Ankit Panda: How North Korea could take its military modernization to space

NK News Data Correspondent Anton Sokolin kicks off this week’s episode with a look at Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s visit to Pyongyang for a summit last week, and his potential to serve as an intermediary between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump. The conversation explores Belarus’s evolving ties with the DPRK, including plans to establish an embassy in Pyongyang, expand economic cooperation and potentially allow visa-free travel for North Korean nationals.

International security expert Ankit Panda joins in the second half of the episode for a wide-ranging analysis of North Korea’s military trajectory. The expert challenges assumptions about North Korea’s opacity, arguing that Pyongyang often signals its intentions clearly as part of a deterrence strategy. He also examines how the country is modernizing its nuclear and conventional forces in multiple areas, including missiles, drones, naval platforms and potentially space capabilities.

Panda situates North Korea’s strategy within the context of recent conflicts, particularly the ongoing war involving Iran, and draws out lessons Pyongyang may be absorbing about deterrence, preemption and long-term conflict. He also explores how advances in missile technology, drone warfare and cost asymmetry are reshaping modern warfare, with implications for the Korean Peninsula.

Ankit Panda is the Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.