Most Popular
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Yoon's approval rating plunges to all-time low
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Bae Doo-na shares portraying Korean identity in Hollywood's 'Rebel Moon'
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S. Korea votes in favor of Palestinian bid for UN membership
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[From the Scene] Monks, Buddhists hail return of remains of Buddhas
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Medical schools granted enrollment quota flexibility for next year
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Yoon offers first one-on-one meeting with opposition leader next week
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France rejects opening Paris flight routes to T'way Air, deals blow to Korean Air merger
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Chinese man behind drug scam targeting teens nabbed in Cambodia
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Iran fires air defense batteries in provinces as sound of explosions heard near Isfahan
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[Graphic News] French bulldog most popular breed in US, Maltese most popular in Korea
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U.S. advised to be alert for North Korea's signals of willingness for engagement: expert
North Korea could send signals of willingness to re-engage the United States as the communist nation appears to have realized that all of its diplomatic efforts to break out of isolation have failed, a former senior American diplomat said Monday.Stapleton Roy, who served as ambassador to Beijing, made the remark during a Wilson Center discussion, citing "a prominent former" Chinese official he met when he visited China as a member of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy delegation."
Nov. 10, 2015
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North Korean marshal’s death indicates more personnel shake-ups
North Korean state media said Monday that leader Kim Jong-un had on Sunday conveyed his condolences for a deceased military marshal whose funeral committee set off speculation over the political health of ranking officials. Ri Ul-sol, also a close assistant to the sitting ruler’s late grandfather Kim Il-sung, died from lung cancer Saturday at age 94. The young Kim, who presides over his 170-member funeral committee, visited the Central Hall of Workers in Pyongyang housing Ri’s body, met with his
Nov. 9, 2015
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Civilian inter-Korean exchanges on the rise: data
The number of South Koreans visiting North Korea has shot up since the two Koreas reached a deal in August to spur inter-Korean civilian exchanges, government data showed Monday.The number of South Koreans who traveled to the North reached 418 in the January-September period, excluding those who moved in and out of the joint industrial park in the North's border city of Kaesong, according to the data by the Unification Ministry.But in October alone, the number of such people came in at 880 as th
Nov. 9, 2015
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45 countries sponsor new U.N. resolution on North Korea human rights
A total of 45 countries sponsored a new U.N. General Assembly resolution that centers on calling for referring North Korea to the International Criminal Court for human rights violations, the draft resolution showed.The proposed resolution, led by the European Union and Japan, was introduced to the General Assembly's Third Committee on Oct. 30. Other co-sponsors included South Korea, the United States, Britain, Australia and Germany, according to the resolution.The nine-page draft is largely sim
Nov. 9, 2015
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North Korean leader offers condolences to military marshal
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has expressed his condolences to an iconic military official who died of lung cancer this weekend, saying his death is a great loss to the party and the army, Pyongyang's media said Monday.The North's leader on Sunday visited the mortuary of Ri Ul-sol, marshal of the Korean People's Army, who passed away at the age of 94 on Saturday, according to the Korean Central News Agency.North Korea plans to hold a state funeral for him on Wednesday.The KCNA said that Kim pa
Nov. 9, 2015
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N.K. leader to lead funeral of deceased marshal
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is set to personally oversee the funeral of Ri Ul-sol, a close aide to the young ruler’s deceased grandfather and a retired military marshal who died at the age of 94 from lung cancer Saturday, state media reported Sunday. The “state funeral” will take place Wednesday after receiving mourners for three days from Sunday afternoon, the official Korean Central News Agency said, adding that his body is laid at the Central Hall of Workers in the capital. Born in 1921 i
Nov. 8, 2015
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N. Korea mourns military marshal
Ri Ul-sol, an iconic North Korean politician and military official, died of lung cancer last week, the country's state media reported Sunday.The North announced that it will hold a state funeral for Ri, who was 94, and that leader Kim Jong-un will lead a preparatory committee.He was an anti-Japanese guerrilla in the early 1900s, working with Kim Il-sung, who later founded the communist nation."He dedicated his all to the sacred cause of liberating the country by participating in the glorious ant
Nov. 8, 2015
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Pyongyang rejects Seoul’s offer of dialogue 3 times
North Korea has repeatedly rejected South Korea’s offer for preliminary talks to arrange senior government-level dialogue, which the two sides agreed in August to hold, despite signs of a thaw in the frosty relations.North Korean troops stand at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjeom on Sunday. (Yonhap)An official at Seoul’s Unification Ministry said that Pyongyang rejected the proposals for the talks, which were made on Sept. 21 and 24, and Oct. 30. Under a comprehensive Aug. 25 deal to
Nov. 6, 2015
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Pyongyang lifts ban on entry of South Koreans into Gaesong zone
North Korea has averted its ban on the entry of two South Korean officials into the Gaesong Industrial Complex, the Unification Ministry said Friday. Just days ago, the North notified the South of its sudden decision to deny access to the two, including a vice chairman of the South's committee on the inter-Korean facilities near the border. The reclusive North did not clarify the reason for the measure amid speculation that it may be trying to gain leverage in the upcoming talks on the land u
Nov. 6, 2015
