also helping Kyiv with its defense.

As a NATO member bordering Ukraine, it is seen part of the alliance’s first line of defense should Russian leader Vladimir Putin decide to expand his aggression beyond Ukraine.

Poland’s Defense Ministry announced the tank deal, which still needs to be formally signed, in a post on social media platform X earlier this month.

It put the price tag at $6.7 billion and said that includes 80 support vehicles, ammunition, and logistics and training packages for the Polish Army.

The deal for the K2 main battle tanks, regarded as among the world’s most powerful, includes units to be made in South Korea by defense giant Hyundai Rotem and the establishment of a production line in Poland for a Polish variant, the K2PL, according to South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), which oversees Seoul’s foreign military sales.

A K9 Thunder self-propelled howitzer takes part in an Armed Forces Day military parade in Warsaw, Poland, on August 15, 2023.

Damian Lemaski/Bloomberg/Getty Images/File

Sixty of the batch of 180 tanks will be built in Poland, the Polish Defense Ministry’s post on X said. The first 30 of the South Korea-made tanks included in the new contract are expected to arrive in Poland next year, it said.

In 2022, the two countries signed a deal for Poland to get 180 K2s. All but about 45 of those have been delivered, with the remainder expected to arrive in Poland by the end of the year, Hyundai Rotem said.

That framework was considered South Korea’s biggest overseas defense deal ever. It included a total of 980 K2s, 648 self-propelled K9 armored howitzers, and 48 FA-50 fighter jets, the Polish Defense Ministry said at the time.

The ministry said the armored vehicles would, in part, replace Soviet-era tanks that Poland has donated to Ukraine to use in its fight against Russia.

A March report from the Wilson Center based in Washington, DC, said Poland has given Ukraine more than 300 tanks and more than 350 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers.

Poland has been on edge in recent days after Russia ramped up drone attacks on Ukraine.

A Russian drone barrage against the northwestern Ukrainian city of Lutsk was so intense it caused Warsaw to scramble fighter jets as a precaution. Lutsk is about 50 miles from the Polish border.

A NATO report from April cited Polish efforts to dramatically increase defense spending in the face of the Russian threat. Warsaw’s defense spending has grown from 2.7% of GDP in 2022 to an expected 4.7% in 2025, according to the report.

“Of all NATO allies, it spends the highest percentage of its GDP on defense,” the NATO report said.

It noted Poland’s purchase of South Korean arms to quickly fill gaps left by donations to Ukraine.

The Wilson Center report said Poland has “arguably emerged as Europe’s most capable military power.”

But a May report from the RAND Corp think tank expressed caution over the financing of Poland’s arms buildup.

Many of its purchases are “financed through direct loans from countries supplying equipment,” RAND said, adding: “If securing such loans proves impossible, market financing might be too expensive to turn framework agreements into binding contracts.”

RAND also said Poland faces recruitment challenges, needing to increase troop strength by almost 50% in the next 10 years.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Poland's President Andrzej Duda greet each other as they arrive for their meeting outside Mariinskyi Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine on June 28, 2025.

Sergei Supinksy/AFP/Getty Images/File

Meanwhile, South Korea has emerged as the world’s 10th-largest arms exporter over the past five years, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Over that span, Poland has received 46% of South Korean military exports, followed by the Philippines at 14% and India at 7%, according to the SIPRI’s Trends in International Arms Transfers 2024 report.

As the war in Ukraine has dragged on, as well as Israel’s war in Gaza, US military aid for Ukraine and Israel has drained its arms stockpiles. South Korea is therefore increasingly seen as an option for US allies in need of weapons, according to a 2024 report from the DC-based Stimson Center.

And Seoul’s arms industry may become important to Washington in the future, the report said.

“Increased South Korean defense industrial base capacity, particularly in arms and shipbuilding, has the potential to directly support the United States,” the report said.

Shipbuilding is seen as a particular area of South Korean military industrial strength, and Washington has already seen contracts for maintenance of US Navy supply ships go to South Korean yards as the Navy grapples with a backlog in US shipyards.

Along with the K2 tanks, South Korea has sent 174 K9 howitzers to Poland under the 2022 framework, with 38 remaining to be delivered, according to contractor Hanwha Aerospace.

A second tranche of 152 K9s is in the works, Hanwha said.

Of the 48 FA-50 jets ordered, only 12 have been sent so far, according to manufacturer Korean Aerospace Industries.

CNN · by Brad Lendon, Yoonjung Seo · July 12, 2025

3. Ukraine Spy Chief Says 40% of Russian Ammunition Is North Korean

I bet the munitions factories in north Korea are humming. And KJU is raking in the rubles.

Ukraine Spy Chief Says 40% of Russian Ammunition Is North Korean

military.com · July 11, 2025

North Korea is now supplying as much as 40% of Russia’s ammunition for the war in Ukraine as the partnership between Pyongyang and Moscow deepens, according to the head of Ukrainian military intelligence.

Kim Jong Un’s regime is also sending other weapons to Russia, including ballistic missiles and artillery systems, Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview with Bloomberg News. Russia is providing money and technology to North Korea in return, helping to ease Pyongyang’s international isolation, he said.

“Those are good weapons,” Budanov, who attributed 60% of losses in military-intelligence units in the past three months to strikes by North Korean-made artillery, said in his office in Kyiv. “North Korea has huge stockpiles and production goes on around the clock.”

Russia has intensified military ties with North Korea since President Vladimir Putin signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty with Kim in June last year, his first visit to Pyongyang in 24 years. North Korea sent thousands of troops to help Moscow push Ukrainian forces out of territory they’d seized in Russia’s Kursk region. With Kim vowing to back Russia “unconditionally” in the war, western intelligence estimates that Pyongyang has sent millions of artillery rounds to Putin’s army.

Bloomberg News could not independently verify Budanov’s assessment of Russia’s weapons stockpile from North Korea.

A series of top Russian officials have traveled to North Korea. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is due to begin a three-day trip to Pyongyang on Friday, while Putin’s top security council aide, Sergei Shoigu, visited North Korea for the third time in as many months in June.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered a resumption of weapons supplies to Ukraine, including vital air defenses, that were unexpectedly interrupted last week. He accused Putin of “killing too many people” and said the Russian leader’s engagement with U.S. calls for a truce was “meaningless.”

Budanov said U.S. support for Ukraine will continue “in the near future” and Washington may send additional air-defense systems.

Trump’s “position is consistent, one should not judge him by media characteristics,” Budanov said. “As head of a special service I know more things.”

While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has agreed to U.S. calls for an unconditional ceasefire, Putin told Trump in a phone call last week that Russia “will not back down” on its war aims, according to a Kremlin transcript.

Budanov said a ceasefire must be reached as soon as possible and well before the end of this year.

“Is it realistic to do so - yes. Is it difficult - no,” he said. “It takes at least three sides - Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. And we will get to this position.”

Russia has stepped up air attacks on Ukraine including with record numbers of drones in recent weeks. It launched 728 drones on July 9, damaging residential buildings and infrastructure, while the United Nations reported that June saw the highest monthly civilian casualties in three years, with 232 people killed and 1,343 injured.

