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All articles - North Korea

South Korea launched its second spy satellite from Florida, US, on 7 April 2024. © Handout/South Korean Defence Ministry/AFP

Seoul steps up its satellite surveillance of Pyongyang

South Korea, which launched its fourth spy satellite on 22 April, is gaining significant capacity to monitor North Korea.

Subscribers only Surveillance & Interception Running story - Earth observation 28.04.2025

Russia's Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Alexander Kozlov with North Korea's External Economic Relations Minister Yun Jong Ho in Pyongyang, 21 November 2024. © STR/KCNA via KNS/AFP

Spotlight
Alongside troop deployments to Ukraine, Pyongyang increases infrastructure projects with Moscow

After providing early details of the planned deployment of North Korean soldiers in Ukraine, Intelligence Online can now reveal the many logistical and energy projects being secretly developed between North Korea and Russia.

Subscribers only Government Intelligence Running story - From Moscow to Pyongyang 16.12.2024

Russian coal set to be shipped via North Korea

Moscow and Pyongyang have finalised a deal to export Russian coal to Asia via the North Korean port of Rason. The route will afford new ways into the global market for this raw material, which is subject to Western sanctions.

Subscribers only International Dealmaking Running story - From Moscow to Pyongyang 11.12.2024

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in Pyongyang, 19 June 2024. © Yonhap News Agency/MaxPPP

Spotlight
Clock ticks for Russia's Security Council to get Pyongyang military alliance ratified

Intelligence Online can reveal the details of how Moscow's supreme security body is coordinating all aspects of North Korea's troop reinforcements in Russia - while carefully monitoring reactions in Beijing and Seoul.

Subscribers only Government Intelligence Running story - From Moscow to Pyongyang 04.11.2024

Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Alexander Kozlov and North Korean President Kim Jong-un during a visit to the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, Russia, on 17 September 2023. © EPA-EFE/Government of Primorsky Krai/MaxPPP

Not just soldiers, thousands of North Koreans working undercover in Russia

The Kremlin is finding inventive ways to circumvent UN sanctions banning the employment of North Korean labour. Intelligence Online has uncovered a tried-and-tested student visa system that enables thousands of Pyongyang inhabitants to be put to work in construction.

Subscribers only Government Intelligence Running story - From Moscow to Pyongyang 22.10.2024

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspecting artillery firing ranges (undated picture released from Korean Central News Agency, on 6 October 2024). © STR/KCNA via KNS/AFP

Guoanbu's shadow lurks behind Kim Jong Un's harder line

The Chinese Ministry of State Security is taking advantage of turbulent international waters and North Korea's dire finances to reach out to Kim Jong-un. The helping hand, however, comes with a set of requests.

Subscribers only Government Intelligence 21.10.2024

Running story
Moscow and Pyongyang's budding 'romance'

At odds with the West, Russia is looking for new allies. Military assistance, industrial and academic cooperation, currency and technology transfers plus other goodwill gestures: North Korea is emerging as a new partner of choice for Moscow, whose diplomats have been intensively courting their counterparts in Pyongyang since the spring of 2022.

Subscribers only Government Intelligence 13.01.2025

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Spotlight
Intelligence services enforce ban on sharing same name as Kim Jong-un's daughter and presumed successor

The North Korean intelligence department, Bowibu, is implementing a ban preventing other people from using Kim Jong-un's youngest daughter's first name, Ju-ae. Originally, the Workers' Party of Korea was supposed to be doing this, but failed.

Subscribers only Government Intelligence 30.08.2024

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his (possibly) youngest daughter, Kim Ju-ae, Pyongyang, 15 May 2024.

Russia and North Korea agree to grant China direct access to North Pacific

Capitalising on the opportunities afforded by the war in Ukraine, China has quietly secured unlimited access to the North Pacific via the Tumen River, thanks to an agreement between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un. This also allows Beijing to bypass Taiwan.

Free access Government Intelligence 09.07.2024

The Kuril Islands and the Tumen River in the Indo-Pacific (illustration).

Seoul beefs up diplomatic intelligence to extend global reach

South Korea is eager to carve out a larger role for itself on the international stage, and has created a strategy and intelligence bureau within its ministry of foreign affairs. Most of the diplomats assigned to it have experience of working on the North Korea file.

Subscribers only Government Intelligence 14.06.2024

Pyongyang and Berlin play diplomatic tit-for-tat

Following the high-profile visit of German diplomats to North Korea in February, Pyongyang and Berlin both attempted to find a common ground, before diplomatic relations became strained once again.

Subscribers only Government Intelligence 24.05.2024

Iran and North Korea munition support to Russia could slow

Kyiv believes Tehran and Pyongyang will decrease their munition deliveries to Moscow, while Ukraine and its allies ramp up their volumes.

Subscribers only Government Intelligence 30.04.2024

Gunners from the Ukrainian armed forces fire a 2C22 Bohdana 155mm self-propelled howitzer at a Russian position in the Kharkiv region on 21 April 2024.

Spotlight
Chinese and US manoeuvres behind aborted meeting between Fumio Kishida and Kim Yo-Jong

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, at the behest of the United States, mobilised his diplomats to arrange a meeting with Kim Yo-Jong, the sister of the North Korean leader. But Japan's attempt to open up to North Korea irked China and led Beijing to call Pyongyang to order.

Subscribers only Government Intelligence 05.04.2024

The Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, Kim Yo-Jong.

Beijing lets North Korean workers protest near border to pressure Pyongyang

North Korean workers in China are protesting near the border with North Korea under the watchful eye of China's Ministry of State Security. Kim Jong-un's regime can't do anything to stop the demonstrations, except realign itself to Beijing's interests.

