| January 1 | New Year
Address by President Yoon, “By the first half of this year, we
will complete the enhanced ROK-U.S. extended deterrence system
to fundamentally deter any North Korean nuclear and missile
threat.” |
| January 1 |
North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and
Chinese President Xi Jinping exchanged New Year greeting
messages (Rodong/KCNA) |
|
January 2 | Supreme Leader Kim
Jong Un visited an exhibition featuring agricultural machinery
(January 3, Rodong/KCNA) |
|
January 2 | Remarks by Kim Yo
Jong, the vice department director of the Central Committee of
the WPK condemning President Yoon (KCNA)
<
Statement by the deputy spokesperson for the Ministry of
Unification (January 2) >
o Kim Yo Jong’s statement is
merely a petty trick by a North Korean official that does not
even fit the bill to hide its intention of forcible unification
and shift the blame for the escalating inter-Korean tensions
onto South Korea by distorting and denigrating our country’s
head and the government in regard to the current situation.
o The statement is a reflection of North Korea’s
disconcertedness with South Korea’s principled approach in
seeking the normalization of inter-Korean relations and in
bolstering its national security.
o While North Korea is
falsely claiming that the North wasted time it could have spent
on military enhancement during the Moon Jae-in administration,
the facts need to be clarified.
- North Korea has never
ceased its development of nuclear and missile programs, and our
people are seeing the consequences.
- The “September 19
Military Agreement” is a product of the Moon administration
accommodating North Korea’s aspirations, when the North was
inferior in the fields of conventional weapons and
reconnaissance.
o North Korea said it would not consider
South Korea as a counterpart for reconciliation and unification
in its plenary meeting results, but in fact, the North has never
sincerely pursued them.
- North Korea is continuing its
united front tactics, and will not cease its attempts to sway
the South Korean government.
o The South Korean
government will firmly respond to North Korea’s trickery and
make it clear that the North will be held fully accountable for
all fallout. |
| January 4
| The North’s KCNA condemned South Korean
military drills for “blindly beginning the new year with
gunfire” (KNCA) |
| January 4
(Local) | The U.S. Department of
State announced that the U.S. has designated North Korea as “a
country of particular concern for religious freedom violations”
for the 22nd straight year. (Washington, D.C.) |
| January 5 | Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un inspected a
transporter erector launcher manufacturing factory
(Rodong/KCNA) |
| January 5 to
7 | North Korea fired shells in the
waters north of their western sea boundary for the fourth
consecutive day (Report by the General Staff Department of the
Korean People’s Army, January 5 to 6, Rodong/KCNA, January 7,
KCNA) |
| January 6 | Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un sent a message of
sympathy to Japan over the casualties and losses caused by the
earthquakes (Rodong/KCNA) |
|
January 7 | Remarks by Kim Yo
Jong, the vice department director of the Central Committee of
the WPK deriding “South Korean military’s detection capability”
(KCNA) |
| January 8 | Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un provided field
guidance to the Kwangchon Chicken Factory (Rodong/KCNA) |
| January 8 to 9 | Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un inspected major
munitions factories and said, “Should South Korea attempt to
threaten North Korea’s sovereignty and security, we will
completely annihilate the South“ (January 10, Rodong/KCNA)
< Opinions of the Ministry of Unification
(January 10) >
o According to North Korean reports
today, Kim Jong Un commented on “war” while inspecting munition
factories, once again revealing his ambition to unify the two
Koreas by force.
