North

North Korea’s new frigate looked like a 21st century ship. Until you look at the sides and discover their solution against drones

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In October 2000, the US destroyer USS Cole suffered an attack with a small boat loaded with explosives while refueling in Yemen. The attack led the United States Navy to reinforce the use of machine guns heavy weapons to protect their ships against short-range threats, a decision that is once again gaining prominence today for a very different reason: drones. A frigate with great aspirations. The new Kang Kon It represents North Korea’s biggest leap in surface ships. Although Pyongyang classifies it as a destroyer, its displacement about 5,000 tons places it closer to a frigate by international standards. On paper, the ship brings together almost everything you would expect from a modern design: dozens of vertical launch cells for missiles, a main gun, point defense systems, electronic warfare and cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The most striking detail. However, the broadcast images After the latest tests of the ship they have diverted attention to a much more unexpected element. At least a dozen heavy machine guns can be seen along one of its sides. 14.5 millimeter KPVdistributed between remote-controlled double mounts and other positions integrated into the superstructure. The scene turns out almost disconcerting: a frigate that seems designed for the 21st century, at the same time uses a solution reminiscent of the great naval combats of the past. The Kang Kon was seen firing its machine guns during a demonstration last week The war in Ukraine explains it. Although at first glance it may seem like an extravagance, the logic behind this configuration responds to a very current threat. The drone proliferation aerial and unmanned vessels has forced many navies to reinforce the short-range defense of their ships with additional small-caliber weapons. Russia has been incorporating additional machine guns, remote weapons stations and even improvised protection structures for years to try to stop drone attacks, an experience that North Korea has been able to observe very closely thanks to their growing cooperation military with Moscow. A weapon with more than half a century of history. Plus: KPVs are not exactly a modern system either. Designed by the Soviet Union At the end of World War II, these machine guns continue to be used in many countries due to their power and range against light targets. Your ammunition 14.5 millimeters It can destroy drones, speedboats or lightly armored vehicles, which explains why a weapon conceived decades ago is once again gaining prominence in a scenario dominated by much more recent threats. Survival remains the great unknown. The abundant Kang Kon weaponry It does not clear up doubts about their ability to survive in a high-intensity conflict. The TWZ analysts They consider that a ship of these characteristics would be one of the first objectives of any adversary and that North Korea will hardly be able to build enough units to give depth to its fleet. The reason? Even if it incorporates technologies of Russian origin, converting a missile-laden platform into a truly resilient ship requires much more complex sensors, training, coordination and operational doctrine than adding new weapons on deck. A ship that reflects how naval warfare is changing. The Kang Kon It leaves a striking image because it summarizes one of the great paradoxes of current conflicts. Long-range missiles, radars and electronic warfare represent the most advanced naval technology, but defense against drones has brought back the spotlight to surprisingly simple solutions. that one of the most modern frigates North Korea’s proud display of a heavy machine gun battery speaks volumes about how the war in Ukraine is redefining design priorities in even the newest warships. Image | North Korea State Media In Xataka | A small river lost between Russia and North Korea is testing something much bigger: China’s patience with both. In Xataka | South Korea has just entered the most exclusive club on the planet. And China and North Korea are not exactly calm

Air conditioners have been wanting to reach the north of Spain for decades without much success. Until the thermometer passed 40ºC

