North Korea News Podcast by NK News - Putin meets North Korean commanders, and Kim Jong Un’s Victory Day speech

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

Russian President Vladimir Putin met and embraced the North Korean general leading troops deployed to fight against Ukraine during a military parade in Moscow last week, but Kim Jong Un was a no show.  NK News Correspondent Jooheon Kim joins the podcast this week to discuss how the North Korean leader instead visited the Russian […]

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as well as much much more. To find the best fit for you, just head to signup.careerpro.org and become a member today. Hello listeners and welcome to the NK News podcast. I'm your host, Jaco's Wetsuit. And today it is Tuesday, the 13th of May, 2025. I'm recording this episode in the NK News Studio and I'm joined for the first time by a new colleague, Ju-Hon Kim, who joined NK News about a month and a half ago. Ju-Hon, welcome on the show. Thanks for having me.

It's your first time. You might be a bit nervous. I'll be gentle. I won't ask you anything too strange. Okay, so we have a lot of news out of North Korea in the last week, so much to cover. In fact, I feel like we could do four back-to-back short episodes right after the other, but we won't. We're going to cram it all into about 15 minutes. So let's start with Russia's Victory Day last week in Moscow. There was a parade. In the end, North Korea, well, Kim Jong-un himself did not go. There

was some speculation that he might go at the same time, Kim Jong-un himself did not go. There was some speculation that he might go at the same time as Xi Jinping, but he didn't go. So who did represent North Korea at the big victory parade in Moscow? So a few North Korean military officers attended the event on May 9th. And so yeah, they got to meet with Putin, you know, got to shake hands with him. Well, one even got a hug, didn't he? He did not. No?

Didn't he hug Kim Jong-Bok? Oh, yeah, he did after shaking hands. Okay. It was pretty impressive. Yeah. So again, to show that closeness between North Korea and Russia these days, you had the number of officers there and a hug, an embrace from Putin to General Kim Jong-Bok. What's his role, Kim Jong-Bok?

Is he in charge of the North Korean soldiers fighting in Russia at the moment? So, yeah, a lot of reports say he's in charge of North Korean troops in Ukraine, but interestingly, he was sanctioned by the US, South Korea, and the EU as well. Okay, so he can't fly into any of those countries. I think so. Right. Only to Russia. Okay, so he can't fly into any of those countries. I think so. Right. Only to Russia. And okay. Now, were there any North Korean soldiers marching in the parade? They did not. Yeah, but yeah, just the five to six generals, I believe. And yeah, three of them pronounced their names,

clearly, including Kim Jong-un. But the other two, two yeah I couldn't really understand their yeah might be the accident thing but okay all right so there were no intricately what sort of speculation that North Korean soldiers might actually join the Russian comrades in the parade but they weren't there did we see any any North Korean military hardware in the parade no okay so really North Korea the only the only presence was a number of these generals up there on the Presidium Which I mean compared to Xi Jinping who was not only there But he was also wearing a decoration from Russia the cross of St. George I think if I remember correctly that North Korea was shall we say under represented

I mean, it's not the same level as having Xi Jinping standing there on the Presidium So but we did get some video released by Moscow of Russians and North Korean soldiers fighting together against Ukrainian soldiers in this war. Yeah, that was last month, April. And yeah, Moscow, I think it was a state newspaper. They released a lot of videos. So not a lot, but several videos on, yeah, showing them fighting together. Right. Interesting. After so many months of silence that they finally released the videos now Kim Jong-un although he wasn't there in Moscow. He was busy. He was very busy with Russia's Victory Day by giving a speech at the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang on the same day on Victory on Victory Day He went to the embassy. I think for the first time. first time yeah yeah and it's not usual for a North Korean leader well certainly not since Kim Il-sung to

to give a speech there from the embassy which is not only a speech directed to his Russian host but also a speech that was printed in Korean in the the North Korean state media so he was also talking to his own people wasn't he? mm-hmm right yeah and what what can you tell us about the substance of that speech? So, yeah, he was reaffirming the bilateral relations with Russia, and I think it's something that his grandpa was doing, Kim Il-sung, so kind of like retro style. It felt very retro. It felt like everything old is new again. He referred to Putin as com comrade president Putin

