China Welcoming Friends Old and New

"This parade showcases the ascendancy of China propelled by Trump's inept diplomacy and President Xi's astute statecraft."

"The Washington consensus has unravelled, and Xi is rallying support for an alternative."

Jeff Kingston, professor of Asian studies, Temple University, Japan 

 

"Though the Russia-North Korea tie has resumed to a military alliance, China refuses to return to the year of 1950 [when Beijing sent soldiers to support North Korea's invasion of the South and the USSR provided critical military aid]."

"It is wrong to believe that China, Russia and North Korea are reinforcing bloc-building."

Zhu Feng, dean, School of International Relations, Nanjing University 

 

"I want to say that no one has been plotting anything, no one was weaving any conspiracies."

"None of the three leaders had even thought about such a thing."

Yuri Ushakov, Putin foreign affairs adviser

 

"Kim can also claim a diplomatic victory as North Korea has gone from unanimously sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council for its illegal nuclear and missile programs to being embraced by the UNSC permanent members Russia and China."

Leif-Eric Easley, professor of International Studies, Ewha Womans University, Seoul

China put its military might on display Wednesday with a large parade. Also on display was China’s Xi Jinping flanked by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, a group of leaders united in a desire to challenge the dominance of the United States.  Still from video/CBC

 

Standing shoulder to shoulder, leaders of China, North Korea and Russia watched high-tech military hardware moving impressively along with thousands of soldiers marching the streets of Beijing in an massive show of strength and power. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke with private confidence, smiling, clasping hands at a meeting several days before the military parade, at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

 

The meetings represented living proof of a message being sent to the United States of America and its allies through a shift from the U.S.-dominated world order led by the West with American President Donald Trump withdrawing from his nation's historic alliances, while imposing trade tariffs on friend and foe alike, shaking the world economy, puzzling allies and placing them on the defensive, looking elsewhere for validation of their right to aspire to economic and political stability, left adrift by the one guiding-light nation that has turned inward.

 

"Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Jun, as you conspire against The United States of America" was President Trump's message to his Chinese counterpart, while congratulating China on its celebration of emergence from the Second World War, free from Japanese occupation. A freedom from occupation not due to China's own defences, but owing to the offensive offered by the United States in humbling and defeating Japan through the persuasive power of its then-emerging nuclear capabilities.

The latest drones, missiles and other weapons were on display during a military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, in front of Tiananmen Gate in Beijing on Wednesday. Chinese President Xi Jinping invited dozens of leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to his nation's largest-ever military parade. (Liu Xu/Xinhua/The Associated Press)

 

The 80th anniversary in Beijing commemorating the end of the Second World War was the annual showcasing of Beijing's dedication to its own burgeoning nuclear arsenals on land, in the air and at sea. China's assertiveness, its expansionist imperatives and economic/manufacturing/infrastructure/trade and foreign investment through its ambitious Belt and Road initiative signal it as the emerging counterpart of the powerful United States of America.

 

The leaders invited to share China's celebratory commemoration, from Russia to North Korea, India to Turkey, Iran and to Cuba, share one issue in common between them, isolation and sanctions from the United States and its Western bloc of allies. Beyond that shared connection is the fact that each of those nations is fully focused on their own aspirational futures, some in direct contradiction to China's. Even while isolation drives their friendship, it is a facade, since they all aspire to achieve their goals, while gravitating around China's lead.

 

YJ-21 hypersonic anti-ship ballistic missiles are seen during a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II, in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on September 3, 2025.   Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images

 

China remains concerned with North Korea's nuclear power which has softened its support for Kim. Making common cause with Putin, both deeply isolated from the West, belies the reality that though both have signed a military pact strengthening their overt ties, they still and will always have territorial disagreements in a silent infiltration of Chinese in Russia's far east, scantly populated by Russians and increasingly taken possession of by Chinese settlers.

 

The free trade agreement that India and Washington were negotiating fell apart when Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff across the board as punishment for the Russian oil New Delhi has signed on to; with combined tariffs at 50 percent taking Modi aback at a time when relations with the U.S. were on rocky ground of late, forcing India to look elsewhere for support and for the time being, moving closer to China and Russia.  

"India is carefully walking this tightrope between the West and the rest, especially when it comes to the U.S., Russia and China."

"[Modi did not participate in Beijing's military parade since] distrust with China still exists."

"Because India does not believe in formal alliances, its approach has been to strengthen its relationship with the United States, maintain it with Russia, and manage it with China."

Praveen Donthi, senior analyst, International Crisis Group 

Military personnel take part in a military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Japan’s World War II surrender held in front of Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Flirting Dangerously With Prospects of World War III

"Today, I can confirm that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, and that North Korean military units have been deployed to the Kursk region."

"[The move represents] a significant escalation [in North Korea's involvement in the conflict and marks] a dangerous expansion of Russia's war."

