Nuclear diplomacy & deterrence: South Korea, the U.S., and Japan held trilateral talks in Tokyo on North Korea’s nuclear and missile work, plus Russia-North Korea military cooperation and Pyongyang’s cyber activity, while reaffirming denuclearization and sanctions enforcement. China–North Korea ties: Xi Jinping’s Pyongyang visit is framed as a boost for Kim Jong Un’s strategic standing and a way for Beijing to reassert influence as the region’s great-power competition tightens. Sanctions & dual-use tech controls: The U.S. Treasury added medical devices (including certain imaging gear and lab equipment) to a list requiring specific authorization for exports to North Korea, aiming to curb dual-use transfers. Cyber & crypto theft: Quantstamp linked Humanity Protocol’s ~$36M H-token loss to North Korea-linked tactics, tracing the breach to malware on a developer machine that exposed private keys. Robotics policy push: A bipartisan U.S. bill would create a national commission on robotics to assess competitiveness and workforce needs amid security and supply-chain concerns. Defense procurement: Hanwha Ocean was selected as preferred bidder for South Korea’s KDDX destroyer program, moving the six-ship project toward detailed design. Public sentiment in the South: A survey found nearly half of South Koreans aged 19–39 view North Korea as hostile, with far fewer seeing it as a cooperation partner.