I think if I remember correctly and really highlighted that that closeness and and talked about the reason why North Korean soldiers are fighting in this war right like he said it was to deter South Korea as well Yeah, so this this very very faraway war he made it very present for North Koreans made very big by saying that this is you know it's not just to help Russia it's also to help us because we're showing South Korea that we are strong and that we can't be defeated mm-hmm yeah okay so that's one big story now let's talk about oh we have a new acting president in South Korea who is it? Lee Ju-ho. So Han also resigned and Choi Sang-mok resigned. That's Han Deok-soo and Choi Sang-mok who was about to be impeached by the Democratic

Party. So they're gone. So we're on to the third acting president. Who is education minister, which is very unusual. It's very unusual. It's the first time we've seen someone go from education minister to acting president overnight. But he said kind of the same thing, I think, that Mr. Chair said when he became acting president, which is watch out for North Korea.

Right, right. Pretty general remark, I would say. But I mean, it was pretty general, but yeah. So when you say general, he wasn't referring to any specific threats or concerns? I think he did mention, not North Korea exactly, I'm going to have to double check that, but yeah, since there's no leader, there's no president right now, I think he's being very cautious about outside threats. Very cautious indeed, yeah. He's got about three to four weeks left before the next president is elected on June 3rd.

Do you imagine that the acting president, Lee Jae-ho, will he be focusing much on North Korea? Yeah, definitely. I think it's, you never know what's going to happen for three weeks. Yeah, they're, Pyongyang is, they've been launching missiles and they have a new worship, very large scale worship. That's true. Yeah, you have to basically focus on that. So it's an area of priority for him. Okay. Now, that's that out of the way.

There's not much to say in that story. Now, you have been writing some longer feature stories since you've joined us here. And since this is your first time on the show, I thought let's give you a chance to shine so tell us about these two feature stories that you've written recently about North Korean defectors living in South Korea. So I interviewed defector lawyer Lee Young-hyun so he's the first defector to pass the bar exam in South Korea. Okay and that's quite difficult I imagine. It'shmm, it's very hard. My sister's also going to law school,

but she's studying for almost 10 hours a day. Wow, okay, so this is a, give me the name of that defector again. Lee Young-hyun. Lee Young-hyun, and he's, at what age did he come down here? 14. He was 14 when he came down from North Korea.

He had to- He defected when he was 14, and then he lived in China for a bit. Yeah, he did a lot of manual labor there. Oh, okay. So he didn't come immediately to South Korea. He spent some years in China. Right, right. And then came to South Korea.

Had to catch up on school. Obviously, there's a lot of education he would have missed out on during that time in China. Yeah, didn't know how to speak English at all at the time. So he learned the alphabet here, I believe, when he was around 20 years old. And then he went to law school. Yeah. Right.

OK. Is English necessary to go to law school? I don't think it's necessary, but I'm pretty sure there's a lot of legal terms in English. So yeah, it definitely helps. Right. And so he's passed the bar exam and now he's a lawyer. But also he's engaging in a lot of human rights activities and yeah he's encouraging

a lot of North Korean defectors as well. Yeah we actually went to the same school. Did you? I went to Yonsei for about six months. I didn't graduate yet. I was a graduate student. He's a Yonsei graduate. Yeah, I think he was in undergrad. And we were in this defector organization together. Yeah. So what kind of law will he be focusing on as a lawyer? He's doing a lot of different stuff.

Commercial, civil law, but I mean, he's definitely doing human rights parts as well. He talked about captured Ukrainian soldiers. Oh, sorry, captured North Korean soldiers in Ukraine. Currently held by Ukraine. Yeah, bringing them to Iraq. Yeah, urged the Iraq government to put more efforts to bring them since they are also South Korean citizens under the South Korean law. since they are also South Korean citizens

under the South Korean law right under the South Korean Constitution if they arrive in South Korea and say that they want to Become South Koreans. They can automatically receive South Korean citizenship, right? Yeah, okay great. And that's one lawyer the first one one more thing I think on like Korean law like under law, they can, but it's going to be very challenging because, like, if the Ukrainian government claims that, yeah, they can't be sent back because they were arrested and captured there, they'll probably have to be sent back to North Korea or, yeah, it's kind of complicated. Yes, that is an interesting legal wrinkle there because normally I think that the way that it works in practice is that a North Korean has to turn up in South Korea and say I want to be you know one of you rock guys and then they get citizenship. But now if you've got a North Korean citizen in a third country here, Ukraine, does the South Korean government have the right to step in

and say, hey, that's one of ours, give them to us. So that's interesting. That is a legal wrinkle. We'll see how that works out. Tell us about the second defector feature that you've written recently. So there was a job fair about two months ago, and it was mainly for those who want to become chefs in South Korea. So there were about 50 to 60 people. And it was being organized by Korea Hana Foundation and Hyundai.

