North Korea News Podcast by NK News - North Korea test missiles from new warship, and ROK presidential race heats up

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a range of missile launches from the country’s largest-ever warship last week, according to state media. NK News Deputy Managing Editor Alannah Hill joins the podcast to discuss the variety of weapons tested and the risk they pose, as well as the latest on the presidential race in […]

Explore the unofficial world of DPRK-inspired apparel at NK News Shop. Dive into a captivating collection of North Korea-themed t-shirts, hoodies and more at the NK News Shop. From the popular Daedonggang beer t-shirts to the adventurous air choreo designs, each for watching. Support independent journalism with every purchase. Explore our range today at shop.nknews.org. That's shop.nknews.org. Hello listeners and welcome to the NK News Podcast. This is the Tuesday episode and we are recording the episode on Monday, the 5th of May, 2025, almost at 1925. It's Buddha's birthday and it's also Children's Day and as you can tell by that lovely laugh and the other microphone there I'm joined in the podcast studio by

managing editor Alana Hill. Welcome. Thank you so much for having me, Jaco. And also Cinco de Mayo for all our Mexican listeners. For Cinco de Mayo, for those who celebrate. Yes, there's a lot going on. Triple whammy today. Triple whammy. But I'm surprised and impressed in admiration by how many of our fellows are here at the NK News studio today working hard. NK News never stops. The news never stops coming from North Korea.

And what shall we talk about today? Well, I thought that we could start off by chatting about the office gossip, what we're chatting about at the moment. So I'm sure lots of listeners know that on Friday, this Friday coming up is Victory Day in Russia. So we've been keeping our eye out about the prospects of possibly Kim Jong-un taking a trip to Moscow to maybe attend this parade or at the very least North Korean troops marching on the Red Square in participation. Right, for those listeners who may not be aware, Victory Day commemorates the victory

that the Russians had over the Nazis in 1945 at the end of World War II. Right. So they have a big military parade each year. Yes. Looking back at that, but presumably they fold in all sorts of victories, so that's why they would have the North Koreans in this one as well. Yes, and this year marks the 80th anniversary of that year so you know it's ending in a zero which is always a big deal a zero or a five.

80th year of Korea's liberation too, just a few months from now? Yeah so we've been keeping our eye out for that, lots of back and forth, lots of betting pools go in the office, is he going to show up, is he not? Aha, what's the good money saying right now? So this morning Colin's worker, one of my colleagues, pointed out that from what he's been seeing in terms of train travel there's been nothing to note of recently and basically it'd be too late now for him to take the train which he's obviously famed for traveling on. Right, Kim Jong-un, I don't recall the last time he took a plane to anywhere outside

North Korea. Right, now two other options that that Anton, my other colleague, pointed out were number one, Xi Jinping is going. So he is, that's confirmed. Yes, that's correct. So I think he's going to be there for a few days, actually. So potentially a Chinese plane, maybe would Kim go on a Chinese plane with Xi? Maybe. The other option, another thing that Anton pointed out, he's fantastic for monitoring flight routes. I noticed a couple of months ago, there was some planes flying between Pyongyang and Moscow that we weren't 100% sure what they were doing. So could be test flights, maybe? Right. Don't know.

But yeah, definitely something to look out for. Anton also today on Russian media spotted some rehearsals that were happening. And there was Chinese troops taking part, Mongolians, Vietnamese, Myanmar and I believe Egyptians were the other ones. And he said that there'll be another rehearsal coming up on the 7th. So we'll keep our BDIs peeled for maybe some North Korean troops. The other thing to take into account here is, you know, we've had this official recognition from Russia and North Korea about their troops participating in the Ukrainian war. So does that up the ante potentially? I mean I would say yes. Having said that now I believe it was last week the NIS which

is South Korea's intelligence agency has assessed that Kim Jong-un probably won't attend but that there could be another high ranking official they suggested Choi Ryong-Hae. Oh okayae Ryong-Hae. Now he's very top level. I don't see he's one of those guys I don't think he's ever served in the military but he does wear a military uniform and he does have a military title. He's not someone who's come up to the ranks so to speak. Right but he's called Kim Jong-un's right-hand man. I think he's the parliamentary chief is his current title and so his name has been thrown out there that potentially he might. He no longer wears a military uniform.