"[NATO is] actively consulting within the alliance, with Ukraine, and with our Indo-Pacific partners [on developments]."

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte

 

"This is our sovereign decision."

"Whether we use it or not, where, how, or whether we engage in exercises, training, or transfer some experience. "

"It’s our business."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

 

"North Korean soldiers are deployed to support Russia’s war of aggression. It's a grave escalation in this war and a threat to global peace."

"[The EU would] respond together with our like-minded partners."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen  

"[A] portion [of those soldiers had already moved closer to Ukraine."

"The US is increasingly concerned that Russia would use these soldiers] in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk oblast [region]."

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh

The Ukrainian spy agency released video that it says was intercepted from Russian soldiers complaining about North Korean troops and the language barrier. Reuters

A high-level South Korean delegation, along with top intelligence and military officials as well as senior diplomats briefed NATO's 32 national ambassadors at NATO headquarters in Brussels on what is known at this time respecting the deployment of North Korean soldiers to Russia for training to take part in the Russian conflict against Ukraine.

Sergey Lavrov, Russia's Foreign Minister pointed out that Pyongyang and Moscow had signed a joint security pact in June. Although he was responding to the statement by NATO's Mark Rutte, he confined himself to that single remark, side-stepping any confirmation that North Korean soldiers were actually in Russia at this point. On the other hand, he pointed out, Western military instructors have been deployed covertly to Ukraine to train its military in the use of long-range weapons supplied to Ukraine by its Western partners.

NATO has confirmation that troops from North Korea have been dispatched to Russia to aid its war against Ukraine, elaborating with the additional confirmation received that some troops have already been deployed in the Kursk border region where significantly, the Russian military has been attempting to push back a Ukrainian incursion into Russia well beyond the border between the two that appears to be well dug in.

Thousands of North Korean soldiers -- an estimated total of 10,000 -- would represent a significant boon to Russia in Europe's largest conflict since the Second World War. In the process the situation will place greater pressure on Ukraine's overstretched military and underarmed, war-weary soldiers. On Monday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that about 650,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded. "They [Russians] are not collecting the bodies... their people are rotting on the ground." 

 

Geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the greater Indo-Pacific region including Japan and Australia are being stoked, according to Western officials. The more complex the situation becomes, the more heated the conflict and wider in its implications, drawing in sympathetic supporters on either side -- East and West -- the likelier it is that the embers of a greater and more widespread conflict can accelerate the flames of war; that World War III hovers on the horizon.

 

It is obvious that Vladimir Putin's end-game is the goal of reshaping of global power dynamics, seeking a counterbalance to Western influence during a summit of BRICS countries where the leaders of China and India visited Russia a week ago. Direct assistance for his war was sought from Iran, whose supply of drones has been most useful to the Kremlin, alongside North Korea's contribution of ammunition to Russia's war machinery.

• NATO says N.Korean troops may be headed to front line
• South Korea and Ukraine vow to step up cooperation
• North Korea's foreign minister arrives in Russia for talks
• Kremlin doesn't deny reports of N.Korean troops in Russia
  

"This war is becoming internationalized, extending beyond two countries."

"We agreed to strengthen intelligence and expertise exchange, intensify contacts at all levels, especially the highest, in order to develop an action strategy and countermeasures to address this escalation."                                                                                                             Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

A news broadcast in Seoul showing a satellite image of Russia's Ussuriysk military facility, where intelligence agencies said North Korean personnel were gathered within the training ground. Photograph: Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

 

 

"Extreme Uneasiness and Horror"

"[The test launch of the Hwasong 18 intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday would make enemies] experience a clearer security crisis,and constantly strike extreme uneasiness and horror into them by taking fatal and offensive counteractions until they abandon their senseless thinking and reckless acts."

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un 

"[The development of the Hwasong-18 will] extensively reform the strategic deterrence components of the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea, radically promote the effectiveness of its nuclear counterattack posture and bring about a change in the practicality of its offensive military strategy."

North Korean state media outlet KCNA

 

“At an earlier stage of North Korea’s missile program, liquid-fuel ICBMs represented the quickest and easiest path to achieving the country’s historic goal of being able to threaten the continental United States."

“The addition of solid-fuel ICBMs to the missile force would make it a more credible strategic deterrent by providing a more capable, less vulnerable pre-emptive and retaliatory capability."

Joseph Dempsey, research associate, International Institute for Strategic Studies

North Korea says it launched a new type of Hwasong-18 Intercontinental ballistic missile using solid fuel, on Thursday, according to state media KCNA. Courtesy Rodong Sinmun

Both North Korea and China enjoy making extravagantly pompous statements referring to themselves and the place they hold in the world. they both share a sense of awe of their pre-eminence that exists mostly in their collective mindset, and seem to believe their every utterance inspires fear and loathing in the minds of their presumed detractors against whom they struggle to contain malign intentions to do them great harm, while they are themselves the paranoiac threat-masters of global violence. They ascribe to their presumed enemies all the threatening qualities that are their own.

