Most Popular
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Korea enters full election mode
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Seoul bus drivers go on general strike, cause morning rush hour delays
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Immigrant woman stabbed to death by Korean husband
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Official campaigning kicks off for April 10 elections
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Lee Jong-sup resigns as envoy to Australia
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Yellow dust engulfs S. Korea, advisory alert issued
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S. Korea to boost support for single-parent families
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Court upholds jail term for man who attempted to murder ex-girlfriend
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Kia EV9 wins world car of year
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Korea misses out on global bond index boost
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N.K. strengthens ideological education, travel ban after Gadhafi’s death
North Korea has reportedly been scrambling to shield itself from the fallout of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s death last month, a sign that his demise was a shock to the regime.It has intensified ideological education for young people since Gadhafi was killed in his hometown of Sirte on Oct. 20, about two months after the downfall of his regime that ruled the northern African state for 42 years.It also appears to be stepping up measures to bar overseas citizens from returning home to prevent
Nov. 2, 2011
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N.K. desperately collecting foreign currency
Diplomats buy duty-free goods for resale, sell fake artwork to ChineseAhead of the 100th birthday of its founder Kim Il-sung, the North Korean regime is coming up with a variety of ideas to rake in foreign currency from outside the country as well as from its own starving people, sources say. North Korea has been struggling to secure as much outside assistance as possible before 2012, which is the centennial of its founder’s birth.Pyongyang’s leader Kim Jong-il has boasted that a “powerful, pros
Nov. 2, 2011
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N. Korea's heir apparent fathered daughter last year: source
BEIJING, Nov. 2 (Yonhap) -- The youngest son and heir apparent of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il appears to have fathered a daughter last year with his reported wife, an informed source here said Wednesday.Kim Jong-un, believed to be in his late 20s, has cemented his status as leader-in-waiting sin
Nov. 2, 2011
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S. Korea plans $50b fund for reunification
South Korea will set up a fund as early as this year to begin raising up to 55 trillion won ($50 billion) to pay for its eventual reunification with North Korea. Individual Koreans at home and abroad will be able to make donations to the fund and the government in Seoul may earmark money including budget surpluses, Unification Minister Yu Woo Ik said in his first interview since being sworn in on Sept. 19. While foreigners will also be allowed to donate, there is no plan to ask overseas governme
Nov. 1, 2011
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Ex-S. Korean envoys demand China stop repatriating N.K. defectors
More than 120 diplomats who formerly served as South Korean ambassadors released a statement calling on China to stop sending North Koreans back against their will, a civic group here said Tuesday. A total of 127 ex-ambassadors accused the Chinese government of violating international law by sending back the refugees.“It is the international society’s unchangeable custom to protect and shelter refugees,” the diplomats said in the statement released during a press conference here. The statement c
Nov. 1, 2011
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S. Korean Protestant church leaders to visit N. Korea
A group of South Korean Protestant church leaders will make a rare visit this week to North Korea, a local council of churches said Tuesday, in another sign of thawing tensions between the two Koreas.The group is scheduled to visit Pyongyang from Wednesday to Saturday where they will hold a joint pr
Nov. 1, 2011
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Seoul’s pointman on N.K. to visit U.S. for talks
South Korea’s chief of North Korean affairs will visit the United States this week to discuss Seoul’s recent policies on Pyongyang and pending regional issues, the Unification Ministry here said Monday. The visit will be first to the U.S. by South Korean Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik, who took over the post from his hardline predecessor last month. President Lee Myung-bak’s appointment of Yu has been seen as an indication of Seoul’s softening stance toward North Korea.Yu has repeated a willingn
Oct. 31, 2011
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North Korea lambastes military drill in S. Korea
North Korea on Saturday denounced large-scale military exercises under way in South Korea as a “very dangerous preliminary war for invasion,” demanding the South halt the drills immediately or face “catastrophic consequences.”South Korea launched the Hoguk exercises across the country on Thursday for a nine-day run. On Friday, thousands of troops conducted maneuvers off the country’s northernmost island of Baengnyeong near the tense western sea border with North Korea. The exercises “are a very
Oct. 30, 2011
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N. Korea strives to obtain finances to build a thriving nation
With just one year left before the 2012 deadline set by which North Korea says it will become a "strong and prosperous state," the Pyongyang regime is focused on securing U.S. dollars and gold, a source said Sunday."North Korea is putting all its energies on setting aside finances necessary for larg
Oct. 30, 2011
