More than a month after North Korea fired a missile in contravention of two existing UNSC resolutions, the Security Council passed UNSC Resolution 2087, condemning the use of ballistic missile technology in launch and saying the “act violated United Nations sanctions, expresses determination to take “significant action” in event country proceeds with further launch.” First, [...]

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In some interviews after the missile test last month, I mentioned in passing that North Korea had featured its missiles on postage stamps.  The reporters were invariably surprised.  Our man in Seoul, Jaesung Ryu, has rounded up images of several of these stamps as shown below.  1998 stamp Apart from the sheer curiousity aspect, the [...]

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Thanks to Adam Cathcart, we were alerted to a story in Rodong Shinmun about new posters being unveiled in North Korea. The posters encourage the army and people to implement the historic tasks set forth in Marshal Kim Jong Un’s New Year’s Speech. As we predicted, the satellite launch is being used as the overarching [...]

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Its been one month since North Korea launched a missile in contravention of two UN Security Council resolutions and the UNSC has done…..nothing. And Francisco Franco is still dead.  

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London calling:  News reports that the BBC was contemplating initiating a broadcast service aimed at North Korea got me thinking about a Clash-themed slave to the blog post.  Obviously the more outside information that reaches North Korea the better, and given the US fiscal situation, it would be surprising if RFA got a big boost.  [...]

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Pacific Forum CSIS just sent us the list of their 2012 publications, and we thought we would pass on those on the Korean peninsula; several sparked interesting debates and in combination, they provide a good overview of the year. Among the issues on offer were not only what to do about the launches and collapse [...]

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It is now clear that the debate over North Korea at the UNSC is going to be a long slog. China is digging in against any new sanctions—or any with bite—and will probably even oppose a resolution as opposed to a weaker presidential statement. In the meantime, information coming out of the launch risks the [...]

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Teach a man to fish: Joongang Ilbo is reporting that “North Korea used construction equipment and materials from South Korea to aid with the latest launch of the ballistic rocket Unha-3.” The unnamed South Korean government source went on to claim that “The U.S. and South Korean intelligence authorities spotted the North using cranes, forklifts [...]

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Bahng Tae-Seop and his colleagues have released another edition of their quarterly survey of expert opinion on Korean peninsula security matters. (It can’t be that expert—I am one of the respondents). The responses to this survey, like similar ones, tend to be myopic, and overweight recent events; this particular edition suffers from the fact that [...]

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The official US statement on the launch was a bit slow in coming, but when it did it focused strongly on further UN Security Council action (text here). At the time of the failed April 2012 launch, the US secured support for a Presidential Statement that was stronger than the tepid compromise Presidential Statement of [...]

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