Most Popular
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Marine Corps commander summoned by CIO for questioning on alleged influence-peddling case
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Debate rages over ‘overly fatty’ samgyeopsal
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[Weekender] Korean psyche untangled: Musok
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40 flights canceled on Jeju Island due to bad weather
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[Eye Interview] 'If you live to 100, you might as well be happy,' says 88-year-old bestselling essayist
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From fake prostitution ring to nonexistent robber, prank calls hamper police
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Missing S. Korean traveler in Paris found safe after 2 weeks
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Top prosecutor orders speedy investigation into first lady's alleged acceptance of luxury handbag
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Defense chiefs of US, Australia, Japan decry NK-Russia military cooperation
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N. Korea slams US, other countries for seeking alternative to UN sanctions monitoring panel
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N. Korea calls Obama 'monkey', suffers new Internet outage
North Korea suffered a new Internet outage on Saturday shortly after calling US President Barack Obama a "monkey" over the release of a comedy film about a fictional plot to kill its leader. The latest shutdown came after the isolated dictatorship's powerful National Defence Commission (NDC) threatened "inescapable deadly blows" over the film and accused the US of "disturbing the Internet operation" of media outlets after a blackout earlier this week. The cause of the outages of the country's
Dec. 28, 2014
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N. Korea denies Sony hacking, offers joint probe
North Korea again denied its involvement in a cyber attack on Sony Pictures on Saturday and offered to jointly conduct an investigation into the case with the U.S. government, as websites of its major propaganda organs continued to remain unstable. The Federal Bureau of Investigation last week said North Korea was responsible for the Sony hacking, without revealing evidence because of the "protection of sensitive sources." U.S. President Barack Obama said the U.S. would respond "proportionally"
Dec. 27, 2014
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Major N. Korean websites remain unstable for 5th day
Access to major North Korean websites remained unstable Saturday for the fifth straight day following U.S. hints at cyber retaliation last week.The homepages of the North's main propaganda organ, Uriminzokkiri, and three other sites whose servers are based in China were inaccessible Saturday morning, since going down on Friday evening. The website of Chosun Shinbo, a newspaper published by the General Association of North Korean Residents in Japan, could be accessed only intermittently. Meanwhil
Dec. 27, 2014
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S. Korean singer to sue over use of song in 'The Interview'
The management agency of South Korean pop singer Yoon Mi-rae said Friday that it will take legal action against Sony Pictures Entertainment for allegedly using one of her songs in a controversial movie without permission."The Interview," a comedy about the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, hit about 320 theaters in the United States on Thursday. The film has drawn huge attention at home and abroad due to a cyber attack blamed on North Korea and threats against its release."We cam
Dec. 26, 2014
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Seoul to offer talks with North on Gaeseong wages
South Korea said Friday it will soon propose talks with North Korea on ways to set the wages for the North’s workers at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex.“The government has plans to offer consultations with the North in the near future in order to resolve the issue,” the Unification Ministry’s deputy spokeswoman, Park Soo-jin, told reporters. “The timing has not been decided yet.”The South is upset about the North’s unilateral decision to amend the wage system for its 53,000 workers at the joint
Dec. 26, 2014
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South Korea to offer talks with North on Gaeseong wages
South Korea said Friday it will soon propose talks with North Korea on ways to set the wages for the North's workers at the Kaesong Industrial Complex. "The government has plans to offer consultations with the North in the near future in order to resolve the issue," the unification ministry's deputy spokeswoman, Park Soo-jin, told reporters. "The timing has not been decided yet." The South is upset about the North's unilateral decision to amend the wage system for its 53,000 workers at the j
Dec. 26, 2014
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North Korea returns South Korean man via Panmunjom
North Korea on Friday repatriated a South Korean man accused of illegal entry, Seoul's unification ministry said. The 52-year-old, identified only by his surname Ma, was sent back to the South through the truce village of Panmunjom, it said. "The government will proceed with medical check-ups for him and work to confirm the reason for, and method of, his entry into the North," Park Soo-jin, the ministry's deputy spokeswoman, said at a press briefing. North Korea said Ma entered the North i
Dec. 26, 2014
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N.K. faces renewed pressure as U.S. Congress seeks stronger sanctions
The U.S. Congress is seeking a fresh set of bilateral sanctions against North Korea, ratcheting up pressure on the communist state over its grim human rights record and the recent purported hack on Sony Pictures. Sen. Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has proposed a bill calling for tightening sanctions on Pyongyang, similar to the one introduced by his House counterpart Rep. Ed Royce and passed by the chamber in July. The two legislations are designed to make
Dec. 25, 2014
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China trying to develop 'normal' ties with N. Korea: experts
BEIJING (Yonhap) – A high-ranking Chinese official's visit to the North Korean Embassy in Beijing last week to pay homage to the country's late leader, Kim Jong-il, suggests that China intends to develop a "normal" relationship with its estranged ideological neighbor, multiple Chinese scholars said in a media report Thursday.Liu Yunshan, who ranks fifth in China's ruling Communist Party hierarchy, visited the North's embassy on the eve of the third anniversary of the death of the North's late le