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un -- impressed with his own belief in his superior intelligence and profound leadership of an impoverished nation grappling constantly with food insecurity, yet heavily investing in advanced technologies meant for no purpose other than to initially intimidate and threaten and eventually to deploy in a bid to destroy the potential for those it identifies as awaiting an opportunity to destroy the Hermit Kingdom, proposing by its actions to act before they do -- presents as an amateur yet sinister director of a very bad film.

Several days ago North Korea officially announced its testing of a new solid-fuel ICBM, meant to "radically promote" the preparation of its forces for an eventual denouement of the forces that threaten its own. Experts interpret the latest provocations from North Korea as a new type of weaponry meant to facilitate missile launches with scant warning. This represents the North's first use of solid propellants in an intermediate-range ICBM. Bringing North Korea into a very specialized field of deploying missiles faster during an actual conflict.

 

 

The weapon remains in the development stage according to its defence ministry, with more time and effort required to perfect the advanced technology, warning that more tests are on the way. The country's state media released photographs of its leader witnessing the launch in the company of his sister, wife and daughter. This, in response yet again -- and predictably -- to joint exercises carried out by South Korea and the United States air forces, drills that were staged with U.S. B-52H bombers joined by F-34A, F-14 and F-15 fighter jets.

Recent U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises certainly exacerbate the situation, sending Kim into paroxysms of paranoia and leading to a series of missile tests in a sabre-rattling contest that no one would win. Japan, threatened by the North's constant barrages that enter Japan's zone of air defence, conducted separate air drills with U.S. B-52 bomber jets on Friday, with four U.S. F-35 fighters and four Japanese F-15 fighters. These are not 'games' but tense back-and-forth feeler-threats.

North Korea's largest ballistic missiles use liquid fuel, requiring loading with propellant at the launch site, time-consuming and dangerous. A former U.S. government weapons expert, Vann Van Diepen, explained that solid-fuel missiles are easier and safer to operate, requiring less logistical support, and making them harder to detect and more survivable than liquid fuel missiles. Analysts feel however, that the U.S. could distinguish between solid' or liquid-fuelled launches with early warning satellites capable of detecting differences in infrared data various missile types produce.

"For any country that operates large-scale, missile-based nuclear forces, solid-propelled missiles are an incredibly desirable capability because they don't need to be fuelled immediately prior to use."

"These capabilities are much more responsive in a time of crisis."

“I think it demonstrates technological progress, but I would not describe this as a game changer.”  

“Based on their competency with materials and engineering that we’ve seen in other areas, developing a robust enough reentry vehicle is not a substantial technical challenge,”

Ankit Panda, senior fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

"North Korea could have opted to focus on collecting data necessary to check its features at different stages than going full speed at the first launch."

"As it was a test that did not demonstrate its normal flight pattern, North Korea will likely conduct some more tests."

Kim Dong-yup, professor, University of North Korean Studies

North Korea says it launched a new type of Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile using solid fuel, on Thursday   Courtesy Rodong Sinmun

Reasoning With North Korea

"Based on calculations taking the trajectory into account, the ballistic missile this time around could have had a range capability of 15,000km, depending on the weight of its warhead, and if that's the case, it means the US mainland was within its range."

"We have told [Pyongyang] that we absolutely cannot tolerate such actions." 

Japan's defence minister Yasukazu Hamada

 

"Even if the North does successfully launch the Hwasong-17, the threat will not have significantly increased."

"It must prove it has mastered the technology to be able to mount enough small nuclear warheads onto the ICBM."

Yang Uk, military expert, Asan Institute.

 

"[Threats from the United States and its allies provoked our country to] substantially accelerate the bolstering of its overwhelming nuclear deterrence." 

"Our party and government will resolutely react to nukes with nuclear weapons and to total confrontation with all-out confrontation."

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un

Pyongyang is developing a new type of long-range missile   EPA

The most recent launch of an ICBM from North Korea's capital region was detected by South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff in its second major weapons test conducted this month. One that indicated a potential capacity to launch nuclear strikes, possibly on the entire U.S. mainland. North Korea is notoriously secretive about its Intercontinental Cruise Ballistic Missile program, just as it is about its nuclear program to match the ICBMs. Its occasional testy and celebrated tests alert the world to its covert activities.

And while Pyongyang is deliberate about its secret plans, it is also deliberate about flaunting its technical progress. Experts remain uncertain whether the country's production includes functioning nuclear-armed missiles, leading some to hazard that Friday's launch while involving its longest-range missile yet under development, designed to carry multiple nuclear warheads as quite ready to challenge what it insists is the United States' plan to attack North Korea. Nor that its latest ICBM design has the capability of overcoming U.S. missile defence systems.