“Civilians across Ukraine are facing levels of suffering we have not seen in over three years,” Danielle Bell, the head of the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said Thursday. “The surge in long-range missile and drone strikes across the country has brought even more death and destruction.”

Russia’s grinding battlefield assaults in Ukraine have also picked up speed again in the war, now in its fourth year. Kremlin forces entered Ukraine’s northeast Sumy region bordering Russia last month in an attempt to create a buffer zone. They made marginal advances in the partly-occupied Donetsk region in the east and in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia. The Russian army is also attempting to cross into the central Dnipropetrovsk region next to Donetsk.

“It’s not realistic for Russia to seize all of the Donetsk region by the end of the year,” Budanov said. Russian troops “have a political goal to declare that they entered” Dnipropetrovsk region and are tasked with setting up another buffer zone of as much as 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) in depth, he said.

Dressed in black military fatigues, 39-year-old Budanov has earned a reputation for planning bold operations to strike at Russian forces — and even participating in them personally. He joined Ukraine’s military intelligence in 2007, fought in the country’s east after Russia incited separatist conflict there in 2014 and took part in operations in occupied Crimea.

Budanov was wounded three times in fighting. He has also been the target of Kremlin-backed poisoning attempts, according to Ukrainian intelligence officials, while his wife Marianna survived a poisoning in November that some officials blamed on Russia.

The military intelligence chief has become one of the most popular public figures in Ukraine, ranked among the three most trusted officials, opinion polls show. A Rating Group poll from July 4-5 showed 56% of Ukrainians trust him, compared with 67% for Zelenskyy and 73% for former top military commander Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Budanov will mark five years as head of military intelligence next month, “if I survive,” he said. Asked to explain, he said “anything can happen” and referred to a memorial at the agency to intelligence officers killed in the line of duty. There is much space for more names, he said.

The black flag of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency hangs from a pole in his office, which is also decorated with models of Russian ships sunk in operations masterminded by his agents.

Budanov described intelligence cooperation with western counterparts as “excellent,” adding that he expects exchanges of information to continue. Ukraine depends on the U.S. for the early warning of missile launches and access to satellite imagery, he said.

“I don’t see any signs our cooperation in the security services will stop,” Budanov said. “This is not beneficial for us and not beneficial for our partners either, because they get information from us.”

Budanov even urged allies to return to relying on human intelligence — networks of spies — that he said “almost all European countries have buried, unfortunately.” He added: “Stop believing that technical intelligence will solve everything. No one will discuss and plan an operation on a mobile phone.”

He said he hopes to remain in his post until the war ends. “Now, my dream is to stop this war,” Budanov said. “Ukraine is a country of opportunities. In future, I’ll decide what I would like to do.”

With assistance from Maxim Edwards.

___

military.com · July 11, 2025

4. North Korea Ships 28,000 Containers of Weapons to Russia, Says South Korea’s Intelligence

North Korea Ships 28,000 Containers of Weapons to Russia, Says South Korea’s Intelligence

Jul 13, 2025 13:13

Updated Jul 13, 2025 15:20

2 min read

Authors

Roman Kohanets

Author

united24media.com · by Roman Kohanets

South Korea’s Defense Intelligence Agency announced on July 13 that Pyongyang has supplied more than 12 million 152 mm artillery shells to Moscow and deployed thousands of military personnel to support Russia's war against Ukraine, as was reported by Yonhap News Agency on July 13.

South Korea’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) reports that since October 2024, North Korea has shipped about 28,000 containers filled with conventional weapons and ammunition to Russia. Based on standard load calculations, these shipments amount to more than 12 million rounds of 152 mm artillery shells, a key caliber for Russian howitzers and gun-howitzers.

In parallel, the DIA estimates that Pyongyang has dispatched approximately 13,000 military personnel to Russian territory, including frontline combat troops.

World War 3 Fears: North Korea Says Ready To Take Military Action Against ‘Any’ Threats From US, Japan, South Korea

https://www.latestly.com/socially/world/world-war-3-fears-north-korea-says-ready-to-take-military-action-against-any-threats-from-us-japan-south-korea-6993174.html

North Korea said on Sunday it stands ready to take military action to counter any security threat against it in a warning against the United States, South Korea and Japan.

Kim Jong Un (Photo Credits: Wikipedia Commons)

Socially Team Latestly| Jul 13, 2025 06:18 PM IST

North Korea said on Sunday it stands ready to take military action to counter any security threat against it in a warning against the United States, South Korea and Japan following a recent aerial drill by the allies with a US strategic bomberReuters reported on Sunday, July 13. More details are awaited. World War 3 Fears: UK Must Start Building Bomb Shelters To Prepare for War With Russia, Says Ex-British Army Head.

North Korea Says Ready To Take Military Action Against ‘Any’ Threats From US, Japan, South Korea

(SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, fact checks and information from social media world, including Twitter (X), Instagram and Youtube. The above post contains publicly available embedded media, directly from the user's social media account and the views appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY.)

6. My night with the guerrilla balloonists of South Korea

Excerpt:

Park’s two-vehicle convoy wasn’t bound for some mission of terror. Instead, trundling past 7-Eleven convenience stores, rural churches topped with red neon crosses, and pig farms, he and his band of four activists were on a bizarre mission of political resistance, one that few if any outside journalists had witnessed before: the clandestine lofting of huge handmade balloons into the night skies above North Korea.

My night with the guerrilla balloonists of South Korea

ByPaul Salopek

Illustrations byJiyeun Kang

July 8, 2025

Inside a covert operation to bombard North Korea with pantyhose and nature films.

nationalgeographic.com · by My night with the guerrilla balloonists of South Korea

Do you know how to run fast?” asked a man I’ll call Park.

He was driving us carefully through dusk, well below the speed limit, from Seoul toward the infamous Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the heavily mined frontier between South and North Korea. It was a warm summer evening. Park, a North Korean defector who allowed me to tag along provided he could use an assumed name, was keeping a wary eye on his rearview mirror for a police tail. The only vehicle shadowing us, thankfully, was a nondescript pickup truck steered by one of Park’s helpers. It was lugging, under a blue tarp, enough steel canisters of hydrogen to blow up a large house.

Park’s two-vehicle convoy wasn’t bound for some mission of terror. Instead, trundling past 7-Eleven convenience stores, rural churches topped with red neon crosses, and pig farms, he and his band of four activists were on a bizarre mission of political resistance, one that few if any outside journalists had witnessed before: the clandestine lofting of huge handmade balloons into the night skies above North Korea.

Over the past 12 years, I’ve hiked thousands of miles across the world for a National Geographic storytelling project called the Out of Eden Walk. Typically, I spend my days peering down at my plodding feet. Tonight, my attention would be focused up, on a group of improvised airships floating north on favorable summer winds, carrying a payload of items that are either subversive or in short supply in the most shuttered society on Earth.