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Kenneth Bae to release book about ordeal in North Korea
Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American missionary freed last year from two years of detention in North Korea, will release a book detailing his ordeal in the communist nation, the publisher said Thursday. The book, titled "Not Forgotten: The True Story of My Imprisonment in North Korea," is scheduled for publication in May, W Publishing Group said in a release. "Next spring he will break his silence surrounding his life-changing ordeal, from his surprise arrest to a U.S. government negotiated release
Nov. 6, 2015
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Pyongyang calls on Japan to resolve sex slave issue
North Korea urged Japan on Friday to recognize its state responsibility for Tokyo's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II, claiming that there are victims in the North as well. Pyongyang's call came as the leaders of South Korea and Japan agreed to spur efforts for an early resolution of the issue of the so-called comfort women during their first summit held in Seoul on Monday. The North's Korean Central News Agency said that Japan should admit its state accountability for the
Nov. 6, 2015
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Foreign tour agencies promote Pyongyang Marathon
For foreign travel agencies, the annual Pyongyang Marathon is apparently a good business opportunity. They are promoting a variety of tour programs to the secretive communist nation in connection with the event. The next one will be held on April 10 next year. Young Pioneer Tours, based in China, carried a related ad on its website. "This very special Marathon tour offers tourists (the option) to not only spectate or compete in the marathon, but to also join in on the nation's biggest celebra
Nov. 5, 2015
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N. Korea denies 2 S. Koreans access to Kaesong complex
North Korea has denied the entry of two South Koreans to the joint industrial complex in the North's border town of Kaesong, a unification ministry official here said Wednesday.The North verbally notified its decision on Tuesday to deny the two, including a vice chairman of the South Korea's management committee for the complex, the access, claiming that they oppose its stance and only represent the South Korean side, according to the official. The official said that the North's decision is in v
Nov. 4, 2015
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Korean defense minister to call for North Korea's denuclearization in forum
Defense Minister Han Min-koo plans to call for efforts to denuclearize North Korea during regional defense talks being held in Malaysia on Wednesday. The general session for the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus kicked off Tuesday for a three-day run in Kuala Lumpur, involving the 10 ASEAN nations plus eight dialogue partners including South Korea, Japan, China Russia and the United States. During his planned speech to the ADMM-Plus general meeting, Han will urge participating countries to
Nov. 4, 2015
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Buddhists from two Koreas meet in North
Buddhist leaders of the two Koreas gathered in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, joining voices for reconciliation and peaceful reunification.The representatives from South Korea's Cheontae Order and the North's Buddhist federation held a joint ceremony in Kaeseong to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the reconstruction of Ryongtong Temple.Believed to have been the first Cheontae temple in Korea, Ryongtong Temple was destroyed by fire in the 16th century and damaged further by the 1950-
Nov. 3, 2015
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North Korean computers can use new time zone: ex-Google employee
North Korean computers can use the country's newly established time zone, according to a former Google employee. Will Scott, who bought a copy of North Korea's "Red Star 3" computer operating system during a visit to Pyongyang, captured images of its on-screen appearance and posted them in an article dated Nov. 1 in Business Insider. "When installing Red Star 3, you're prompted to select a city for your time zone," reads the article. "Interestingly enough, Seoul, South Korea, isn't an option."
Nov. 3, 2015
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North Korean leader calls for more precise rockets
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered a further development of "modern and precise" anti-aircraft rockets as he watched a firing drill in a western front-line area, Pyongyang's state media reported Tuesday. "He underlined the need for the field of national defense science to more dynamically develop various types of new anti-aircraft rockets suited to the demand of a modern war so as to firmly defend the blue sky of the homeland from any air strike of enemies," said the North's state-run Kore
Nov. 3, 2015
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S. Korean lawmakers visits N. Korea for ancient palace site
More than a dozen South Korean lawmakers traveled to North Korea on Monday to inspect an ancient palace site, where an inter-Korean excavation project is under way, an official here said. The bipartisan group of 16 members of the National Assembly's foreign affairs and unification committee made the one-day tour of the site of Manwoldae, a Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) palace in Kaesong, just north of the border. "Ruling and opposition lawmakers shared the understanding on the need for the natio
Nov. 2, 2015
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Pyongyang seldom adopts policies of closing down markets: U.S. expert
North Korea's policy on marketplaces has swung between suppression and accommodation, but the regime has seldom cracked down on markets with the intention of permanently closing them down, a U.S. researcher said. Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein, a non-resident Kelly fellow at the Pacific Forum CSIS, said he reached the assessment after analyzing satellite photos taken of a dozen major cities in North Korea since the early 2000s. "Government repression of the markets usually does not translate int
Nov. 2, 2015
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North Korea's income from tourism half of that from Gaeseong complex
North Korea earned tens of millions of dollars from foreign tourists in 2014, around half of the hard currency it won from the lucrative inter-Korean industrial park, a researcher said Sunday.North Korea's income from foreign tourists is estimated at $30.6 million to $43.6 million last year, considering about 95,000 Chinese tourists and 5,000 tourists from Western countries visited the country, Yoon In-ju of the Korea Maritime Institute said in a paper.North Korea's annual income from the Gaeseo
Nov. 1, 2015