He’s the first-ever South Korean president left to contend with a hostile parliament for his entire five-year term, but embattled conservative Yoon insists his administration is moving in the ‘right direction’.

Zhao is the most senior Chinese official to visit Pyongyang since the country reopened its borders last year in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic

Kim inspected a military university, telling staff and students that ‘now is the time to be more thoroughly prepared for a war than ever before’.

Chinese foreign ministry says China does not compete with other nations in military power and ‘firmly pursues a defensive national defence policy’.

The Democratic Party’s Kim Jun-hyeok claims Ewha Womans University’s first president helped send ‘comfort women’ to Japan and forced students to provide sexual favours to US soldiers.

Read on for a closer look at the potential conflict scenarios, after two prominent analysts set North Korea watchers’ tongues wagging by warning Kim ‘has made a strategic decision to go to war’.

The launch was overseen by Kim Jong-un, who said the weapon showed the ‘absolute superiority’ of Pyongyang’s defence technology.

The unprecedented absence of first lady Kim Keon-hee, who has not appeared in public since December 15, is seen by analysts as a political decision to shield President Yoon’s party from any negative comment.

South Korea’s foreign ministry says it is investigating Ambassador Chung Jae-ho, who has denied allegations of both bullying and mistreating embassy staff.

Yoon risks being unable to carry out labour, pension, and education reforms if he were to lose next month’s parliamentary elections.

Conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol looks set to maintain a hardline stance on Beijing despite the expected victory of ‘submissive’ liberals in next month’s parliamentary elections.

Showing North Korean soldiers gazing across an icy river towards China and occasionally descending from looming watchtowers to prowl border paths, the photos present a unique look into life in one of the world’s most secretive communist states.

Monday’s ballistic missile test is the North’s second this year. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in South Korea for a democracy summit, condemned the launch.

The US secretary of state will meet South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul to explore how to boost their alliance and ‘extended deterrence’ against North Korea.

South Korea’s president lambasted North Korea on Friday over what he called its repressive rule and vowed to achieve a free, unified Korean peninsula.

In video-link meeting with US representative Jung Pak, China’s envoy Liu Xiaoming says stable peninsula is in the interests of the region and the world.

‘Tangible’ takeaways from a potential Japan-North Korea summit, especially on the abduction issue, are required if Kishida hopes to use foreign relation wins to boost his domestic approval, analysts say.

Dialogue between North and South Korea has given way to fiery rhetoric and mutual threats of destruction. Neither side seems inclined to de-escalate, as the spectre of a second Trump presidency only adds to mounting concerns.

While North Korea appears to be warming up to Japan, its ties with Seoul have deteriorated, with Kim Jong-un saying the North had legal right to annihilate South Korea.

North Korean-themed 1999 film Shiri was followed by a succession of South Korean box office hits about North Korea. From Joint Security Area to The Spy Gone North, here are our top 10 picks.

North Korea extends its streak of weapons demonstrations with its fifth barrage of cruise missiles in the past month.

Pyongyang’s announcement that it has developed and tested the new system ‘could prove tricky for China’ according to one analyst.