The South Korean police might pull us over, Park warned. If that happened, he advised with a wink, I should bolt into the scrub. “I’ve been fined before, but I don’t care,” he said. “People in the North don’t even know what human rights are. Our balloons help wake them up.”

Hours later, parked in a weedy field near the DMZ, I watched as the guerrilla aeronauts bustled about the dark in headlamps, cranking open the hydrogen cylinders to inflate their balloons. Gas jetted from the tank valves with a startlingly loud hiss. The airships—loaded with items like biblical tracts, U.S. dollar bills, pro-democracy leaflets, rice, and women’s hygiene products—did not resemble the colorful vessels at hot-air balloon festivals. Rather, they were elongated, clear plastic mammoths, enlarging to heights of four or five stories tall.

Soon, 25 balloons jutted into the moonlit sky like monumental exclamation points that were surely visible for a mile.

One activist, using the assumed name Park, invited writer Paul Salopek to a launch from the Demilitarized Zone, an act that few if any outside journalists have observed. Like many balloonists, Park is a North Korean defector, motivated by a marooned sort of longing for all he left behind. He and his crew take great care releasing the airships into his former home country—even equipping the balloons with GPS tracking and electric altimeters to drop the cargo.

Perhaps you’ll remember the media reports from South Korea last summer: Thousands of large balloons hauling plastic sacks bulging with cigarette butts, rotting clothes, worms, and even feces floated from North Korea into the airspace of democratic South Korea. This barrage of garbage triggered health alerts, fires, and aborted flights at airports. One bag of gunk landed near the South Korean president’s office in Seoul.

The press often covered this armada of inflatables with a smirk, as a sideshow to an ongoing rivalry between sister nations that remain bitter enemies 72 years after Korea’s civil war was paused by a ceasefire. Yet the public rarely heard the other half of the story: The North Korean rubbish attacks were payback for South Korean propaganda balloons like Park’s.

The geopolitics of this tit-for-tat aerial dispute, however, wasn’t nearly as illuminating to me as the earnest motivations of the South Korean activists, many of whom are in fact North Korean defectors. The teams of balloonists appear driven by a marooned sort of longing for all they’ve left irrevocably behind: abandoned loved ones, landscapes of memory, youth. (When it comes to the finality of exile, North Koreans rank in a bleak class of their own; among some 34,000 defectors in South Korea, barely a few dozen are known to have voluntarily returned to the brutal clutches of their police state.)

In this way, the strange balloon war resembles texts exchanged between a couple in a toxic relationship, with one partner appealing for connection while the other replies with trash talk. The exchanges carry added poignancy since reunification of the two countries seems more implausible than ever. Today fewer and fewer young South Koreans support it, while North Korea has pivoted decisively away.

“My family is very lucky, very grateful to be free,” said Park, 28, who grew up in North Korea listening to Western radio broadcasts muffled under a blanket in his bed, a thought crime punishable by prison. “We’re not just living life for ourselves now, but for the people back in North Korea.”

Energetic and wiry, Park recounted in confidence his perilous escape from North Korea with four relatives more than a decade ago. Now a youth organizer for an Evangelical church outside of Seoul, he explained how fellow Christians in North Korea risked execution for practicing their faith under the cultlike rule of supreme leader Kim Jong Un. He also bemoaned the sinister reach of North Korea’s intelligence agencies, which had poisoned the dictator’s own brother in exile in Malaysia. Arriving as a teenager in go-go South Korea from repressive North Korea, Park recalled, had felt like being a person from the 1970s transported to modern-day New York.

“North Koreans find it very hard here,” sighed Kim Seung-Chul, reflecting on the balloonists’ experience. “Some [South Koreans] see North Koreans as less intelligent, primitive.” An older-generation defector, Kim arrived in South Korea in 1993 after walking away from a work camp in Siberia. He now operates a pro-democracy radio station in Seoul. Even after three decades in the country, Kim noted dryly, he sometimes feels like an outsider. His South Korean wife has been reproached by her friends: Why are you still living with the North Korean?

The guerilla balloonists work under the night sky to evade South Korean police who issue hefty fines. “I’ve been fined before, but I don’t care,” Park said. “People in the North don’t even know what human rights are. Our balloons help wake them up.”

Though sailing private balloons into the North was criminalized in 2020, the prohibition was struck down by South Korea’s Constitutional Court two years ago on free speech grounds. Still, the night launches remain a fraught calling. Seoul doesn’t appreciate the diplomatic aggravation. The police issue hefty safety fines. Lee Min-Bok, a craggy defector in his sixties, had his balloon truck torched. “Could be a North Korean spy,” said Lee, a former agricultural engineer in the North. “Or a pro-North Korean citizen here.” He added, “There are people who disapprove.” He means Communist sympathizers.

Lee launches his airships at night from a remote valley near the DMZ. He packs the balloons with thousands of pages of photocopied essays on free will, and, less frequently, with aspirin, thumb drives loaded with nature documentaries, women’s nylons—anything scarce in the threadbare North. He lives in a rusting shipping container at the site. His South Korean wife and son deserted him for California. Desperate to connect with someone on the other side of the fortified border, he takes the risk of including his real name and phone number on his political leaflets. After years of balloon releases, he admitted wearily, nobody has called.

My entrée to the ballooning world, the younger Park, still possesses a novice’s enthusiasm. His balloons are constructed from tough but lightweight plastic normally used for agricultural purposes. An electronic altimeter triggers clamps to release sacks of religious literature, cash, and other cargo from about 5,000 feet. The bags float down on tiny parachutes, which Park tracks via GPS devices.

On the night that he allowed me to join him, his crew released all of their balloons at once. Park, arms stretched skyward, muttered a prayer. The team stood gazing up for long seconds as the 25 balloons fluttered and climbed in the night breeze. Park said the balloons would be picked up by South Korean radar in 29 minutes, after which military police would come to investigate. The balloonists began loading up in haste to depart. I watched their handiwork ghost up into the darkness like a sad miracle.

A version of this story appears in the August 2025 issue of National Geographic magazine.

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Paul Salopek has been a National Geographic Explorer since 2012. For the past 12 years, he has covered some 16,000 miles in his ongoing walk retracing human migration out of Africa. The nonprofit National Geographic Society has funded Salopek's Out of Eden Walk. Follow him at OutofEdenWalk.org.

An artist living in Seoul, South Korea, Jiyeun Kang is a winner of multiple American Illustration awards and has done work for publications including Allure, Backpacker, the Boston Globe, and Politico. These are her first illustrations for National Geographic.

nationalgeographic.com · by My night with the guerrilla balloonists of South Korea

7. Unification minister nominee says not see N. Korea as 'main enemy'

Yet north Korea sees the South as its main enemy. And the north nor longer seeks peaceful unification but only domination of the entire peninsula under the rule of the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State.

Okay, maybe China is the main enemy and the north is only a threat. (but he did not say anything about China and I am being sarcastic).

Excerpt:

"I don't agree," Chung said, when asked by an opposition lawmaker if he concurs with the view that North Korea is the South's main enemy. "(The North) is a threat."