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Russia optimistic about recent three-way nuclear talks: envoy
Russia is optimistic about North Korea’s recent talks with the South and the United States over its nuclear weapons programs, Seoul’s top nuclear envoy said Saturday. Returning from his three-day visit to Russia, Lim Sung-nam said, “Russia is viewing the two rounds of South-North and North-U.S. talks positively,” in a phone interview with the Yonhap news agency.Lim left for Russia earlier this week as part of policy coordination efforts with member nations of six-party talks on ending North Kore
Oct. 30, 2011
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Overseas-based pro-N.K. websites on sharp rise
The number of overseas-based websites glorifying the North Korean regime has been increasing rapidly, a police report here showed Sunday. With their servers based in foreign countries, South Korean authorities have faced difficulties in dealing with the Korean-language websites legally. Police detected 58 such sites from 2007 until September of this year, and blocked South Korean Internet users’ access to 37 of such websites, according to documents submitted by the National Police Agency to an o
Oct. 30, 2011
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Defector calls for probe into state foundation info leak
A North Korean defector asked South Korean prosecutors to investigate a government-affiliated organization for its alleged leaking of personal information on defectors like himself, investigators said Sunday. The unnamed leader of a defectors’ group has accused the North Korean Refugees Foundation of handing over personal information on about 4,100 North Korea defectors to a private research institute for about a year from last August, according to Seoul Jongno Police Station. Police are current
Oct. 30, 2011
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Seoul nuclear envoy heads to Moscow for N. Korea talks
South Korea’s top nuclear envoy left for Russia Wednesday to coordinate their joint strategy on how to revive the stalled six-party talks on ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs. The three-day visit by Lim Sung-nam to Moscow came a day after North Korea and the United States concluded two days of “very positive” talks in Geneva, but no agreement to restart the six-nation negotiations, involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan, was reached. The Geneva talks followed up
Oct. 26, 2011
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N. Koreans in Libya banned from returning home
TRIPOLI, Oct. 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has banned its citizens in Libya from returning home in an apparent attempt to prevent the popular uprisings in the Arab world from reaching the isolated regime, a source said Wednesday.The development illustrated the North's concern about possible social unr
Oct. 26, 2011
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Some progress but no major breakthroughs in talks with N. Korea: U.S.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 (Yonhap) -- After two days of high-level talks in Geneva, North Korea and the United States said Tuesday that there was some progress but no concrete deal.The North's chief delegate said the meetings produced "big progress," but U.S. officials chose more diplomatic and careful wo
Oct. 26, 2011
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N. Korea, U.S. start 2nd day of nuclear talks
GENEVA/SEOUL -- North Korean and U.S. diplomats on Tuesday began a second day of talks during which Washington wants to see whether the North is indeed prepared to take concrete steps toward denuclearization before the stalled six-nation talks can resume.North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gw
Oct. 25, 2011
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Activists call for global protests against N.K. rights abuses
An online global network of activists called on the international community Tuesday to stage simultaneous protests and hunger strikes against North Korea’s human rights abuses to mark the anniversary of a United Nations genocide convention in December.In an e-mail to journalists and other North Korea watchers, the N.K. Liberation Prayer Network urged readers to take part in its Worldwide Demonstration for North Korean Liberation and Human Rights on Dec. 9. The date marks the 63rd anniversary sin
Oct. 25, 2011
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N.K. invites S. Korean aid staff to Pyongyang
North Korea invited representatives of an association of South Korean charity groups to Pyongyang, an association official said Tuesday, the first such invitation since the two Koreas exchanged fire near their tense sea border last year. North Korea sent the invitation to the Korea NGO Council for Cooperation, a collaboration of some 50 non-governmental aid groups, suggesting a meeting in its capital city to discuss aid from Wednesday through Saturday, Park Hyun-seok, secretary general of the as
Oct. 25, 2011
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WHO bans staff from using N.K. airline
The World Health Organization has asked its officials not to use North Korean airliners in the latest such move by an international organization prompted by safety concerns, a U.S.-funded radio station reported Tuesday. The WHO Southeast Asia office recently gave Pyongyang’s Air Koryo a “C” rating for safety in May, which means officials are banned from using the airliners unless special approval is given by the body’s travel officer, according to Voice of America. Air Koryo was rated the lowest
Oct. 25, 2011
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N. Korea, U.S. in 'businesslike, useful' talks in Geneva
GENEVA/WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (Yonhap) -- North Korea and the United States on Monday opened another round of direct talks in a "businesslike and useful" manner, U.S. officials said, but they remained guarded about whether there will be progress this time."I would say that they have been ongoing in a b
Oct. 25, 2011