Is that the Korea Hana Foundation? Is that the one run by the Korean government? Yeah, it's affiliated with unification ministry and also Hyundai green foods. Yeah, they're affiliated with Hyundai department store, which is a very big with unification ministry and also Hyundai Green Foods. They're affiliated with Hyundai Department Store, which is a very big part of the Hyundai group. Because we know that there's also the Asan Foundation, affiliated with Hyundai, which not only helps startups,

but helps a startup school involving North Korean defectors. There's a lot of things that they do involve. Right, right, yeah. They also invested in the mountain, Kimbong. I've been there when I was in elementary school. Wow, okay, because that's been closed since 2008. So you must have gone there. So that was before, that was like two to three years before that, the incident when this Pagwangja, the Tories got shot there. I was there in the summer of 2006. So, so we might have been there around the same time Uh, so tell us more about this at this job fair for uh, north korean defectors who want to become chefs commercial cooks

So hyundai green food is definitely uh providing opportunities for them and if they meet requirements they can they can get the job and they can also get a raise but Interestingly, um the majority of participants were women. I guess there were like 42, 45 women and probably like 10 men there. And the Korea Hana Foundation PR team explained that there's gender disparity, you know, because a lot more women can escape from the regime because men are more likely tied with the regime as well. Yes, it's true that since about 2000 or actually since the late 1990s, most of the defectors coming from North Korea have been women rather than men.

And it's easier for them to get a job in Yanbian, China, at a restaurant or you, those kind of stuff. In the hospitality industry. Okay. So good luck to those defectors seeking a dream in South Korea's commercial kitchens. Now lastly, I've got, we want to talk about the work of one of our colleagues and that's Seungyeon Jung, who hasn't been on the show for a long time and she doesn't like to come on the podcast.

I can't convince her to come on, but we've got you instead. Now, Seungyeon does some real yeomans work. I mean, one of her major tasks is to review North Korean media on a daily basis. So it's watching TV and reading the North Korean media. And so she writes these wrap-ups, these media reviews for NK Pro. So if you're an NK Pro subscriber, dear listener, you'll be able to read Seungyeon's state media reviews on a regular basis. And I thought we would talk about one of them that she did on May 2nd, the title, North Korea Fights to Instill Youth with Revolutionary Spirit on Army Holidays. So tell us about the the wrap up that she did of the state media. Yeah, so she has highlighted a lot of North Korea's recent activities. And one of them was

the 93rd anniversary celebrations of KPRA, Korea People's Revolutionary Army. So I believe this is the guerrilla army and North Korea claims that it was founded by Kim Il-sung. And 93 years ago. Right, right, right. And 1928. Now, I think I read recently in Fyodor Tertitsky's biography of Kim Il-sung that this is an entirely fictional army, this Korean People's Revolutionary Army. This did not in fact exist and was not actually founded in 1920.

And it's something that was written in retrospect so it's sort of rear back dated to 1928 so that I mean yeah and they claim that so they were fighting against Japanese at the time right there colonization period but yeah we can't really yeah yeah there's no evidence to support that but there's there was a lot of state media coverage of this. And how does North Korea, or what does North Korea do to tie this 93rd anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army to young people in North Korea today? I think they're trying to inspire youth loyalty since a lot more defectors say that they could

Watch South Korean films like Hollywood films as well. So The North Korean state absolutely hates and and makes illegal So it's it's really the last couple of years Kim Jong-un has really been focusing on how to make young people Committed and loyal to the North Korean state. Mm-hmm, right. And it's becoming more challenging to escape the country as well. That's true, right. So these films and these news stories have been to instill a sense of loyalty and basically

militarize the minds of North Korean youth, yes? Right, right, right. Yeah. Wow. Okay. So that is where we'll leave it for today. We've already gone over our 15 minutes a lot of time. Thank you very much, Ju-Hon Kim, for coming on the NK News Podcast. We look forward to seeing you again very soon. Thank you for having me. Best sellers unveiled at NK News Shop. Step out in style with our top selling apparel from the NK News Shop. Fly high with the Air Koryo T-shirt celebrating DPRK's golden era of aviation in vintage

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Thank you and listen again next time.