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    Blinken Visits NATO Headquarters

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    The U.S. secretary of state met with European allies rattled by the American election results at a critical moment for Ukraine and the alliance.Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken visited NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday at what he called a “critical moment” for Ukraine and the U.S.-led military alliance, as Europe braces for the anticipated upheaval of a new Trump era in Washington.In a trip organized only after last week’s presidential election results made clear that U.S. policy will likely swing dramatically away from President Biden’s lock step support for NATO and Ukraine, Mr. Blinken met with alliance and European officials to help plan for a post-Biden future.Donald J. Trump’s return to the White House in January has deeply shaken Europe’s mainstream political leaders, thanks to his skepticism about the value of NATO, the cost of defending Ukraine, and the wisdom of isolating Russia and its president, Vladimir V. Putin.Once in office, Mr. Trump could move quickly to change U.S. policy on all three fronts — a shift that European leaders fear might leave their countries both less secure from Russian aggression and at an economic disadvantage.Mr. Blinken did not explicitly mention Mr. Trump or last week’s election in his public remarks after meetings at NATO headquarters. But an American leadership change with huge global import was the obvious subtext, as Mr. Blinken stressed the intrinsic value of the alliance.Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, addressed the elephant in the room before sitting down with Mr. Blinken at a Brussels hotel. He said that their meeting offered “an opportunity to coordinate steps” after the U.S. election, noting that Ukraine’s government was speaking “both with the president-elect and his team and also with the outgoing administration.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      50,000 Russian and North Korean Troops Mass Ahead of Attack, U.S. Says

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      Ukrainian officials expect a counteroffensive in western Russia to begin in the coming days as North Korea’s troops train with Russian forces.The Russian military has assembled a force of 50,000 soldiers, including North Korean troops, as it prepares to begin an assault aimed at reclaiming territory seized by Ukraine in the Kursk region of Russia, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials.A new U.S. assessment concludes that Russia has massed the force without having to pull soldiers out of Ukraine’s east — its main battlefield priority — allowing Moscow to press on multiple fronts simultaneously.Russian troops have been clawing back some of the territory that Ukraine captured in Kursk this year. They have been attacking Ukrainian positions with missile strikes and artillery fire, but they have not yet begun a major assault there, U.S. officials said.Ukrainian officials say they expect such an attack involving the North Korean troops in the coming days.For now, the North Koreans are training with Russian forces in the far western part of Kursk.The Russian-North Korean offensive looms as President-elect Donald J. Trump prepares to re-enter office with a stated goal of ending the war quickly. Mr. Trump has said little about how he would settle the conflict, but Vice President-elect JD Vance has outlined a plan that would allow Russia to keep the territory it has seized in Ukraine.Some U.S. military and intelligence officials have grown more pessimistic about Ukraine’s overall prospects, noting that Russia has steadily gained ground, both in Kursk and in eastern Ukraine. Officials say the setbacks are partly a result of Ukraine’s failure to solve critical shortfalls in troop strength.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      North Korea, in the Spotlight Over Ukraine, Launches a Long-Range Missile

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      The launch, into waters west of Japan, came shortly after the United States and South Korea criticized the North for sending troops to join Russia’s war. North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile off its east coast on Thursday, South Korean defense officials said, shortly after the United States and South Korea condemned the country for deploying troops near Ukraine to join Russia’s war effort.The missile was fired from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, at a deliberately steep angle so that it reached an unusually high altitude but did not fly over Japan, the South Korean military said in a brief statement. The missile landed in waters between North Korea and Japan.The military said it was analyzing data to learn more about the missile, but that it believed it was an ICBM. North Korea last tested a long-range missile​ in December, when it test-fired its solid-fueled Hwasong-18 ICBM.The launch on Thursday was the North’s first major weapons test since September, when it fired a new type of Hwasong-11 short-range ballistic missile, which it said could carry a “super-large” conventional warhead weighing 4.5 tons.On Wednesday, South Korean defense intelligence officials told lawmakers that North Korea might conduct long-range missile tests before the American presidential election next week. They also said that the North was preparing to conduct its seventh underground nuclear test, in a bid to raise tensions and gain diplomatic leverage with the next U.S. president. North Korea conducted its last nuclear test in 2017.In recent weeks, North Korea has posed a fresh security challenge to Washington and its allies by sending an estimated 11,000 troops to Russia to fight in its war against Ukraine. Thousands of them, outfitted with Russian uniforms and equipment, have moved closer to the front lines, preparing themselves for possible battle against Ukrainian troops, South Korean and American officials said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Ukraine Braces for Russian Assault in Kursk Using North Korean Troops

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      Several thousand North Korean soldiers have arrived in Russia’s western Kursk region, where they are expected to support Moscow’s efforts to dislodge invading Ukrainian forces.Ukraine is bracing for assaults involving North Korean soldiers who arrived last week in Russia’s western Kursk region, where they are expected to support Moscow’s efforts to dislodge Ukrainian forces who invaded in August.The NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, on Monday confirmed that North Korean troops had been deployed in the Kursk region, saying it represented “a dangerous expansion” of the war. Ukrainian and American officials said last week that several thousand North Korean troops had arrived in the area.They are part of a larger contingent of up to 10,000 troops that North Korea is preparing to deploy on the Russian side of the front, according to the authorities in Kyiv and Seoul. Military experts say that is too small a number to affect the overall situation on the broader battlefield, where both sides have deployed hundreds of thousands of soldiers, but potentially enough to help Moscow reclaim its territory in the Kursk region.“As their numbers grow, I expect their impact to be seen by the progress of a steady Russian counterattack,” said John Foreman, a former British defense attaché in Moscow and Kyiv.It is unclear, however, how exactly North Korean troops will support Russia’s counterattack in the Kursk region. Analysts say the soldiers could be used in direct attacks or to guard areas behind the combat zone, thus freeing up Russian troops for assaults, but their effectiveness in battle is untested and could be hampered by coordination issues with the Russians.On Friday, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said the North Korean troops were expected to enter combat operations early this week. A Ukrainian soldier fighting in the Kursk area said he had been warned by his commanders that an assault could be imminent.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      North Korea Accuses the South of Sending Drones Over Pyongyang

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      Pyongyang threatened military action if the provocations continued, while the South advised its angry neighbor not to act “rashly.”North Korea on Friday accused South Korea of sending unmanned drones to scatter propaganda leaflets over its capital city of Pyongyang, and threatened military action if the flights continued.South Korean drones were seen over Pyongyang on Wednesday and Thursday night this week, the North’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday. The drones dropped “numerous leaflets full of political propaganda and slander” against the government of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, it said.North Korea called the intrusions “a grave political and military provocation” that could lead to “an armed conflict.” It said its military was preparing “all means of attack” and would respond without warning if South Korean drones were detected over its territory again.“The criminals should no longer gamble with the lives of their citizens,” it said.No anti-North Korean activist group in South Korea has claimed responsibility for the drones. The South Korean military said it could not confirm the North Korean claim, but advised North Korea “not to act rashly.” The North Korean statement on Friday did not describe what type of drone was spotted.“We will retaliate resolutely and mercilessly if the North endangers the safety of our people,” South Korea said in a statement.Tensions between the two Koreas have increased in recent months as anti-North Korean activists in the South — mostly defectors — have sent balloons filled with leaflets criticizing Mr. Kim’s government across the border. North Korea has also released thousands of balloons toward the South since May. The payloads mostly contained scrap paper and other household trash.North Korea has resorted to increasingly hostile language toward the South ever since Mr. Kim’s diplomacy with former President Donald J. Trump collapsed in 2019. The two leaders were meant to negotiate an agreement on rolling back the North’s nuclear weapons program in exchange for easing United Nations sanctions.Mr. Kim has since expanded his weapons tests while South Korea has redoubled its military ties with the United States and Japan.During the Cold War, the two Korean militaries often sent propaganda balloons across the border. When the leaders of the two Koreas held the first inter-Korean summit meeting in 2000, they agreed to end the government-sponsored balloon campaigns.But North Korean defectors and conservative and Christian activists in the South have continued the practice, sending balloons filled with mini-Bibles, USB drives containing K-pop and K-drama and leaflets calling Mr. Kim a “pig.”Mr. Kim’s government has called the leaflets political “filth.” More

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      North Korean Missiles Rain Down on Ukraine Despite Sanctions

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      Russia has received new shipments of Hwasong-11 short-range ballistic missiles, according to a new report.North Korea has continued to supply advanced short-range ballistic missiles to Russia in defiance of sanctions meant to prevent Pyongyang from developing such weapons and Moscow from importing them, according to a report by a weapons research group.Remnants of four of the missiles, which are called Hwasong-11, were examined in Kyiv on Sept. 3 by investigators from Conflict Armament Research, an independent group based in Britain that identifies and tracks weapons and ammunition used in wars around the world.That team decoded production markings on several parts from each missile collected by Ukrainian authorities.A Hwasong-11 missile used in an Aug. 18 attack on Kyiv had markings showing that it was made this year. Internal parts from three others, which were used in attacks in July and August, lacked markings that would indicate when they were manufactured.The researchers released those findings in a report on Wednesday.In early January, the White House accused North Korea of providing ballistic missiles to Russia, but subsequent shipments had not been previously reported.The Hwasong-11 missile has a range of about 430 miles and can be fitted with nuclear or conventional warheads, according to a U.S. Army report. It is visually similar to the Russian Iskander short-range ballistic missile and may have been made with foreign assistance, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      North Korea Sends More Trash Balloons South

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      Hundreds of propaganda balloons ferrying trash have landed in South Korea in recent days, where officials say they typically do not pose a threat.Hong Yoongi was walking near South Korea’s Parliament building in Seoul when he spotted the interloper from North Korea.The trespasser on Thursday was a balloon that had floated dozens of miles across the inter-Korean border and the Han River in the South to land near the National Assembly complex. But the authorities were on the case, and on the scene. Some military personnel wore white protective gear, masks and gloves to deal with the trash that had scattered on impact.Over the past five days, North Korea has sent hundreds more drifting toward the South with payloads of trash like waste paper and used plastic bottles. This salvo follows a barrage of thousands of similar North Korean balloons earlier this summer. Pyongyang has said it was provoked by North Korean defectors in the South, who launched their own balloons carrying leaflets criticizing the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and USB sticks with K-pop music and K-dramas.The South’s military has said that North’s balloons do not carry “harmful substances.” But they have become a nuisance, landing in farms, public parks in the capital and in residential areas. In July, some came down inside the grounds of the presidential office in Seoul.Mr. Hong had seen another one of the balloons a few months earlier, near his home in Bundang, south of Seoul. But, he said, “the balloons haven’t affected my daily life at all.”Living next to a nuclear-armed adversary is the reality for millions of South Koreans, who often shrug off provocations from the North.“The most annoying part about the balloons is the countless warning texts I get from the government,” said Ahn Jae-hee, a resident of Seoul.In recent days, officials in the South have sent more than a dozen safety alerts, warning residents to inform the authorities about the balloons and not to touch them. The alerts, sent to mobile phones across the country, give the general location of the balloons.The South’s military has said it waits for the balloons to land before inspecting them, rather than blast them ​— and scatter their​ suspicious payloads ​— from the sky. Seoul has responded by blaring anti-North Korean propaganda and K-pop across loudspeakers stationed near the Demilitarized Zone between the two countries.“The balloons are low-intensity provocations from the North, and South Koreans have no real reason to react to them,” said Wooyeal Paik, the deputy director at the Yonsei Institute for North Korean Studies. So far, he said, there was no indication of espionage, unlike the balloons from China seen over the United States last year, nor did they seem to carry weapons.Propaganda balloons also flew on the Korean Peninsula during the Cold War. Both sides used them to scatter leaflets condemning each other’s governments. Those tactics had largely faded until their revival this year.“The balloons have become the new normal,” Mr. Hong said. More

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      South Korea Reports Leak From a Top Intelligence Agency

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      It’s highly unusual for the nation’s authorities to publicly acknowledge a leak from the command​, which is one of South Korea’s top two spy agencies.South Korea was investigating a leak from its top military intelligence command​ that ​local news media said had caused a large amount of sensitive information, including personal data on the command’s agents abroad, to end up in North Korea, its military said Saturday.The military said in a brief statement that it planned to “deal sternly with” those responsible for the leak. But it declined to confirm the local media reports, pending its investigation of the Korea ​Defense Intelligence Command,​ where the leak took place.The command, a secretive arm of the South Korean military, specializes in gathering intelligence on North Korea, a heavily militarized country that often threatens ​its southern neighbor with nuclear weapons.It’s highly unusual for the South Korean authorities to publicly acknowledge a leak from the command​, which is one of South Korea’s top two spy agencies, along with the National Intelligence Service.The intelligence command runs a network of agents, including those disguised ​as South Korean diplomats or using other undercover identities, in China and other parts of Asia.The agents often spend years recruiting North Koreans overseas as their contacts. The information they collect augments the intelligence that the United States and its allies collect on North Korea through spy satellites or by intercepting electronic communications.If personal data about the agents ended up in North Korea, that could seriously damage South Korea’s ability to gather intelligence on the North.The last time a major breach of security was reported at the command was in 2018, when an active-duty military officer affiliated with the command was found to have sold classified information to foreign agents in China and Japan through a retired ​South Korean intelligence officer. The information he sold reportedly included data on the command’s agents in China or data on North Korean weaponry.North and South Korea run vigorous intelligence and counterintelligence operations against each other. South Korea still occasionally ​arrests people accused of spying for North Korea. In recent years, North Korea has also used an army of hackers to attack computer networks in the United States, South Korea and elsewhere to steal information or cryptocurrency.On Thursday, the United States, Britain and South Korea issued a joint advisory warning that North Korea​’s hackers have conducted a global cyber espionage campaign to steal classified military secrets to support​ its nuclear weapons program​.The U.S. Justice Department said ​on Thursday that a North Korean military intelligence operative had been indicted in​ a conspiracy to hack into American health care providers, NASA, U.S. military bases and international entities, stealing sensitive information and installing ransomware to fund more attacks​. A reward of up to $10 million has been offered for information that could lead to ​the arrest of the alleged North Korean operative, Rim Jong Hyok​. More