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Here a server is writing these lines from Vigo, with the thermometer reading 28ºC (a temperature that in a few days will fire at 35ºC) and without air conditioning or ceiling fans. My only weapons against the haze are a small table fan that is almost (almost) the same decades old as me and the assurance that, no matter how hot the heat was, the temperatures in Galicia would always be tolerable. The first (the antediluvian fan) may not have done much, but the second did. Or so it was until now. In view of the heat waves that are coming at home, we are already thinking about installing a system that allows us to cool off with dignity. And we are not the only ones. On the contrary. We are one of the many homes from the northern peninsula that already look at brochures of air conditioners and fans. Ready for the heat? In the south of Spain it’s hotter than in the north. That was true before, it remains true now, and probably not much will change in the future. As I write this I enjoy a peaceful 28ºC in Vigo, eight degrees less than what the mercury shows in Córdoba. The problem is that there they are probably much better prepared to weather the heatwave than in this northern part of the country. I’m not saying it. The INE says it. From 64% to 0.4%. Although she is almost 20 years old, the Household and Environment Survey from the INE clearly shows that acclimatization facilities are much more frequent in the Mediterranean or Levant than in northern Spain. While in 2008 54% of homes in the Valencian Community had air conditioning, a percentage that rose to 57% in Andalusia, and 64% in Murcia, in Galicia, the Basque Country, Asturias and Cantabria the indicator did not reach 2% in any case. In the Principality it actually marked 0.4%. The INE data is old, but the SER chain recently disclosed a more recent survey confirms that the air conditioning map is still clearly divided between north and south. According to that study, only 17% of northern homes are acclimatized to the heat, far from 86% of the Mediterranean coast. Another Idealista report shows a gap even bigger. Changing the mentality. If they repeated that survey in a few years, it is likely that the ‘photo’ would be somewhat different. The heat wave that has shaken Galicia, Cantabria, the Basque Country either Asturiasleaving in some cases record temperatures that exceeded 40ºC, with hospitalizations due to fainting and deceasedhas led many families to look for new ways to cool their homes. Take a quick look at the regional press to check it out. Skyrocketing sales. In May The Montañés Diary counted how the demand for fans had skyrocketed by more than 80% in some businesses in Cantabria. Installers and stores of air conditioners and portable appliances also noticed the boom. I had something similar recently The Voice of Asturiaswho has spoken with companies in the sector that have noticed a 25% increase in requests for information. The Basque Journal confirm also an increase in the sale of ceiling fans, just like The Region in Ourense. From shops to homes. The most interesting thing is that the demand for devices does not come only from businesses. Andonio Suárez, from a company in the industry, recently recognized to ‘Hoy por Hoy Cantabria’ who in their business “do not stop” touring the community to install air conditioners. Not only that. Their technicians have gone from working basically in commercial premises installations to doing so in private homes, homes of people tired of being in the heat. “It is practically 50% between homes and businesses,” resume. “Before we managed”. Patricia lives in the province of Pontevedra and is one of the people (more and more) who has begun to think about ways to cool her home, beyond the use of floor, ceiling or table fans. “We had always managed, but now we are studying switching to a portable air conditioner or air conditioner because the fans fall short,” he confesses. In mind, you have devices that do not require the installation of exterior elements, such as evaporative air conditioners or tubeless air conditioners. “We save trouble and can take them from one home to another.” Poorly prepared floors. “The summers are longer and hotter, and the heat waves are more frequent. This year we already had a month of May with a week of tropical nights in which it was difficult to sleep, another in June, and summer had not yet started. A month of July is approaching in which it does not seem that we are going to go below 30ºC on most days,” explains Patricia before remembering that many of the apartments built between the 70s and 90s in Galicia “are not prepared nor do they have good insulation.” for the heat. “It has turned against us”. His experience is similar to that of Manuel, another Galician who recognizes that his house is designed to conserve heat, something ideal in winter, but not so much for the months from June to September. “The increasingly hot summers have turned against us.” Hence, she has opted for two portable air conditioners that she places in the living room and in her daughter’s bedroom, the room that accumulates the most heat. “I had been thinking about it for a while. Years ago it was not something that compensated, since it was not really necessary; but in the last five or six years the heat has been much more intense, even reaching days of 30-35ºC continuously.” More than just heat. Both Patricia and Manuel have opted for portable devices, which, among other things, they admit, has made installation easier for them. For systems that require an outdoor unit, it is necessary something more than you want to cool off: it is important to take into account both the municipal ordinances that regulate noise, urban aesthetics and … Read more

an underwater cable through the North Pole

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He 99% of international internet data traffic travels through fiber optic cables that run along the bottom of seas and oceans. There is a kind of Google Maps of underwater cables where you can see its trajectory to discover that, while there are areas that are true wastelands, in others there are tangles of cables that clump together. Precisely these areas are critical for potential accidents and attacks. Well, 90% of the capacity of the Europe-Asia cables happens through a region that is anything but calm: the Red Sea. In times of peace these cables work well, but in conflicts they are a real candy for sabotage: they are “abandoned” to their fate in the middle of nowhere, they are strategic and repairing them is not exactly easy or convenient. And in fact, in the case of these Europe – Asia cables it has already happened: in 2024 a Houthi missile impact a cargo ship in the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb and its drifting anchor cut three underwater cables. Repair ships were able to enter four months later. In September 2025, history repeated itself. The Achilles heel is clear and Europe wants to solve it by detouring around the North Pole. The alternative route: Polar Connect. The European Union, through its resilience panel, has recommended building two Arctic cables to reach Asia by avoiding the Red Sea: one would go through the Canadian Northwest Passage and the other would connect Scandinavia with Asia by directly crossing the North Pole. The latter is precisely the Polar Connect. Said and done: the EU you have already labeled this cable as “Cable Project of European Interest” and has already prepared the first funds for its construction. The total estimated cost is around €2 billion and the operational goal is 2030. Behind the project is the Nordic research and education network NORDUnetNordic network operators such as GlobalConnect Carrier and the Swedish polar research agency. This summer probably they will do a study of the route. Why is it important. Because submarine cables are the roads that keep the world in which we live connected: corporate communications, cloud services, finance, streaming, security… and the fact that the majority of connections between Europe and Asia occur through a corridor in persistent conflict increases the risk of blackouts between both continents. This cable seeks to minimize geopolitical risk while reducing latency in data transmission. On the other hand, there is its strategic dimension: Meta, Google, Microsoft and Amazon now represent more than 70% of all submarine cable capacity consumed globally, compared to less than 10% a decade ago, according to TeleGeography data and GlobalData. Europe does not have any route of its own to Asia. How Polar Connect collects in your white paperthe three current options between Europe and Asia are the Red Sea, Russia or passing through the United States and none are under European sovereignty. The two new cables to connect Europe and Asia via the Arctic route. NORDUnet Context. The Red Sea and its surroundings have been an almost continuous hornet’s nest since at least the 1950s: the Suez crisis, the Six Day War, Yom Kippur… so as Roderick Beck, a cable industry veteran who is dedicated to finding telecommunications capacity for internet service providers, explains for The Verge: The industry looked for alternatives in the Persian Gulf, but it is not exactly an oil raft either: The United States attacks on Iran in 2025 also closed that route. That said, the geopolitical context in the Arctic is not neutral either. Historically to run a cable through the arctic was necessary a partnership with Russia, but since the war with Ukraine, the North Pole corridor lacks of western intercontinental connectivity. However, it will not be easy: others have tried it before and failed, such as Quintillion on the north coast of Alaska. They activated a section of cable, but the ice broke it twice and to repair it it is necessary either to have an icebreaking ship to repair the cable or to wait until summer. How do they want to do it?. He plan is connecting the Nordic region with Japan and South Korea via fiber optics under the Arctic Ocean with possible branches to North America. Regarding financing, at the end of 2024 were approved 44.6 million euros from the Connecting Europe Facility program for the first phases. Polar Connect will also have with advanced sensors for environmental and climate monitoring, so that it would function as a telecommunications infrastructure and an Arctic scientific research instrument. The project is complemented by Far North Fiber, another Arctic cable that would take the Canadian Northwest Passage route. Together they would form a network with mutual redundancy: when one fails, the other takes over the traffic. As it says the CEO of NORDUnet himselfValter Nordh: “both routes have strengths and weaknesses, which is why they complement each other well.” Yes, but. Designing, building and installing an underwater cable is not a small project, but the main problem that Polar Connect is going to face has already been glimpsed in the failed Quintillion project: the obstacle is maintenance. The ice cuts and the icebergs drag the seabed to depths greater than those that allow the cable to be buried in a phenomenon known as ice scour. If there is a break in winter, we have to wait until summer to repair it simply because there are no ships capable of breaking ice and laying cables at the same time. Alan Mauldin, research director at TeleGeography, one of the leading research companies in the sector, he says it bluntly: “We’ve seen a lot of (Arctic cable) projects happen. There’s a reason for that, right? It’s very complicated.” In Xataka | The submarine cables belonged to the teleoperators, and now the big technology companies are controlling them In Xataka | The first great Atlantic submarine cable that connected us to the internet says goodbye for a simple reason: it was too expensive to repair it Cover | PxHere … Read more

