Most Popular
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Opposition-led Assembly unilaterally passes bill to probe Marine's death
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Golden chance to liquidate babies’ gold rings?
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Inflation eases in April, continues bumpy ride
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Russia sent more than 165,000 barrels of refined petroleum to N. Korea in March: White House
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Seoul to more than double military drones by 2026 to counter NK threats
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Seoul alerts overseas missions to NK terror threats
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Key suspects grilled over alleged abuse of power in Marine death inquiry
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Over 60% of S. Koreans support W100m childbirth incentive: survey
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‘Inside Out 2’ adds four new emotions, explores teenage life
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Questions raised over fair promotion of RM, NewJeans
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North Korea can't have both peace treaty, nuclear weapons: ex-U.S. nuclear envoy
The United States would negotiate a peace treaty with North Korea only if the communist country is ready to abandon its nuclear weapons program, a former U.S. envoy to the six-party denuclearization talks said Thursday.Christopher Hill, who served as Washington's lead negotiator in the six-party talks on the North's nuclear program in his capacity as assistant secretary of state, said a peace treaty was an element of the September 2005 deal under which Pyongyang agreed to dismantle its nuclear p
Oct. 22, 2015
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North Korea-China fair sees 10 % rise in trade negotiations
North Korea and China signed preliminary trade deals worth $1.6 billion at their annual trade fair, a roughly 10 percent gain compared to deals signed at last year's exhibition, according to a Chinese official on Thursday. North Korea and China have jointly held the trade fair in October since 2012 in the Chinese border city of Dandong, and this year's four-day fair ended on Sunday. Last year, the two nations inked trade deals worth $1.36 billion. Pan Shuang, deputy mayor of Dandong, told the In
Oct. 22, 2015
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Korean families separated again after brief reunions
The North Korean mountain resort turned again into a sea of tears Thursday as Koreans were parted from their families after days of temporary reunions."Stay healthy! Live long!" 85-year-old Lee Sun-kyu from the South told her once husband Oh In-se, who lives in the North.She was bidding farewell to him after a series of brief meetings that lasted just a total of 12 hours.Park Yong-hwan, 75, from the South carried his 82-year-old sister on his back just before leaving Mount Kumgang, where the int
Oct. 22, 2015
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North Korea demand for peace treaty worth taking note: Russian envoy
It is worth taking note of North Korea's renewed demands for a peace treaty with the United States, Moscow's top envoy to Seoul said, in clear contrast to the positions of Seoul and Washington.North Korea has called for peace treaty talks with the U.S., claiming the Armistice Agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War does not ensure peace on the Korean Peninsula.Both Seoul and Washington have rejected the proposal as a ploy to divert attention away from its nuclear weapons program, which they
Oct. 22, 2015
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Efforts to bringing perpetrators to justice key to improving North Korea human rights situation: U.N. chief
Efforts to bring those responsible for North Korea's human rights violations to justice are key to improving the communist nation's human rights situation, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report released Wednesday.Ban made the remark in the report to the U.N. General Assembly, calling on the international community to make "all possible and reasonable efforts to ensure that the systematic, widespread and grave human rights violations described in the report of the commission of inqu
Oct. 22, 2015
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[News Focus] N.K.’s renewed demand for peace treaty backfires
Pyongyang’s renewed efforts for a peace treaty are backfiring with Seoul and Washington dismissing them as yet another attempt at deflecting attention away from the allies’ focus on its denuclearization.Over the last month, the communist regime has repeatedly proposed talks with the U.S. on replacing the current armistice agreement with a peace treaty, reiterating the U.S. should scrap its “hostile” policy toward it and work together to build a peace regime.Washington spurned the proposal, stres
Oct. 21, 2015
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Families meet on day 2 with more ease
MOUNT GEUMGANGSAN, North Korea ― Acute emotions eased and awkwardness was replaced by warm familiarity as the members of 91 separated families got together again Wednesday, the second day of the reunions.At the Mount Geumgangsan resort, 389 people from the South and 141 from the North met for individual gatherings in the morning, a joint lunch session and another round of group reunions in the afternoon. Yeom Soon-taek (left), 63, poses for a photograph with his long-lost uncle Yeom Jin-bong, 84
Oct. 21, 2015
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Japan not yet decided on whether to consult Seoul before military action in Pyongyang
South Korea asserted that Japan must gain prior consent from Seoul before launching any military operations in North Korea during recent bilateral talks, but Tokyo has refused to agree on whether it needs permission, a Defense Ministry official said Wednesday.Whether Japan would agree to seek Seoul's consent before engaging in any military operations in North Korea had been the focus of attention as Tokyo is moving to strengthen its military power in the Asian region. The World War II aggressor
Oct. 21, 2015
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Warmer mood falls over Korean families at cross-border reunions
A warmer mood was palpable Wednesday at the North Korean mountain resort where Koreans are meeting their long-separated families from the other side of the border.On the second day of the inter-Korean event, 389 South Koreans from 96 families had private reunions with their relatives living in the North.The closed-door meetings lasted two hours at a hotel in Mount Kumgang along the communist nation's east coast.Sixty-seven-year-old Yang Yong-rye from the South said the meeting with her uncle Rya
Oct. 21, 2015
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Lawmaker: Spy agency blocks North Korean defector from sending message to North Korean official
