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North Korea condemns US sending battle tanks to Ukraine | Russia-Ukraine war News

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Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korea’s leader, accused the US of fighting a ‘proxy war’ against Russia.

The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has condemned the decision by the United States to supply Ukraine with advanced battle tanks to help fight Russian forces, accusing Washington of crossing a “red line” and escalating a “proxy war” designed to destroy Moscow.

The comments on Friday by Kim Yo Jong underscored North Korea’s deepening alignment with Russia over the war in Ukraine while it also confronts the US and its Asian allies about its own growing nuclear weapons and missiles programme.

“I express serious concern over the US escalating the war situation by providing Ukraine with military hardware for ground offensive,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement, her first public remarks in months.

“The US is the arch criminal which poses serious threat and challenge to the strategic security of Russia and pushes the regional situation to the present grave phase,” said Kim, who is vice-department director of the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea.

“I do not doubt that any military hardware the US and the West boast of will be burnt into pieces in the face of the indomitable fighting spirit and might of the heroic Russian army and people,” she said, adding that North Korea will always “stand in the same trench” with Russia.

Kim’s comments, carried by the country’s official Korean Central News Agency, came after the US said it would send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, reversing months of indecision by Washington on the issue. The US announcement followed Germany’s decision to also provide Ukraine with 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks from its own stocks.

Kim said US President Joe Biden’s administration was “further crossing the red line” by sending its main tanks to Ukraine and that the decision reflects a “sinister intention to realize its hegemonic aim by further expanding the proxy war for destroying Russia”.

North Korea has blamed the US for the crisis in Ukraine, insisting that the West’s “hegemonic policy” forced Russia to take military action to protect its security interests.

North Korea is also the only nation other than Russia and Syria to recognise the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, two Russian-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, and has also hinted at plans to send workers there to help with rebuilding efforts.

The US has accused North Korea of sending large supplies of artillery shells and other ammunition to Russia to support its offensive in Ukraine, although North Korea has repeatedly denied the claim.

Pyongyang has also accelerated its weapons development, test-firing more than 70 missiles in 2022 alone, including potentially nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles.

(Al Jazeera)



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N Korea drone entered S Korea’s presidential no-fly zone: Army | Conflict News

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The drone was among five North Korean unmanned aerial vehicles that crossed into South Korea’s airspace on December 26.

A North Korean drone entered the northern end of a 3.7km (2.2 miles) radius no-fly zone around South Korea’s presidential office in Seoul when it intruded into the country’s airspace last month, South Korean military officials say.

“It [the drone] briefly flew into the northern edge of the zone, but it did not come close to key security facilities,” a military official told South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency on Thursday.

The drone was among five North Korean unmanned aerial vehicles that crossed the border and entered South Korean airspace on December 26, prompting South Korea’s military to scramble fighter jets and attack helicopters. The military could not bring down the drones, which flew over South Korean territory for hours.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff had denied that one of the drones intruded into the presidential office no-fly zone, however, on Thursday confirmed that a drone had violated the northern end of the secure area but did not fly directly over the Yongsan area, where the office of President Yoon Suk-yeol is located.

The drone incursion has sparked criticism of South Korea’s air defences at a time when North Korea poses a growing threat as it develops its ballistic missile technologies, including test-launching an unprecedented number of missiles last year.

“Drone incursions have laid bare the South’s insufficient readiness to detect, track and shoot down such small drones,” Yonhap said.

South Korea’s president warned on Wednesday that he would consider suspending a 2018 inter-Korean military pact with Pyongyang if drones violate his country’s airspace again.

“He instructed the national security office to consider suspending the validity of the military agreement if North Korea stages another provocation invading our territory,” presidential press secretary Kim Eun-hye told a briefing.

The 2018 deal, sealed on the sidelines of a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and former South Korean President Moon Jae-in, called for ceasing “all hostile acts”, creating a no-fly zone around the border, and removing landmines and guard posts within the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

Yoon’s threat to abandon the 2018 pact could mean the return of live-fire drills in the former no-fly zone and propaganda broadcasts across the border – all of which drew angry responses from Pyongyang before the pact. Yoon has criticised the military’s handling of the drone incident, and has urged the country’s forces to stand ready to retaliate, even if that means “risking escalation”.

He has also ordered the defence minister to launch a comprehensive drone unit that performs multipurpose missions, including surveillance, reconnaissance and electronic warfare, and also called for a system to mass-produce stealth drones.

South Korea’s army has operated two drone squadrons within its Ground Operations Command since 2018, but they were primarily designed to prepare for future warfare.