(4th LD) Unification minister nominee says not see N. Korea as 'main enemy' | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Hyun-soo · July 14, 2025

(ATTN: ADDS Chung's comments on N. Korea in paras 21-22)

SEOUL, July 14 (Yonhap) -- Unification Minister nominee Chung Dong-young said Monday he does not agree with the view that North Korea is South Korea's "main enemy," instead calling the North a "threat."

Chung made the remarks during a parliamentary confirmation hearing as the former conservative Yoon Suk Yeol administration defined the North Korean regime and military as the South's "enemy" in the 2022 defense white paper.

"I don't agree," Chung said, when asked by an opposition lawmaker if he concurs with the view that North Korea is the South's main enemy. "(The North) is a threat."

Unification Minister nominee Chung Dong-young speaks at a confirmation hearing at the National Assembly on July 14, 2025. (Yonhap)

South Korea defined North Korea as its main enemy for the first time in the 1995 defense white paper. In the 2004 version, the expression was replaced by a "direct military threat" amid a conciliatory mood between the two Koreas.

The former Yoon government referred to North Korea as an "enemy" for the first time in six years in the 2022 defense white paper, after the liberal Moon Jae-in administration dropped the labeling in the 2018 and 2020 editions.

In late 2023, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un defined inter-Korean relations as those between "two states hostile to each other," vowing not to seek to reconciliation and unification with South Korea. He also called the South his country's "primary foe."

On a now-suspended inter-Korean military tension reduction pact, Chung said he thinks the government will be able to approve its restoration in a Cabinet meeting.

In June last year, the former Yoon government fully suspended the 2018 military agreement signed under the Moon administration in response to the North's repeated trash balloon campaigns and attempts to disrupt GPS signals near border islands.

The military pact calls for halting all hostile acts against each other and setting up land and maritime buffer zones where artillery firing and drills are suspended.

Chung said before approving the restoration of the deal, he believes South Korea could take "interim" steps by refraining from military measures at sea and on land that are banned under the agreement.

Meanwhile, Chung raised the need to consider changing the name of the unification ministry, suggesting the Ministry of the Korean Peninsula could be one of the choices for the new name.

A controversy has recently emerged over whether South Korea should change the name of the Ministry of Unification in charge of inter-Korean affairs by dropping the unification reference after the North's leader vowed not to seek unification with the South.

"This would be a very important issue that needs to be discussed with the National Assembly," Chung said.

Some liberal experts insist the name change would help dispel North Korea's doubts about South Korea's possible pursuit of absorption-based unification and set the stage for resuming inter-Korean dialogue.

But conservatives and even some former liberal unification ministers are opposed to the name change, saying it could be misunderstood as South Korea not seeking unification. The Constitution stipulates South Korea will seek national unification in a peaceful manner.

Unification Minister nominee Chung Dong-young speaks at a confirmation hearing at the National Assembly in Seoul on July 14, 2025. (Yonhap)

On North Korea's stance of "two hostile states," Chung said he thinks it was the North's response to the former South Korean government's hard-line stance against Pyongyang.

Calling the way that East and West Germany unified a "pragmatic" approach, the nominee assessed they pursued unification through exchanges and cooperation while effectively recognizing them as two separate states.

"What the Lee Jae Myung government needs to pursue is pragmatism," he said.

Chung said former liberal President Moon Jae-in's proposal in 2017 to suspend a joint military exercise with the United States helped resume inter-Korean dialogue on the occasion of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

"This is an issue that needs to be discussed at meetings of the National Security Council," Chung said.

Citing information from the ministry, Chung also said North Korea is operating three semiconductor factories, presumed to be situated in the capital Pyongyang, Pyongsong and Wonsan, respectively.

"From these three locations, (North Korea) is likely manufacturing cell phones with imported, perhaps smuggled semiconductors," Chung said, stressing that the science and technology sector, including artificial intelligence, could become a major field of inter-Korean cooperation in the future.

Chung, a journalist-turned-lawmaker, was nominated last month as the first unification minister under the Lee Jae Myung administration. He previously serviced as unification minister in 2004-05 under former liberal President Roh Moo-hyun.

sooyeon@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Hyun-soo · July 14, 2025

8. Unification minister nominee raises need to change name of unification ministry

It would be a strategic mistake for Korea to drop unification.

Here is my response to the MOU's proposal (focus on the mission):

Analysis: Why the Ministry of Unification must lead Korea's grand strategy

https://www.upi.com/Voices/2025/07/07/korea-analysis-ministry-of-unification-must-lead-korea-grand-strategy-2025/2891751913674/

In recent years, public debate over the future of South Korea's Ministry of Unification (MoU) has intensified. Amidst political shifts and public fatigue over North Korea's provocations, some have suggested rebranding or even abolishing the Ministry. Proposals include renaming it to something like the "Ministry of Inter-Korean Cooperation," reflecting a perceived shift away from long-term unification toward short-term inter-Korean management. But this would be a profound mistake. The Ministry's name is not the problem; its diluted mission is. Instead of changing its name, South Korea should sharpen the Ministry's purpose: strip away functions unrelated to unification and refocus it solely on policy development, long-range strategy, operational planning, and interagency coordination for national unification.

(2nd LD) Unification minister nominee raises need to change name of unification ministry | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · July 14, 2025

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; UPDATES with more details throughout)

SEOUL, July 14 (Yonhap) -- Unification Minister nominee Chung Dong-young on Monday raised the need to consider changing the name of the unification ministry, suggesting the Ministry of the Korean Peninsula could be one of the choices for the new name.

Chung made the remarks during a parliamentary confirmation hearing amid controversy over whether South Korea should change the name of the Ministry of Unification in charge of inter-Korean affairs by dropping the unification reference.

"This would be a very important issue to be discussed with the National Assembly," Chung said.

"There is a need to consider changing the name of the unification ministry. The Ministry of the Korean Peninsula could be one of the options," he noted.

Unification Minister nominee Chung Dong-young speaks at a confirmation hearing at the National Assembly on July 14, 2025. (Yonhap)

On North Korea defining inter-Korean ties as those between "two states hostile to each other" in 2023, Chung said he thinks it was the North's response to the former South Korean government's hard-line stance against Pyongyang.

"What the Lee Jae Myung government needs to pursue is pragmatism," he said.

"This is an issue that needs to be discussed at meetings of the National Security Council," Chung said.

sooyeon@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · July 14, 2025

9. Russia's FM leaves N. Korea after 3-day visit

Russia's FM leaves N. Korea after 3-day visit | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · July 14, 2025

SEOUL, July 14 (Yonhap) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has left North Korea after wrapping up his three-day visit to the eastern coastal city of Wonsan, the North's state media reported Monday.

Lavrov departed the country via Wonsan Kalma Airport on Sunday after being seen off by North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui and Russia's top envoy in Pyongyang, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met Lavrov on his yacht in Wonsan on Saturday. During the talks, Kim reaffirmed his "unconditional" support for Russia's war against Ukraine.

Lavrov also held the second round of strategic dialogue with his North Korean counterpart Saturday. They vowed efforts to advance the bilateral relations between the two nations into long-term strategic ties by faithfully implementing a mutual defense treaty.