- North Korea’s emphasis on war
preparations is evidence that it is fearful and fretful of Seoul
and Washington’s strengthening extended deterrence.
o
Since its plenary meeting, North Korea has continued to make
various attempts to escalate military tensions on the Korean
Peninsula, including armed provocations.
o Such rash
actions by North Korea are merely obsolete tactics to turn North
Korean residents’ discontent towards the North’s regime outward
by fueling hostility toward South Korea, and to sway South
Korean society.
o The South Korean government strongly
condemns such actions and urges the North to immediately cease
reckless military threats and psychological warfare against the
South.
o At the same time, the South Korean government
makes it clear that we will firmly respond to any provocations
by the North based on the solid ROK-U.S. alliance, and take a
principled approach in seeking the normalization of inter-Korean
relations. |
| January 8 to 10
| Enlarged plenary meeting of the Cabinet
(January 11, Rodong/KCNA) |
|
January 9 | Remarks by
President Yoon on the North’s continued firings towards the west
sea, “It is crucial to keep our security strong in the face of
the North’s continued provocations since the beginning of the
new year” (Cabinet meeting) |
|
January 9 | The U.S. Secretary
of State, 49 Ministers of Foreign Affairs, and the High
Representative of the European Union issued a joint statement
condemning missile transfers between Russia and the DPRK (The
U.S. Department of State) |
|
January 10 | Joint Statement
by the ROK, the U.S., and 6 other countries (Japan, the UK,
France, Malta, Slovenia, and Ukraine), “Russia used arms from
the DPRK against Ukraine, which is a violation of United Nations
Security Council resolutions that prohibit UN Member States from
procuring arms from the DPRK and prohibit the DPRK from
exporting arms |
| January 11
(Local) | The U.S. Department of
State imposed sanctions on three companies and one individual
from Russia involved in ballistic missile transfers between
Russia and the DPRK (Washington, D.C.) |
| January 13 | North
Korea held a meeting to decide to dissolve organizations in
charge of civilian exchanges with South Korea (Rodong/KCNA) |
| January 14 | North Korea claimed to have successfully
conducted a test launch of a solid-fueled hypersonic
intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) (January 15,
Rodong/KCNA)
< Opinions of the Ministry of
Unification (January 15) >
o “The South Korean
government strongly condemns North Korea’s provocation that has
threatened peace on the Korean Peninsula and sought to divide
the public opinion of our society since the beginning of the
year, including the suspected mid-range ballistic launch on
January 14.”
o “The South Korean government calls on
North Korea to discard the illusion that such provocations will
protect its regime and instead take the right path for the
well-being of its people and the future of the Korean Peninsula.
The government will respond firmly and resolutely to any
provocative actions by the North that disregard the
international community’s including the ROK’s, aspirations for
peace.” |
| January 15 |
Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un made a policy
speech at the 10th Session of the 14th SPA and announced the
abolition of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the
Country of the DPRK, the National Economic Cooperation Bureau
and the Kumgangsan International Tourism Administration (January
16, Rodong/KCNA) |
| January
16 | ･ “South Korea will punish
North Korea multiple times as hard in the event it carries out a
provocation against us. The conventional disguised peace tactic
that threatens a choice between war and peace will not work
anymore. The North Korean authorities have defined the relations
between the two Koreas as that of two hostile nations, not
compatriots. This reveals that the North Korean regime itself
acknowledged of the regime’s nature as an anti-national and
anti-historical group.”
･ “It is the North Korean regime
that threatens the Republic of Korea, not its residents. The
North Korean people are one people with us, with the same rights
as us to enjoy freedom, human rights, and prosperity. We must
warmheartedly embrace them. In furtherance of this idea, I call
on the Ministry of Unification to designate a day for North
Korean defectors.”
< Opinions of the Ministry
of Unification (January 16) >
o Including the policy
speech delivered by Kim Jong Un at the SPA on January 15, North
Korea has been emphasizing “the relations between two states
hostile to each other” since the end of last year, and has
continued to pose threats, provocations, and take actions
against South Korea.
o North Korea’s such move is a
political provocation meant to divide South Korea and ultimately
carry out forcible unification, which is no different from the
path the North has taken previously.
