For the past seven decades, the United States’ extended deterrence commitment to the Republic of Korea (ROK) has been critical to advancing two central aims of the alliance: (1) deterring North Korean aggression and (2) preventing nuclear proliferation by giving South Korea a credible alternativ...

The 13th Plenary Meeting of the 8th Party Central Committee, convened in December 2025, was the final plenary session of the 8th term ahead of the 9th Party Congress. While North Korea addressed largely practical issues at this meeting and disclosed its outcomes only in a summarized manner, this...

Kim Jong Un’s publicly reported appearances have increased markedly in recent years, rising from roughly seventy in 2021 to 153 in 2025. While military-sector appearances continued to dominate, activity was more broadly distributed across economic, political, and external domains. This expansion...