Experts said North Korea appears to have invited Lavrov to Wonsan in an effort to promote a newly opened tourist zone and attract Russian tourists.

After visiting the North, Lavrov flew to China to attend a foreign ministerial meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states, according to Russian media reports.

This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on July 14, 2025, shows Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) shaking hands with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui before leaving North Korea the previous day following a three-day visit to the eastern coastal city of Wonsan. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

sooyeon@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · July 14, 2025

10. Drone command raided in sign that martial law probe involving ex-President Yoon expanded to treason charges

One thing I will say is that if former President Yoon did order drones into north Korea on more tuna one occasion we have to assess the operations. As far as I know there was only one (rhetorical) response from the north?

If the allegations are true it would appear that the South's drones have the ability to penetrate north Korean airspace undetected and and transi from the South to Pyongyang and back (though the north detected one drone because it supposedly crashed and they recovered it). That provides us with some assessment of the north's drone detection and defense capabilities (or lack thereof).

Also if this occurred on more than one occasion why has the regime not responded in a stronger way?

There is a lot to consider if these allegations are true (beyond the legal and political).

Drone command raided in sign that martial law probe involving ex-President Yoon expanded to treason charges | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Seung-yeon · July 14, 2025

By Kim Seung-yeon

SEOUL, July 14 (Yonhap) -- The special counsel investigating former President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law imposition raided Monday the Drone Operations Command (DOC) and the defense ministry, in a sign that the insurrection probe has expanded into treason charges.

Yoon is standing on criminal trial on insurrection charges for his failed martial law bid, but media reports have suspected that he might have ordered then top military brass to send drones to North Korea last year, as he had planned to impose martial law.

The team, led by special counsel Cho Eun-suk, sent its investigators to 24 locations, including the DOC, located in Pocheon, north of Seoul, and the Ministry of Defense in Seoul, as well as the Defense Counterintelligence Command, to obtain evidence related to the case, officials said.

They were also carrying out raids at the National Security Office of the presidential office in Yongsan and the residence of Maj. Gen. Kim Yong-dae, head of the drone command.

This composite image shows former President Yoon Suk Yeol (R) and special counsel Cho Eun-suk. (Yonhap)

The special counsel suspects that Yoon ordered the military to send the drones to Pyongyang last October to provoke North Korea and use it as justification for imposing the Dec. 3 martial law, which was blocked by a National Assembly vote only a few hours later.

It is also looking into allegations that the military was involved in the cover-up of the drone operation.

The special counsel team has reportedly secured a recording of a military officer suggesting that Yoon directly instructed the drone command to prepare a drone mission across the border into Pyongyang between October and November last year, weeks before he declared martial law.

It is also delving into allegations that the DOC deliberately modified a drone to carry anti-Pyongyang leaflets despite knowing the risk of it crashing to the ground.

This file photo shows then President Yoon Seuk Yeol (R, front row) watching drones presented during a military parade held to mark the Armed Forces Day on Oct. 1, 2025. (Yonhap)

In October last year, North Korea claimed it discovered the remains of the drone carrying the leaflets in its capital, accusing Seoul of sending them and warning that it will retaliate if the South sends it again.

elly@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Seung-yeon · July 14, 2025

11. North Korea hosts rare event celebrating China ties at luxury Beijing hotel

KJU has two suitors these days, Russia and China. Which one will he go to the dance with?

North Korea hosts rare event celebrating China ties at luxury Beijing hotel

Public commemoration for bilateral treaty signals renewed strategic alignment but likely violates UN sanctions

https://www.nknews.org/2025/07/north-korea-hosts-rare-event-celebrating-china-ties-at-luxury-beijing-hotel/

Dave Yin July 14, 2025

The Kempinski Hotel Beijing Yansha Center | Image: Kempinski via Facebook (July 14, 2025)

North Korea hosted a high-profile event at a luxury European hotel in Beijing last week to mark the anniversary of its mutual defense treaty with China — a rare and conspicuous move that experts say signals a renewed strategic alignment between the two countries and likely breaches U.N. sanctions.

The event, marking the 64th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance between China and the DPRK took place at the flagship Beijing Yansha Center location of Kempinski Hotels S.A., a Geneva, Switzerland-based luxury hotel chain. The property boasts 480 rooms and suites as well as six restaurants, and it is situated centrally at the intersection of the Third Ring Road and the scenic Liangma River, between two of Beijing’s embassy districts.

In photographs of the event obtained by NK News, a digital display advertising the Thursday ceremony featured Chinese and Korean characters along with flags of both the People’s Republic of China and the DPRK. A black car that appeared to be a Mercedes-Benz E-Class luxury sedan was parked in front of the hotel, bearing a DPRK flag as well as the diplomatic license plate number “133 001 使” — China’s designation for the North Korean ambassador.

The photos showed more than a dozen officials in black suits mingling inside the hotel lobby, some of whom were wearing North Korean lapel pins. Individuals wearing casual clothing, such as T-shirts, were also present, as the venue was not sealed off from the public.

According to a Sunday report in the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), attendees included Wang Dongming, vice-chairman of China’s National People’s Congress, as well as senior officials from a wide range of Chinese government bodies and mass organizations, alongside DPRK Ambassador to China Ri Ryong Nam. The report did not specify the event venue.

“Both sides positively evaluated the significance of the treaty and the achievements in the development of bilateral relations, and expressed their willingness to work together to continuously deepen the traditional friendship and cooperation between China and North Korea,” Chinese state media Xinhua reported in a one-paragraph brief that similarly left out the name of the hotel.

According to Seong-Hyon Lee, a senior fellow at the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations with expertise on North Korea, it is both “unusual and audacious” for the North Korean Embassy to host a public event at an international hotel in the heart of Beijing.

Citing previous anniversary events in the city that were held inside the DPRK Embassy compound, Lee told NK News that Pyongyang “would not have staged such a conspicuous event without a green light from Beijing.”

The presence of a senior Chinese official at North Korea’s treaty anniversary event in Beijing also appears to have been a deliberate and public reaffirmation of the China-DPRK alliance, marking a notable elevation in diplomatic visibility after a period of cooling ties.

Just like the North Korean guest of honor at the Chinese Embassy’s reception in the DPRK, Wang Dongming’s rank is higher than the official representing Beijing last year by at least two levels, according to Minxin Pei, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College.

Wang’s rank is identical to that of the 2023 Chinese VIP, Peng Qinghua, suggesting a return to form for China-DPRK relations following a dip in 2024, coinciding with Pyongyang’s visible pivot toward Moscow, according to Lee.

“This latest event is highly significant and confirms a substantive and strategic warming of China-DPRK relations,” Lee said, though he added that North Korea’s turn to Russia was not an “existential concern” for China as Pyongyang never left Beijing’s economic sphere of influence.

“The restoration of full diplomatic visibility is not just a return to the pre-2024 baseline — it is a deliberate, public reaffirmation of the alliance,” he added. “Beijing and Pyongyang are signaling that their partnership remains intact, functional and mutually reinforcing. Choosing a venue like the Kempinski Hotel, a location well known among Beijing’s expatriate and diplomatic community … implicitly confirms China’s political protection.”

