North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has climbed Mount Paektu, the country’s highest mountain, KCNA reported.
Photos of Kim Jong-un show him standing on a snowy mountaintop, with the sun behind him.
His father, Kim Jong-Il, is said by the state to have been born on the mountain, however many historians say he was actually born in Russia.
Reports say Kim Jong-un reached the 2,750-metre peak alongside hundreds of fighter pilots and party officials.
“Climbing Mount Paektu provides precious mental pabulum more powerful than any kind of nuclear weapon,” the Rodong newspaper quoted Kim Jong-un as saying to troops.
The purpose of the visit is said to have been to see pilots from the Korean People’s Army who have completed a tour of battle sites in the area.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines “pabulum” as “bland or insipid intellectual matter, entertainment”.
The peak of the volcanic mountain, lying on the border with China, is considered a sacred place in Korean folklore.
It is also part of the propaganda which glorifies the Kim family, who are said to have a “mount Paektu bloodline”.
Recently it has been claimed that Kim Jong-un could drive by the time he was three years old.
The regime also says that Kim Jong-Il, who ruled until his death in 2011, scored 11 holes-in-one the first time he ever played golf.
Like his father before him, Kim Jong-un makes many “field guidance trips” to army bases, factories and other important sites.
Analysts say this is his way of showing himself as an energetic man of the people.
North Korea has a troubled economy, with two-thirds of the population, approximately 16 million people, not knowing where their next meal is coming from, according to the UN.
US ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert could face a “bigger mishap” than the knife attack to his face last month if he does not stop insulting North Korea with “laughable” accusations, a North Korean propaganda unit said.
Ambassador Mark Lippert said in a speech on April 15 that if North Korea improves its human rights record and takes steps to end its nuclear program, it will be rewarded with prosperity and better ties with the outside world, including the US.
North Korea’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said Mark Lippert’s remarks were proof that Washington was intent on hostility.
Photo Yonhap
“Lippert needs to drop the bad habit of rashly engaging in scheming chatter distorting the truth and instigating war by taking issue with us,” the committee said in a commentary published on April 16 on the Uriminzokkiri propaganda web site.
“Otherwise, next time, he could face a bigger mishap than getting cut in the cheek by a South Korean citizen,” it said.
North Korea frequently rails at the US, South Korea’s biggest ally, accusing it of preparing for imminent invasion.
A US State Department spokesperson said: “We have seen the statement which is unfortunately consistent with the nature of the regime and its rhetoric.”
Mark Lippert was slashed in the face with a fruit knife by a South Korean man with a history of erratic behavior at a breakfast forum in central Seoul that left a gash that required 80 stitches. He also suffered injuries to his arm.
South Korean police charged Mark Lippert’s attacker with attempted murder. He was not charged with any North Korea-related crime after being questioned over his multiple visits.
North Korea previously called the attack “deserved punishment” but denied any role in it.
Hundreds of thousands of emails and documents from a cyber-attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2014 have been now published by WikiLeaks.
The archive apparently includes Sony conversations with Downing Street and with Hollywood figures.
In November, Sony suffered a cyber-attack weeks before releasing The Interview, a movie criticized by North Korea.
Sony said it “strongly condemns” the WikiLeaks release.
“We vehemently disagree with WikiLeaks’ assertion that this material belongs in the public domain,” Sony said in a statement.
The WikiLeaks dump includes more than 170,000 emails and over 20,000 documents.
After November’s hack, an unknown organization published the documents online, but it was not in an easily-searchable form.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange justified the publication by saying the documents show the inner functioning of a multinational company and are “at the centre of a geo-political conflict”.
The attack came just weeks before Sony was set to release The Interview about a fictional American plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
North Korea denied involvement in the attack but praised it as a “righteous deed”.
In December 2014, a group calling itself the “Guardians of Peace” threatened 9/11-type attacks on theaters showing the movie, spurring Sony to cancel the movie’s release.
Days later, amidst growing public pressure to show the movie, Sony bosses appeared to change their minds and said they would give it a limited Christmas Day release.
