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".

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 on Friday slammed the US and South Korean joint air drills over the Korean peninsula. “North Korea will resolutely deter any attempt at military provocation by the hostile forces and firmly defend the security interests of the state,” said a Foreign Ministry statement.

The JCS said the South Korean military has heightened surveillance for additional launches and maintaining a readiness posture to share info with the U.S. and Japan.

SEOUL: A South Korean rock singer with 150,000 followers live-steamed himself breaking into a court building on Jan 19, alongside hundreds of other furious supporters of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol.

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

North Korea last fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile that flew more than 680 miles from the Pyongyang area before splashing down in the Sea of Japan on Jan. 6.

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.

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. Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping met in Beijing on Feb.

South Korea’s military says North Korea has test-fired multiple missiles toward its eastern waters in its second launch event of 2025.