SANCTIONS CONCERNS

Beyond the implications for bilateral ties, the event may have also run afoul of U.N. Security Council (UNSC) sanctions targeting the DPRK.

Lee told NK News that revenue Kempinski earned from this event could be seen as a fungible asset that indirectly supports Pyongyang’s prohibited activities, explaining that the financing of this event “almost certainly involved a sanctions breach.”

Numerous UNSC resolutions, such as Resolution 2321, ban the provision of financial services to North Korea.

In addition, Lee said, national authorities such as the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) may conduct their own investigations and impose secondary sanctions. If the European company is found to have done business with a sanctioned entity, consequences could include asset freezes or a ban from the U.S. financial system.

A spokesperson for Kempinski declined to confirm whether the North Korean event took place, citing customer confidentiality, and did not respond to NK News’ additional requests for comment.

This is not the first time that Kempinski has been linked to the DPRK. In 2012, the luxury operator stunned the world by announcing that its joint Chinese venture was looking to open a small hotel — 150 rooms — at the top of Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang. However, the plans were shelved the following year due to “market conditions.”

Edited by Alannah Hill

12. Lee Jae-myung vows to boost support for North Korean escapees on Defectors’ Day

Today is Defector's Day in South Korea. I hope President Lee will pay this more than lip service.

We are spending the with our North Korean Young Leaders Assembly who are here in Washington to learn how to lead a future free and unified Korea and share their experiences in north Korea with American officials and leaders.

You can still donate to help: https://give.globalpeace.org/campaign/695826/donate

See a short video overview of the NKYLA: https://youtu.be/JVu8ZpXkknM

Lee Jae-myung vows to boost support for North Korean escapees on Defectors’ Day

President emphasizes defectors’ right to integrate into South Korean society at event for 2nd annual holiday

https://www.nknews.org/2025/07/lee-jae-myung-vows-to-boost-support-for-north-korean-escapees-on-defectors-day/

Jooheon Kim July 14, 2025

Vice Unification Minister Kim Nam-jung delivers a congratulatory speech on behalf of President Lee Jae-myung during a Defectors' Day ceremony in Seoul. | Image: Ministry of Unification (July 14, 2025)

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung vowed to strengthen support for North Korean defectors and emphasized their right to fully integrate into ROK society on Monday, delivering a message to mark the second annual North Korean Defectors’ Day.

“We will go beyond basic settlement support and protection to ensure that you can live, grow and thrive as members of your local communities,” he said in a congratulatory speech read on his behalf by Vice Unification Minister Kim Nam-jung during a ceremony at COEX in Seoul.

Lee also stated that escapees have experienced the pain of national division more directly and vividly than anyone else.

Performers sing the 1994 Korean song “Where the Wind Comes From” after Lee Jae-myung’s congratulatory speech. | Image: Ministry of Unification (July 14, 2025)

“It would be great if the day finally comes when you can overcome this pain and lead a stable life,” he said. “I always support the new life and dreams of North Korean defectors.”

The previous Yoon administration established North Korean Defectors’ Day in 2024 to promote inclusion and mark the anniversary of a 1997 law on their protection and resettlement.

Lee did not attend Monday’s ceremony in person, unlike former President Yoon Suk-yeol last year, though at least one defector said he was unconcerned by the president’s absence.

“He is likely busy early in his term,” defector Kim Il-hyeok told NK News, adding that he has “high expectations” for Lee’s presidency.

Monday’s event sought to highlight Seoul’s policies to improve defector well-being, such as the government’s efforts to expand tuition support, while featuring escapees who shared about their experiences in the South.

The ministry explained that the event was aimed at expanding public awareness and empathy toward North Korean defectors and their family members, which number approximately 60,000 nationwide, while highlighting the lives of escapees as ordinary members of society.

Previously, defectors over age 35 or those who have lived in the South for over five years were ineligible for university aid. Children of defectors born in third countries were also excluded.

But earlier this year, Seoul removed the age limit for tuition support for defectors and expanded the program to include their children. Now, defectors and their children can receive full tuition waivers at public universities and 50% tuition subsidies at private universities, regardless of age, though this support does not apply to lifelong education programs or institutions that only recognize credits.

Lee Jae-yoon, a 39-year-old defector, said she had long hesitated to attend university due to age-based restrictions on tuition support but felt “relieved” when the age cap was lifted this year.

“Now I can finally study with peace of mind,” she said in a video message.

Another defector, Jang Sun-hee, highlighted expanded education support for defector children. Her teenage child spent much of the defection process in China and grew up speaking Chinese rather than Korean. She expressed concern about the language barriers that many defector children face in South Korea’s education system.

Jung Haneul, a defector-turned-actor and former North Korean soldier, served as the host of the event. The former North Korean soldier crossed the DMZ in 2012 and served as an adviser and played a minor role in the 2024 film Escape.

The event also featured a performance of “Arirang,” a traditional Korean folk song enjoyed in both the North and South, alongside other musical acts that conveyed a message of hope for unity on the Korean Peninsula.

Two musicians perform the traditional Korean folk song “Arirang.” | Image: Ministry of Unification (July 14, 2025)

Several other events are also taking place this month to celebrate Defectors’ Day.

On Saturday, Seoul hosted a fan meeting with defector YouTubers and showcased a new web drama called “Hana Corporation,” a short-form comedy series produced by the Korea Hana Foundation under the unification ministry.

The 12-episode web drama follows a defector named Jung Hana as she navigates life as an intern in a South Korean office. The lead role is played by singer-actress Kim So-yeon, who defected in 2008 and settled in the South six years ago.

Roughly 300 people attended the screening, including defectors, foreign diplomats and ministry officials, according to Seoul’s unification ministry.

Participants watching web drama “Hana Corporation” at an event on July 12, 2025. | Image: Korea Hana Foundation

An academic symposium for Defectors’ Day about supporting defectors will also take place on Wednesday.

This year’s Defectors’ Day comes just over a month into the Lee Jae-myung administration, which has pushed to reduce inter-Korean tensions and rekindle dialogue with Pyongyang since taking office.

While some defectors expressed concern that the new president would sideline escapees and DPRK human rights, Lee departed from progressive precedent during his campaign by emphasizing the need to improve North Korean human rights and vowing support for defectors.

A 2024 survey of 2,500 escapees found that 67% experienced discrimination due to cultural and language differences, 46% faced negative perceptions affecting their job prospects and 18% felt disadvantaged by a lack of professional skills compared to South Koreans.

As of May 2024, the unemployment rate for defectors was 6.3 percent, according to the Korea Hana Foundation, more than double the 3 percent rate seen in the general population.

Edited by Bryan Betts

13. N. Korea’s underground economy crackdown intensifies

Kim fears the people and the people's economy more than anything else because he does not want instability and resistance that could lead to regime collapse. The paradox is that by trying to eliminate this very necessary safety value that the people have developed that provides resilience and a way to survive, he is increasing the chances that he will create the conditions that lead to political resistance. The ideological occupation of the minds of the Korean people can only go so far.