Its intention of challenging the United States and threats it has the capability of hitting the mainland anywhere along its extensive coast, is without question. Despite its belligerence and the danger inherent in its surprise missile tests unsettling its neighbours, China and Russia continue to block any U.S. moves to strengthen UN sanctions purposing to curb North Korea's nuclear program.

Predictably under the circumstances, the U.S. responded by condemning the launch, promising to take "all necessary measures" for the safety of its territory and that of its allies South Korea and Japan. "We again call for North Korea to stop further unlawful, destabilizing acts. On behalf of the United States, I reaffirm our ironclad commitment to our Indo-Pacific alliances. Together the countries represented here will continue to urge North Korea to commit to serious and sustained diplomacy", stated Kamela Harris, at a regional forum in Bangkok.

A futile promise, since North Korea is not and never has been amenable to reason. It is congenitally, chronically paranoid and the assurances the U.S. gives to its allies only provokes further reaction from Pyongyang. When Donald Trump was president, he made the surprise move of meeting directly with Kim Jong Un, who loved the attention, and played his role alongside that of Mr. Trump, but the war games shared with South Korea in U.S. exercises were and are guaranteed to arouse rage and threats from the North.

 

The North Korean government shows the test-firing of a missile at Pyongyang International Airport in Pyongyang, North Korea, Nov. 18, 2022. Photo released Nov. 19, 2022.

 

Japanese and South Korea estimated the missile flew 1,000 kilometres with a maximum altitude of 6,000 to 6,100 km.  According to Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada, depending on the weight of a potential warhead, the missile had a range in excess of 15,000 km -- "In which case it could cover the entire mainland United States". North Korea, believes Kwon Yong Soo, former professor at Korea National Defence University, tested a developmental Hwasong-17 missile which has the capacity to carry three to five nuclear warheads, flying as far as 15,000 km.

A long-range missile like the Hwasong-17, capable of flying a lengthier route to the American mainland to evade the current U.S. missile defence systems is what North Korea needs for the purpose, emphasized Professor Kwon. North Kora has demonstrated its missiles have ICBM-class flight ranges but has not  yet proven warheads could survive the harsh conditions of atmospheric re-entry, pointed out missile expert Chang Young-keun at Korea Aerospace University.

Friday's launch, explained Professor Chang, was successful; flight details indicating it was the same type missile North Korea tested in March when it claimed to have launched a Hwasong-17. "Pyongyang must immediately cease its destabilizing actions and instead choose diplomatic engagement; [the launch] needlessly raises tensions", stated U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson. To a country and a leader that is tone-deaf to what the international community expects it 'should' do.

 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and his daughter inspect what it says a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile at Pyongyang International Airport in Pyongyang, North Korea, Nov. 18, 2022. Photo provided by the North Korean government

 

 

 

Mutual Koreas Sabre-Rattling

Kim Yo-jong issued warnings to S.Korea  Getty

"[Pyongyang would destroy major targets in Seoul should South Korea take any] dangerous military action [such as a pre-emptive strike]."

"Pyongyang opposes war], But if South Korea, for any reason -- whether or not it is blinded by misjudgement -- opts for such military actions as 'pre-emptive strike' touted by [Suh Wook], the situation will change."

"In that case, South Korea itself will become a target."

"In case South Korea opts for military confrontation with us, our nuclear combat force will have to inevitably carry out its duty."

Kim Yo-jong, senior official in North Korea's government 

"Yoon's 'pre-emptive strike' comment made the headlines a few months ago, and Pyongyang is seizing Suh's remarks to make a point to the incoming South Korean administration."

"North Korea has thus far refrained from criticizing Yoon at any authoritative level, but it certainly seems to be laying the groundwork for it."

Rachel Min-young Lee, analyst, 38 North project, United States

On Friday, South Korean Defence Minister Suh Wook had stated that his country's military possessed a variety of missiles whose range had been significantly updated, with greater accuracy and power and "the ability to accurately and quickly hit any target in North Korea". A surprisingly candid and extremely provocative statement, not one to be casually remarked upon with the expectation that there would be no response amounting to a none-too-casual threat from North Korea.

 

Ms Kim is often believed to be the “number two” of the North Korean leadership.  Getty Images

 

That response came courtesy of the sister of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un who possesses a good degree of authority within the regime of the irascible leader. Analysts read Ms.Kim's response as a veiled message whose recipient-target would most likely be the incoming conservative president of South Korea. Displays of military strength on the part of both Koreas have increased following the test-firing by North Korea of a range of increasingly powerful missiles in 2022 alone.

Incoming South Korean president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol has called for a more muscular defence against threats issued by North Korea. In return the statements issued by Kim may indicate that Pyongyang is in the process of preparing the country's population for a planned shift in direction of inter-Korean relations, with the near prospect of Yoon taking office in May.

Meeting with American officials in Washington this week, a delegation from Yoon's team was welcomed, with American officials reiterating assurance of the U.S. commitment to the defence of South Korea, outlined in a statement by the U.S. State Department. How reassuring that might be to South Korea with Beijing comfortably taking authority in the area and North Korea being seen as a protege of Beijing, is anyone's guess. 