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S. Korea launches jets, fires shots after North flies drones

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s military fired warning shots, scrambled fighter jets and flew surveillance assets across the heavily fortified border with North Korea on Monday, after North Korean drones violated its airspace for the first time in five years, officials said.

South Korea’s military detected five drones from North Korea crossing the border, and one traveled as far as the northern part of the South Korean capital region, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The military responded by firing warning shots and launching fighter jets and attack helicopters to shoot down the North Korean drones. The attack helicopters fired a combined 100 rounds but it wasn’t immediately known if the North Korean drones were shot down. There were no immediate reports of civilian damage on the ground in South Korea, according to the Defense Ministry.

One of the aircraft, a KA-1 light attack plane, crashed during takeoff but its two pilots both ejected safely, defense officials said. They said they also requested civilian airports in and near Seoul to halt takeoffs temporarily.

South Korea also sent surveillance assets near and across the border to photograph key military facilities in North Korea as corresponding measures against the North Korean drone flights, the Joint Chiefs said. It didn’t elaborate, but some observers say that South Korea likely flew unmanned drones inside North Korean territory.

“Our military will thoroughly and resolutely respond to this kind of North Korean provocation,” Maj. Gen. Lee Seung-o, director of operations at the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.

South Korea’s public confirmation of any reconnaissance activities inside North Korea is highly unusual and likely reflects a resolve by the conservative government led by President Yoon Suk Yeol to get tough on North Korean provocations. North Korea could respond with more fiery rhetoric or weapons tests or other provocation, some observers say.

On Friday, South Korea detected two short-range ballistic missile launches by North Korea, the latest in the country’s torrid run of weapons tests this year. Friday’s launches were seen as a protest of the South Korean-U.S. joint air drills that North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.

It’s the first time for North Korean drones to enter South Korean airspace since 2017, when a suspected North Korean drone was found crashed in South Korea. South Korean military officials said at the time that the drone with a Sony-made camera photographed a U.S. missile defense system in South Korea.

North Korea has previously touted its drone program, and South Korean officials said the North has about 300 drones. In 2014, several suspected North Korean drones equipped with Japanese-made cameras were found south of the border. Experts said they were low-tech but could be considered a potential security threat.

Earlier this month, North Korea claimed to have performed major tests needed to acquire its first spy satellite and a more mobile intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. They were among high-tech weapons systems that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to introduce along with multi-warheads, underwater-launched nuclear missiles, nuclear-powered submarines and hypersonic missiles.

North Korea released low-resolution photos of South Korean cities as viewed from space, but some experts in South Korea said the images were too crude for surveillance purposes. Such assessments infuriated North Korea, with Kim’s powerful sister Kim Yo Jong issuing a series of derisive terms to insult unidentified South Korean experts and express her anger.

North Korea is to hold a key ruling Workers’ Party conference this week to review past policies and set policy goals. Some experts say that during the meeting, North Korea will likely reaffirm its push to bolster nuclear and missile arsenals to cope with what it calls hostile U.S. policies, such as U.S.-led international sanctions and its regular military training with South Korea.

North Korea would eventually use its boosted nuclear capability as a bargaining chip to win international recognition as a legitimate nuclear state, the relaxing of international sanctions and other concessions, analysts say.

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North Korea Sold Arms to Russia’s Wagner Group, U.S. Says

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North Korea has delivered arms to Russia’s private military group Wagner, the White House said Thursday, calling the mercenary enterprise a “rival” for power to the defense and other ministries in the Kremlin.

The United States will boost sanctions against Wagner following North Korea’s sale of infantry rockets and missiles to the group last month, in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, said White House national security spokesman John Kirby.

“Wagner is searching around the world for arms suppliers to support its military operations in Ukraine,” Kirby told reporters.

“We can confirm that North Korea has completed an initial arms delivery to Wagner, which paid for that equipment,” he said.

According to Kirby the group, which is independent of the Russian defense establishment and is leading a bloody siege of Bakhmut, Ukraine, is spending more than $100 million each month in its Ukraine operations.

“Wagner is emerging as a rival power center to the Russian military and other Russian ministries,” Kirby said.

‘Sign of desperation’

In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency, the North Korean foreign ministry denied conducting any arms transaction with Russia, saying the story was “cooked up by some dishonest forces for different purposes.”

However, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the U.K. concurs with the American assessment that North Korea delivered arms to Russia for the Wagner group in violation of UN resolutions.

“The fact that President (Vladimir) Putin is turning to North Korea for help is a sign of Russia’s desperation and isolation,” Cleverly said in a statement.