In January 2015, the US imposed new sanctions on North Korea in response to the attack. And, in April, President Barack Obama ordered the creation of a program that would allow the US government to sanction foreign hackers.
North Korea has expelled US aid worker Sandra Suh after accusing her of engaging in “plot-breeding and propaganda”.
Sandra Suh frequently visited North Korea over the past 20 years.
According to North Korea’s state media, Sandra Suh had traveled to North Korea “under the pretense of ‘humanitarianism”, but that she had secretly produced and directed anti-North Korean videos and photos because of her “inveterate repugnancy” toward Pyongyang.
Sandra Suh arrived on a flight to Beijing on April 9 but made no comments to reporters there.
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf in Washington said on April 8 she could not confirm any of the details that have been reported about Sandra Suh.
North Korea has occasionally detained Americans and other foreigners for what it considered missionary work or “anti-state” activities that it sees as attempts to bring down its authoritarian government.
Analysts say past detentions have been attempts to wrest outside concessions out of Washington. Authorities in Pyongyang have also in the past staged news conferences, during which foreign detainees appeared before the media and made statements that they then recanted after their releases.
However, the KCNA report appeared to be the first word about Sandra Suh.
Pyongyang said it decided to deport Sandra Suh because of her “old age” and after she apologized and admitted that she’d “seriously insulted” its citizens’ trust in leader Kim Jong-un.
North Korea has urged Mexico to free one of its ships detained in Veracruz state in 2014.
It has accused Mexico of illegally holding its Mu Du Bong ship, after it ran aground last year.
Pyonyang blames the United States for making sure the ship is not released.
North Korea said the Mu Du Bong was a legitimate commercial ship and its detention a “rampant violation” of sovereignty.
However, a UN expert says the ship belongs to North Korea’s Ocean Maritime Management, which is on a UN blacklist.
In July 2013 one of North Korea’s ships was seized in Panama after Soviet-era weapons and fighter jets were found hidden under sugar sacks.
United Nations sanctions ban most arms shipments to North Korea.
Under resolutions adopted after Pyongyang’s nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, the export of all arms and related parts, with the exception of small arms and light weapons, to the communist country is prohibited.
The Mu Du Bong ran aground on a reef off Mexico’s Veracruz state in July 2014. North Korea says it has since paid a bond to cover damage to the reef.
Speaking at a news conference at the UN on April 8, North Korea’s deputy ambassador An Myong Hun said the ship and its crew should be released.
“This ship is totally a peaceful and legitimate commercial ship which sails under the direction of the Ministry of Land and Sea Transportation,” he said.
“The detention of Mu Du Bong is a rampant violation of the dignified sovereignty of the DPRK [North Korea].”
But Hugh Griffiths, co-ordinator of the UN panel that oversees sanctions violations, told journalists that there was “overwhelming” evidence to show the ship was linked to OMM.
A spokesman for Mexico’s UN mission, meanwhile, told AFP news agency his country was “fulfilling our international obligation under Security Council resolutions”.
OMM was blacklisted by the UN in July 2014. The UN said it had played a key role in arranging the shipment of concealed arms found in Panama.
South Korean activist Lee Min-bok has flown thousands of copies of controversial Sony film The Interview over the North Korean border.
Lee Min-bok said he had carried out the launches at night four times since January, most recently on April 4.
The Seth Rogen comedy, about a fictional CIA plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, enraged Pyongyang.
Sony initially pulled The Interview after a hacking attack and threats to attack cinemas which were screening it.
But it changed its mind and gave the film a limited cinema release after being accused of responding to an attack on free speech.
The FBI says North Korea was behind the hack and threats, though it denies this.
Lee Min-bok, a defector from North Korea, said he had tied the DVDs to balloons along with bundles of US dollars and leaflets criticizing Kim Jong-un’s regime.
He told AFP news agency: “I launched thousands of copies and about a million leaflets on Saturday, near the western part of the border.”
He said the launches were all done in remote areas and without publicity but that the police “would have no right to stop me”.