Dec. 25, 2014
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Korea's culture-related trade balance to post surplus
South Korea's culture-related trade balance is expected to post a surplus this year thanks to the popularity of K-pop, the central bank said Thursday.According to the Bank of Korea, earnings from cultural contents and leisure services in the first 10 months of this year stood at $767.2 million. This already exceeds last year's all-time high figure of $730.9 million."At the present pace, the country will post its first surplus in this sector in 12 years," it said. The last time the country shippe
Dec. 25, 2014
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N.K. sanctions act introduced to U.S. Senate
The chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has introduced a bill calling for strengthening sanctions on North Korea in a symbolic move that suggests such legislation can be pursued in the incoming Congress, diplomatic sources said Wednesday.Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) introduced the North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act of 2014 (S. 3012) on Dec. 12, according to the sources. The legislation followed a similar bill (H.R. 1771) that passed the House earlier this year.Though both b
Dec. 25, 2014
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Some N. Korean websites remain down
Some major North Korean websites remained blocked Wednesday for the second straight day amid growing speculation over cyber warfare between Washington and Pyongyang.After going down on Tuesday evening, the website of the North's main propaganda organ, Uriminzokkiri, had remained inaccessible before going back online Wednesday afternoon, although no updated contents were posted.Access to other well-known North Korean propaganda websites, including Ryugyong and Ryomyong, remained blocked as of Wed
Dec. 24, 2014
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Sony re-gifts 'The Interview' in limited Christmas release
Security is seen outside The Theatre at Ace Hotel before the premiere of the film "The Interview" in Los Angeles on Dec. 11. (AFP-Yonhap)NEW YORK (AP) -- ``The Interview'' was put back into theaters Tuesday when Sony Pictures Entertainment announced a limited Christmas Day theatrical release for the comedy that provoked an international incident with North Korea and outrage over its cancelled release. Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton said that Seth Rogen's North Korea farce ``will be in a n
Dec. 24, 2014
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Hyundai chief, ex-president's aides visit N. Korea
The chief of South Korea's Hyundai Group and officials of a center to commemorate former President Kim Dae-jung visited North Korea on Wednesday to meet with the North's point man on the South, officials said.The two groups -- one comprised of six officials of the Kim Dae Jung Peace Center, including former culture minister Kim Sung-jae, and the other a seven-member delegation from Hyundai Group led by chief Hyun Jeong-eun -- made separate one-day trips to the joint industrial complex in the Nor
Dec. 24, 2014
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N. Korea human rights formally on U.N. Security Council agenda
The U.N. Security Council formally set North Korea’s dismal human rights situation as a standalone item on its agenda for the first time Monday in a landmark vote that heralds a shift in its military-focused discourse and may pave the way to bringing perpetrators to justice. In the rare procedural vote, 11 countries supported the issue’s inclusion, including the U.S., U.K., France and South Korea. China and Russia, North Korea’s only major allies, voted against it, while Nigeria and Chad abstain
Dec. 23, 2014
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[Newsmaker] N.K. pushes to spur cyberwarfare force
After the U.S. officially blamed North Korea last week for the cyberattack on Sony Pictures, Pyongyang’s cybercapabilities and growing threats from them came into the spotlight.The communist state has nearly doubled the number of its cyberwarfare operatives to around 5,900 over the last two years, military authorities in the South estimate, as Pyongyang seeks to strengthen its asymmetric military capabilities.Through a series of educational facilities based in the North and abroad, Pyongyang has
Dec. 23, 2014
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China calls on U.S., N. Korea to talk over Sony hacking
China called on the United States and North Korea on Tuesday to talk to each other about the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. that Washington has blamed on Pyongyang, while sidestepping questions about whether Beijing would cooperate with the U.S. over the North's alleged cyber attack. China's foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, also strongly denied media reports that China was involved in the Internet outage in North Korea, slamming such reports as "not trustworthy" and "i
Dec. 23, 2014
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S. Korean military to set up cyber operations team
North Korea's major websites resumed their normal operations Tuesday after an hours-long outage that came amid a cyber stand-off with the United States over the hacking of Sony Pictures.The home pages of Korean Central News Agency and the Rodong Sinmun, two of Pyongyang's key mouthpieces, were back online as of around 11 a.m.But speculation continued to grow over the reason for the Internet blackout."We are closely monitoring to find out whether the reason for the web outage was an external hack
Dec. 23, 2014
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S. Korea returns N. Korean fisherman
South Korea on Tuesday returned a North Korean fisherman who was rescued in the East Sea last week, an official said.The man, whose name was withheld, was found by the South's coast guard as his trawler was drifting near the Dokdo islets. He expressed his wish to go back home."We handed him and his boat over to the North at around 10:30 a.m. today as scheduled through the Northern Limit Line," the unification ministry official said. (Yonhap)
Dec. 23, 2014
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S. Korea bans opposition lawmaker from visiting N. Korea this week
South Korea said Tuesday it has decided to prohibit an opposition lawmaker from traveling to North Korea this week, a move expected to rekindle a political controversy in the ideologically divided nation.The unification ministry announced its unexpected decision to reject an application by Rep. Park Jie-won of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy to visit the Kaesong Industrial Complex on Wednesday."Rep. Park made a trip there last week, and we made the decision in considerati
Dec. 23, 2014