South Korea officially opened its embassy in Cuba on Friday, 11 months after Seoul established diplomatic relations with Havana, a longstanding ally of Pyongyang.

North Korea condemned on Friday joint military drills between South Korea, Japan and the United States held this week, threatening to respond by exercising its right to self-defence "more intensively".

John Kirby, White House national security communications adviser, said of Hegseth's remarks on North Korea's status as a nuclear power: "We've not made such a recognition. I can't speak to what the incoming team will—how they'll characterize it. We've not gone so far as to make that recognition."

North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Tuesday, South Korea's military said, marking Pyongyang's latest show of force just days ahead of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's return to office.

A South Korean crypto exchange operator was jailed for 4 years for “leaking military secrets” to Pyongyang hackers in exchange for Bitcoin.

A South Korean lawmaker said Seoul's intelligence showed some 3,000 North Korean troops have been wounded or killed in Kursk.

Hundreds of North Korean troops have been killed fighting against Ukraine over the last few months, according to South Korea ’s intelligence agency. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) of South Korea said 300 of Pyongyang’s troops have been killed and another 2,700 wounded since joining Vladimir Putin’s forces last year.

North Korea says it carried out its second missile test in two days — and this one was hypersonic. It came as U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited the region.

KCNA said the successful test took place on Monday. The launch marked Pyongyang's first missile test of 2025 and came with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the region for what is expected to be his last foreign trip as America's top diplomat.

Eight days after Pyongyang launched a hypersonic ballistic missile, it fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles into the sea.

Ukraine said it retrieved a diary from a North Korean soldier that contains a confession of stealing from his Russian comrade and battle tactics.

Russia signed a strategic partnership treaty with Iran on Friday that follows similar pacts with China and North Korea. All three countries are adversaries of the United States, and Russia has used its ties with them to help blunt the impact of Western sanctions and boost its war effort in Ukraine.