Lee Min-bok told CNN, which joined him on Saturday’s launch, that he had not laughed at The Interview and found it vulgar.
But he said North Korea “hates this film because it shows Kim Jong-un as a man, not a God” and that he wanted to “tell the truth” to North Koreans.
Any North Korean who had access to a DVD player and was found to have watched the film would likely face a lengthy sentence in a prison camp.
South Korean activists have repeatedly carried out balloon drops across the border of material which they say shows the reality of life outside the restrictive country, in the hope of encouraging North Koreans to reject propaganda and stand up to their leadership.
North Korea has demanded South Korea stop such launches, saying they are provocative. Its border guards have in the past tried to shoot down the balloons.
According to South Korean military officials, North Korea has test-fired four short-range missiles into the sea off its west coast.
In a statement, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the missiles had a range of about 87 miles.
The missiles were fired from Dongchang-ri in the north of the country on April 3, the statement said.
North Korea often conducts missile tests in protest at US-South Korean military drills, one of which is ongoing.
Photo KCNA
The US and South Korea say the annual exercises are for defense training purposes, but Pyongyang calls them a rehearsal for invasion. They are always a trigger for a surge in tensions between the two Koreas.
When a drill began in March, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles, and on March 13 it fired seven ground-to-air missiles into the sea to coincide with the end of one part of the drill, Operation Key Resolve.
The current drill, Foal Eagle, is continuing.
A JCS spokesman said today’s test “appeared to have been supervised by Kim Jong-un”, the AFP news agency reports.
North Korea has announced the launch of its first online shopping website, called Okryu, state news agency KCNA reported.
Okryu, a state-run website, offers a range of products including food and medicines.
The North Korean government says the site is “aimed at promoting convenience for the people”, but it’s not clear how many will actually be able to use it, as internet access is extremely limited outside of elite circles.
Some people can use North Korea’s own state-controlled intranet – known as Kwangmyong – via their smartphones, but computers are prohibitively expensive for the average worker and ownership requires government approval.
Okryu also shows that North Korea has improved its IT systems, Kim Heung-kwang, a former professor at Pyongyang Computer Technology University, told South Korea’s JoongAng Daily.
On the last day of the annual US-South Korea military exercise, North Korea has fired seven ground-to-air missiles into the sea, South Korea’s defense ministry says.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was present during the launch, a ministry spokesman from South Korea said.
The annual exercises, which Pyongyang calls a rehearsal for invasion, are always a trigger for a surge in tensions between the two Koreas.
North Korea showed its opposition to this year’s drills by firing two short-range ballistic missiles when they began earlier this month.
South Korea said the missiles fired on March 13 were believed to be SA-2 or SA-3s, with a range of “dozens of kilometers”, as well as one SA-5 with a range of 120 miles.
“We see this as another show of force by the North related to the exercises,” a spokesman told AFP news agency.
There were no reports of tests in North Korean media.
One of the US-South Korean exercises, Key Resolve, ended on March 13 while other, Foal Eagle, continues into April. The US and South Korea say they are for defense training purposes.
The missile launch comes as North Korea and South Korea are already involved in a row over wages at their jointly run Kaesong industrial zone.
Kaesong area lies just over the border into North Korea and is the only area of co-operation between the North and South.
Last month, Pyongyang said it would raise the basic salary of more than 50,000 North Koreans working there, but South Korea rejected this saying any wage rise had to be agreed by a joint committee overseeing the management of the industrial area.
South Korean police are seeking charges of attempted murder against Kim Ki-jong who attacked the US ambassador to Seoul, Mark Lippert.
Mark Lippert is recovering in hospital after Kim Ki-jong attacked him with a knife on March 5.
During the attack, Kim Ki-jong called for reunification of the two Koreas.
Police said they were also investigating Kim Ki-jong’s links with North Korea, after it was revealed he had made multiple visits.
“We are investigating whether there is any connection between the suspect’s visits to North Korea and the crime committed against the US ambassador,” Yoon Myeong-seong, head of Seoul’s central Jongno district said according to Reuters.