He has in the past worn a military uniform to some events. Yeah. And he would be the kind of guy you could see up on a presidium, you know, looking over overlooking a parade. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll find out on Friday. Fingers. I was going to say fingers crossed. Yeah, kind of fingers crossed. Well, have you got any?

Have you got any money riding on this? I'm an optimist. And in terms of the news cycle, of course, I was gonna say fingers crossed. Yeah, kind of fingers crossed. Have you got any money riding on this? I'm an optimist and in terms of the news cycle, of course I'd love him to show up. So yeah, we'll see what happens. We'll keep our eyes out. I'd say regardless of whether Kim Jong-un goes, we'll more than likely see North Korean troops there, potentially some kind of high level delegation

as we've been seeing these delegations going back and forth. And maybe not just troops, but maybe some, you know, what do just troops but maybe some self-propelled big gun or a missile launcher or something like that. That was another conversation we had this morning that potentially could we see North Korean made weapons with a Russian flag slapped on being paraded through the Red Square. So we're all anticipating and excited to see what comes of Friday. So, yeah. Yes. So, okay. That's Russia's Victory Day coming up. Still no sign of a ceasefire or anything like that in the war on Ukraine in which

Russians, North Koreans are still fighting. So that's also interesting to see how that develops in the coming weeks and months. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Next story. Yeah. So I know that you and Jung Min last, we covered the unveiling of this massive, giant, huge new warship

and then just that weekend after we had a missile test from the warship. So busy weekend in North Korea and here and they tested supersonic cruise missiles, strategic cruise missiles and then anti-aircraft missiles. So there's three different kinds of tests, all from this new 5000 tan destroyer, whose name I've forgotten. I think it's the Hyun Chun? Yee Chun something. Or Chun Hyun? Yeah. Chun Hyun. That's ringing a bell. I reversed them. I think it's a Chun Hyun. Yeah. So these tests took place over the course of two days. Kim Jong-un was there, his daughter was there,

so quite a big deal. And Colin, who spoke to some analysts, they talked about how these new supersonic cruise missiles have this uncommon kind of dolphin nose design that actually was developed by other countries. So this is the first time we're seeing it used by North Korea, but they suggested that they could have been tested in the past in North Korea. We just haven't seen it before. Ah so it's the first time it's been seen. Yeah. It's also the first time I recall in a while that the daughter has been out there, the respected child or whatever. No I think she may have been at a Hwasong Street opening. I think that if I

can recall correctly that might have been the last time but yeah she was definitely kind of front and center at this. I mean, the more often she comes out, the more it just becomes normalized that she is Kim's right hand girl and may be in line for something in the future. Yeah. And I believe it was maybe at the Hwasong district opening. She appeared with a lot of other children of these high level officials. And so some analysts were kind of questioning, you know, is this to kind of present her as the leader of the next generation? Which I thought was quite an interesting way to look at it. Yeah.

So yes, we had this new missile test over the weekend from this warship. And, you know, as we've heard many times before from North Korea, Kim Jong Un and the leadership is always threatening these flights around the Korean Peninsula over North Korean airspace on the West Coast and the East Coast and so he always is threatening that this is interfering into the North Korean airspace. Breach of sovereignty. Breach of sovereignty that he'll shoot these planes down and this is probably

the first example of a case where he's shown us he can shoot these planes down. He does have the technology now. He has shipped away missiles and they can move around. Yeah, exactly. So upping the ante in that area a little bit for sure. Yeah, very interesting. OK, wow, thank you. What's our next one?

Well, I have to bring this up. I suppose it's what's happening in South Korea. Bit of a mess, but I wanted to briefly touch on it. We're just under a month from the election, the presidential election on the 3rd of June. Now I know that Jung Min also spoke about Lee Jae Myung last weekend, what his potential goals would be in terms of North Korea. Today he was speaking about how he would reinstate the comprehensive military agreement.

