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Trump ordered a "substantial" scaling back of joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises, reigniting debate over Korean Peninsula security — and whether a new round of Trump-Kim diplomacy could be on the horizon.
Kim Go-eun took top honors at the fifth Blue Dragon Series Awards as "The Legend of Kitchen Soldier" dominated the night, while a new U.S. bill dubbed the "FAKER Act" targets North Korea's global network of fraudulent IT workers funding the regime's weapons programs.
The U.S. State Department has renewed its travel ban on American citizens visiting North Korea through August 2026, citing ongoing risks of arrest and detention — while inside South Korea, a rural county courts tourists at an airport and a southern province pushes AI into its factories.
North Korea released water from the Hwanggang Dam on the Imjin River without prior notice on July 20, prompting South Korea's environment ministry to monitor border water levels amid ongoing monsoon rainfall.
South Korea's presidential office pushed back on North Korea's claim that denuclearization is an "irreversibly finalized" matter, reaffirming the goal as a consistent position of the international community backed by multiple UN Security Council resolutions.
South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back held back-to-back bilateral talks with his counterparts from the Philippines, Norway, and the Netherlands at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, pushing defense industry cooperation and calling for international support on the North Korea issue.