North Korea–South Korea relations

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would face the end of his regime if he ever used his isolated country's nuclear weapons against the South, Seoul's president said on Tuesday.

North Korea has deployed 250 ballistic missile launchers to its southern border, with leader Kim Jong Un describing the weapons as a "powerful treasured sword" to defend its sovereignty, state media said Monday.

The olive green mobile launchers were displayed during a special "transferring" ceremony in the capital Pyongyang on Sunday, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

South Korea, the United States and Japan kicked off major new military exercises on Thursday, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said, as the allies seek to counter growing threats from Pyongyang.

The drills, dubbed "Freedom Edge", will focus on ballistic missile and air defences, anti-submarine warfare and defensive cyber training, among other areas, the JCS said in a statement.

North Korea has launched another round of balloons filled with trash across the border into South Korea, prompting condemnation from South Korean officials as a "vile and irrational provocation," according to reports from BTA.

The President of Russia declared that North Korea has the right to self-defense after the signing of the agreement

A North Korean military guard post is seen from Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Tuesday, June 18, 2024.

Dozens of North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the heavily fortified border with the South on Tuesday and retreated after warning shots were fired, Seoul's military said, adding landmine explosions had injured Pyongyang's troops in the area.

South Korean troops fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border this week, Seoul's military said Tuesday, with tensions high over Pyongyang's barrage of trash-carrying balloons and the South's retaliatory loudspeaker campaign.

South Korea announced Sunday that it would resume loudspeaker propaganda campaigns against the North, after Pyongyang sent a fresh barrage of trash-filled balloons across the border.

"We will install loudspeakers against North Korea today and carry out the broadcast," the president's office said in a statement.

South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol fully suspended on Tuesday a 2018 tension-reducing military deal with the North in response to a bombardment of trash-carrying balloons sent by Pyongyang last week.

North Korea has sent balloons full of trash, toilet paper and suspected animal faeces into the South, local media reports said Wednesday, with Seoul's military slamming Pyongyang for their "low class" actions.