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Rio Times · Asia Intelligence Brief October 12, 2026 — North Korea launches a suspected ballistic missile into the sea; Taiwan monitors Chinese live-fire drills along five coastal zones; South Korea orders action over workplace safety deception; China resumes Yellow Sea patrols with Seoul. The post Asia Intelligence Brief — Monday, October 12, 2026 appeared first on The Rio Times.
The denuclearisation of North Korea has become an “increasingly improbable” goal and the United States and its allies should move beyond it to devote their diplomatic efforts to talks on arms limitations and crisis communication, the director of the US-based North Korean analysis website 38 North said. Recalling the 20 years since North Korea carried out its first nuclear test on October 9, 2006, Jenny Town said in a written interview that “a pivotal moment” in Pyongyang’s weapons development...
North Korea’s Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong-un, denounced on Thursday South Korea’s plans to provide medical equipment aid to Pyongyang, calling it a “political provocation” and violation of its sovereignty. In a statement carried by state media KCNA, Kim criticised Seoul for publicising its efforts to obtain United Nations sanctions exemptions for a medical aid package, saying Seoul had “insulted” North Korea by referring to shortages of medicines and medical equipment...
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Friday threatened unspecified measures against Ukraine unless Kyiv acknowledged what Seoul says was a confidentiality agreement covering the transfer of two captured North Korean soldiers and apologised. “If the refusal to acknowledge the facts and issue a public apology continues, we will take additional measures,” Lee said in a social media post. Lee also expressed “grave regret” over what he described as Ukrainian remarks about an imminent military...
US president's comments came after he was asked why North Korea can have nuclear weapons when Iran cannot.
Last week Zelensky revealed Ukraine had sent two captured North Koreans to South Korea - which Seoul says was meant to be a secret.
Seoul demanded an official apology and explanation from Kyiv, accusing Ukraine of violating an agreement to keep confidential the transfer of North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea.
South Korea’s presidential office demanded an official explanation and apology from Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of disclosing the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea and then falsely denying that the two sides had agreed to keep the move confidential. “The presidential office expresses strong regret over Ukraine’s unilateral disclosure and its subsequent false announcement that there had not been a non-disclosure agreement,” Seong Ghi-hong, senior presidential secretary for...
Washington, Sept. 23 (Jiji Press)--Families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea urged the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday to raise the abduction issue if the president holds a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The Association of Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea and a cross-party group of Japanese lawmakers met with senior National S...
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s proposal for a phased approach to Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes is a pragmatic response, analysts say, but prospects for gaining its arch-rival’s acceptance remain uncertain. In a keynote speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Lee laid out a long-term, step-by-step sequence for pursuing the ultimate goal of North Korea’s denuclearisation. He had called for Washington to ease sanctions in return for North Korea stopping its nuclear...
North Korea could be using missile tests to take its denuclearisation off the US-China summit agenda and drive home its demands for recognition as a nuclear power as a prerequisite for talks with Washington, according to analysts. On Sunday, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles towards the Sea of Japan, or East Sea, which, according to South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff, were detected three hours apart, with the first flying about 450km (280 miles), while the second travelled...
The country rebukes the UN atomic agency's 'double standards' and says nuclear status is 'irreversible'.
It is clear that US President Donald Trump is pushing hard for a fresh summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the coming months. To achieve that, he appears prepared to downgrade and jeopardise the US-South Korea alliance, as seen in his recent move to scale back joint military exercises. For Trump, this will be a purely bilateral exercise, with both Seoul and Beijing totally sidelined, let alone Moscow and Tokyo. Equally, there is now a general acceptance that the issue of...
Pyongyang blew up the Inter-Korean Liaison Office building in June 2020 after days of rising tensions.
A Seoul court ordered Pyongyang on Wednesday to pay roughly US$32.5 million for blowing up in 2020 an office in North Korea that was intended to foster relations between the two Koreas, Yonhap news agency reported. The lawsuit over the destruction of the Inter-Korean Liaison Office marks the first time the South Korean government has sought damages directly from the North, according to media reports. South Korea’s previous conservative government, led by former president Yoon Suk-yeol, filed...