North Korea News Podcast by NK News - Seoul’s new unification minister, DPRK rocket launches and border drills

Episode Date: June 24, 2025

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has announced nominations for several key positions handling North Korean issues, continuing to select pro-engagement officials for inter-Korean roles. NK News Correspondent Joon Ha Park talks about the latest appointments, as well as South Korea’s live-fire artillery exercises near the inter-Korean border and North Korea’s launch of about 10 artillery […]

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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 this episode is being recorded via StreamYard. I'm here in the Netherlands. So it's Monday, the 23rd of June 2025. And I'm joined by Junha Park over there at our Seoul office of NK News. Hi Junha, welcome on the show. Hi, Daco. Thanks for having me back. This is the last day of my vacation. I'm getting ready to fly back to Korea. So what's the

news? What am I missing out on while I'm here in Europe? So we've just seen just a couple hours ago that the new unification minister under the Lee Jae-myeong administration will be former unification minister Jang Dong-yong, who's currently a lawmaker for the ruling Democratic Party. It's the second time. He served as unification minister under President Norman Hyun 20 years ago, didn't he? He did, yeah. So it will be his second time serving and he'll go through the

normal confirmation hearing process. Well, he won't have to receive a National Assembly approval, but he will have to face a confirmation hearing where he'll be questioned on his attitude towards North Korea policy and undertaking the Ijeomang administration stance towards North Korea. Now, he's an interesting character because after being the Minister of Unification, he ran for president, didn't he? Against Im Yong-bak, I think. He did, yeah. So I think that was 2007 when he ran against Im Yong-bak as a member of the, well, a former

Democratic Party candidate at the time. I believe it was a national coalition for the Democratic Union, something like that. The Democratic Party had its name under, but Jang Dong-young was sort of picked as Noh Moo-hyun's successor or successor candidate. He lost in a quite a landslide victory for Lee Myung-bak. He did not do well. The public did not warm to him, so it's interesting to see him sort of resurrected from the political dead as it was and sent back to run the unification ministry

again. So for those people working in the unification ministry, your new boss is the same as the old boss. Interesting. All right, well let's see, I wonder what he'll bring to the table. All right, what should we talk about next, Junha? Yes. So it was Lee Jae-myeong making his first diplomatic appearance abroad at the G7, the Group of Seven Summit in Canada just last week. And he met with quite a number of leaders. A big point of information. Is that because Korea has now joined the G7 or it's sort of like a G7 plus and Korea is an extra invitee? Korea is an extra invitee. South Korea is an extra invitee to the Group of Seven Summit. It was an extra invitee alongside Australia, India and I believe it was some, I believe it was Mexico,

I think, the other country that was invited as an extended invitee. And Lee Jae-myeol, as I mentioned, made his first diplomatic visit. He was using the summit to rally some sort of international support on South Korea's role in deterring North Korea, as well as South Korea's return to the international stage after six months of this leadership vacuum right after martial law. He was hoping to see President Trump there, but he didn't. Who did he meet? Yeah, so as you mentioned, President Trump, the summit between the two leaders that fell through after Trump made sort of a premature exit from the G7,

returning home to sort of deal with Middle East tensions and what was going on in Israel and Iran. So instead, he did meet with leaders from Australia, Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, India, to name a few. And he did talk to Australia on a couple of issues regarding defense, clean energy, critical materials, reaffirming joint efforts towards the denuclearization and the peace on the Korean Peninsula, as he did with Canada, where he met with Mark Carney and also the UK Prime Minister Kirstama, focusing on easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, also meeting with the EU on Russian sanctions. But quite interestingly, he did meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Yeah, leaving the best for last, Junha, that's big news.

Yeah, where the leaders agreed to expand the trilateral cooperation with the United States on regional security, resuming the sort of shuttle diplomacy that was undertaken under the UN administration. And the meeting sort of, you can say that it signaled Ijemyong's commitment to continuing this military cooperation with Japan undertaking these sort of joint exercises that we saw throughout last year where the two countries South Korea and Japan and the United States the Navy's and the Air Force has worked together for interoperability So it's sort of a policy shift that we've seen from his past remarks and also past progressive administrations to take charge of South Korea. Right.

