Tag Archives: Kim Jong

Lifestyle

North Korea officially confirms troop deployment to fight with Russia against Ukraine

Maravi Post Reporter

Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked North Korean troops for fighting Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, after Pyongyang officially confirmed its involvement in the war on Monday. 

Putin expressed gratitude to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and praised the “heroism, excellent training and dedication” of North Korean soldiers, who fought “shoulder to shoulder with Russian soldiers, defending our Motherland as their own”, he said in a statement from the Kremlin on Monday. 

North Korea’s acknowledgment of the troop deployment came just two days after Russia announced it had fully reclaimed the Kursk region, at the border with Ukraine.

Ukraine had seized territory in the Kursk area after a surprise incursion launched in August 2024. Ukrainian officials deny Russia’s claim that it has fully recaptured the region.

“The operation to liberate Kursk by repelling the adventurous invasion of Russia by Ukraine was successfully concluded”, Pyongyang said in a statement carried by state media. 

The troops “made an important contribution in annihilating and wiping out the Ukrainian neo-Nazi occupiers by displaying mass heroism, unmatched bravery and self-sacrifice”, the statement read, reclaiming Russia’s baseless narrative, used as a justification for the invasion, that Ukraine needed to be “denazified.”

US, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence have said that North Korea dispatched between 10,000 and 12,000 soldiers in Ukraine last autumn. 

The deployment marked North Korea’s first participation in a major armed conflict since the end of the Korean War in 1953. 

Kim Jong Un decided to send troops to Russia under a mutual defence treaty signed with President Putin in June 2024, according to North Korean state media. 

The treaty requires both nations to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked. 

North Korea did not confirm how many soldiers it had sent to Russia or how many had died. In March, South Korea’s military assessed that around 4,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded in Russia’s war against Ukraine. 

Source: Africanews

https://video.euronews.com/mp4/ED/13/41/85/08/ED_PYR_1341858_20250428083950.mp4
Malawi, Regional

Kim Jong orders starving North Koreans to eat less until 2025 amid food crisis

Angella Semu
File photo: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Photograph:( Reuters

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has asked the people of his country to eat less food until 2025 following the food crisis in the country.

In his speech, the leader told the citizens of the country that they must expect to eat less food until the country re-opens its border with China in 2025. 

This comes after closure of the country’s border with China in January 2020 as a precautionary measure against the spread of coronavirus 

The closure of the boarder has negatively affected the nation’s economy. Food prices are reportedly on the rise every day in North Korea due to a lack of supply which is unable to meet the demand of people living in the country. 

Few months ago, Kim mobilised the military to carry out relief work in areas recently hit by heavy rains. 

However, this has not helped much as the demand for food is still at an increase amid the inadequate supply. 

Citizens of the country have complained that shortages would make it difficult to see themselves through the winter, let alone multiple years, Ripples reported. 

A report by North Korea’s state TV in August said heavy rains in northeastern part of the country destroyed or flooded 1,170 houses and forced 5,000 residents to evacuate to safety.

Last year, North Korea suffered severe flooding which damaged vital crops and left hundreds of families without homes. This year, crops were also damaged by droughts and subsequent flooding.

Health

North Korea uses hackers to obtain Pfizer vaccine information

Angella Semu
North Korea uses hackers to obtain Pfizer vaccine information

 South Korea’s spy agency has accused North Korean hackers of trying to break into the computer systems of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in attempt to obtain vaccine information.

This comes after the leader of the nuclear-armed nation, Kim Jong Un openly declined claims of presence of coronavirus cases in the country.

The country which is located in the East Asia imposed self isolation by closing its borders in January last year since the genesis of the virus to protect itself from the virus that first emerged in neighbouring China.

However, reports revealed that the country which has the history of an army of thousands of well-trained hackers who have been attacking companies, institutions and researchers in the South used cyberwarfare to hack into Pfizer to obtain technology involving the Covid vaccine and treatment.

The vaccine which is developed jointly with Germany’s BioNTech uses synthetic version of a molecule called “messenger RNA” to hack into human cells and effectively turn them into vaccine-making factories.

Despite the country’s denial on the presence of the virus, AFP reported that it has been under pressure in attempt to deal with the disease following the economic and financial sanctions imposed by world powers to denuclearize the regime.

Meanwhile, the company’s South Korean office has not commented anything on the story.

Globally, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases has reached about 109,735,851 with nearly 2,420,401 recorded deaths as of February 16.