“We will work with our partners to ensure that North Korea pays a high price for supporting Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine.”

Close to Putin

The Wagner group is controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman once called “Putin’s chef” for his work catering dinners for the powerful leader before and after he became the Russian president.

A vocal critic of the Russian defense establishment’s handling of the war in Ukraine, Prigozhin, 61, runs a number of diverse businesses out of his Concord Catering group in St. Petersburg.

One is the Internet Research Agency, the notorious St. Petersburg internet “troll farm” that conducted a massive online operation to interfere with the US elections to help then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016.

For that Prigozhin and several others in the operation were indicted in the United States in 2018.

Just last month, he boasted of the operation.

“We interfered, we are interfering and we will interfere,” he said.

He has also been hit with U.S. and European Union sanctions several times, particularly for Wagner Group activities.

The mercenary-like army has been carrying out operations — ostensibly private but implicitly approved by the Kremlin — in Syria, Libya, Sudan, the Central African Republic and other countries in Africa. 

In several locations they have been accused of participating in atrocities. They have been accused of taking part with government forces in the massacre of 300 civilians in Moura, Mali in March 2022.

In Ukraine, the group has served as an elite special forces-type operation that has better training, equipment and supplies than the mainstream Russian military.

Convict recruits sent to front

Prigozhin himself reportedly dubbed the intense fight in Bakhmut a “meat grinder,” saying it would destroy the Ukraine army.

But Wagner itself has taken significant casualties, and Prigozhin has relied on prisons to supply Wagner with convicts to fill out its ranks.

Kirby estimated that the Wagner force now numbers about 50,000, including 10,000 skilled “contractors” and 40,000 convicts.

In Bakhmut and other areas of heavy fighting, Ukraine forces say the relatively untrained convicts have been forced to the front, where many have been killed or injured.

According to U.S. information, Kirby said, 90 percent of the estimated 1,000 Wagner fighters killed in the fighting in recent weeks were convicts.

“It seems as though Mr. Prigozhin is willing to just throw Russian bodies into the meat grinder in Bakhmut,” he said. 

Kirby said Prigozhin appeared more interested in “influence peddling at the Kremlin” than protecting his troops.

“For him, it’s all about how good he looks to Mr. Putin, and how well he’s regarded at the Kremlin,” Kirby said.

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North Korea slams Japan’s military buildup, promises ‘action’ | Nuclear Weapons News

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North Korea’s foreign ministry calls Japan’s new $320bn security strategy ‘wrong and dangerous’, promises a response.

North Korea has condemned Japan’s planned military build-up and pledged action against what it described as Tokyo’s “wrong and dangerous choice” to bolster its defence sector.

The statement on Tuesday from North Korea’s foreign ministry comes just days after Japan unveiled a new $320bn security strategy that outlined plans for Japan’s military to mount “counter-strike capabilities”, and to respond to the threats posed by China, Russia and North Korea.

Japan’s sweeping, five-year military strategy will see the country become the world’s third-largest military spender after the United States and China.

Japan’s new security strategy effectively formalises a “new aggression policy” and fundamentally changes East Asia’s security environment, a spokesperson for Pyongyang’s foreign ministry said in a report published by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

In response to Japan’s move to “realise unjust and excessive ambition”, North Korea “will continue to show how concerned and displeased we are with practical action,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson blasted the US for “exalting and instigating Japan’s rearmament and re-invasion plan,” adding that Washington had no right to raise issue with Pyongyang’s efforts to bolster its own defences.

North Korea’s efforts to upgrade military capabilities have included a record number of ballistic missile launches this year, including missiles capable of carrying nuclear payloads and with varying ranges that could reach the US mainland and allies South Korea and Japan.

North Korea claimed advances on Monday in its efforts to acquire a spy satellite, saying that it had launched a test satellite and releasing low-resolution, black-and-white photos that showed a view from space of the South Korean capital, Seoul, and the nearby city of Incheon.

Some analysts in South Korea said the images were too crude to be satellite photos, according to the South Korean Yonhap news agency.

North Korea hit back at that criticism on Tuesday, with Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying it was “inappropriate and hasty” to assess her country’s satellite capabilities from those two photos alone.

Pyongyang’s efforts to develop a spy satellite were a “pressing priority directly linked to our security,” she said, adding that additional sanctions on her country would not stop such technological developments.

South Korea will seek international support and “try hard to impose additional sanctions on us”, she added.

“But, with our right to survival and development being threatened, why are we afraid of sanctions … and why would we stop?”