Well, that's a potentially big move for him to remain friendly towards Japan, at least in the early part of his presidency. And that will have implications for things like regional stability and collaboration on monitoring North Korean missile launches and things like regional stability and collaboration on monitoring North Korean missile launches and things like that. Okay, all right, what will be our next story? Yeah, so North Korea, they fired 10 rounds of artillery rockets near from near Pyongyang just last week last Thursday actually and the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said that around 10 projectiles were detected. They were speculating it was multiple launch rocket systems near Pyongyang, specifically from the Sunan area from South Pyongyang province at around 10 a.m. on Thursday morning,

which was according to the Joint Chiefs, and they were fired northwest from that area. In the direction of the northwest? Yes, in the direction of the northwest. So heading into the into the Yellow Sea, if I'm not mistaken. Indeed, yeah, indeed. And then we saw the military giving its usual, I'm saying that they'll maintain a robust defense posture along with the ironclad defense of the United States and South Korea, and saying that it was analyzing the launch with US intelligence authorities.

You know, the JCS did not confirm the rocket type as their statements suggested, but local media reported that the projectiles were believed to be 240 millimeter artillery rockets, the similar ones that have been deployed to the Russian front against Ukraine, not the 600 millimeter systems, which are often associated with strategic threats. So a JCS official reportedly told the South Korean outlet Chosun Ilbo that the smaller caliber rockets, the 24, 240 millimeter rockets are fired much more frequently in a routine sort of practice and are not always deemed provocative. That's why they were not announced immediately after the 10 rockets were detected. Yeah, fair enough.

And they were also heading in a northwesterly direction so that they weren't ever going to be a threat to South Korea, as I understand it. Okay, they may be since these are the kinds of artillery rockets that could be being sold and exported to to Russia, then it may be just an example of sampling the the latest, the latest round of manufacturing to see. Yeah. And we've seen we've seen the 240 millimeter rocket and like newer versions of that rocket or that MLRS system being

tested and evolved throughout the past few years with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un actually coming and appearing at those tests and looking at how those tests were. North Korea claims that they have successfully upgraded the MLRS system. But course according to reports from the front from the Ukrainian front lines we've seen that these systems whether they're upgraded or not have been sent to for Russian use. Okay wow no sign of a seventh North Korean nuclear test yet is there? No not yet. Okay I always like to throw that question in when we're talking about North Korea testing things especially especially given the last week and the activities there, the bombing of the Iran nuclear facilities.

It's an interesting time to be thinking about North Korea and its nuclear capabilities. Indeed, yeah. All right, and what should we do next? Yeah, so the United States, South Korea and Japan, they conducted the joint aerial exercise. It was the first trilateral exercise under the new South Korean administration, the Ijeomyeon administration. And the exercise that took place over international waters, it was south of Jeju Island. It involved involved two South Korean Air Force F-15K fighters, six US Air Force F-16s, and two Japanese Self-Defense Force F-2 jets, according to a press release from South Korea's Air Force.

And the drill they mentioned was sought to bolster trilateral security cooperation amid the growing threats from Pyongyang, reinforcing regional peace and stability and also interoperability between the three forces. Very significant. Could you remind our listeners again exactly where that took place? Yeah, so the exercise took place, as I mentioned, over the international waters south of Jeju Island. And it took place just last week, just on Wednesday. Right, okay I just want to make clear that it's nowhere near the middle trizone, nowhere near North Korea near space. So North Korea has no reason to feel threatened by this. Do you know if North Korea made any statements or angry words about it? No, North Korea did not make any statements

after the trilateral air drill. The last time that South Korea did a trilateral drill with Japan and the United States, North Korea did condemn such joint activities in January, calling them provocations, saying that it would intensify its military activities in response to perceived threats to its sovereignty. But of course, at that time, it was much more a bigger scale air drill with the US being employed as well. Right. Okay. So this is a, as I understand it, a six US plus two ROC and two Japanese finance, so 10 and also not quite as large scale, but interesting to see that North Korea hasn't decided to make a comment on this just yet. No, yeah. And it will be, we'll definitely monitor that to see if these kind of, this kind of trilateral cooperation continues under the