South Korea has just entered the most exclusive club on the planet. And China and North Korea are not exactly calm

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In 2004, South Korea admitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency that years before it had rperformed secret experiments of uranium enrichment without officially declaring them. That caused a small diplomatic crisis and revived a question that has been chasing Seoul for decades: how far it is willing to go to not be left behind in Asia. Now he has taken an unprecedented step. The great leap. South Korea just gave one of the most important strategic steps in its recent military history: entering the small club of countries capable of operating nuclear powered submarines. Until now, this terrain was reserved for powers such as the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom or India. He Jangbogo-N project It completely changes Seoul’s position in Asia because it stops being only an advanced industrial and technological power and also becomes a naval actor with oceanic ambitions and a much more sophisticated deterrence capacity. The decision has an enormous symbolic component, but above all practical: A nuclear submarine can remain submerged for months, travel enormous distances and operate with a freedom impossible for traditional diesel models. For China and North Korea the message is clear. South Korea no longer wants to limit itself to protecting its coasts; It wants to have a permanent presence and response capacity throughout the regional board. Announcement of the project in the South Korean defense ministry Seoul’s great obsession. He official argument revolves around the North Korean threat and especially the growth of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal. North Korea has been developing ballistic missiles launched from submarines and working on their own naval nuclear propulsion programs with possible Russian help. In this context, South Korea considers that its current diesel submarines are no longer sufficient to maintain a credible long-term deterrence capacity. The new nuclear models would allow the waters near the peninsula to be monitored for much longer and guarantee second attack ability much more difficult to neutralize. Even without nuclear weapons on board, the simple possibility that these platforms could disappear under the sea for long periods makes any enemy military calculation much more complex. China in the equation. Although North Korea is the immediate threat, the greater strategic background clearly points towards China. They remembered the TWZ analysts that Beijing has been expanding its submarine fleet and strengthening its naval presence for years throughout Asia-Pacificas South Korea watches the regional competition shift away from focusing solely on the Korean Peninsula. The construction of nuclear submarines reflects precisely this mental change in Seoul: the country is beginning to see itself as a regional maritime power with much broader interests. Hence China has publicly criticized the program and has insisted on the obligations non-proliferation. Beijing understands perfectly what it means this technological leap. A neighbor with its own nuclear submarines implies a presence that is more difficult to track, a much deeper surveillance capacity and a navy capable of operating far from its ports. The most delicate detail. Impossible to pass by, because South Korea insists that does not intend develop nuclear weapons and will use low-enriched uranium under supervision international and coordination with the United States and the IAEA. However, the movement remains extremely sensitive because historically almost all countries with nuclear submarines also ended up developing atomic arsenals. Therein lies a good part of the regional concern. Although Seoul maintains officially your commitment With non-proliferation, the project brings it technologically closer to capabilities that seemed unthinkable just a few years ago. Furthermore, the international context has changed. Blind trust in the US military umbrella It’s not so solid anymore. As before, in South Korea the debate has been growing for years about whether the country needs a more autonomous deterrence capacity against Pyongyang and against an increasingly powerful China. A gigantic industrial bet. The program is also a statement of industrial power. South Korea wants to build the submarines within its own territory using its naval, nuclear and technological industries, something that fits perfectly with the country’s obsession with gain strategic autonomy. The government estimates that the project will last more than forty years between construction and operation, it will generate tens of thousands of jobs and strengthen key sectors such as modular reactors, advanced shipbuilding and military engineering. Market reactions have made the expected impact clear: the large South Korean naval companies they shot in the stock market after the announcement. Seoul understands that this project not only redefines its military strength; It may also establish the country as one of the few nations capable of designing and maintaining complex nuclear naval systems on its own. The silent race. The most important thing is that the movement of South Korea can further accelerate the submarine and nuclear race in Asia. Australia now advances with AUKUS To obtain nuclear submarines, North Korea seeks its own with Russian support and China continues to expand one of the largest submarine fleets on the planet. Now Seoul officially joins to that strategic underwater competition. If you also want, the region is entering a stage where the ability to disappear under the ocean for months has become one of the maximum symbols of military power. And South Korea just announced that is going to be part of that exclusive group, even if that means further altering the security balance in East Asia. Image | x In Xataka | Russia has built an imposing nuclear submarine with one mission: to launch one of the most extreme weapons ever devised In Xataka | North Korea has cleared up doubts about its alliance with Russia: it has just announced its first nuclear submarine