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N Korea fires 2 ballistic missiles in resumption of testing

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired a pair of ballistic missiles on Sunday toward its eastern waters, its first weapons test in a month and coming two days after it claimed to have performed a key test needed to build a more mobile, powerful intercontinental ballistic missile designed to strike the U.S. mainland.

South Korea’s military detected the launch of two North Korean ballistic missiles from its northwest Tongchangri area. The missiles flew across the country toward its eastern waters, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

It said the missiles were fired about 50 minutes apart but gave no further details, like precisely what type of weapons North Korea fired and how far they flew. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said South Korea’s military has bolstered its surveillance posture and maintains a readiness in close coordination with the United States.

Japanese officials said the two missiles fell in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan and that no damage to ships or human injuries have been reported. Japanese Vice Defense Minister Toshiro Ino told reporters that both missiles flew a distance of 500 kilometers (310 miles) at a maximum altitude of 550 kilometers (340 miles). He criticized North Korea for threatening the safety of Japan, the region and the international community.

The Tongchangri area is home to North Korea’s Sohae Satellite Launching Ground, where the country in past years launched satellite-carrying long-range rockets in what the U.N. called a disguised test of ICBM technology.

North Korea said Friday it tested a “high-thrust solid-fuel motor” for a new strategic weapon in the Sohae facility the previous day, a development that experts say could allow it to possess a more mobile, harder-to-detect arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach the U.S. mainland.

Sunday’s launch is the North’s first public weapons test since the country last month launched its developmental, longest-range liquid-fueled Hwasong-17 ICBM capable of reaching the entire U.S. homeland. Earlier this year, North Korea test-launched a variety of other missiles at a record pace, despite pandemic-related economic hardships and U.S.-led pressures to curb its nuclear program.

North Korea has defended its weapons testing as self-defense measures to cope with the expanded U.S.-South Korea military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal. But some experts say North Korea likely used its rivals’ military training as an excuse to enlarge its weapons arsenal and increase its leverage in future negotiations with the U.S. to win sanctions relief and other concessions.

“In the face of mounting diplomatic pressure after an unprecedented year for North Korean missile tests, the Kim regime is determined to show no weakness ahead of its New Year’s political events,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

The weapon North Korea said it could build with the recently tested motor likely refers to a solid-fueled ICBM, which is among a list of high-tech weapons systems that leader Kim Jong Un vowed to procure during a major ruling party conference early last year. Other weapons systems Kim promised to manufacture include a multi-warhead missile, underwater-launched nuclear missiles and spy satellites.

All of North Korea’s existing ICBMs use liquid propellant, which must be added to the weapons before they’re fired. This makes it relatively easier for outsiders to spot their launch preparations via satellites. But fuel in solid-propellant rockets is already loaded inside, so it shortens launch preparation times, increases their mobility and makes it harder for outsiders to learn what’s happening ahead of liftoff. North Korea already has a growing arsenal of short-range, solid-fueled ballistic missiles targeting key locations in South Korea, including U.S. military bases there.

In reaction to North Korea’s testing activities, the South Korean and U.S. militaries have expanded their regular drills and resumed trilateral trainings with Japan. But security jitters about North Korea’s nuclear weapons have increased in South Korea and Japan, as the North has threatened the preemptive use of nuclear weapons, taking reported steps to deploy nuclear-capable, short-range missiles along its border with South Korea and test-firing a missile over Japan.

The exact status of North Korea’s nuclear attack capability remains in secrecy.

Some experts speculate North Korea already has functioning nuclear-tipped missiles that can hit the entire U.S. and its allies South Korea and Japan, given the number of years it has spent on its nuclear program. But others say the country is still years away from acquiring such weapons, noting it has yet to publicly prove it has a technology to build warheads small enough to be placed on missiles or protect warheads from the harsh conditions of atmospheric reentry.

—

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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As Kim Jong Un’s Daughter Debuts, Multiple Signals Go Out To The World

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North Korea did not name the girl, who is seen in photographs holding hands with her father Kim Jong Un.

North Korea hasn’t said whether she has any siblings. Her age remains a mystery. The world doesn’t even know her name. The important thing is that she’s the “most beloved” daughter of Kim Jong Un.

The young girl, who South Korean authorities believe is named Ju Ae and about nine years old, has suddenly been featured in North Korean state media alongside her all-powerful father. She most recently accompanied Kim on a photo op to celebrate the successful launch of the country’s most powerful ballistic missile — prompting “stormy cheers of ‘Hurrah!’,” according to a Korean Central News Agency dispatch published Sunday.

