North Korea's mortality rate for children under age 5 was estimated at 17 per 1,000 births last year with a 3.2 percent annual rate of reduction over the past three decades, a recent UN report showed. The number is down from 43 in 1990 and 60 in 2000, according to the Level and Trends in Child Mortality: Report 2021. The global average of under-five mortality rate came to 37 per 1,000 in 2020, ...

Premature declaration would have adverse security ramifications for alliance strength, UNC status

Families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War in South Korea have produced more than 24,000 video messages for their long-lost relatives in the North, but almost all of them have yet to be delivered, Seoul's unification ministry said Tuesday. Of the 24,077 video letters produced since 2005, including 1,004 created this year, only 20 of them were sent to North Korea in 2008 following inter-Korean ...

North Korea's military is conducting a wintertime exercise, as South Korea and the United States are closely monitoring related moves, Seoul's defense authorities said Tuesday. "We believe that wintertime drills by North Korea's military are under way," Col. Kim Jun-rak, the spokesperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), told reporters. The North usually kicks off a regular military training ...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is the third most searched politician by internet users worldwide this year, data showed Tuesday. Online searches for Kim totaled a monthly average of 1.9 million, behind US President Joe Biden, who topped the list with 7 million searches, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson with 2 million, according to German data analytics firm Statista. Former German Chan...

Discourse with Koh Yu-hwan, president of Korea Institute for National Unification

South Korea's unification ministry responded cautiously Monday to reports of a possible change in the stature of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister, days after she was seen standing alongside members of the powerful politburo of the North's ruling party during a memorial event last week. Kim Yo-jong, apparently influential in the secretive regime, was spotted between members and alternate ...

North Korea has not responded to US overture for dialogue this year

North Korea's state media called for "absolute trust" in leader Kim Jong-un, as the country marked 10 years since the death of former leader Kim Jong-il on Friday. Kim died on Dec. 17, 2011, after having ruled the reclusive regime since the death of his father and national founder, Kim Il-sung, in 1994. Kim Jong-un, the third son of the late leader, took over the helm of the North in another her...

David Ellis, a former British deputy head of mission in Tokyo, has been appointed as the country's new ambassador to North Korea, London's foreign ministry has said. Effective immediately, Ellis will temporarily work from London to replace Colin Crooks who will serve as the new ambassador to South Korea starting next year. "I am delighted to have been appointed British Ambassador to the Democra...

Seven countries reiterate urgency of addressing “brutality” in N.Korea after 4-year hiatus

North Korea is holding a series of events memorializing late leader Kim Jong-il ahead of the 10th anniversary of his passing this week, Pyongyang's state media said Thursday. Kim, the father of current leader Kim Jong-un, died on Dec. 17, 2011, after having ruled the reclusive regime since the death of his father and national founder, Kim Il-sung, in 1994. In Pyongyang, young workers and studen...

N. Korea’s pursuit to avoid international scrutiny raises necessity to focus on secret executions

The runup to the March 9 South Korean presidential election could be a “golden time” to make strides in the stalled diplomacy with North Korea and a potential inter-Korean summit could be an answer for a breakthrough, experts at the state-funded think tank said Wednesday. “The period up till the presidential election could be the ‘golden time’ where decisive change could happen (on the penins...

Kim Yong-ju, a brother of North Korea's late founder Kim Il-sung, has died, according to Pyongyang's state media Wednesday. The North's leader Kim Jong-un sent a wreath the previous day to express condolences over his death, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. Kim Yong-ju was a former honorary vice chairman of the standing committee of the North's rubber-stamp Supreme People's Assembly,...