The greatest Japanese military taboo after the Second World War has just been blown up. China and North Korea are to blame

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In 1945, Japan emerged from World War II with a new Constitution that, in practice, prevented him have again offensive aircraft carrier. Eight decades later, one of its largest ships is once again preparing to operate fighter jets from the deck alongside the US Marines. Japan leaves its historical limits behind. Japan is entering a military phase that for decades avoided describing openly. He “Kaga”officially classified as a helicopter destroyer, will operate in June F-35B stealth fighters of the US Marine Corps in joint exercises that definitively bring the country closer to a light aircraft carrier capability. The gesture is much more important than it seems because it breaks a deeply rooted political and historical barrier since World War II: the idea that Japan should strictly limit its offensive capabilities. Tokyo continues to avoid the term “aircraft carrier,” but operational reality is beginning to look more and more like classic shipborne aviation. The Kaga and a return. The transformation of the “Kaga” and its twin “Izumo” It has been underway for years, but now it is entering the truly decisive phase: operate fighter aircraft fifth generation from deck in real conditions. The planned exercises with the US F-35B will include “cross-deck” maneuvers, where Marine aircraft take off and land from a Japanese ship. all this requires modifications depth in the deck, thermal resistance to withstand vertical landings and new coordinated procedures between pilots, sailors and technical personnel. Although Japan has placed the F-35Bs under the control of its Air Force and not the Navy, the practice brings the country enormously closer to having fully functional small aircraft carriers. A US Marine Corps F-35B lands aboard Kaga during training exercises in 2024 China and North Korea behind. The great driver of this transformation is the deterioration of the strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific. China multiply your pressure naval around Taiwan and the East China Sea as North Korea maintains a constant capacity of military destabilization. In this context, Tokyo needs to disperse its air capacity and reduce dependence on vulnerable ground bases. There the F-35B enters: a fighter capable of taking off over very short distances or landing vertically from relatively small decks. For Japan, this offers enormous flexibility in an archipelago full of islands and long sea distances. Each converted ship expands the number of platforms from which the country can project air power. USA as accelerator. The direct involvement of the US Marine Corps makes clear the extent to which Washington is acting as an accelerator of Japanese military transformation. The Marines already made the first historic landings on the “Izumo” in 2021 and since then they have accompanied practically all phases of the program. The “Kaga” even traveled to the United States for specific tests with F-35B and has already operated alongside British and American aircraft linked to the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales. More than simple maneuvers, these exercises serve to integrate allied doctrines, logistics and procedures in a possible regional crisis scenario. The Indo-Pacific is filling up. The change also reflects a broader trend: the proliferation light aircraft carrier and ships capable of operating F-35Bs throughout the US allied network. United Kingdom, Italy, South Korea and potentially Spain sfollow similar paths to maintain embarked aviation without the need for gigantic nuclear supercarriers. He F-35B It has thus become the centerpiece of a new generation of medium navies capable of projecting air power from relatively compact platforms. Japan fits that model perfectly, especially in a scenario where war in the Pacific could force aircraft, ammunition and fuel to be dispersed across multiple moving points. The real test begins now. Until now, much of the Japanese program had still been experimental or symbolic. The real test begins with regular operations, long deployments and the ability to sustain stealth fighters on deck for weeks. That is where it will be measured if the “Kaga” It definitively ceases to be a “helicopter destroyer” to become, in practice, a a light aircraft carrier fully operational. And there, too, the most profound change is perceived: Japan is gradually leaving behind the defensive military culture to adapt to an increasingly Indo-Pacific more militarizedcompetitive and unpredictable. Image | hunini In Xataka | Japan has just crossed a line unprecedented since World War II: China has responded with supersonic missiles In Xataka | Japan has made a historic decision in the face of US uncertainty: deploy missiles that reach North Korea and China