Kim Ki-jong, 55, also had a history of nationalist militant activity, media reports said.
A small group of people in South Korea see the US as the main obstacle to the reunification of a divided Korean peninsula.
Mark Lippert received 80 stitches to a deep cut in his cheek and is recovering in hospital.
Yoon Myeong-seong said authorities wanted to charge Kim Ki-jong with attempted murder, violence against a foreign envoy and business obstruction, Yonhap news agency reported. Police have requested a formal detention warrant.
Kim Ki-jong, who was apprehended after the incident, told police that he did not intend to kill Mark Lippert.
Yoon Myeong-seong also said they were considering charging him with violating South Korea’s National Security Law, which bans South Koreans from publicly sympathizing with the government of North Korea.
Kim Ki-jong also shouted opposition to annual US-South Korean military drills, which began on March 2, during the attack.
North Korea traditionally opposes the drills, which it describes as a rehearsal for invasion. Late on Thursday, it described the attack as “just punishment for US warmongers”, in a statement on state media.
Doctors said Mark Lippert would be discharged early next week.
The attack raised questions about security for diplomatic personnel. Mark Lippert had a bodyguard with him when the attack took place. Police were also there, but not at the request of the US embassy or the organizers of the event.
The responsibility for the safety of diplomats lies with the host nation.
After the incident, the South Korean government ramped up security for diplomatic missions, including the US embassy. Police said they were providing protection for Mark Lippert.
Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim has failed to return from a humanitarian visit to North Korea, an official from his church says.
Reverend Hyeon Soo Lim of the Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Toronto, 60, travelled to North Korea on January 31 and was due to leave on February 4.
Hyeon Soo Lim has made hundreds of trips to North Korea, where he helps oversee a nursing home, a nursery and an orphanage, his church said, but this was the longest he had been out of touch.
Canadian officials said they were in contact with Rev. Hyeon Soo Lim’s family and had offered consular assistance.
North Korea periodically detains visiting foreign nationals, particularly those linked to religious activity – which is restricted inside the country.
US citizens are generally held the longest. North Korea is seen as using them to try to extract political concessions.
Citizens from nations of less political importance to Pyongyang can be freed quickly. An Australian missionary detained in February 2014 for leaving Christian material at a tourist site was swiftly deported.
Church officials initially wondered whether Rev. Hyeon Soo Lim had become caught up in a 21-day quarantine North Korea said it was imposing on travelers potentially exposed to Ebola.
Canada advises against all travel to North Korea and has no diplomatic presence in the country.
The North Korean army fired two short-range missiles into the sea as annual US-South Korea drills got under way, officials in Seoul say.
The two missiles, with a range of 305 miles, were fired from the western city of Nampo into the sea east of the Korean peninsula, the South Korean military said.
The drills, involving tens of thousands of troops, always anger Pyongyang.
It traditionally shows its displeasure with missile tests and louder rhetoric.
Seoul and Washington describe the military exercises as defensive in nature. North Korea calls them a rehearsal for invasion.
Key Resolve, a largely computer-simulated exercise, lasts 12 days and Foal Eagle, which has ground, air and sea components, lasts eight weeks.
In a statement, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles, fired on March 2, were probably Scud Cs or Scud Ds.
The military remained “vigilant against any additional launches”, it said.
South Korea’s Defense Minister Kim Min-seok vowed a stern response to any provocation.
“If North Korea takes provocative actions, our military will react firmly and strongly so North Korea will regret it in its bones,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Earlier in the day the North Korean military condemned the joint exercises as “undisguised encroachment” on national sovereignty.
Aggression should be dealt with by “merciless strikes”, it said in a statement carried by KCNA news agency.
In 2013 the joint exercises led to a prolonged surge in tensions, with North Korea threatening pre-emptive nuclear strikes and cutting a military hotline with the South.
Drills in 2014 passed off relatively quietly, however.
In January 2015, North Korea said it would offer a moratorium on nuclear testing if the joint exercises were cancelled. The US rejected this suggestion as an “implicit threat”.
