Most Popular
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Opposition-led Assembly unilaterally passes bill to probe Marine's death
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Inflation eases in April, continues bumpy ride
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Golden chance to liquidate babies’ gold rings?
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Seoul to more than double military drones by 2026 to counter NK threats
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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 alerts overseas missions to NK terror threats
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[New faces of Assembly] Architect behind ‘audacious initiative’ believes in denuclearized North Korea
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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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N. Korea's leader casts ballot in local elections
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has cast a ballot in the elections to select deputies to local assemblies, which was held for the first time in four years, the North's media said Monday. North Korea selected deputies to local assemblies Sunday for the first time since the North's leader Kim took power in late 2011, following the sudden death of his father, Kim Jong-il. The elections are held every four years, and the number of seats is determined by the population of each area. But they are wi
July 20, 2015
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N. Korea spurns S. Korea's offers for dialogue
North Korea rejected South Korea's recent offers for talks Monday, claiming Seoul should first give up its confrontational policy toward Pyongyang. South Korea's parliamentary speaker Chung Ui-hwa proposed inter-Korean talks Friday to mark the 70th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule. On the same day, the Defense Ministry invited North Korea to the Seoul Defense Dialogue slated for September in Seoul. The North referred to the dialogue offers as the South's wic
July 20, 2015
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U.S. Army chief warns troop cut could make N. Korea 'miscalculate'
The U.S. Army's planned troop reduction, driven by budget constraints, could send a wrong signal to North Korea and lead the provocative communist nation to make miscalculations, the Army chief has warned. Earlier this month, the U.S. Army announced force structure decisions and stationing plans that call for a reduction of the regular Army from 490,000 to 450,000 soldiers in fiscal years 2016 and 2017. The reduction of 40,000 will be completed by the end of fiscal year 2018. The Army further
July 20, 2015
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Seoul’s nuclear envoy visits China to discuss N.K.
South Korea’s chief nuclear envoy Hwang Joon-kuk embarked on a six-day trip to China on Sunday, as part of the country’s push for North Korean denuclearization, which gained fresh attention after last Tuesday’s landmark deal on Iran’s nuclear program. South Korea’s chief nuclear envoy Hwang Joon-kuk moves toward a customs clearance area to take his flight bound for China, at Gimpo International Airport in western Seoul on Sunday. (Yonhap)Hwang, Seoul’s Special Representative for Korean Peninsula
July 19, 2015
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N. Korea's military provocations likely in Oct.
North Korea may launch military provocations in time with the founding anniversary of the country's governing party in October, possibly including its fourth nuclear test, the Defense Ministry said Friday. "With the communist country set to mark the 70th anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea's formation on Oct. 10, the North is likely to launch strategically motivated provocations," the ministry said in its defense policy outline for 2015.The North is keeping its Punggye-ri nuclear test sit
July 17, 2015
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Seoul invites N.K. to September security forum
South Korea’s Defense Ministry invited North Korea’s vice minister-level officials Friday to attend its annual high-level security forum, slated for September, setting the stage for cross-border defense dialogue.The invitation came the day after the two sides failed to compromise over the wages of North Koreans working in the joint industrial complex in Gaeseong and other issues concerning the complex at their first meeting in more than a year. Lee Sang-min (left), director general of the inter-
July 17, 2015
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S. Korea invites North to int'l security talks in Seoul in September
South Korea invited North Korea on Friday to join international security talks of vice defense ministers slated for September in Seoul, the Defense Ministry said, raising hopes for a rare inter-Korean contact and fence-mending.South Korea has asked the North Korean Ministry of the People's Armed Forces to send a vice minister to the Seoul Defense Dialogue scheduled to run from Sept. 9-11 at a hotel in the capital city, a ministry official said.The invitation was delivered to the North Korean sid
July 17, 2015
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N. Korean economic growth slows in
North Korea's economic growth is estimated to have slowed last year from a year earlier as its staple primary industries posted tepid performances, data showed Friday. The North's economy is projected to have expanded 1 percent in 2014, decelerating from the 1.1 percent on-year growth in the previous year, according to the data compiled by South Korea's central bank, the Bank of Korea.It has posted economic expansions for four years in a row since it contracted 0.9 percent and 0.5 percent in 200
July 17, 2015
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Parliamentary speaker proposes inter-Korean talks
National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa on Friday proposed inter-Korean talks, saying he is willing to meet his North Korean counterpart any time and any place."I officially propose holding meetings of parliamentary speakers between the South and the North," Chung said in a speech at an event held at the National Assembly marking the 67th Constitution Day.Chung said the best time is around Aug. 15, marking the 70th anniversary of Korea's independence from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule, but Seoul
July 17, 2015
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U.S. urges N. Korea to learn from Iran deal