Despite all the mystery, the events sent clear signals to both the North Korean public and the wider world: First, the Kim regime is here to stay. Second, the ruling family won’t be bargaining away its nuclear arsenal any time soon.

Both points were driven home when Kim brought his daughter along to observe the launch a new intercontinental ballistic missile believed capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads anywhere on the US mainland. Photos released by state media included a shot of Kim looking down on his child with the rocket looming behind them.

The debut was remarkable on several levels. While parading heirs before the public has been a feature of hereditary monarchies the world over, the Kim family has been far more reluctant to reveal potential successors during its almost 75 years in power.

Kim Jong Un didn’t make his official debut until he was around 26. Before Ju Ae’s first appearance in state media on Nov. 19, North Korea hadn’t even acknowledged Kim had children. It’s still not known whether the regime views his “precious child” as Kim’s heir, or whether that status would belong to the older brother she’s rumored to have.

“The optics of Kim and his daughter observing the launch together seem to underscore recent messaging that the nuclear program is no longer conditional, and now involves the next generation as part of this success,” said Jenny Town, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington. In September, Kim told North Korean lawmakers he would “never give up” his nuclear weapons while pushing through a law that would allow “automatic” strikes if his leadership was threatened.

Since taking power a decade ago at 27, Kim has defied predictions that his regime would falter. Instead, he boasts an increasingly diverse stockpile of weapons designed to target the US and its allies in Japan and South Korea. The reports featuring Kim’s daughter show he also has a possible heir to bequeath them to.

“It is the truth taught by history that only when we become the strongest, not the weak, in the present world where the strength in showdown just decides victory, can we defend the present and future of the country and nation,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying Sunday.

The NIS believed Kim may have wanted to assure people that he is responsible for the “security of the future generation,” South Korean lawmaker Yoo Sang-bum told reporters last week after a closed-door briefing with the National Intelligence Service. He added that agency believes that Ju Ae is the second of three children between Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju.

“Under the North Korean regime, the position of Kim’s children can be compared to that of prince or princess in a dynastic system,” said Cheong Seong-Chang, director of the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute outside of Seoul.

North Korea’s ability to deliver a nuclear strike on the US and its allies in Asia has grown under Kim Jong Un to the point where there are calls to declare Pyongyang a nuclear weapons state and revamp a decades-old US policy of never allowing that to happen, while seeking the complete, verifiable and irreversible end of its atomic arsenal.

Kim has ignored the US’s calls to return to nuclear disarmament talks now stalled for more than three years.

Ju Ae’s debut is only the latest example of Kim’s willingness to share the spotlight with prominent women. Besides frequent appearances with his wife, he has made his sister, Kim Yo Jong, the face of the regime’s response to the US and South Korea. He also recently appointed, Choe Son Hui, to be the country’s first female foreign minister.

Still, it’s too early to say whether Kim Jong Un intends to make Ju Ae his formal heir. Such a move would likely face resistance from the country’s male-dominated political elite, said Rachel Minyoung Lee, a regional issues manager at the Vienna-based Open Nuclear Network.

“While Kim himself may be ready to appoint a female successor, those around him may not be, and he cannot altogether ignore the opinions of the country’s top-ranking leadership,” said Lee, who previously worked as an open source analyst for the CIA. “North Korea is a very traditional and conservative society, and Kim may not be confident that a female successor could navigate a male-dominant party, government, and military without jeopardizing regime security.”

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Xi tells Kim China wants to work with North Korea for peace: KCNA | Xi Jinping News

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Xi sends message to Kim amid an unprecedented number of missile tests by North Korea.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has told North Korea’s Kim Jong Un that Beijing is willing to work with Pyongyang for global peace and stability, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The report on Saturday came days after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in one of its most powerful tests yet, declaring it would meet perceived nuclear threats from the United States with nuclear weapons of its own.

North Korea has conducted a record-breaking blitz of missile launches in recent weeks and fears have grown that it is building up to a seventh nuclear test, its first since 2017.

In his message to Kim, Xi said Beijing was ready to work together for “peace, stability, development and prosperity of the region and the world”, KCNA reported.

Xi said he was willing to collaborate with Pyongyang as “changes in the world, times, and history are taking place in unprecedented ways”, KCNA said, quoting from the message it said was received in response to congratulations from Kim after the Chinese Communist Party Congress last month handed Xi a third term.

Days before North Korea’s ICBM launch, Xi met on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Bali with US President Joe Biden, who voiced confidence that Beijing does not want to see a further escalation by Pyongyang.

