North Korea Leadership Watch

Research and Analysis on the DPRK Leadership

March Missile Mania Is Over (and let’s stop predicting #7)

Three events capped off Kim Jong Un’s (Kim Cho’ng-u’n; KJU) March Missile Mania, including his inspection of war heads at the Nuclear Weapons Institute [NWI]. From 25 to 27 March (Saturday through Monday), the DPRK […]

Apr, 04

DPRK Drills Tactical Nuke MLRS

Korean People’s Army [KPA] artillery units launched two short-range projectiles using a 600 mm multiple-launch rocket system [MLRS] on the morning (KST) of 20 February Sukch’o’n County, South P’yo’ngan.  The KPA  units also conducted tunnel-based […]

Feb, 20

Hwasong-15 launched from Sunan

On the afternoon (KST) of 18 February (Saturday), the DPRK’s Missile General Bureau managed a drill of the Hwasong-15 theater ballistic missile from the Sunan area of Pyongyang. The missile drill was held after an […]

Feb, 19

Chronology of military events since mid-September

The following is a rolling chronology of ballistic missile events (drills and test firings), artillery shelling incidents and external military exercises (US-ROK, US-JP and US-ROK-JP) that have occurred in and around the Korean Peninsula since […]

Oct, 20

Changes in the Central Committee

Ri Pyong Chol (Ri Pyo’ng-ch’o’l) returned to North Korean public life, following a ten-month absence.  Going back to 2014, Ri was the leading official in the country’s missile and WMD development and production.  To that […]

Apr, 30

Hypersonic Missile Test Starts DPRK New Year with a Bang

The Workers’ Party of Korea [WPK] Munitions Industry Department [MID] tested a hypersonic missile on the morning of 5 January (Wednesday).  According to DPRK state media, the “successive test successes in the sector of hypersonic […]

Jan, 06

CMC Meeting Held

Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) chaired an expanded meeting of the Korean Workers’ Party [KWP] Central Military Commission [CMC] in Pyonyang on 23 May (Saturday).  The meeting occurred “at a stirring time when the entire […]

May, 23

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