South Korea's spy agency kept the highest North Korean official to have ever defected to Seoul from sending a memo to a senior North Korean official who visited Seoul more than a decade ago, a ruling party lawmaker said Wednesday.Hwang Jang-yop tried to send a message to Jang Song-thaek, brother-in-law of then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, in 2002, when Jang visited South Korea, said Ha Tae-keung, a lawmaker of the ruling Saenuri Party, on a local radio broadcast.Jang was a member of a North
Oct. 21, 2015
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S. Korean businessmen in China to visit inter-Korean industrial park
A group of executives from South Korean firms doing business in China will visit an inter-Korean industrial complex in North Korea next week for an investor fair, a business lobby group in Beijing said Wednesday. The visit by some 20 South Korean businessmen in China to the Kaesong Industrial Complex, just north of the heavily fortified border between South and North Korea, is aimed at studying how to sell duty-free goods from the industrial zone in China under a bilateral free trade pact betwee
Oct. 21, 2015
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Seoul open to talks with Pyongyang on 'every issue': minister
South Korea is willing to talk with North Korea on all issues of mutual concern if dialogue resumes, Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo said Wednesday.Hong said the government is conducting an internal review on specific agenda items and the level of discussions, but those have to be finalized through consultations with North Korea.In the Aug. 25 deal ending a military standoff, the two Koreas agreed to hold talks "between their authorities in Pyongyang or Seoul at an early date to improve inter
Oct. 21, 2015
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U.S. committed to using 'full range of tools' against North Korea: Amb. Sung Kim
The United States will use "the full range of tools" to make North Korea realize that it can't achieve the security and prosperity it seeks as long as it sticks to nuclear weapons, Washington's chief negotiator with Pyongyang said Tuesday.Amb. Sung Kim, special representative for North Korea policy, made the remark during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, rejecting criticism that the U.S. is not doing enough to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear program."Holding North Korea respons
Oct. 21, 2015
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U.S. sees no signs of North Korea planning nuclear test: Amb. Sung Kim
The United States has seen no signs of North Korea planning a nuclear test, Washington's chief nuclear negotiator said Tuesday.Amb. Sung Kim, special representative for North Korea policy, made the remark after South Korea's main intelligence agency reported to lawmakers earlier in the day that the North is preparing for its fourth nuclear test, although a test is not imminent."I have seen nothing to indicate that a test is being planned.We are monitoring closely, as I said," Kim told reporters
Oct. 21, 2015
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U.S. has 'no interest' in peace treaty talks with North Korea: Amb. Sung Kim
The United States has "no interest" in holding talks on a peace treaty with North Korea, Washington's chief nuclear enovy said Tuesday, stressing that the top focus should be denuclearization of the communist nation.North Korea renewed its demand for a peace treaty with the U.S. in a Foreign Ministry statement issued Saturday, less than a day after President Park Geun-hye and President Barack Obama held summit talks and reaffirmed their commitment to the North's denuclearization.Officials in Seo
Oct. 21, 2015
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U.N. sanctions, human rights resolutions on North Korea would eventually work: Seoul's U.N. envoy
U.N. sanctions and human rights resolutions will eventually cause pain to North Korea, even though such effects are slow in coming, South Korea's ambassador to the United Nations said Tuesday."The way I see it, sanctions work, but they work only in an accumulated form. So, you continue sanctions year after year and eventually it takes a toll," Amb. Oh Joon said during a security seminar, pointing out doubts about the efficacy of sanctions on the North.Oh cited examples like Iran and Libya, sayin
Oct. 21, 2015
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N.K. lacks tech for miniaturized nuke: NIS
North Korea has not yet obtained technology to miniaturize a nuclear warhead to put it atop a missile, South Korea’s spy agency said Tuesday, amid the repeated claims by Pyongyang that it has already secured the technology.During a parliamentary audit, the National Intelligence Service also told lawmakers that although Pyongyang is preparing for a nuclear test, there are no signs of an impending test.The NIS statement came as concerns are growing that the North has been steadily enhancing its nu
Oct. 20, 2015
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Emotions high at Koreas' separated family reunions
MOUNT GEUMGANGSAN, North Korea -- With joyful screams and unstoppable tears, 389 South Koreans were reunited with their long-lost kin at the Mount Geumgangsan resort as the first round of reunions began Tuesday.Some of the participants from the two Koreas collapsed as they recognized their brothers, sisters, sons and daughters they had been separated from since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Others looked confused, trying to identify their relatives and calling out each other’s names in trem
Oct. 20, 2015
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China welcomes reunions of war-split Korean families
China on Tuesday welcomed reunions of Korean family members separated for more than six decades by the Korean War, hoping that both Seoul and Pyongyang could continue their efforts for reconciliation. China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying made the comments as hundreds of South Korean family members crossed the heavily fortified border into North Korea for an emotional meeting with their relatives in the North. The last reunions were held in February 2012. Hua said China "welcomed eff
Oct. 20, 2015
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Seoul says Pyongyang preparing for nuclear test, but test not imminent
North Korea is preparing for a nuclear test, though no test appears to be imminent, a ruling party lawmaker said Tuesday, citing South Korea's spy agency.Lee Chul-woo of the ruling Saenuri Party made the comment to reporters after being briefed by the National Intelligence Service during the parliamentary inspection of the spy agency.The North has recently proposed that it may conduct a nuclear test in response to what it claims is the hostile policy of the United States and its allies.North Kor
Oct. 20, 2015