- North Korea’s
promotion of the so-called “two Koreas” rhetoric is a negation
of the long-shared and profound history of the Korean people and
an anti-national and anti-historical behavior that threatens the
same ethnicity with nuclear weapons.
o The South Korean
government vows once again that it will respond resolutely and
firmly to North Korea’s attempts to act innocent and mislead the
situation in inter-Korean relations, and armed provocations.
- We will respond and punish North Korea with firm
readiness and overwhelming capability against any provocation by
the North.
- North Korea must realize that it can gain
nothing in terms of security, economy, or keeping the regime
through nuclear weapons and missiles.
o The South Korean
government will continue working with the international
community to ensure that North Korean residents, as fellow
members of our ethnicity, can enjoy freedom, human rights, and
prosperity.
- It is the North Korean regime that
threatens the Republic of Korea by enhancing its nuclear and
missile capabilities, not its residents.
- As the
President instructed during the Cabinet meeting on January 16,
the government will pay more attention to and expand support for
North Korean defectors, including the designation of a day for
North Korean defectors. |
|
January 16 | Foreign Minister
of North Korea Choe Son Hui had talks with Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov and met with Russian President Putin
(January 18, Rodong/January 17, KCNA |
| January 17 | The
South Korean government imposed independent sanctions against
North Korea (11 vessels, 2 individuals, and 3 organizations)
･ △ (Vessels) Nam Dae Bong, New Konk, Unica, Xing Ming
Yang 888, Subblic, A Bong 1, Kyong Song 2, Liton, A Sa Bong,
Gold Star, and Athena, △ (Individuals) Pak Kyong-ran and Min
Myong-hak, and △ (organizations) Mangang Trading Co., Risang
Trading, and Yua Trading Co. |
|
January 17 | North Korea’s
KCNA described NATO as a “tool for the U.S. hegemonic strategy”
(Rodong/KCNA) |
| January 18
| The spokesperson for North Korea’s
Foreign Ministry condemned the UNSC closed-door meeting (January
18) (January 21, KCNA) |
|
January 19 | North Korea
tested its Haeil-5-23 nuclear-capable unmanned underwater attack
weapon |
| January 23 | South Korean ambassador to the UN office in
Geneva called on China to “provide North Korean defectors with
the required protections” at China’s fourth universal periodic
review (UPR) |
| January 23 to
24 | Supreme leader Kim Jong Un
emphasized the “Regional Development 20x10 Policy” at the 19th
enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the 8th Party
Central Committee (January 25, Rodong/KCNA) |
| January 24 | North
Korea test-fired a new strategic cruise missile (Bulhwasal-3-31)
into the West Sea (January 25, Rodong/KCNA) |
| January 25 to 28 | Discussions on the “Regional Development 20x10
Policy” during the second short course for chief secretaries of
the city and county Party committees (January 29,
Rodong/KCNA) |
| January 26
| The Chinese Vice Foreign Minister
visited North Korea and met with his North Korean counterpart
(January 27, Rodong/KCNA) |
|
January 28 | Supreme Leader
Kim Jong Un oversaw test-firing of a submarine-launched
strategic cruise missile (Bulhwasal-3-31) (January 29,
Rodong/KCNA) |
| January 29 to
31 | North Korea conducted the
first workshop of officials in the field of Party discipline
inspection (February 1, Rodong/KCNA) |
| January 30 | North
Korea staged a launching drill of a strategic cruise missile
(Hwasal-2) in the West Sea (January 31, KCNA) |
| January 31 | President Yoon, “The North Korean regime is the
only irrational group in the world that has legalized the
preemptive use of nuclear weapons. A national preparational
system involving the military, police, government, and the
general public must be strengthened” (The 57th Central
Integrated Defense Council Meeting) |
| January 31 | The
DPRK Ministry of Physical Culture and Sports signed a protocol
on sports exchange for 2024 with China (Rodong/KCNA) |
| January 31 | Statement by Russian Foreign Minister,
“Provocative steps by the ROK, the U.S., and Japan is leading to
growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula” |