Washington has said it wants China, Pyongyang’s most important ally and economic benefactor, to use its influence to help rein in North Korea.

The November 18 missile launch appeared to be Pyongyang’s newest ICBM with the potential range to hit the US mainland.

The United Nations Security Council convened an open meeting over the launch, with the US, the United Kingdom, France and India among 14 nations to “strongly condemn” Pyongyang’s actions.

But a Western diplomat told the AFP news agency that China and Russia had chosen not to put their names to Monday’s statement.

Earlier this month, the US had accused Beijing and Moscow of protecting Pyongyang from further punishment.

In May, China and Russia vetoed a US-led effort to tighten sanctions on North Korea in response to earlier launches.

Pyongyang is already under multiple sets of international sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, and China accounts for more than 90 percent of the impoverished country’s bilateral trade.

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South Korea’s booming arms industry rolls out the big guns in bid for global reach

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Changwon, South Korea
CNN
 — 

With a blinding yellow flash and a concussion that shakes bones, K9 self-propelled howitzers launch artillery shells onto a hill that’s just been hit by rockets fired from helicopters. Then K2 tanks roar in, speeding up roads and firing as they go.

This is part of DX Korea, a four-day South Korean defense expo held in September at a firing range in Pocheon, about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from the North Korean border.

The display – presented to a crowd of 2,000 people including military officials from more than two dozen countries – is one way South Korea sells weapons.

And President Yoon Suk Yeol wants to sell more of them – enough for Seoul to jump four places up the ranks to become the world’s fourth-biggest arms exporter.

“By entering the world’s top four defense exporters after the United States, Russia and France, the (South Korean) defense industry will become a strategic industrialization and a defense powerhouse,” Yoon said.

To do that, South Korea will have to outsell – in ascending order – the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and finally China, which held 4.6% of the export market in the 2017-2021 period, according to the authoritative Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

That’s no easy task, yet Seoul is already well on its way. From 2012 to 2016, it had just 1% of the global market. It more than doubled that in the following five-year period, capturing 2.8% – by far the largest increase among any of the world’s top 25 arms exporters.

In 2021, it sold $7 billion worth of weapons overseas, according to the Export-Import Bank of Korea.

And the South Korean defense industry believes it has the arsenal to grab an even bigger slice of the pie.

South Korea’s weapons exports have ballooned in recent years, but the country has been building its arms industry for decades, spurred on by its troubled relationship with its northern neighbor.

As of 2020, military expenditures represented 2.8% of South Korea’s gross domestic product, according to SIPRI, well above the 2% threshold considered a minimum by many US allies.

“The North Korean threat has given us a good reason, a motivation to make sure that our weapons are very good,” says Chun In-bum, a former lieutenant general in the South Korean Army.

Technically, the Korean War never ended, because the document that stopped the combat in 1953 was an armistice, not a peace treaty.

In the first decades after the fighting ended, South Korea’s defense was heavily dependent on American troops and weaponry.

Things began to change in the 1970s, when the US was distracted by the war in Vietnam and the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

South Korea began to take more responsibility for its own defense and invested $42 million in US military aid in factories to produce M-16 rifles, according to the Korea Development Institute (KDI).

By the end of the decade, Korean researchers under the direction of the country’s National Defense Science Institute had succeeded in making all basic weaponry, according to a 2014 KDI report.

With the ever-present threats from the North, Seoul initiated a National Defense Tax to pay for the development of a modern military, including the armored systems and other military equipment that Korean defense companies are marketing today.

Back on the hillside after the live-fire demonstration, prospective customers listened intently to the pitches of the South Korean representatives.

Delegations had arrived from as far afield as Mexico, Thailand, Nigeria and the Philippines. An Indian general asked for the ranges of a weapon on display. Qatari officers inspected a K2 up close.

Conspicuously, none of the potential customers were from Ukraine.

But that doesn’t mean South Korea’s arms industry isn’t seeing a role in Ukraine’s war with Russia.

A US defense official told CNN this month that Washington intends to buy 100,000 rounds of artillery ammunition from South Korean arms manufacturers to provide to Ukraine.

The rounds will be transferred to Ukraine via the US, allowing Seoul to stick to its public pledge that it would not send lethal aid to the war-torn country.

In a statement issued after the planned purchase was first revealed in The Wall Street Journal, the South Korean Defense Ministry said it had not changed its position on shipping weapons to Ukraine, and that it believed the “end user” of the ammunition was the US.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had said late last month that South Korea had decided to send “arms and ammunition” to Kyiv, which would “ruin our relations” with them – a claim denied a day later by President Yoon.