There is a “nuclear” gift from Russia to North Korea off the coast of Spain

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In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, many Western experts began to fear that Russian scientists and military technology would end arriving in North Korea through opaque means, silently fueling Pyongyang’s weapons programs. Since then, every strange move between Moscow and the North Korean regime has been observed with a mixture of concern, secrecy and suspicions that are difficult to prove. A collapse full of unknowns. counted this morning CNN in an extensive report that the sinking of the Russian freighter Ursa Major off the Spanish coast has ended up becoming one of the strangest and most opaque stories to emerge around the Ukrainian war, as well as one of the most delicate. Officiallythe ship suffered several explosions in December 2024 before sinking in the Mediterranean. However, from the first moment they began to accumulate details difficult to fit into the version of a simple maritime accident: a cargo absurdly described as “manhole covers”, a Russian military escort for much of the journey, strange maneuvers before the sinking, subsequent explosions on the wreck and a very unusual silence from both Moscow and the Spanish authorities. Little by little, the case began to look less like a conventional shipwreck and more a strategic operation that went wrong in the middle of an extremely sensitive geopolitical context. The suspicion that changes everything. The great suspicion arose when Spanish researchers and sources cited by CNN They began to point out that the Ursa Major could transport nuclear reactor components similar to those used in Russian submarines. The captain himself would have ended up admitting to Spanish investigators that those supposed “manhole covers” were actually linked pieces to two naval reactors, although he claimed not to know if they contained nuclear fuel. The most disturbing hypothesis is that the final destination was not Vladivostok, despite officially appearing on the route, but the North Korean port of Rason. That is where the story takes on a completely different dimension, because the sinking would no longer be just a maritime incident, but the possible interruption of a technology transfer extremely sensitive between Moscow and Pyongyang, just after North Korea sent thousands of soldiers to support Russia in the Ukrainian war. The WC-135 off Spain. The arrival of the WC-135 aircraft Americans was the detail that definitively set off all the alarms. These planes, known as “nuke sniffers,” are not just any aircraft: they are extremely specialized platforms designed to detect radioactive traces and analyze nuclear contamination in the atmosphere. Washington normally uses them to monitor nuclear tests, atomic accidents or sensitive activity in places like the Russian Arctic or Iran, in any case, not to routinely fly over the Mediterranean off Spain. that the United States will send twice These devices over the area where the Ursa Major rests immediately fueled the suspicion that he feared something much more serious than a simple shipwreck. Although there is no public confirmation of radioactive contamination, the simple deployment of these planes left a sensation that is very difficult to ignore: Russia could have had a nuclear “gift” destined for North Korea sunk in front of Europe. Let us remember that a few months later, Kim Yong Un showed the world his alleged nuclear submarine. Explosions, spy ships and an uncomfortable wreck. The sequence after the sinking made the story even stranger. According to the research quoted by CNNthe ship did not seem doomed to sink immediately after the first explosions. However, hours after Spanish rescue resources arrived, the Russian ship Ivan Gren It launched red flares over the area and new explosions were recorded, detected even by Spanish seismic systems. Days later it also appeared the Yantarofficially a Russian research ship but designated for years by NATO as spy platform submarine. He remained on the wreck for several days before to register more explosions underwater. All of this continued to fuel the theory that Moscow may have attempted to destroy sensitive evidence at the bottom of the Mediterranean, especially if the ship was carrying advanced military nuclear technology or compromised documentation related to North Korea. The theory of silent sabotage. Another of the most surprising aspects of the investigation is the possibility that the Ursa Major was attacked with an extremely unusual weapon. The Spanish authorities are handling the hypothesis of a small hole just 50 centimeters caused by a supercavitating torpedo Barracuda typea weapon capable of moving at very high speed by reducing the friction of water using a gas bubble. The disturbing thing about this type of torpedoes is that they can pierce a hull without necessarily generating a large audible explosion, something that would fit with the account of the Russian captain, who stated not having heard no impact as the ship began to lose speed. Other experts believe the use of limpet mines or attached charges to the helmet. In any case, the mere fact that sophisticated sabotage is contemplated in waters near Spain reveals to what extent the case has stopped looking like a conventional accident. The reflection of a new alliance. Beyond the concrete mystery of the Ursa Majorthe case reflects something even more important: the rapid rapprochement between Russia and North Korea. For years, Moscow avoided crossing certain lines related to the transfer of strategic military technology to Pyongyang. However, the war in Ukraine has changed many priorities. As we have been countingNorth Korea contributes ammunition, missiles and soldiers, and Russia could be returning the favor with technical knowledge much more sensitive. The images released months later of the sinking with Kim Jong Un showing the helmet of a supposed North Korean nuclear submarine fit closely with this possibility. If there really was an attempt to move Russian naval reactors to North Korea, the sinking of the Ursa Major could represent one of the most important (and most secret) episodes of the new military relationship between both countries. Whatever it is is still in the Mediterranean. To this day, the wreck remains at about 2,500 meters deep … Read more

Two men thought it was a good idea to lend their houses to a North Korean laptop farm. It went wrong