 

All the more so as Washington's pledges to its allies have not quite matched its actions of late.

North Korea claimed it had fired multiple missiles in March, which the US said was a test for parts of an ICBM system   Getty Images

The United Nations Really is a Lunatic Asylum

Image: Rodong Sinmun  | Kim Jong Un at a missile test

"Nuclear pariah North Korea is set to chair a United Nations forum on nuclear disarmament for four weeks from late May, the U.N. has announced, leading one Geneva-based advocacy group to encourage a diplomatic boycott of the event."

"The U.N. Conference on Disarmament will include discussions on nuclear weapons, preventing nuclear war and transparency in armament to support 'effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons', according to the U.N. website."

NK News

 

"It’s only a coordination role and largely a symbolic post – but still, it’s bad optics nevertheless,"

"North Korea is the worst example of not abiding by the nonproliferation regime. And that country assuming the lead of the relevant meeting demonstrates how ineffectual global governance can be."

Shin Beom-chul, director, Center for Diplomacy and Security, Korea Research Institute for National Strategy

 

"While the U.N. will likely defend North Korea’s appointment as simply an automatic rotation, no system should tolerate such a fundamental conflict of interests."

"It’s common sense that a disarmament body should not be headed by the world’s arch-villain on illegal weapons and nuclear proliferation, notorious for exporting missiles and nuclear know-how to fellow rogue regimes around the globe."

"'All of the delegations who took the floor', reported the UN’s summary, welcomed the North Korean’s presidency, and said that 'they looked forward to his [North Korea’s So Se Pyong] stewardship' and to working with him 'to revitalize and strengthen the Conference'. Those listed as having taken the floor were Canada, the UK, India, China, Nigeria, Portugal, Iran, Myanmar, Algeria, and UN official Jarmo Sareva."

Hillel Neuer, Executive Director, UN Watch

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visits a munitions factory producing what state media KCNA called a ‘major weapon system’. Photograph: KCNA/Reuters

 North Korea's dear leader Kim Jong UN visited a munitions factory that produces a "major weapon system", according to state media on Friday. At the same time, North Korea conducted tests of an upgraded long-range cruise missile, along with a warhead of a tactical guided missile. In obvious preparation for taking on the prestigious position heading a United Nations Conference on Disarmament. So that the North Korean representative can speak with confidence on nuclear proliferation and other such global distractions.

In an absolute frenzy of activity Tuesday saw the test of an updated long-range cruise missile system. Oh, and yet another test held in confirmation of the power of a conventional warhead for a surface-to-surface tactical guided missile on Thursday. All diligently and dutifully and with an appropriate air of pride, recorded on the state media organ. No doubt confirming dispatches were sent out from North Korea to its interested friends and colleagues in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

 

Anadolu Agency

 

The munitions factory was lauded by President Kim in its grand progress achievement in "producing major weapons" and holding a "very important position and duty" in modernizing the country's armed forces. The result of which cannot be denied and sufficiently praised, in realizing its national defence development strategy.

A day earlier South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff announced their having detected the apparent launch of two short-range ballistic missiles. A revelation that saw the United States condemn the North for carrying out what is undeniably the sixth round of missile tests in this first month of the new year of 2022. Setting the tone for what lies ahead for North Korea's strategic weapons exploits.

The Joint chiefs of Staff of South Korea reported as well on the diligent actions of its rogue neighbour in drawing attention and concern from all of its near neighbours with the exception of its proud guardian China as a fledgling and most effective bulwark against the incursion of sordid Western notions of stability, security and peace through diplomatic negotiations, when it fired off another two cruise missiles into the sea off its east coast on Tuesday.

Composite photo, released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, shows a long-range cruise missile being test-fired on Jan. 25, 2022

North Korea's Decade With Baby Dictator

"All people and soldiers should have absolute trust in the general secretary, have their fate and future completely entrusted to him and guard his safety and authority."

"He is, indeed, the greatest man and the great sage of the revolution all the people on this land follow with their deep affection and sincerity."

State Rodong Sinmun newspaper

"He has tried to differentiate himself from the reigns of his father and grandfather. [Including] legitimizing his own leadership by establishing an ideological system of 'Kim Jong-unism'[ that is centered on 'Our People First' 'Our Nation First' and self-reliance."

"At the same time, he has been using the same old brutal playbook to maintain power and control over officials."

Duyeon Kim, adjunct senior fellow, Centre for a New American Security, Washington, D.C.

"To a certain extent, he [has] ruled by fear, as we saw from Jang's brutal execution, and the unusually frequent personnel shuffles in the top echelons of the military in the first few years of his leadership."

"[He is] backed up by a powerful system that has withstood all sorts of storms since the founding of North Korea."