A top American diplomat urged North Korea on Thursday to learn from the landmark Iranian nuclear deal, negotiate away its nuclear programs and enjoy the benefits of denuclearization. "The one thing I will say, and I would say to the North Koreans, is that this agreement demonstrates that one can come out of isolation, one can come out from under sanctions, one can become part of the world community or have the potential to become part of the world community and end isolation, and do so in a peac
July 17, 2015
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S. Korean lawmaker suggests China provide N.K. with nuclear umbrella in exchange for denuclearization
The chairman of South Korea's parliamentary defense committee suggested Wednesday that China consider providing a "nuclear umbrella" to North Korea in exchange for Pyongyang giving up its nuclear programs.Rep. Hwang Jin-ha, a general-turned-politician, made the suggestion during a security forum at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, saying addressing Pyongyang's security concerns would be important in persuading the regime to denuclearize."Like the case between the ROK
July 16, 2015
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Koreas set to hold talks on joint industrial park amid wage row
South and North Korea were to have talks on a joint industrial park in the North on Thursday in a bid to resolve a prolonged dispute over Pyongyang's unilateral move to hike wages for its workers.The two sides plan to hold a meeting of a joint committee in charge of running Gaeseong Industrial Park in the North's border city of the same name, the first since June last year, according to the Unification Ministry.South and North Korea have been embroiled in a months-long wage row as Pyongyang has
July 16, 2015
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S. Korean military to beef up nighttime surveillance at DMZ
The Defense Ministry said Wednesday it plans to install more surveillance equipment at the heavily fortified inter-Korean border in a bid to strengthen the military's monitoring of North Korean soldiers at night.The ministry said it plans to set up monitoring equipment including thermal closed-circuit television cameras at the South Korean Army's general posts in the Demilitarized Zone in an effort to better detect the movement of the North's soldiers.The DMZ, which bisects the Korean Peninsula,
July 15, 2015
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Koreas should resolve Gaeseong wage row via dialogue: official
South Korea's top point man on inter-Korean affairs on Wednesday reaffirmed Seoul's stance that the two Koreas should resolve a wage hike dispute at the inter-Korean industrial complex through dialogue.The remarks by Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo came as the two Koreas plan to hold a joint committee meeting on the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in the North on Thursday to discuss the dispute over the North's unilateral move to raise wages for the about 55,000 North Korean workers at the comple
July 15, 2015
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Iran nuclear deal unlikely to have implications on N.Korean standoff: U.S. experts
The landmark deal on Iran's nuclear program is unlikely to have any major implications on the North Korean nuclear standoff as Pyongyang has little appetite for negotiating away its nuclear programs, U.S. experts said Tuesday.Iran and six world powers announced the historic deal in Vienna after weeks of marathon negotiations earlier in the day, bringing to fruition more than a dozen years of efforts to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.The agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive
July 15, 2015
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S. Korea repatriate two of five sailors to N.K.
The South Korean government repatriated two of five rescued North Korean fishermen via the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjeom on Tuesday, 10 days after their boat was found adrift off Uleungdo Island in the East Sea.A North Korea sailor is handed over to the communist state at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjeom on Tuesday. (Yonhap)Seoul’s Unification Ministry said that it refused to send back the three others, who expressed their wishes to live in the South, despite repeated d
July 14, 2015
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DMZ wire to strike chord in ‘Piano of Unification’
The Unification Ministry and Cheil Worldwide Inc., the advertising arm of Samsung Group, have collaborated to create the “Piano of Unification,” a piano made with barbed wire from the inter-Korean border for its strings, sources told The Korea Herald.The Piano of Unification (GongMyoung)Marking the 70th anniversary of the division of the Korean Peninsula and Korea’s liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule, the two sides launched the symbolic project in April to underscore the nation’s lon
July 14, 2015
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N. Korea should come to table for 'sincere dialogue': Seoul official
South Korea's unification minister called on North Korea on Tuesday to come to talks for "sincere dialogue" in a bid to bring peace and reconciliation to the divided peninsula.In mid-June, the North made conditional offers for dialogue with South Korea, including the suspension of Seoul's joint military drills with the United States. In response, the South has urged Pyongyang to come to talks without laying down "improper preconditions."Hong Yong-pyo said in a press conference with foreign repor
July 14, 2015
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Park calls for end of inter-Korean division
President Park Geun-hye called Tuesday for the end of decades of inter-Korean division as she renewed her vision for a peaceful unification with North Korea."Now, we need to prepare for a great takeoff for the next 70 years," Park said in a video message at a Seoul ceremony, noting this year marks the 70th anniversary of both Koreas' liberation from Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule and inter-Korean division.Upon liberation, the Korean Peninsula was divided into the capitalist South and communist
July 14, 2015
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S. Korea repatriates 2 N. Korean fishermen
South Korea repatriated two out of five rescued North Korean fishermen Tuesday, while the North has demanded Seoul send back all the sailors, including the three who want to defect to the South.South Korea completed its repatriation of the two fishermen, who have expressed their desire to go home, at the truce village of Panmunjom earlier in the day, according to the Unification Ministry. (Yonhap)The North has threatened to take "stern" actions if Seoul refuses to send all five fishermen back ho
July 14, 2015