Kim Jong-un has urged the North Korean army to prepare for war with the US and its allies, state media said on February 28, ahead of US-South Korea military drills.
The North Korean leader’s comments came after South Korea and the US on February 27 conducted a joint naval drill involving 10 South Korean warships and a US Aegis destroyer, ahead of the launch of large-scale military exercises that have enraged the North.
“The prevailing situation where a great war for national reunification is at hand requires all the KPA (Korean People’s Army) units to become (elite) Guard Units fully prepared for war politically and ideologically, in military technique and materially,” Kim Jong-un was quoted by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) as saying.
North Korea regularly ratchets up hostile rhetoric at times of joint US-South Korea military exercises that spark a sharp surge in tensions on the divided peninsula.
Kim Jong-un called on the military to train hard in order “to tear to pieces the Stars and Stripes”, in comments made while opening a new hall at the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum in Pyongyang, KCNA said.
The drill on February 27 was a prelude to an eight-week exercise, Foal Eagle, involving air, ground and naval field training, with around 200,000 Korean and 3,700 US troops that begins on March 2.
A week-long, largely computer-simulated joint drill, Key Resolve, will also get under way.
Seoul and Washington insist the exercises are defense-based in nature, but they are condemned by Pyongyang as provocative rehearsals for invasion.
The communist country had offered a moratorium on carrying out nuclear tests if this year’s joint drills were cancelled – a proposal rejected by Washington as an “implicit threat” to carry out a fourth atomic drill.
North Korea claims it won the 1950-1953 Korean War, which ended in an armistice instead of a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas still technically at war.
Sony Pictures has named Tom Rothman as a replacement for Amy Pascal.
Amy Pascal stepped down as co-chair following a debilitating cyber attack that revealed her private emails.
Hollywood veteran Tom Rothman, 60, who will become the chairman of Sony’s motion picture group, spent 18 years at 20th Century Fox and helped bring Titanic and Avatar to the big screen.
He left Fox in 2012 and has been chairman of TriStar Productions, a joint venture with Sony, since 2013.
The entertainment division of Sony Corp said that Michael Lynton would remain its chief executive and chairman. Tom Rothman will report to him.
Michael Lynton said: “Tom’s creativity, strong talent relationships and track record of enduring films and commercial success are unparalleled in this industry.”
Amy Pascal, one of the most powerful women in Hollywood, stepped down as co-chair of Sony Pictures earlier this month.
She was the highest-profile victim of the November cyber attack and reportedly commented on the viewing habits of President Barack Obama in a derogatory manner in an email to producer Scott Rudin.
The attack by a group calling itself the Guardians of Peace prompted Sony to cancel the planned release of the film The Interview. It depicted the fictional assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The group was linked with North Korea and US authorities believe the attack was retaliation for the studio’s decision to make The Interview. Amy Pascal had been one of the champions of the film.
She will start a production company backed by Sony in May that will produce new Spider-man movies, among others.
In his TriStar role, Tom Rothman has overseen several anticipated dramas including The Walk by Robert Zemeckis that stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Ang Lee’s adaptation of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, a novel by Ben Fountain about the Iraq war.
Sony said Tom Rothman will remain responsible for the TriStar productions in the near future.
North Korea has imposed a travel ban on foreigners willing to participate in the annual Pyongyang marathon because of concerns over the spread of the Ebola virus, travel agencies say.
In October 2014, North Korea halted all non-essential travel into the communist country because of Ebola fears
The country began enforcing strict travel restrictions on incoming tourists including a 21-day quarantine.
No Ebola cases have been reported in North Korea or anywhere near it.
The marathon, one of the year’s most popular events for tourists, takes place on April 12.
“We are sorry to announce that we have been informed by our partners in North Korea that no foreign runners – amateur or professional – will be allowed to participate in this year’s Pyongyang Marathon,” Koryo Tours, a Beijing-based travel agency said on its website according to South Korea’s Yonhap new agency.
Foreigners are banned “due to the fear of the spread of Ebola”, Koryo Tours said on Twitter, local media reported. China-based Young Pioneer Tours also confirmed the ban.
