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.

Asia

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

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a nuclear submarine factory and received a message from Russia&rsquo;s Vladimir Putin hailing the countries&rsquo; &ldquo;invincible friendship,&rdquo; Pyongyang&rsquo;s state media said Thursday. North Korea and Russia have drawn closer since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, and Pyongyang has sent troops to fight for Russia. In return, Russia is sending North Korea financial aid, military technology, and food and energy supplies, analysts say. The &ldquo;heroic&rdquo; efforts of North Korean soldiers in Russia&rsquo;s Kursk region &ldquo;clearly proved the invincible friendship&rdquo; between Moscow and Pyongyang, Putin said in a message to Kim, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Their work demonstrated the nations&rsquo; &ldquo;militant fraternity,&rdquo; Putin said in the message received by Pyongyang last week. The provisions of the &ldquo;historic treaty&rdquo; the two leaders signed last year, which includes a mutual defence clause, had been fulfilled &ldquo;thanks to our joint efforts,&rdquo; Putin wrote. South Korean and Western intelligence agencies have estimated that the North has sent thousands of soldiers to Russia, primarily to Kursk, along with artillery shells, missiles, and long-range rocket systems. Around 2,000 troops have been killed, and thousands more have been wounded, according to South Korean estimates. North Korea acknowledged this month that its troops in Kursk had been assigned to clear mines and that some had died on deployment. KCNA reported Putin&rsquo;s letter on the same day that it published details of Kim&rsquo;s undated recent visit to a manufacturing base for nuclear-powered submarines. There, the North Korean leader vowed to counter the &ldquo;threat&rdquo; of South Korea producing its own such vessels. US President Donald Trump has given the green light for South Korea to build &ldquo;nuclear-powered attack submarines,&rdquo; though key details of the project remain uncertain. Photos published by KCNA showed Kim walking alongside a purportedly 8,700-tonne submarine at an indoor assembly site, surrounded by officials and his daughter, Kim Ju Ae. In another image, Kim Jong Un smiles during an official briefing as Kim Ju Ae stands beside him. Pyongyang would view Seoul developing nuclear subs as &ldquo;an offensive act severely violating its security and maritime sovereignty,&rdquo; Kim Jong Un said, according to KCNA. It was therefore &ldquo;indispensable&rdquo; to &ldquo;accelerate the radical development of the modernisation and nuclear weaponisation of the naval force,&rdquo; he said. Kim clarified a naval reorganisation plan and learned about research into &ldquo;new underwater secret weapons,&rdquo; KCNA said, without giving details. Pyongyang&rsquo;s defence ministry said it would consider &ldquo;countermeasures&rdquo; against US &ldquo;nuclear muscle flexing,&rdquo; a separate report said Thursday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a nuclear submarine factory and received a message from Russia’s Vladimir Putin hailing the countries’ “invincible friendship,” Pyongyang’s state media said Thursday

North Korea's Kim visits nuclear subs as Putin hails 'invincible' bond

SEOUL: North Korea is circumventing UN sanctions by using cryptocurrency to trade raw materials and military weaponry, and by deploying large numbers of IT workers abroad to launder funds and generate income for Pyongyang, an international sanctions monitoring group reported. Under leader Kim Jong Un, Pyongyang has ramped up cyber operations in recent years, turning hacking into a key source of foreign currency in the face of biting sanctions over its nuclear and weapons programs. The Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) found that North Korea&#39;s sophisticated cyber force had stolen at least $1.65 billion from January to September 2025, including $1.4 billion from crypto exchange Bybit in February. That was in addition to North Korea&#39;s ill-gotten cryptocurrency gains of $1.2 billion in 2024, the monitoring group said in a report Wednesday. Pyongyang funnels the funds into &ldquo;the unlawful development of its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs,&rdquo; it said. The report&#39;s authors found that North Korean officials used a type of cryptocurrency called stablecoin &ldquo;for procurement-related transactions, including the sale and transfer of military equipment and raw materials such as copper, which is used in munitions production.&rdquo; The country further evaded UN sanctions by sending IT workers to at least eight countries. Most went to China, but others were dispatched to Russia, Laos, Cambodia, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Nigeria and Tanzania. MSMT also found that North Korea was planning to send &ldquo;40,000 laborers to Russia, including several delegations of IT workers.&rdquo; Under UN sanctions, North Korean workers are prohibited from earning money abroad. North Korea has secured crucial backing from Russia in recent years after sending weapons and thousands of North Korean troops to fight alongside Moscow&#39;s forces against Ukraine. The MSMT also cited a 2024 report by 38 North, a specialist analysis program run by the Stimson Center think tank, stating that North Korean IT workers &mdash; hiding their nationalities &mdash; secured contracts to work on animation projects that were being steered by Japanese and US companies like Amazon and HBO Max. An Amazon spokesperson contacted by AFP stressed that the company had never hired any such workers directly. &ldquo;We had previously worked with an animation studio that hired subcontractors who were allegedly involved in the scheme; however, they were not Amazon employees and didn&#39;t have access to internal systems,&rdquo; the spokesperson said. HBO did not respond to an AFP request for comment. The report said the North Korean animators also worked for companies such as Pyongyang&#39;s state-owned animation studio SEK &mdash; previously reported to have assisted in Western projects such as 2007&#39;s &ldquo;The Simpsons Movie.&rdquo; Seoul&#39;s intelligence agency last year said North Korean operatives had used LinkedIn to pose as recruiters and approach South Koreans working at defense firms to obtain information on their technologies. The MSMT, launched last October, monitors and reports violations of UN Security Council sanctions on North Korea, though it operates independently of the UN. It comprises Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, the UK and the United States.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks at a Pyongyang memorial groundbreaking on Oct. 23, 2025, highlighting growing ties with Moscow. (AFP)