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Teleworking has accustomed us to a very comfortable idea: if someone delivers work, attends meetings and responds to messages, perhaps it doesn’t matter too much where they do it from. The problem appears when that distance becomes an advantage to hide identities, move money and enter companies that believe they are hiring a legitimate professional. North Korea has been exploiting precisely that rift. And the case of two men convicted of hosting laptops in their homes shows the extent to which the plot could rely on domestic infrastructure. Two men condemned. Matthew Isaac Knoot, of Nashville, Tennessee, and Erick Ntekereze Prince, of New York, have been sentenced in the US to 18 months each in prison for their role in fraudulent schemes involving remote IT workers linked to North Korea. according to the Department of Justice. The house as a piece of the plot. The mechanism was more domestic than one might imagine. Companies shipped corporate laptops to American addresses because they believed the contracted workers were there. Once received, the computers were housed in those homes and configured with remote desktop applications installed without authorization. This allowed the fake workers to operate from abroad while, to the companies, the connection appeared to come from an address within the United States. What did each one do?. Prince, according to official information, facilitated at least three North Korean IT workers to obtain remote employment in US companies between June 2020 and August 2024, and used his company Taggcar Inc. to fraudulently supply “certified” workers, despite knowing that they were outside the US and using false or stolen identities. Knoot, for his part, operated a laptop farm from his Nashville residences between July 2022 and August 2023. Money, companies and damages. The Justice Department maintains that the two schemes together generated more than $1.2 million for North Korea and affected nearly 70 U.S. companies. In the Prince case, the companies paid more than $943,069 in salaries to IT workers linked to the file. In Knoot’s case, the payments exceeded $250,000. More than labor fraud. The US justice system presents the sentences as part of a specific line of action against facilitators located in the US. The note itself highlights that these are the seventh and eighth convictions of “laptop farmers” obtained in the last five months within their efforts to interrupt North Korea’s illicit generation of income. It is an important nuance: the focus is not only on those who connect from abroad, but also on the local network that makes the operation viable. Expansion into Europe. As we have seen in the pastthese cases are also present outside the United States. The Record discovered in April 2025 an investigation by Google Threat Intelligence Group according to which North Korean operatives had increased their activity in Europe following US police actions against laptop farms and financial networks. At the center were job searches linked to the United Kingdom, Germany and Portugal, in addition to the use of local facilitators to support the alibi of a work presence in the corresponding country. AI and fake identities. One of the most current layers of this story is not only in the laptops, but in the ease of building increasingly credible profiles. BISI points out that North Korean operations combine stolen identities, manipulated professional profiles and AI tools capable of writing localized CVs and cover letters. In the Old Continent, platforms such as Upwork and Freelancer are usually used, in addition to Telegram. The consequence is obvious: detecting the fake candidate can become much more difficult before the company even ships the equipment. What started with laptops housed in private homes ends up having something much bigger than a criminal conviction. The companies were not attacked from outside in the classic sense, but ended up opening the door to workers they believed to be legitimate. So everything seems to indicate that in these times it is no longer enough to protect servers, credentials or repositories, but rather to review the processes that we consider normal, such as the hiring of personnel. Images | Xataka with Grok In Xataka | The ‘vibe coding’ promised to democratize software. Your first gift is 5,000 apps with open sensitive data

squeeze out wells in the North Sea that had been abandoned for 30 years

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Norway is, on paper, the green Eden of the planet. Nine out of every ten new cars sold on its streets are electric and 98% of its electrical system is powered by renewable sources. However, its main economic engine is exporting what it internally rejects: fossil fuels. The official figures are conclusive: in 2025, the value of Norwegian exports of crude oil, condensate and natural gas will be around one trillion crowns, which represents 57% of its total exports of goods. An unprecedented geopolitical trigger has been added to this Norwegian paradox. The war in the Middle East and the resulting blockade in the Strait of Hormuz have turned the country into “a European gas station.” Resurrecting ghosts of the North Sea. To address this demand, the Norwegian government has made a historic decision. As confirmed by the Ministry of Energy in an official press releasethe country is going to reopen three gas fields in the Ekofisk area (Albuskjell, Vest Ekofisk and Tommeliten Gamma). These wells were discovered in the 1970s, produced between 1977 and 1988, and had been closed since 1998. A consortium operated by ConocoPhillips (along with Vår Energi, ORLEN and Petoro) will invest around 19 billion Norwegian crowns (about 1.5 billion pounds) to reactivate these facilities through four new subsea systems. They are expected to pump again at the end of 2028, operate until 2048 and extract between 90 and 120 million barrels equivalent. This operation will not only generate some 7,600 direct jobs during its useful life, but the extracted gas will go directly to Emden (Germany), while the condensate will travel to Teesside (United Kingdom). It’s not just about reliving the past. Oslo has also offered 70 new exploration licenses, most in extremely sensitive areas such as the icy Barents Sea, getting closer to the coast than ever. According to Norwegian government dataonly about half of the country’s estimated gas resources have been produced, so the remaining 52% is yet to be extracted. In 2025 alone, the country exported approximately 122 billion standard cubic meters of gas. International responsibility. Terje Aasland, Minister of Energy, argues that Norwegian production It is “an important contribution to energy security in Europe.” The data support this extreme dependence: In 2024, Norway exported a volume of gas equivalent to more than 30% of the total consumption of the European Union and the United Kingdom. Furthermore, the government wields an environmental argument: Globally, replacing coal with natural gas in electricity generation reduces CO2 emissions by half. They also argue that gas is the perfect backup for intermittent renewables, providing flexible power when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. However, not everything is purely altruistic. While the state oil company Equinor registers historic profits, the country’s famous sovereign fund accumulates assets worth 1.9 trillion dollars. The voice of discord. According to Guardianleft-wing parties and environmental associations accuse the government of greenwashing (ecopostureo) and warn of the catastrophic risk that an oil spill near the coastline would pose. The contrast is also evident in the region itself. As Norway turns on the tap, the UK Labor government bans new drilling licenses on climate grounds. The result, just as it is revealed The Telegraphis that British production falls by 15% annually, forcing London to spend 20 billion pounds buying from Norway the energy that it refuses to extract from its own waters. The European dilemma of Oslo. Norway is fully aware of its hypocrisy and is trying to compensate for it with cutting-edge technology. The country inaugurated Northern Lightsthe first large commercial underwater warehouse in Europe. This project injects liquefied CO2 from European industries into the Aurora reservoir, 2,600 meters below the seabed. It is their way of showing that they can extract fossil fuels and, at the same time, lead the way in decarbonization technology. However, Norway has the resources and technology, but lacks direct political decision-making power. as he prays the maximum in Brussels: “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” The umbilical cord that unites Norway with Europe It is physical and politicalsince it has a vast network of underwater gas pipelines. This mutual dependence has reopened a debate that seemed settled: Should Norway enter the European Union? Although the population rejected accession in 1972 and 1994, the current geopolitical isolation in the face of giants such as China, the United States and Russia is forcing both Norway and its neighbors (Iceland and Switzerland) to reconsider whether they should sacrifice sovereignty in exchange for sitting at the table where their main market is governed. The fossil sunset. Norway has perfected the art of looking to the future with pockets full of the past. The country has become the giant that heats the homes of a scared and war-torn Europe, squeezing an outdated energy model to finance an ultra-developed and clean welfare state. As the financial analyst Thina Saltvedt stated: for the BBC: “More and more people realize that there is a sunset on the horizon. But it’s going to be painful.” For now, while that climatic sunset arrives, Europe has decided to postpone the cold by turning on, once again, the old Norwegian boilers in the North Sea. Image | Norskpetroleum Xataka | No more greeting the driver: Norway launches the first bus where there is not a single human in control