A South Korean presidential decree that enforces the country’s Foreign Trade Act says its exports can only be used for “peaceful purposes” and “shall not affect international peace, safety maintenance, and national security.”

South Korea is also a signatory to the United Nations’ Arms Trade Treaty, ratified in 2014 with the intention of keeping close control on who gets weapons and under what conditions they can be used. Ukraine is a signatory but hasn’t ratified it.

But the planned US ammunition transfer isn’t the only way the influence of South Korea’s arms industry will be felt in Ukraine.

In September, South Korea signed a deal with Poland for its biggest arms sale ever, in which it will supply Warsaw with almost 1,000 of Hyundai Rotem’s K2 tanks, more than 600 of Hanwha’s K9s, and dozens of fighter jets from Korean Aerospace Industries.

The deal will enable Poland to replace many of the weapons that Warsaw has sent to Kyiv.

“Poland needed weapons to defend themselves, and that’s exactly what we’re providing,” Chun says. “We Koreans understand that without weapons to defend yourself, the end result is a tragedy.”

The constant threat of a North Korean attack is one reason military production lines were established in the southern port city of Changwon, the cradle of South Korea’s modern arms industry.

The city is in a natural basin, surrounded by mountains on all sides, making it easier to defend. The city’s main road, Changwon-daero, has a 14.9-kilometer (9.25-mile) stretch that can double as a runway in times of national emergency.

At its southern end is the Changwon National Industrial Complex, established in the 1970s and home to the Hanwha Defense and Hyundai Rotem factories, where artillery pieces and tanks trundle off the assembly lines.

Overseas orders are rolling in this year, notably the landmark deal with Poland which the Korea Defense Industry Association estimates to be worth $15.3 billion.

Hanwha puts its share of that agreement at $2.4 billion, its largest contract for the K9.

Poland is one of nine countries – alongside South Korea, Turkey, Finland, India, Norway, Estonia, Australia and Egypt – to buy the howitzer from Hanwha.

Lee Boo-hwan, an executive vice president of Hanwha Defense’s overseas business division, says the company wants to be a long-term partner to countries that buy its weapons. To that end, it is setting up new manufacturing facilities in Australia, Egypt and Poland.

“My workers are very happy to share our technology,” Lee says. “It is our main strategic focus to enter (new) markets.”

It’s also about continuously updating and improving the product, he says, and that’s happening inside South Korea.

The company has already prototyped the K9A2 tank, which situates the crew outside the turret to make them less vulnerable to attack, and is developing “a more futuristic, next generation version,” Lee says.

“It is fully automated operation, unmanned platform,” with artificial intelligence to let it learn on the battlefield, he says.

At a sprawling, modern complex in Changwon, Hanwha’s robots churn out the artillery pieces for K9s at the rate of one unit every three to five days.

A combination of robots and humans combine on a seven-station assembly line to put together what will eventually be 47 metric tons of steel, machinery and electronics.

One robot, more than two stories high, welds the turrets, the brightness of the white-hot procedure lighting up the cavernous assembly building.

Further down the line, another robot bores holes in the green-painted steel, switching bits automatically as it goes about its work with an accuracy of 1/100th of a millimeter, thinner than a human hair, according to a Hanwha Defense official.

Once the robots are done, it is the turn of Hanwha’s workers. Each hull as it goes along the line bears the pictures of 11 of them.

“We provide excellence by name,” says Lee, the Hanwha executive vice president.

At each assembly station, there’s a “tollgate,” with green, yellow and red lights. Any worker can stop the line with a red light and summon engineers if they spot a problem.

At the final stop is the bore sighting, where the accuracy of the K9’s gun is tested on a target at the far end of the workspace.

The completed units then go outside for performance testing, causing the ground to vibrate as they roar along a paved road near their top speed of 67 kilometers per hour (42 mph).

Test drivers spin the tracked howitzer one way then the other, the rubber pads on the tracks leaving donuts on the concrete.

As the drivers put the units through their paces, Lee explains how Hanwha customizes K9s for its overseas customers: those bound for northern climates like Norway get extra heat sources for the crew; those made for hotter places like India or Egypt get more air conditioning. Some of the factory’s K9s are headed for Poland this year.

Jack Watling, senior research fellow for land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute in London, says South Korea is the perfect testing ground.

Its seasons range from deep-freeze winters to monsoons and summer heat of 30 degrees Celsius or higher – and it has both flat and mountainous terrain.

“That is a pretty unique set of complex variables in terms of having a vehicle that’s reliable across climatic conditions,” Watling says.

