North Korea Briefing: Vol. 2, Fall 2025
This is the second 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 third quarter of 2025 (July 1 to September 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. The Respected Daughter Goes to China, by Michael Madden
Chapter 2. Kim Jong Un’s Apparent Last-Minute Beijing Visit, by Michael Madden
Chapter 3. North Korea Emphasizes Corporate Management and Legal Regulations, Cultivates Japan-Based Korean Students, by Mitsuhiro Mimura
Chapter 4. Future Missile/Space Developments Presaged; WMD Possession Underscored, by Vann H. Van Diepen
Chapter 5. North Korea-China Relations Not Yet Fully Restored; North Korea Hints Kim-Trump Talks Possible, Reaffirms Two Koreas Policy, by Rachel Minyoung Lee
Download the full report: North Korea Briefing: July – September 2025