Landing a software development job overseas to secretly earn foreign currency for the isolated country demands highly creative strategies – but comes with risks for the regime.
Greater co-operation between North Korea and Russia could throw off the delicate balance in the Indo-Pacific,a region where China has for so long pulled the puppet strings.
The leaders met at a remote Siberian rocket launch facility,where the North Korean leader peppered a Russian space official with questions about the rockets.
Kim Jong-un does not travel abroad much,having made just seven trips away and twice stepping briefly across the inter-Korean border in his 12 years in power.
Like his father and grandfather,the North Korean leader has predominantly travelled internationally in a specially manufactured train – an unusual mode of transport for a 21st-century world leader.
The meeting is likely to fuel concerns in Washington and like-minded capitals about increased military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang at a critical juncture in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The two will discuss the possibility of North Korea supplying weapons to Russia for the war in Ukraine,US and allied sources said.
North Korea devotes much of its scarce resources to advance its nuclear weapons program. Experts say more needs to be invested in fertilisers and machinery.
Meanwhile,South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol called for “solid mental readiness and practical training” to ensure any North Korean provocations will be met with retaliation.
Kim Jong-un says North Korea is compelled to boost the production of nuclear warheads “exponentially” to mass-produce tactical nuclear weapons.
Striking photos show the North Korean leader hand-in-hand with his daughter,whose existence has never been publicly confirmed before.