The Ebola outbreak, which began in West Africa, has killed more than 9,000 people.
Last year’s race, which also included a 6 mile race and a half-marathon, was the first time the event was open to foreigners and an estimated 200 people from around the world took part.
This year, Koryo Tours alone was expecting to take 500 people to the marathon, its director Nick Bonner told Reuters news agency.
North Korea looks at tourism, especially from China, as a way of increasing foreign funds flowing into the country.
The country halted all visas for non-essential travel in October as a measure against Ebola.
It is not clear why North Korean authorities are particularly concerned Ebola could be brought into the country.
Much of the North Korean population lives in extreme poverty and the healthcare system would be ill-equipped to handle an Ebola epidemic.
North Korean state media has suggested the Ebola disease was created by the US military as a biological weapon.
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un has revealed a new haircut and a new eyebrowcut at a politburo meeting on February 18.
Kim Jong-un attended a meeting of the political bureau of the central committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) in Pyongyang.
Photo Getty Images
The hairstyle is a variation on Kim Jong-un’s signature shaved sides, but with the top now sculpted into a high, wedge-shaped pompadour that sits atop the North Korean leader’s head like a hat.
Kim Jong-un accessorized his new look with partially-shaven eyebrows that now stop just above his pupils.
The North Korean propaganda has released 310 slogans to mark the 70th anniversary of the country’s founding.
The new slogans covered a wide range of subjects. Workers were urged to “make fruits cascade down” and create a “socialist fairyland”.
Wives were told to be dependable, while “sports games [are] to be played in an offensive way”, the slogans said.
North Korea widely uses propaganda to maintain the power of its leader Kim Jong-un.
Several slogans made threats against what North Korea called its enemies. Slogans described the US as “warmongers” and said North Korea would “annihilate them to the last man” if they invaded.
Food production also featured extensively in the slogans. Workers were encouraged to fill the country “with the fragrant smell of fish” and told that “fertilizer means rice and socialism”.
Another slogan read: “Grow vegetables extensively in greenhouses! Let us turn ours into a country of mushrooms by making mushroom cultivation scientific, intensive and industrialized!”
North Korea, which is still under nominally communist rule, has suffered from severe famines in the past. Over three million people are believed to have died in the 1996 famine.
Despite being one of the most isolated nations in the world, some “management speak” appeared to creep into the slogans.
North Koreans were told to adopt the philosophy of “Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism” – a reference to former leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, who are revered in state propaganda.
The slogans also shed light on Kim Jong-un’s leadership style, with the military urged to establish his “monolithic command system more firmly throughout the army”.
Music seems to be a component of the authoritarian system with workers encouraged to sing the song We are the Happiest People in the World.
The North Korean state media has released on February 7 new images showing that the secretive state has test-fired a new anti-ship cruise missile.
The images were released in the lead-up to US-South Korean military exercises this spring. North Korea routinely seeks to raise tensions ahead of the annual drills, although this year Pyongyang has also offered to suspend nuclear testing if Washington calls off the exercises.
Photo KCNA
The images, which were shown on the front page of the ruling Workers’ Party Rodong Sinmun newspaper, showed leader Kim Jong-un observing the missile being fired from a small naval vessel.
State media described it as a “new type of cutting-edge anti-ship rocket” developed by North Korean scientists that will “bring a great change in the navy’s defense of territorial waters”.
The missile appeared identical in design to a Russian anti-ship missile, the KH-35, which is capable of flying at high speeds meters above the sea.
North Korea has increased the number of air and naval military drills in recent weeks, ahead of the annual US-South Korean military exercises on the Korean peninsula.
Pyongyang regularly protests over the drills, which it says are a rehearsal for war.
North Korean officials have made frequent trips to Russia over the past year, where Kim Jong-un is scheduled to make his first official state visit this May.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has accepted an invitation to Moscow in May, South Korea’s Yonhap reports.
The news agency cites a written response from the Kremlin, but says it does not mention Kim Jong-un by name.