"It also has to do with a clever leadership strategy. This is a man who values pragmatism and understands the importance of keeping up with the times to stay competitive and improve the people's living standards."

Minyoung Lee, Seoul-based non-resident fellow, 38 North Program, Stimson Centre, Washington

Citizens visit the bronze statues of their late leaders Kim Il Sung, left, and Kim Jong Il on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang, North Korea Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021, on the occasion of 10th anniversary of demise of Kim Jong Il.  VOA

 

The tenth anniversary of the death of North Korean former leader Kim Jong-il saw a ceremonial service where thousands of people paid their respects to the former leader, with his son Kim Jong Un in attendance. Footage televised by KCTV showed Kim visiting his father's mausoleum, standing on a platform with crowds of people below, on the palace grounds in Pyongyang.

 

Flags at half mast, the thousands gathered at the annual memorial bowed silent heads, portraits of the country's former leaders, Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung facing them. A ten-day period of remembrance for the "Great Leader" was officially ordered, a ban on alcohol, on laughter, on any overt signs of happiness ordered. Police ordered to look for signs of disobedience to the ban and to arrest any that dared to contravene the ban. Involuntary smiles to be suppressed on pain of incarceration.

The occasion of the tenth year since the death of the former leader of North Korea also marks the tenth year of the ascension of his son, Kim Jong Un who assumed the post of supreme leader at age 29 on his father's sudden death of a heart attack. Kim appears to have met all the yardsticks and then some of strong leadership, North Korean-style. Presenting himself as a brutal oppressor, a ruthless tyrant, but a loving dictator to his people.

The internal palace intrigues have presented no problem to this scheming tyrant who hasn't hesitated to order the murder of anyone who he believed to have challenged his authority or nurse aspirations to take his place. He has achieved some milestones beyond what his father and grandfather managed in meeting with a U.S. president, with the president of South Korea, and establishing a personal relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Loving his people so deeply he defied international sanctions in his ongoing bid to develop nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles. That the expense involved in these enterprises meant that much of his population lives in poverty and episodes of food and energy scarcity erupt time and again does not appear to give him sleepless nights. 

This loving supreme leader ordered the imprisonment and then the execution of his uncle, Jang Song-thaek who, with his wife, had avuncularly taken the young Kim under his wing as he ascended to the leadership, guiding and encouraging  him, before he became strangely persona non grata when Kim appeared to view him as an adversarial threat. 

Even his half-brother Kim Jong-nam was not immune to suspicion as a possible usurper of Kim's place as supreme leader. So a rather awkward and amateurish plot to assassinate him with the lethal VX nerve agent was carried out in 2017. Academics studying his regime of 'benevolent' dictatorship give him credit for modernizing state television programming, for introducing economic reforms, and for inclusion in his speeches of the 'people'.

North Korea continues to be a hermit kingdom, one engrossed in building a nuclear stockpile, catering to the neuroses and paranoia of a man fascinated by military weapons of mass destruction and seeing no reason whatever why his impoverished nation should possess such weapons to prove to the world what a global power it represents. While during the pandemic the nation's rudimentary health care system is close to buckling.

 

KCNA

Into the Wild Blue Yonder and Back Again

"Cruise missiles are almost like little airplanes, they can be very accurate, they can turn corners."

"They can go into valleys where radars would not see them easily."

"It would be a much more difficult problem for South Korea and Japan to monitor."

"[The missiles represent] another significant milestone for North Korea's nuclear program."

Melissa Hanham, Centre for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University

"This would be the first cruise missile in North Korea to be explicitly designated a 'strategic' role."

"This is a common euphemism for a nuclear-capable system."

Ankit Panda, senior fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

North Korean state media released these images of the new cruise missile   KCNA

 

It was inevitable. North Korea's ongoing research and development of cruise missiles has rewarded the country's military and its cheerleader Kim Jong-un with the success they've been anxious to achieve, despite the more moderate tone Mr.Kim has taken in the past several years, ratcheting down his bellicose threats to neighbours and the West, either mellowing with age, or silently carrying his big stick. 

Pyongyong now points proudly to the missile it fired on the weekend achieving 1,500 km/h, remaining aloft for over two hours in flight over its own waters. A "strategic weapon of great significance", was the pronouncement. A spkesperson for the White House announced: "Our position has not changed when it comes to North Korea, we remain prepared to engage", following, it should be noted, the footsteps of former President Trump, whose overtures and meetings with Kim may well have been responsible for that descending monologue of paranoia and defence. 

According to the regime's proud boast, the new missiles, in development for several years, flew "along an oval and pattern-8 flight orbits", hitting targets. For the present, it remains unsettled whether Pyongyang developed the technology for miniaturized warheads to be carried on a cruise missile, but that in fact, is the general idea of both. The Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed images of a missile fired out of a tube on a launch vehicle, travelling horizontally.