And that’s attracted foreign buyers, he says.

Just a few miles from where the K9 artillery pieces are being tested, the K2 tanks at the Hyundai Rotem factory are being put through their paces.

Again, the latest customer is Poland.

“This is our first time directly exporting our (K2),” says Kim, the Hyundai Rotem VP.

Orders from South Korea’s military keep the K2 assembly line busy enough – but the Polish order means Hyundai Rotem can add capacity.

This is essentially like buying a new car off the lot. In the tank world, you can’t quite drive your new K2 home that day, but you get the idea.

“The most important thing is that it is currently being produced,” Kim says.

Hanwha Defense has its eyes on one market in particular – the United States, the world’s largest defense market.

“We want to enter the US market with support from a US local company and also, we want to contribute to the US Army and the US local defense industry,” says Lee, the Hanwha VP.

In 2021, US military spending was $801 billion. But South Korean weapons and ammunition exports to the US accounted for only $95 million, according to the US Commerce Department.

Overall, US military spending was more than the next nine countries combined, according to SIPRI. South Korea ranked 10th.

But the South Korean defense industry should be seen as a partner that complements its American counterpart, rather than competes with it, Chun says.

That massive US military budget includes huge expenditure on top-shelf items. That’s not what Seoul is selling, he points out.

“There are portions of a spectrum of weapons that the United States does not make, because they feel they don’t need to. It doesn’t make a profit for their industry. That’s what we’re targeting. The systems that we have sold to Poland are exactly those kind of systems,” he says.

“I’m hoping that the United States understands that this is a partnership,” Chun adds.

“The United States makes the greatest and best weapons in the world,” he says, “but they don’t make all of them.”

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Kim’s sister warns US of ‘a more fatal security crisis’

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned the United States on Tuesday that it would face “a more fatal security crisis” as Washington pushes for U.N. condemnation of the North’s recent intercontinental ballistic missile test.

Kim Yo Jong’s warning came hours after U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that the U.S. will circulate a proposed presidential statement condemning North Korea’s banned missile launches and other destabilizing activities. After the meeting, Thomas-Greenfield also read a statement by 14 countries which supported action to limit North Korea’s advancement of its weapons programs.

Kim Yo Jong, who is widely considered North Korea’s second most powerful person after her brother, lambasted the United States for issuing what she called “a disgusting joint statement together with such rabbles as Britain, France, Australia, Japan and South Korea.”

Kim compared the United States to “a barking dog seized with fear.” She said North Korea would consider the U.S.-led statement “a wanton violation of our sovereignty and a grave political provocation.”

“The U.S. should be mindful that no matter how desperately it may seek to disarm (North Korea), it can never deprive (North Korea) of its right to self-defense and that the more hell-bent it gets on the anti-(North Korea) acts, it will face a more fatal security crisis,” she said in a statement carried by state media.

Monday’s U.N. Security Council meeting was convened in response to North Korea’s ICBM launch on Friday, which was part of a provocative run of missile tests this year that experts say is designed to modernize its nuclear arsenal and increase its leverage in future diplomacy. Friday’s test involved its most powerful Hwasong-17 missile, and some experts say the successful steep-angle launch proved its potential to strike anywhere in the U.S. mainland if it’s fired at a standard trajectory.

During the Security Council meeting, the United States and its allies strongly criticized the ICBM launch and called for action to limit North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. But Russia and China, both veto-wielding members of the Security Council, opposed any new pressure and sanctions on North Korea. In May, the two countries vetoed a U.S.-led attempt to toughen sanctions on North Korea over its earlier ballistic missile tests, which are prohibited by U.N. Security Council resolutions.

North Korea has said its testing activities are legitimate exercises of its right to self-defense in response to regular military drills between the United States and South Korea which it views as an invasion rehearsal. Washington and Seoul officials say the exercises are defensive in nature.

Kim Yo Jong said the fact that North Korea’s ICBM launch was discussed at the Security Council is “evidently the application of double-standards” by the U.N. body because it “turned blind eyes” to the U.S.-South Korean military drills. She said North Korea won’t tolerate any attempt to undermine its right to self-defense and will take “the toughest counteraction to the last” to protect its national security.

On Monday, North Korea’s foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, called U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “a puppet of the United States.”

There are concerns that North Korea may soon conduct its first nuclear test in five years.

The status of North Korea’s nuclear capability remains shrouded in secrecy. Some analysts say North Korea already has nuclear-armed missiles that can strike both the U.S. mainland and its allies South Korea and Japan, but others say the North is still years away from possessing such missiles.

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