Leadership
Information related to North Korea’s leadership and leadership structures
How North Korea’s Kim rulers manage elites to guarantee regime survival
Edward Goldring and Peter Ward discuss the tools autocrats use to consolidate power during leadership transitions
July 24, 2025
Kim Jong Un tests ‘combat deployment’ readiness at artillery drills
Drills feature anti-South Korea war tactics but come amid North’s deployment to help Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
July 24, 2025
North Korean scholar separated from family in South reappears in state media
Essay by Rim Soon Ung appears to confirm he is alive, 25 years after he met his siblings in Seoul
July 23, 2025
North Korean ChatGPT, renaming the unification ministry and Seoul’s main enemy
NK News’ Joon Ha Park discusses a flurry of hearings for ROK ministry nominees and what they had to say about the DPRK
July 22, 2025
North Korea’s remarkably secretive plenum hinted at mid-year financial strain
New clues offer insights into reshuffles at June meeting, while suggesting difficulties funding prestige construction
July 22, 2025
ROK foreign minister pick pledges to work to resume dialogue with North Korea
At confirmation, Cho Hyun emphasizes strengthening ties with US and Japan while seeking neighbors’ support for peace
July 17, 2025
How Russian tiger hunters got roped into a plot to kill the North Korean leader
Andrei Lankov and Anton Sokolin discuss a Russian family whose story is interlinked with the rise of the DPRK
July 17, 2025
Six months in, Donald Trump’s North Korea strategy remains elusive as ever
Policy absence raises concern that US is asleep at the wheel even as the DPRK advances nuke program and ties with Russia
July 17, 2025
Labor minister nominee faces backlash over views on North Korea, attempted visit
South Korean opposition sharply questions Kim Young-hoon over whether the DPRK is the South’s ‘main enemy’
July 16, 2025
Defense minister nominee vows to pursue OPCON transfer amid North Korea threats
Ahn Gyu-back pledges to complete transition under President Lee, while identifying Pyongyang as the South’s ‘enemy’
July 15, 2025