Subscribers only Government Intelligence 29.02.2024

Russia planning for half a million North Koreans to replace Muslim construction workers

Amid concessions to Pyongyang and the FSB's new ethno-security considerations, Moscow is secretly preparing to import 500,000 North Korean workers.

Subscribers only International Dealmaking 10.01.2024

North Korean labourers dispatched to rebuild Donbas

Unofficial Kremlin-mandated sherpas are discreetly accompanying the first batches of North Korean workers to their dormitories and workplaces in Eastern Ukraine where they have been tasked with rebuilding war-devastated areas.

Subscribers only International Dealmaking 08.01.2024

Russian tax authorities watchful of counter-proliferation issues with Pyongyang

The rapprochement between Pyongyang and Moscow, illustrated by Kim Jong-un's recent visit to Vladimir Putin, has not deterred Russia's tax authorities from taking a keen interest in counter-proliferation issues with North Korea.

Subscribers only Government Intelligence 25.09.2023

Conseil d'Etat ends French Senate president's appeal over Pyongyang spying affair

France's supreme court of administrative justice has rejected a last-ditch appeal filed by Senate President Gérard Larcher against the return to service of Benoît Quennedey, whom the DGSI once accused of spying for North Korea.

Subscribers only Government Intelligence 21.08.2023

The president of the French Senate, Gérard Larcher.

Young Voices helps conservative US writers and foreign dissidents become champions of America

Part talent agency, part PR firm, Young Voices is closely affiliated with the Koch-funded Atlas Network, and its most famous graduate is celebrity North Korean defector Yeonmi Park.

Free access Corporate Intelligence 28.07.2023

US and South Korean intelligence investigate Western components on Pyongyang's satellite

US and South Korean experts worked together to examine a North Korean satellite that crashed into the sea in late May, but those teams are more interested in the device's Western parts than in Pyongyang's technological know-how.

Subscribers only Government Intelligence 14.07.2023

On 16 June 2023, the South Korean army will present the debris from the North Korean rocket that was carrying a military reconnaissance satellite and crashed into the sea in late May.

Intense negotiations under way for Kim Jong-un's visit to Beijing

Before the potential summit meeting between the Chinese and North Korean leaders at the end of this year, Chinese delegations are due to visit Pyongyang. Drawing on their common support for Russia in its war with Ukraine, the two want to put the improvement in their relations on an official footing.

Subscribers only Government Intelligence 03.07.2023

North Korean labourers ready to start rebuilding the Donbass in mid-July

Russian deputy PM Marat Khusnullin's teams are ready to start welcoming North Korean building workers in Moscow before sending them off into the territories occupied by Russia in eastern Ukraine. The operation is creating a lot of work for Russia's security and para-security services.

Subscribers only Government Intelligence 30.06.2023

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All articles - North Korea

Seoul steps up its satellite surveillance of Pyongyang

Spotlight Alongside troop deployments to Ukraine, Pyongyang increases infrastructure projects with Moscow

Russian coal set to be shipped via North Korea

Spotlight Clock ticks for Russia's Security Council to get Pyongyang military alliance ratified

Not just soldiers, thousands of North Koreans working undercover in Russia

Guoanbu's shadow lurks behind Kim Jong Un's harder line

Running story Moscow and Pyongyang's budding 'romance'

Spotlight Intelligence services enforce ban on sharing same name as Kim Jong-un's daughter and presumed successor

Russia and North Korea agree to grant China direct access to North Pacific

Seoul beefs up diplomatic intelligence to extend global reach

Pyongyang and Berlin play diplomatic tit-for-tat

Iran and North Korea munition support to Russia could slow

Spotlight Chinese and US manoeuvres behind aborted meeting between Fumio Kishida and Kim Yo-Jong

Beijing lets North Korean workers protest near border to pressure Pyongyang

Russia planning for half a million North Koreans to replace Muslim construction workers

North Korean labourers dispatched to rebuild Donbas

Russian tax authorities watchful of counter-proliferation issues with Pyongyang

Conseil d'Etat ends French Senate president's appeal over Pyongyang spying affair

Young Voices helps conservative US writers and foreign dissidents become champions of America

US and South Korean intelligence investigate Western components on Pyongyang's satellite

Intense negotiations under way for Kim Jong-un's visit to Beijing

North Korean labourers ready to start rebuilding the Donbass in mid-July

Seoul refines its analysis of Kim Jong-un's potential successor

Spotlight Boxers and North Korean construction workers to help rebuild occupied regions of Ukraine

Pyongyang's planned military technology transfers from Donbass

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China, Europe, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, United States
The geopolitical power plays in Earth observation

France
Intelligence memos and grey zones before French courts

Ukraine
Jamming wars

Armenia, Azerbaijan, France
Information wars in the Caucasus

Israel
Israeli cyber bounces back after NSO woes

Insiders | China
Security, propaganda and the PLA: Xi Jinping forges new networks of influence

Insiders | Qatar
Barzan Holdings, Qatar's defence industry giant springing up out of the desert

Spotlight
Alongside troop deployments to Ukraine, Pyongyang increases infrastructure projects with Moscow

Spotlight
Clock ticks for Russia's Security Council to get Pyongyang military alliance ratified

Running story
Moscow and Pyongyang's budding 'romance'

Spotlight
Intelligence services enforce ban on sharing same name as Kim Jong-un's daughter and presumed successor

Spotlight
Chinese and US manoeuvres behind aborted meeting between Fumio Kishida and Kim Yo-Jong

Spotlight
Boxers and North Korean construction workers to help rebuild occupied regions of Ukraine