He was up in the border regions and he posted on social media mainly about the border regions. And he was talking about trash balloons, leaflet balloons, the loudspeakers and going forward, you know, what he tried to do to try and temper down tensions in that area. Then we have the former Prime Minister, Han Deok-soo. He declared his candidacy for the presidency. Again, he kind of pledged to pursue dialogue with North Korea while strengthening deterrence against nuclear threats. Would North Korea even be open to that? We don't know. So yeah, there's lots of change happening. It's all happening very, very quickly.

And I saw that the third acting president, the Minister of Education, I don't recall his name, but I just saw the headline that one of the first things that he said after becoming acting president was something about the threat from the North. Yeah, I've also stopped learning their names because it's just impeachment after impeachment after impeachment. But yeah, it's funny that you mentioned that because I felt the headline of the week from Brian last week was a ROK education chief warns of North Korean threats after taking charge of military. So I think that kind of highlights the state that we're in. We are in a very strange state of affairs here. And we'll be for another month. So a lot of things are in play here and we don't even know whether Lee Jae Myung's legal

problems are over or if they're still hanging over his head like a cloud. Exactly, yeah. We could be in a very, very different spot four weeks from now. It's changing every day, every moment. It's very fast paced. I think I should cancel my vacation plans and just stick around and see what happens here in South Korea. That's exciting times. Because it is never boring, you know.

You never want to be away when something big happens. No, no, exactly. Have you got a last thing to leave us with? Yeah, just lastly, I wanted to finish a little, a fun little story. Anton, our fantastic Russia correspondent, who covers a lot of Russia related stories. And he always has his eye on kind of interesting data points coming out of Russia. And so one of those things that he found was an export declaration and coming from North Korea, and they're hoping to export some beer to Russia.

So this beer that's made in Rassan, so it's not the famous Pyongyang one. It's not the Daedonggang beer from Pyongyang. It's the Tumengang beer. Yes, yep. That's the one on the border between Russia and North Korea. So he found this application between this brewery in Rasson and also a company in Valdivastok for Tumen River 11 pale pasteurized filtered beer. So yeah just you know again more cooperation going on between the two sides and he actually spoke to Rowan

Beard who I know has been on the podcast not that long ago. From Young Pioneer Tours. Exactly who was singing praises for the specific beer. Yes, I think you mentioned having been at either at a tap house or at the microbrewery when he was in Rasson a couple of months ago. Yeah, he said it's excellent. He said it's the best in North Korea, much better than the Pyongyang made one. Wow. And he said that the head of the brewery told him that the reason why it's so good is because the quality of the water.

And so apparently they sent these water samples to China and China said it was incredibly high quality water. So wow. The people in Vladivostok can look forward to some high quality North Korean beer. The name again number 11. Tumen River 11 pale pasteurized filtered beer. It's a long one. They might join it for the label. Tumen 11. Yes. Now those who are watching on social media will see that you're wearing a NADA merchandise shirt here. Yes, and as Shreya's pointed out, this is actually our company merch. We need to get it updated. It's no longer NADA, it's now NADA. N-A-T-A?

N-A-T-A, yeah. I didn't know they'd changed. Yeah, I think so. That's what he told me. I mean, NADA, it looks fun. The back of it's cool as well. Yeah, check it out on our shop. Yeah. Go to nknews.org and have a look at our shop for all of our different types of merchandise that are available there.

Well, thank you very much for coming on the show, Alana. We hope to see you again very soon. Thank you for having me. Looking to stay informed about South Korea's fast-evolving political business and cultural landscape? Join us on Korea Pro, the go-to resource for in-depth analysis, expertly curated by top-tier professionals. And now you can pick the membership level that best suits your needs, thanks to our

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that brings us to the end of our podcast episode for today. Our thanks go to Brian Betts and Alana Hill for facilitating this episode and to our post-recording producer genius, Gabby Magnuson, who cuts out all the extraneous noises, awkward silences, bodily functions, and fixes the audio levels. Thank you and listen again next time.