Yonhap quotes a Unification Ministry official as saying the reference to the leader could be ambiguous, as Kim Yong-un is the nominal head of state.
Kim Jong-un has not made any overseas visits since taking power in North Korea in late 2011.
His first destination will been keenly watched for what it might indicate about his policies and strategy.
Earlier this month, reports emerged suggesting Russia could be the recipient of Kim Jong-un’s first official visit.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists on January 21 that Russia had invited Kim Jong-un to the May 9 celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two.
He said that the “first signal was positive” from the North Korean government.
Yonhap news agency said the response from the Russian presidential office confirmed that North Korea’s leader was among heads of state from 20 nations who had confirmed plans to attend.
However, the response did not specify Kim Jong-un by name and said: “The list of attendees has not been finalized yet, as we continue a process of confirming the attendance of those invited,” Yonhap reported.
There has been no statement from North Korea. Kim Yong-un, whose official title is president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, has more traditionally represented North Korea at overseas events.
Visits by Kim Jong-un’s late father, Kim Jong-il, were never announced ahead of his departure.
The late Kim Jong-il visited Russia in August 2011, shortly before his death. But he paid more regular visits to China which, under his leadership, was seen as Pyongyang’s closest ally.
If Kim Jong-un did choose to visit Moscow ahead of Beijing, the decision would be seen as significant – and as a snub to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
In recent years, China has come under pressure from Japan, South Korea and the US to exert more pressure on Pyongyang over its nuclear program.
Beijing has, on some occasions, expressed exasperation with its northern neighbor via official media channels.
It also backed UN resolutions strengthening sanctions on Pyongyang after its recent missile and nuclear tests in 2013.
According to the New York Times and Der Spiegel, the US knew North Korea was behind the Sony Pictures hack because it had secretly infiltrated the country’s computer networks in 2010.
The newspapers cited US officials and leaked documents from the National Security Agency (NSA).
The New York Times said hidden software had alerted US intelligence services to North Korean hacking activity.
North Korea has consistently denied involvement in the security breach.
American investigators believe the hackers spent two months building up a map of Sony’s systems before the hack took place, the papers say.
November’s attack on the company saw the leak of sensitive documents including salary details and confidential emails between executives.
It also resulted in Sony film The Interview, a comedy about an assassination attempt on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, being briefly shelved and then released online.
The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the intelligence community was fully aware of North Korean attempts to infiltrate US commercial networks, tracking them routinely.
“While no two situations are the same, it is our shared goal to prevent bad actors from exploiting, disrupting or damaging US commercial networks and cyber infrastructure,” said spokesman Brian Hale.
“When it becomes clear that cyber criminals have the ability and intent to do damage, we work cooperatively to defend networks.”
North Korea has offered to hold direct talks with the United States on its proposal to suspend nuclear tests, and suggested dialogue could pave the way to changes on the Korean peninsula.
In a message passed to the US side on January 9, Pyongyang made the offer to suspend nuclear tests if the United States temporarily scrapped joint military exercises in South Korea.
The US State Department rejected the tit-for-tat offer as an “implicit threat” but said it “remains opens to dialogue” with Pyongyang.
North Korea’s Deputy Ambassador to the UN, An Myong-hun told a news conference that the offer still stands.
“We are ready, the government of the DPRK is ready, to explain its intention behind its proposal directly to the United States,” said the envoy.
“We are ready for that, if the United States wants additional explanation about the proposal.”
The envoy indicated that the talks could lead to broader engagement.
“If this proposal is put into practice this year, many things will be possible,” he said.
“I can’t go any further, but many things will be possible this year.”
The US, which has close to 30,000 troops permanently stationed in South Korea, conducts a series of joint military exercises with its key Asian ally every year.
Seoul and Washington insist the drills are defensive in nature, but they are regularly condemned by Pyongyang as provocative rehearsals for invasion.
North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests – the last in February 2013 – and recently threatened a fourth in response to a UN resolution condemning its human rights record.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye has announced she is prepared to hold talks with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un without setting pre-conditions.