Yi Zhenming administration. Yeah, it does look like it's pretty likely. Yi Zhenming's been very supportive of the sort of trilateral military cooperation with Tokyo and Washington. So I don't believe that anything will be alarmingly different to what we've seen under the UN administration and following after Camp David. Right. But at the same time, Lee Jong-un is also sort of leaving the door open for potential talks again with North Korea and stopping the cross-border balloons and speakers and things. So he's trying to walk a very delicate line between

being conciliatory towards North Korea while at the same time retaining strong deterrents, I would say. Yep, absolutely. Okay, anything to finish off with? Yeah, so just last week, it marked the, actually the Sunday before last week, it marked the 26th anniversary of the South Korean victory over North Korean naval forces at the First Battle of Yeonpyeong. That's June 15, 1999. And I had the opportunity to speak to the commander of the Republic of Korea fleet at the time, who commanded the naval operations during the battle. His name was Seo Young Gil. He was a vice admiral at the time, a three star, and he's retired now.

But he was talking to me about what he sort of felt during the whole battle slash skirmish, which only lasted about 14 minutes if my memory serves. It was quite quick, wasn't it? So just remind our listeners of the detail. There was some North Korean naval vessels crossed over the Northern Limit Line and they were pursued by rock vessels. Is that what happened? And then eventually with a shooting in the North Korean vessel sank? Yeah. So a North Korean torpedo boat was sunk by South Korean caliber guns, left quite a considerable amount of North Korean personnel dead or wounded after the 14-minute

conflict that went on just right next to the NLL, just right next to Yongpyeong Island. And it was the first sort of major engagement by North Korea against South Korean naval forces since the Korean War. So I think that what the vice admiral was telling me last week was that it was effectively the start of making sure that South Korea's current de facto maritime border, or what it claims to be its de facto maritime border, is kept under South Korean terms instead of North Korean terms. Yes, yes. And did you also ask the then commander of the fleet around Yeonpyeongdo about the second Yeonpyeong battle in 2002 when the North Koreans in turn sank a South Korean ship?

Yeah. So what he was saying was that the lessons that were learned from the first battle of Yeonpyeong, so the act of sort of preemptive strikes, also undertaking a sort of decision-making process from the command room that did not take much regard for the reconciliatory practices of the Kim Dae-jung administration were not exactly taken up during the 2002 Battle of Yongpyeong where South Korean forces were,

well, the North Korean forces claimed a lot more lives than they did in the first Battle of Yongpyeong where South Korean forces were, well, the North Korean forces claimed a lot more lives than they did in the first battle of Yongpyeong from the South Korean side. And he urged South Korea's new leadership, which is currently under President Lee Jae-myeong, to study these sort of historical presidents, like the sinking of the Cheonan, also the shelling of Yongpyeong Island, also the, as we just mentioned, and also the 2002 second battle of Yeonpyeong as sort of a reminder that the NLL is still very much a conflict zone. It's very much a boiling point for inter-Korean maritime relations and bolstering defenses around that area is key for South Korea's maritime deterrence against North Korea. Yeah, and Yeonpyeongdo is an interesting island to visit. Some of our listeners may have already been there, but some may not be aware that you

can actually take a ferry from Incheon that leaves I think most mornings and goes to Yeonpyeongdo somewhere within three to four hours if I recall correctly. Definitely a place worth going to visit. All right. Well, Jun-ha, thank you very much for coming on the NK News podcast once again and telling us about some of the latest news in and around North Korea. Thank you.

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Find yours at shop.nknews.org. Again, that's shop.nknews.org. Ladies and gentlemen, 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.