It was a triple trap designed by North Korean hackers

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A Spanish blockchain developer was almost a victim of one of the cyber espionage operations more sophisticated ones circulating right now. The bait they used was something as innocent as a job offer sent via LinkedIn. Which It seemed like a professional opportunity. It was actually a trap designed by one of the hacker groups most dangerous north koreans and best financed in the world. The case was analyzed by Claudio Chifafounder of cybersecurity company DLTCodeand coincides with another attack documented a few weeks before vs. Chris PapathanasiouCEO of security firm AllSecure. Two almost identical attacks, two different countries, the same perpetrator: the Lazarus groupthe unit of government digital operations from North Korea. The job offer had a cat in the bag In the Spanish case, the contact came in the form of something as common in the LinkedIn environment as a job offer as a strategic advisor in a decentralized video game project with 100% remote work and flexible hours. After a brief conversation, the supposed recruiter sent a link to advance the hiring process by calling the candidate for a 45-minute video call. After that initial conversation, the bait that would have completed the trap came into play: downloading a repository and opening it in Visual Studio Code to review it. In the case of Papathanasiou, the modus operandi was virtually identical: A LinkedIn profile offered him a job at a company it described as “a rapidly growing team developing the first decentralized AI operating system,” also with a Calendly link (a meeting scheduling tool) to schedule the call. During the video call, the supposed selection manager briefly used the camerashowing a face that matched the LinkedIn profile which he was using as a cover, although the voice did not fit with public videos of that person that Papathanasiou later found. “I started recording mid-conversation once I became suspicious,” said Papathanasiou, who suspects the attackers used surveillance technology. deepfake for impersonate the identity of your interlocutor. Claudio Chifa, on the other hand, became suspicious due to the sum of small details that did not quite fit with the project they were offering him: “The interlocutor’s accent had nothing to do with Portugal, the instructions in the GitHub repository were clearly generated with some AI, which also made me doubt the quality of the project. But, above all, it was the insistence on releasing the code on my machine for an advisory position,” the cybersecurity expert stressed. Three traps in one shot Both the repository analyzed by Chifa and DLTCode and the one investigated by AllSecure hid three independent infection mechanismsdesigned to be activated simultaneously when the folder was opened, so that, if one failed, the other two acted as a backup, completing the job. The first took advantage of a feature in Visual Studio Code that allows you to configure automatic tasks when opening a project. The malicious command was executed in a hidden window, leaving no trace visible to the user, and could adapt to the victim’s operating system (Mac, Linux or Windows). The second mechanism operated during the usual project installation process using npm (the package manager or component installation tool used by JavaScript programmers). At that time, the attacker’s server automatically received all the credentials stored in the system, including keys from services such as AWS, Stripe or OpenAI, and took full control of the computer. The third front of attack was linked to the previous two, so that it was enough to open the folder for all three will be fired at the same time and take their respective positions. “The smartest thing about this attack is that it does not depend on the victim do anything extraordinary. They don’t ask you to run an .exe, they don’t ask you to deactivate the antivirus, they don’t ask you to do anything that activates your alarms. They ask you to open a folder in your code editor. Something that a developer does fifty times a day,” highlights Chifa. Designed to leave no trace The history of the repository analyzed by DLTCode reveals that the operation has been active since September 2025, with eleven control servers from which the attackers manage malware remotely rotated throughout that period. When AllSecure attempted to analyze its attack from AWS servers, Lazarus operators detected that the source IP belonged to a data center and immediately severed the connection. That doesn’t give you an idea of ​​the level of active surveillance this group has over its own infrastructure. The final objective of both attacks was the same: steal cryptocurrency walletsbrowser passwords, SSH keys (remote server access codes) and any stored credentials in the system that may be useful to them in the future. The FBI esteem that the Lazarus group has accumulated more than $1.5 billion stolen in cryptocurrencies through campaigns of this type. How to defend yourself against these types of attacks What saved Chifa from falling into Lazarus’s trap was stop to analyze the code before executing it. Something about the meeting didn’t add up to him and he decided to investigate first. Papathanasiou did the same and, under suspicion, created an isolated virtual environment and analyzed the repository from there instead of opening it directly on his computer. For programmers and software engineers, who have become the main target of these cybercriminals, experts recommend disabling automatic task execution in Visual Studio Code, always inspect the configuration and installation files of any project received externally, and never run code of unknown origin outside of an isolated environment. “The most important precaution is to distrust any selection process that asks you to run code during the first contacts. No legitimate company needs you to open a local repository on the first call. If someone contacts you on LinkedIn with an extraordinary project and a few days later they are asking you to download code, that is the time to stop,” warns the founder of DLTCode. If you suspect an attempt to attack in Spainboth the National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE) … Read more