Crypto

North Korea is evading UN sanctions by using cryptocurrency for illicit trade and deploying IT workers overseas to launder money, funding its weapons programs and generating income for Pyongyang.


North Korea uses crypto, IT workers to evade sanctions: report

SEOUL: North Korea showed off its &quot;most powerful&quot; intercontinental ballistic missile at a military parade attended by top officials from Russia and China, Pyongyang&#39;s state media reported Saturday. The event to mark 80 years under the ruling Workers&#39; Party came as leader Kim Jong Un has been emboldened by the war in Ukraine, securing critical support from Russia after sending thousands of North Korean troops to fight alongside Moscow&#39;s forces. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia&#39;s Security Council and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, attended the parade Friday alongside Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Vietnam&#39;s leader To Lam -- all seated near Kim, according to images released by the official Korean Central News Agency. Intercontinental ballistic missileThe spectacle featured some of the country&#39;s most advanced weapons, including its new Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which KCNA described as its &quot;most powerful nuclear strategic weapon system&quot;. Thousands of people in colorful traditional dress filled the streets of the North Korean capital for the late-night event, the images showed, waving national flags and cheering as weapons rumbled down the main streets. Among the featured weapons, long-range strategic cruise missiles, drone launch vehicles, and ground-to-air and ground-to-ground missiles paraded one after another, KCNA added. &lsquo;Invincible&rsquo; army&nbsp;The country&#39;s &quot;invincible&quot; army &quot;has always added doubled strength to our Party&#39;s efforts to overcome difficulties and bring earlier a bright future&quot;, Kim said in a speech. He made an apparent nod to North Korean troops fighting alongside Moscow&#39;s forces in Russia&#39;s war against Ukraine. &quot;The heroic fighting spirit displayed, and the victory achieved, by our revolutionary armed forces on the foreign battlefields for international justice ... demonstrated the ideological and spiritual perfection,&quot; he said, according to KCNA. Around 600 North Korean soldiers have been killed and thousands more wounded fighting for Russia, Seoul has said. <h2 style="line-height: 2;">&lsquo;In love&rsquo; &nbsp;</h2>The parade displayed the isolated, nuclear-armed country&#39;s &quot;inexhaustible defense technology potential and its astonishing pace of development that the world can no longer ignore&quot;, KCNA said. The celebrations in Pyongyang come after Seoul said a meeting between North Korea and the United States &quot;cannot be ruled out&quot; on the sidelines of this year&#39;s APEC summit in South Korea. US President Donald Trump met Kim three times during his first term and once said the pair had fallen &quot;in love&quot;, but he ultimately failed to secure a lasting agreement on North Korea&#39;s nuclear programme. &lsquo;Irreversible&rsquo; nuclear state&nbsp;Since then Pyongyang has repeatedly declared itself an &quot;irreversible&quot; nuclear state. Last month, Kim appeared alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin at an elaborate military parade in Beijing. In a joint statement from Moscow and Pyongyang released by KCNA earlier this week, Russia&#39;s ruling party said it &quot;expressed firm support for the measures taken&quot; by North Korea &quot;to bolster up the country&#39;s defense capabilities&quot;. &lsquo;Structural shift&rsquo;&nbsp;Seong-Hyon Lee, a visiting scholar at the Harvard University Asia Center, told AFP: &quot;It is crucial to see this parade not as an isolated event, but as the culmination of a deliberate, structural shift in regional geopolitics.&quot;&quot;It serves as a stark warning that Seoul&#39;s strengthened alliance with Washington will be met with a consolidated and powerful trilateral bloc on its doorstep.&quot;&nbsp;

The intercontinental ballistic missile was put on display at a military parade attended by top officials from Russia and China; the event was held to mark 80 years under the ruling Workers' Party. 

Articles tagged with "north korea"

South Korea police raid spy agency over drone flights into North

North Korea's Kim visits nuclear subs as Putin hails 'invincible' bond

North Korea uses crypto, IT workers to evade sanctions: report

North Korea shows off 'most powerful' missile at military parade