N. Korea’s underground economy crackdown intensifies

As a result, remittance brokers — who rely on Chinese-made mobile phones as a primary source of income — are living in fear, never knowing when they might be arrested while using their devices

By Lee Chae Eun - July 14, 2025

dailynk.com

N. Korea’s underground economy crackdown intensifies - Daily NK English

A view of Hyesan, in North Korea's Yanggang Province. (Daily NK)

Following a major party meeting last month, North Korea has ordered a sweeping “mop-up operation” against Chinese-made mobile phone users near the China border, with state security forces deploying comprehensive surveillance tactics to hunt down illegal device users.

“At the end of last month, local Ministry of State Security branches in Hoeryong and other border areas in North Hamgyong province received orders from headquarters to conduct a ‘mop-up operation against the remaining roots,'” a Daily NK source in North Hamgyong province said recently. “The order called for full-scale operations targeting Chinese-made mobile phone users in border regions.”

In response, state security branches in Hoeryong and other border areas have dramatically stepped up their investigations to catch Chinese-made mobile phone users.

According to the source, the Hoeryong branch has launched an all-out effort to identify users of Chinese-made mobile phones, deploying every investigative tool available — including signal detectors, interrogations, undercover operations, stakeouts, and surveillance — on orders from headquarters.

The Hoeryong branch began its full-scale campaign to identify and eliminate Chinese-made mobile phone users on June 30.

Brokers living in fear

The branch is particularly focused on interrogating arrested remittance brokers to extract information about other brokers. After adding new targets to their list, they closely monitor and surveil their movements while regularly intercepting their communications.

As a result, remittance brokers — who rely on Chinese-made mobile phones as a primary source of income — are living in fear, never knowing when they might be arrested while using their devices. They’ve drastically reduced their communication with the outside world.

They avoid turning on their Chinese-made phones whenever possible, and when they must use them, they carefully scan for strangers within a 50-meter radius, keep calls extremely brief — lasting only a minute or two — and immediately power off their devices afterward.

“Since the party’s recent plenary meeting, the local state security branch has been deadly serious. I’m not certain, but it appears they were ordered to take intensive measures to block information sharing,” the source said. “The atmosphere is so harsh that some people are saying the days of making money with Chinese-made mobile phones are over.”

People who appear to be state security informants have been spotted multiple times daily at the home of one remittance broker on the surveillance list, suspected of using Chinese-made phones. With agents conducting such obvious surveillance and apparently under orders to arrest anyone they can, remittance brokers are keeping extremely low profiles, the source said.

“State security agents are pressuring arrested brokers to turn in others with Chinese-made mobile phones, applying so much pressure that you can’t stay silent even if you have to lie,” the source said. “The state security branch really seems determined to finish this job once and for all.”

Read in Korean

Lee Chae Eun

Lee Chae Un is one of Daily NK's full-time journalists. She can be reached at dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.

dailynk.com

14. N. Korea’s cruise boats balance profit and propaganda

Boat rides do not fill the empty stomachs of the Korean people in the north.

N. Korea’s cruise boats balance profit and propaganda

When cruise boats first launched, passengers flocked to them with lines forming outside ticket offices. But passenger numbers have since plummeted, leaving cruises largely inactive

By Seon Hwa - July 14, 2025

dailynk.com

N. Korea’s cruise boats balance profit and propaganda - Daily NK English

This photograph shows North Koreans on a pleasure boat on the Yalu River in Sinuiju, North Pyongan province, on May 1, which is Labor Day in North Korea. The merrymakers are seen waving toward Dandong, a city in China’s Liaoning province, and taking photos with their mobile phones. (Daily NK)

Cruise boats have become a regular sight along the Yalu River in Sinuiju, North Pyongan province, the North Korean city sitting directly across from Dandong in China’s Liaoning province. However, with passenger numbers fluctuating and operators struggling to turn a steady profit, the boats now depend heavily on group tours to stay afloat.

According to a Daily NK source in North Pyongan province recently, private investors pay to maintain and fuel the cruise boats under the Yalu River Resort Management Office’s authority, sharing a portion of their profits with the management office.

Any North Korean with an ID card can board a cruise boat for 20,000 North Korean won. Groups can also charter entire vessels for just 200 Chinese yuan ($22), regardless of the group’s size.

This arrangement means cruise boats sometimes host wedding receptions or social gatherings, the source said.

“For boat operators, finding people who can pay the 200 yuan for group cruises is crucial,” the source said. “It’s the only way they can generate enough profit to pay the management office while making money for themselves.”

When cruise boats first launched full-scale operations, passengers flocked to them, with lines forming outside ticket offices. However, passenger numbers have since dropped so dramatically that the cruises now appear largely inactive.

“There were particularly few cruise passengers during rice planting season. Nobody had time to board because everyone was mobilized to work in agricultural villages, and even those who weren’t mobilized avoided cruises to prevent gossip,” the source said. “However, powerful people who didn’t care about appearances paid significant money to go on cruises even during planting season.”

Serving multiple masters

Despite the challenges, cruise boats continue operating regularly. “People with money increasingly look for ways to entertain themselves,” the source said. “Sinuiju is better off than other regions, so people really worry about maintaining their social status. That’s why cruise boat operations continue.”

Cruise boats are occasionally spotted packed with so many passengers they appear ready to sink, but most of these overcrowded cruises are organized by the state for special occasions, the source said.

On North Korea’s most important holidays, such as late leader Kim Il Sung’s birthday (April 15) and Labor Day (May 1), authorities select so-called “innovators” from among workers mobilized to construction sites around Sinuiju and send them on free cruises.

“Naturally, the boats carried as many people as possible because the cruises were free,” the source said. “Cruise boats are sometimes used to promote internal unity and boost morale.”

Ultimately, the cruise boats along the Yalu River in Sinuiju serve multiple purposes, from generating income for private investors to promoting the North Korean regime.

Read in Korean

Seon Hwa

Seon Hwa is one of Daily NK's full-time journalists. Questions about her articles can be directed to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.

dailynk.com

15. Allies under fire: Why do Trump tariffs target Korea, Japan first?

Why, why, why?

Excerpts:

“Trump wants to make an example out of Korea and Japan, the two closest allies with large US trade surpluses, strong industrial bases and deep security ties with Washington,” said Heo Yoon, a professor of international studies at Sogang University. “He is trying to show that there’s no exception when it comes to tariffs, allies or not.”

Asked why Trump started with Korea and Japan, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt simply stated, “It’s the president’s prerogative, and those are the countries he chose.”

Wendy Cutler, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, said in a commentary that the tariffs on South Korea and Japan “will send a chilling message to others," signaling that Washington may not grant exemptions under Section 232 tariffs, particularly on automobiles, which is "a high priority for both countries."