In 1953, North Korea and South Korea spoke the same language. In 2026, they begin to be two different

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The abrupt political changes, the traumatic measures imposed by force of military mandate on a people, can have unexpected effects visible in the short term and leave wounds that do not heal until long after the end of the discord. We saw it very clearly in the two “Germanies” that the Cold War left us and we see it clearly today in another country: Korea. Traveling to the present, and although we know the mark that the battle between the capitalist and communist blocs is leaving on the Korean population, there is a dimension of cultural inequality that may have gone more unnoticed: idiomatic. As a recent study showed, and after just over seven decades of separation, Korean is no longer the same between the north and the south. 45% of the population surveyed He had problems understanding the dialogues of Koreans from the opposite area, and in 1% of the cases the North Koreans did not understand at all what the South Koreans were telling them. In conclusion, and as linguists dedicated to this company have stated, at least a third of everyday vocabulary is no longer the same, especially that referring to professional and business topics. This is how their vocabularies have varied The main difference between both territories is that in North Korea the language has remained purer, with slight grammatical incursions from Chinese and Russian, while South Korean has embraced many neologisms from English without hesitation. While over time in South Korea companies have created various terms to say “paper”adapting to new and different formats and materials, in the north the original term is maintained exclusively, which they must use for all variants. In the south, and to speak of football terminology, penalty goals are scored with a “penalty kick”expressed literally in English, while in the north the Koreans triumph by making an “11 meter punishment.” Southerners, when they want to have a juice, ask for a “juice”, while northerners talk about “sweet fruit water”. to wish you “good luck” to someone, those from the south have adopted an English-speaking expression in colloquial speech, “hi-team”something that those from the north do not understand at all. North Koreans “have a headache,” while those in the south, who in recent decades have discovered the concept of stress, talk much more about the pain of “suturese”stress in the corrupt slang konglish. The new lexicons also show the ideological transformation between the two nations, between their political systems and their social structures. Since the separation, the word “dongmu”which meant friend, fell out of use in the north in favor of the Soviet term товарищ, “comrade.” “Sun-mul”, a term that means “the action of introducing your friend”, is now prohibited from being used among the general population, and its privileged use was reserved for Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong il. The problematic oral life of deserters These changes have already had recognizable consequences and it is logical that it becomes a more pressing problem every day. During the 2018 Olympic Games, for example, the two countries decided to launch a reconciliation message to the world by allowing its women’s hockey teams to compete in the same group head to head. As the athletes from the south commented later, there was quite a few communication problems that harmed their final strategy: apparently, the coach, from South Korea, used technical words in English, something that is most common in sports disciplines anywhere in the world, but the players from the north were not able to follow her lessons because of this vocabulary that, for them, was indecipherable. Something more serious than the lack of coordination for a sporting event is what many of them have had to experience. the 28,000 deserters who traveled from north to south in recent years. Their language unintentionally betrays them in their new country of residence. In the best of cases the locals They laugh at their outdated dialect. That they do not know how to adapt to the jargon of a post-war and globalized reality. At worst, they can have many problems getting into schools or getting jobs and live a second life as sacrificed as the one they tried to leave behind. Language preservation: a national trauma Because, in addition, Korean has great emotional and identity relevance for the 75 million citizens that both fronts have together. After the dramatic occupation of the peninsula by Japanese forces between 1910 and 1945, the locals were subjected to Japanese linguistic norms as a strategy to control the population and eradicate their culture. They imposed themselves “scientific” speeches that they defended their language was little more than a dialect descended from Japanese (a controversial claim for any linguist with a neutral vision), and that therefore it was not worth preserving a perverted use of a language superior in its purity. T After the Pacific War, teaching in Korean was strictly prohibited, its vocabulary was extinguished, people who spoke it daily were reprimanded, and intellectuals who tried to preserve its legacy were executed. With the end of the Second World War, the two resulting nations partly had to re-empower their language. There are attempts to reunify the language Both governments have been working bidirectionally for several years on a unified glossary project. It is known as the Gyeoremal-kunsajeon, or the Dictionary for People’s Understanding of Korean, and is the plan under which future generations will be educated. These 70 years of linguistic change They have gone much further than the transformation of some terms. There is even conversational structures that have been modified. It would be a change as abrupt as uniting people of a language with those who use one of its dialects. It is not just the fact that neither of the two States want to give in, it is that any modification of the linguistic structures that are not careful could cement syntactic inconsistencies or phonetics in the future. The company’s objectives, furthermore, are achieved at irregular rates, since relations between both nations have cooled … Read more

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