In the opinion of experts, this represents an advance in North Korea's capability enabling it to avoid South Korean and Japanese defence systems. Although under international sanctions over its ballistic missil and nuclear weapons programs, North Korea has not been banned from developing cruise missiles.

 

 

Testing the Bounds of International Patience

"Downplaying North Korean ballistic missile tests will not help U.S. diplomacy with North Korea in any way, and would only encourage North Korea to further test the bounds of what the new administration can accept."

Markus Garlauskas, senior fellow, Atlantic Council; former U.S. National Intelligence Officer for North Korea

"Every day that passes without a deal that tries to reduce the risks posed by North Korea's nuclear and missile arsenal is a day that it gets bigger and badder."

Vipin Narang, nuclear affairs expert, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"We are consulting with our allies and partners, and there will be responses. If they choose to escalate, we will respond accordingly."

"But I'm also prepared for some form of diplomacy, but it has to be conditioned upon the end result of denuclearization."

U.S. President Joe Biden

An electronics shop in Seoul displays television screens showing a news program reporting about North Korea's missiles with file images. North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Like an errant juvenile delinquent who enjoys being regarded as a social deviant, North Korea's unpredictable leader Kim Jong Un enjoys what he interprets as celebrity notice by the global community through his provocative and dangerous displays of military prowess with the use of technologically advanced missiles and hinting that it would be simple enough for his technicians to mount a miniaturized nuclear warhead on any of his latest, more advanced, more powerful, longer-range ballistic missiles.

He hungers to be recognized as the leader of a powerful, influential country, piggy-backing his notoriety on to China's fearsome new and growing naval power and global influence. The alarm that Kim Jong Un causes his uneasy neighbours is second only to that of China's in claiming extraterritorial sites as China's exclusively, ranging from disputed land, sea and air borders to international areas not in dispute and held to be open to all.

After launching two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan at a time when Japan is launching its preliminaries to the Olympic Games this summer, it is clear that Kim is bored, awaiting notice from the new U.S. administration, and taking deliberate action to pry the attention of the new Biden administration away from cold-war-era-returned disputes with China and Russia to North Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is shown attending a ceremony to inaugurate the start of a construction project in Pyongyang, in a photo released Wednesday by the country's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). (KCNA/Reuters)

The missiles' launch flaunted North Korea's impressive technological advances in weapons and rocketry as it continues to recklessly defy and provoke the patience of its neighbours and that of the United States involved in protecting the sovereign rights of those neighbours and which Pyongyang interprets as posing a military threat to itself. A threat that Kim feels can be countered with more advanced weaponry to persuade the United States to walk on eggs around North Korea.

According to analysts, the missile tests need not be conflated with the belief that talks on denuclearization are spinning in circles awaiting their final gasp of rejection. The North Korean arsenal, experts warn the U.S. administration, is a clear demonstration that Pyongyang is advancing its military arsenal's effectiveness. In itself a new threat to stability in the region. As greater scrutiny is being fixed on the North Korean arsenal Kim basks happily in what he construes as fear and admiration.

Several days earlier North Korea had fired a number of cruise missiles. President Biden responded sounding unperturbed claiming no message was intended other than a friendly greeting; and did not in the least bit portend future problems, but was merely, for North Korea, "business as usual". There can be little doubt that Kim is feeling his oats, having been approached by the U.S.to think deeply on issues of human rights, sanctions and denuclearization.

 

All of which the North Korean leader was pleased to rebuff. Along with shoving aside Biden administration overtures with a diplomatic mission to re-establish denuclearization talks putting an end to tactical mission provocations. 

"If the US continues with its thoughtless remarks without thinking of the consequences, it may be faced with something that is not good."

"It is a gangster-like logic that it is allowable for the US to ship the strategic nuclear assets into the Korean peninsula and launch ICBMs any time it wants but not allowable for the DPRK, its belligerent party, to conduct even a test of a tactical weapon."

"[North Korea has the] right to self-defense [and the Biden administration] took the wrong first step."

North Korean military official Ri Pyong Chol

Commuters watch a TV showing a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Joe Biden during a news program at the Suseo Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Friday

AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon

                                                                                                                                                             

Unequalled Malevolence

"Experts: Iran Now a Nuclear-Ready State, Missiles Capable of Hitting US"

"Regardless of intelligence uncertainties and unknowns about Iran's nuclear weapons and missile programs, we know enough now to make a prudent judgment that Iran should be regarded by national security decision makers as a nuclear missile state capable of posing an existential threat to the United States and its allies...The fact of Iran's ICBM capability and their proximity to nuclear weapons necessitates that Iran be regarded as a nuclear missile state—right now."

Newsmax report

 

"Terrorists or state actors that possess relatively unsophisticated missiles armed with nuclear weapons may well calculate that, instead of destroying a city or military base, they may obtain the greatest political-military utility from one or a few such weapons by using them — or threatening their use — in an EMP attack."