Allies under fire: Why do Trump tariffs target Korea, Japan first?

koreaherald.com · by Ahn Sung-mi · July 14, 2025

By starting with close partners, US president aims to warn rest of world no country is immune, analysts say

US President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he walks on the South Lawn upon arriving at the White House on Sunday in Washington. (AP-Yonhap)

South Korea and Japan were taken aback last week when US President Donald Trump took aim at two of America’s longtime Asian allies, dashing any expectation of preferential treatment regarding his "reciprocal" tariffs.

In nearly identical letters sent to the leaders of the two neighbors, Trump announced 25 percent tariffs to start Aug. 1, unless Korea and Japan each dismantle what he described as unfair trade barriers. Though Trump sent similar tariff letters to 12 other countries that day, his choice to publicize the Seoul and Tokyo letters first was seen as a deliberate move that one analyst said was to amp up pressure and show that even allies are not immune to Trump's hard-line tariffs.

“Trump wants to make an example out of Korea and Japan, the two closest allies with large US trade surpluses, strong industrial bases and deep security ties with Washington,” said Heo Yoon, a professor of international studies at Sogang University. “He is trying to show that there’s no exception when it comes to tariffs, allies or not.”

Asked why Trump started with Korea and Japan, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt simply stated, “It’s the president’s prerogative, and those are the countries he chose.”

Wendy Cutler, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, said in a commentary that the tariffs on South Korea and Japan “will send a chilling message to others," signaling that Washington may not grant exemptions under Section 232 tariffs, particularly on automobiles, which is "a high priority for both countries."

Cutler expressed disappointment that Trump appears to be going ahead with the tariffs, despite both countries being close partners on economic security matters that have a lot to offer the US in areas including shipbuilding, semiconductors, critical minerals and energy cooperation.

“Companies from both countries have made significant manufacturing investment in the US in recent years, bringing high-paying jobs to US workers and benefiting communities all around the country," she said.

The steep tariffs come despite Japan's ongoing engagement with the US, including seven rounds of high-level talks in Washington since April and a visit to Washington by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who was one of the first leaders to make the trip in Trump's second term.

Japan responded strongly, with Ishiba calling Trump’s latest tariff move “truly regrettable,” while ruling Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Itsunori Onodera condemned that notifying a key ally with a single letter is “extremely disrespectful."

South Korea, by contrast, has struck a more measured tone.

Seoul appeared relieved to have bought more time from the initial deadline of July 9, delayed to Aug. 1, to negotiate with the Trump administration, acknowledging a lack of sufficient time to reach an agreement after the new Lee Jae Myung administration commenced in early June. Nonetheless, the government here held series of emergency meetings and vowed all-out efforts to negotiate its way out of looming duties.

Following the announced moves against Seoul and Tokyo, Trump expanded his tariff barrage to other long-standing allies. Canada now faces a 35 percent tariff, while the European Union is to be subject to a rate of 30 percent. Meanwhile, Mexico faces a tariff of 30 percent, Philippines 20 percent and Thailand 36 percent.

“We’ve been taken advantage of for many, many years by countries, both friend and foe. And frankly, the friends have been worse than the foes in many cases,” Trump told reporters on Friday when asked about tariffs.

It's the trade deficit

Trump has long argued that the United States' trade deficit ― where its imports exceed exports ― is the result of unfair trade policies by other countries.

According to the Office of the US Trade Representative, the US posted $68.5 billion in deficit with Japan and $66 billion deficit with South Korea last year, ranking them as the seventh and eighth top deficit partners.

In terms of imports, Japan and Korea accounted for 4.5 percent and 4 percent of total US imports, respectively, trailing behind only China, Mexico, Canada and Germany.

For Trump, who is fixated on reducing this trade imbalance, Japan and Korea are hard to overlook.

Trump is convinced that slapping higher tariffs on goods from Seoul and Tokyo and pressuring them to buy more American products will help close the gap. After announcing the latest tariffs Monday, Trump told reporters that Seoul and Tokyo had “had their way for many, many decades” and that the US “just wanted fairness.”

Professor Heo noted that both countries' close strategic ties with the US give Washington leverage. “Trump understands he can pressure these allies to meet his demands because of their deep economic and security ties, including the defense cost sharing,” he said. “Trump knows he can secure meaningful concessions from them and then present those as political wins.”

Core export sectors face pressure

The US is one of the largest export markets for both Seoul and Tokyo, particularly in key industries like automobiles, semiconductors, electronic appliances and steel.

According to Japanese customs data, the US was Japan’s largest export market last year, receiving 21.3 trillion yen ($145 billion) worth of Japanese goods. Automobiles and auto parts comprised approximately 34 percent of the shipments, representing the biggest single industry category. Other sectors include machinery, electronic appliances and semiconductors.

For Korea, the US was the second-largest export market after China, as it exported $127.8 billion to the US last year. Automobiles and auto parts combined for the largest single category with about 30 percent, followed by semiconductors at approximately 10 percent, according to the Korea International Trade Association.

This heavy reliance on a few high-performing sectors leaves both countries vulnerable to targeted trade measures, analysts say.

“The US, as a chronic trade deficit country with a growing deficit, will make efforts to improve not only under the Trump administration, but beyond,” said Chung Sung-hoon, a senior fellow at the Korea Development Institute, in a recent report. “Especially since Korea’s surplus is concentrated in few items, those very categories are likely to become the main target of tariff policy.”

Chung added that among the US top 10 trade deficit items last year, three categories ― including home appliances, semiconductors and automobiles ― exactly match Korea’s key export sectors. These are also the areas where the US has already announced additional tariffs, putting Korea at greater risk.

American 25 percent tariffs on automobiles and auto parts have already delivered a significant blow to Japanese and South Korean automakers.

Japan, which exports more than 1 million vehicles to the US annually, witnessed its exports of motor vehicles to the US plummet 24.7 percent on-year in May, right after the auto tariffs were imposed the previous month, according to the Finance Ministry. The Japan External Trade Organization projected that US tariffs on automobiles could reduce Japan’s gross domestic product by 0.3 percent this year.

In South Korea, the Bank of Korea projected in May that US tariff policies will hit the auto industry the hardest, estimating an overall 0.6 percent drop in exports, with US-bound exports facing a steeper 4 percent decline this year.

sahn@heraldcorp.com

koreaherald.com · by Ahn Sung-mi · July 14, 2025

De Oppresso Liber,

David Maxwell

Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy

Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation

Editor, Small Wars Journal

Twitter: @davidmaxwell161

Phone: 202-573-8647

email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com

De Oppresso Liber,

David Maxwell

Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy

Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation

Editor, Small Wars Journal

Twitter: @davidmaxwell161

email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com

If you do not read anything else in the 2017 National Security Strategy read this on page 14:

"A democracy is only as resilient as its people. An informed and engaged citizenry is the fundamental requirement for a free and resilient nation. For generations, our society has protected free press, free speech, and free thought. Today, actors such as Russia are using information tools in an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of democracies. Adversaries target media, political processes, financial networks, and personal data. The American public and private sectors must recognize this and work together to defend our way of life. No external threat can be allowed to shake our shared commitment to our values, undermine our system of government, or divide our Nation."

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