In a nationally televised press conference, Park Geun-hye said she would “meet with anyone if necessary to open the path of a peaceful unification”.
Kim Jong-un offered talks with South Korea if the conditions were right in his New Year address.
Leaders of South Korea and North Korea have only met twice, in 2000 and 2007, since the Korean War which divided the peninsula.
Kim Jong-un had said on January 1 that “depending on the mood and circumstances”, there would be “no reason” not to hold a high-level summit on the reunification of the two Koreas.
On January 12, Park Geun-hye delivered her own New Year message saying she would set no conditions to the talks, but added that North Korea should take “sincere” steps towards denuclearization.
North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests in recent years, aggravating relations with the South.
It has offered to put a moratorium on testing nuclear weapons if South Korea halts military exercises it holds with American forces. That offer was rejected and the two allies plan to hold a joint naval drill this week, reported South Korean news agency Yonhap.
Park Geun-hye also called on North Korea to “come forward for dialogue without hesitation” on efforts to reunite families separated since the end of 1950-53 Korean War.
The last formal high-level talks were in February 2014, leading to rare reunions for Korean families separated for over 60 years.
However, further talks planned in October were dropped after North Korea accused South Korea of not doing enough to stop activists sending anti-Northern leaflets across the border on balloons.
The two Koreas have technically been at war since the Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
Park Geun-hye also addressed the use of a controversial law to deport Korean-American Shin Eun-mi on January 10.
South Korea has put in place a National Security Law which states that anyone who praises North Korea can be jailed for up to seven years.
The law was used to deport Shin Eun-mi for speaking positively about life in North Korea in speeches and in online posts. Shin Eun-mi has denied she praised North Korea.
Critics say the controversial law suppresses freedom of speech.
Park Geun-hye defended the law’s use, saying it was needed to “ensure security in this country as we remain in a standoff with the North”.
North Korea has rejected South Korea’s call for resuming bilateral talks, after Kim Jong-un made a surprise New Year call for a summit.
South Korea’s parliament called last month for a resumption of negotiations on various issues including North Korea’s human rights, and families still separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
An official at South Korea’s Ministry of Unification, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said North Korea had rejected the proposal, without giving a reason.
South Korea has also proposed inter-Korean talks be held this month, but North Korea has not yet responded to that specific offer.
The rejection of the South Korean parliament’s call comes during a period of heightened tension between North Korea and the US, which is South Korea’s main ally.
On January 8, North Korea warned the US of a “war disaster” if it did not withdraw sanctions imposed by Washington following a crippling hacking attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment.
North Korea has denied it had any involvement in the attack.
FBI director James Comey says the bureau is confident that North Korea was behind the Sony Pictures cyber-attack last year because the hackers “got sloppy”.
James Comey said the group posted material from servers used exclusively by the North Koreans.
November’s attack on Sony Pictures saw the leak of sensitive documents, and film The Interview briefly shelved.
Cyber security experts have been skeptical about the FBI’s assertion North Korea was to blame.
Sony’s decision to temporarily cancel The Interview‘s release was described by President Barack Obama as “a mistake”. Sony later released the film in independent cinemas and also distributed it online.
The Interview‘s plot revolves around a plan to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Pyongyang has denied being behind the cyber-attack, but described it as a “righteous deed”.
In retaliation, the US has placed sanctions on three North Korean organizations and 10 individuals.
The sanctions are believed to be the first time the US has moved to punish any country for cyber-attacks on a US company.
James Comey had been addressing delegates at the International Conference on Cyber Security in New York.
He said there was evidence the hackers had used proxy servers in an attempt to disguise the attack’s origins, but sometimes neglected to do so, revealing, the FBI believes, the true location.
However, experts remain unconvinced that the US has proved its case.
“To be frank, director Comey has not revealed anything new,” said Brian Honan, a security researcher.
“Various IP addresses have been associated with this attack, from a hotel in Taiwan to IP addresses in Japan.
“Any IP address connected to the internet can be compromised and used by attackers.”
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