EMP Commission

"Iran, the world's leading sponsor of international terrorism, has practiced launching a mobile ballistic missile from a vessel in the Caspian Sea. Iran has also tested high-altitude explosions of the Shahab-III, a test mode consistent with EMP attack, and described the tests as successful. Iranian military writings explicitly discuss a nuclear EMP attack that would gravely harm the United States."

Dr. William R. Graham, Chairman, Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack

 

 

"By sending a military satellite into space, Iran now has shown that it can target all American territory; the Iranian Parliament had previously warned [the U.S.] that an electromagnetic nuclear attack on the United States would likely kill 90 percent of Americans."

Iranian state-controlled Afkar News 

It is a disastrous potential scenario whose magnitude of destruction is simply unimaginable. Unimaginable as well is the very concept of any country's national head making such a fateful decision as to launch an utterly destructive, desolate attack on another country with the dire potential of an electromagnetic nuclear pulse that would in theory and in practise instantly and entirely annihilate a nation's power grid along with any form of energy distribution, affecting industrial, municipal, military functioning completely.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

When a nuclear explosion takes place, an invisible burst of gamma rays is emitted, a form of light born of the "hottest and most energetic objects in the universe", as NASA puts it, a small fraction of the bomb's yield which smash into air molecules, knock out electrons and accelerate negatively charged particles to around 90% of the speed of light.

Many of the high-speed electrons are shuttled toward Earth's poles by its magnetic field which the electrons respond to by releasing their new energy as a soup of powerful electromagnetic radiation, causing a nuclear electromagnetic pulse, which occurs within a fraction of a microsecond -- the surge of energy capable of overloading (shocking) sensitive electronic devices of the type civilization is heavily reliant on in the operation of just about anything and everything.

Under the influence of that pulse, trains would stop instantly, motor vehicles as well, and planes would simply fall from the sky. As the electromagnetic pulse passes through phones, computers, radios, they 'catch' the powerful pulse generating a rogue current of electricity which then moves instantly through those devices' tiny circuits, disrupting and destroying them. Similarly on a macro scale, electric power grid systems responsible for heat, electricity and water transmission,would simply fail. The excess current can spark and fail for miles around as power transmission and telecommunications equipment overload.

Everything would instantly come to a halt through the massively disruptive electromagnetic waves. As massively destructive as a nuclear detonation hitting the ground can be, nuclear detonations occurring at vast heights measured in hundreds of miles above the surface of the Earth could have grotesquely devastating consequences compared to those that happen on the ground. In 2008, the EMP Commission released a report suggesting that a powerful nuclear device detonated at the right altitude could shower the entire continental US in EMP, entirely and catastrophically disrupting telecommunications and power grid infrastructure.

Photo: Public Domain

The published speculation of the Iranian regime-sponsored newspaper that referred to such an event succeeding in killing 90 percent of the U.S. population, in a casual matter-of-fact statement of potential accomplishment at a future date, may have received its information from the Congressional EMP Commission report itself, which estimated that, given U.S. current unpreparedness, within one year of an EMP attack that might cause a nationwide blackout, two-thirds or more -- up to 90 percent -- of the U.S. population could perish from starvation, disease and societal collapse.

The release in 2017 of an official Iranian textbook meant for military educational purposes dating from 2010, endorses deception measures meant to conceal the Islamic Republic of Iran's nuclear weapons research. It also speaks of a nuclear EMP attack against the United States. Clearly, both features are in direct violation of international agreements, despite which the textbook is in active use at the military academy and think tank, the Martyr Lt.General Sayad Shirazi Center for Education and Research, for the training of officers.

 

Noor satellite

American intelligence and the Congressionally created EMP Commission estimate that Iran's  relationship with North Korea is steadily advancing its nuclear goal, that North Korea is now in possession of super-EMP nuclear weapons and has the cspability to deliver them. Both countries are actively collaborating and have been for years, signing an agreement to cooperate in "science and technology". Speculation that Iran has or may soon have the capability to deliver an EMP attack is shared by Israel.

 

Iran has succeeded in launching several civilian satellites between 2008 and 2015, including southern polar trajectories -- with the help of North Korean missile technology and technicians. Iran orbited a military satellite over the United States launched by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in April of 2020. The IRGC is in charge of Iran's nuclear operations. Its Noor-1 satellite weighs a mere 30 pounds but the Space Launch Vehicles's third stage went into orbit, clearly showing a capability to circle over the U.S. carrying a net payload of several hundred pounds; quite sufficient for a nuclear weapon.

"On April 22, 2020, Iran successfully launched its first military satellite Noor-1 (“light”) into low-earth orbit and simultaneously announced its parallel military space program run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard’s Corps (IRGC). Noor was carried by a three-stage Qassed (“messenger”) space-launch vehicle (SLV) and the military satellite is believed to be orbiting the earth at an altitude of about 440 kilometers (km). The success of the launch earned Noor a “code designator” by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)."

Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation