North Korea Briefing: Vol. 1, Summer 2025

This is the first edition of North Korea Briefing, a quarterly report analyzing North Korea’s internal dynamics.

This volume covers events and developments in North Korea during the second quarter of 2025 (April 1 to June 30) across five issue areas: politics, leadership, the economy, missiles and weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and foreign policy. Each issue area, or chapter, is scoped out as follows:  

  • Politics: Broader leadership trends, domestic political developments, and shifts in rhetoric on key ideological or domestic policy issues 
  • Leadership: Roles and functions of Party, government, and military institutions, power dynamics within the leadership, and personnel changes 
  • Economy: Domestic economic indicators, economic policy, and external economic relations 
  • Missiles and WMD: Missile, nuclear and other WMD-related activities, key technological advancements, and related policy 
  • Foreign policy: Positions on key international and foreign policy issues and foreign relations  

All chapters use North Korean state media as their primary source, aided by secondary sources such as reporting from third-country media outlets and think tank analyses.  

CHAPTER BREAKDOWN

Chapter 1. North Korea Remains Stable Amid Increased Emphasis on Party Discipline, Some Governance Anomalies, and Daughter’s Growing Prominence, by Isozaki Atsuhito

Chapter 2. North Korea Reiterates Party’s Precedence Over the Military, Conducts Sweeping Changes in KPA Leadership, by Michael Madden

Chapter 3. June Party Plenum Confirms Economic Modernization Rather than Drastic Development, Construction Projects Bear Fruit, and Economic Ties With Russia and Belarus Stepped Up, by Mitsuhiro Mimura

Chapter 4. North Korea Continues to Improve Nuclear Posture, by Vann H. Van Diepen

Chapter 5. North Korea Continues to Modulate Anti-US Rhetoric and Strengthen Ties With Russia; Indicates Lack of Interest in Improving Ties With South Korea, by Rachel Minyoung Lee

Download the full report: North Korea Briefing: April – June 2025