Most Popular
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Blinken calls on China to press N. Korea to end its 'dangerous' behavior
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New celebrity-endorsed therapy for face contouring requires only a pair of rubber bands
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[Weekender] How DDP emerged as an icon of Seoul
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Tensions heighten ahead of first president-opposition chief meeting
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Doctor group's incoming head renews call for govt. to scrap medical school quota hike for dialogue
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Seoul to provide housing subsidy to married couples with newborns
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[Music in drama] An ode to childhood trauma
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'The Roundup: Punishment' becomes fastest 2024 film to top 2 mln admissions
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Rapper jailed after public street fight with another rapper
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New head of doctors' association vows war in case of disadvantage to medical professors
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Hwang may be vice chief of top military panel
Hwang Pyong-so, a high-flying military figure in North Korea, may have been appointed as a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry. The communist state has also abolished the party’s administration department, which was led by Jang Song-thaek, the uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Jang was executed last December for plotting to overthrow the authoritarian regime.The ministry presented these changes i
June 4, 2014
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N. Korea slams Seoul security policy chief
North Korea on Wednesday ratcheted up its criticism of President Park Geun-hye’s decision to appoint hawkish Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin as her security office chief, warning that inter-Korean ties would further deteriorate.“The reality is that as long as felonious confrontational fanatics like Kim live on, inter-Korean ties cannot improve, and the situation on the Korean Peninsula would further worsen,” said the North’s official Korean Central News Agency in a commentary.“Park Geun-hye should
June 4, 2014
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Putin looks east to bolster ties with N.K.
TOKYO (AP) ― Angry with the West‘s response over Ukraine and eager to diversify its options, Russia is moving rapidly to bolster ties with North Korea in a diplomatic nose-thumbing that could complicate the U.S.-led effort to squeeze Pyongyang into giving up its nuclear weapons program. Russia’s proactive strategy in Asia, which also involves cozying up to China and has been dubbed “Putin‘s Pivot,” began years ago as Moscow’s answer to Washington‘s much-touted alliance-building and rebalancing o
June 4, 2014
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Pyongyang bristles at opening of U.N. rights office in S. Korea
North Korea lashed out at South Korea on Wednesday for its acceptance of the United Nations’ request to open a field office on its soil to monitor human rights violations in the communist country.Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said last week that it has accepted the request by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to set up the office in South Korea in order to join the international body‘s efforts to shed light on the North’s appalling track record on the issue.The U.N. selected S
June 4, 2014
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North Korea, China to resume tours to Korean Peninsula's highest mountain
North Korea is set to open its portion of the Korean Peninsula's highest mountain to Chinese tourists this month, a travel agency official said Wednesday, resuming the tour route that has been suspended since the North conducted its third nuclear test. If realized, it would represent another bid by North Korea to increase tourism income by approving more tour routes that start in Chinese cities.The peninsula's highest peak, Mt. Baekdu, sits on the border between North Korea and China. Tourists c
June 4, 2014
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Abe may visit N.K. in kidnap probe
TOKYO (AFP) ― Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may visit North Korea, Japan said Tuesday, days after announcing a deal to reopen the probe into Japanese citizens kidnapped by spies in the Cold War.Any such visit would be controversial, especially in Seoul and Washington, which have led the charge to further isolate Pyongyang over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.Tokyo and Pyongyang have no formal diplomatic ties, partially because of what Japan says is the North‘s unwillingness to come clean
June 3, 2014
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‘No meaningful talks if N.K. sticks to nuke state claim’
A South Korean government official told reporters Monday that a meaningful dialogue in the six-party talks is out of the question as long as Pyongyang keeps describing itself as a nuclear state in its constitution and sticks to the policy of seeking nuclear weapons development and economic growth at the same time.“North Korea should show, to some extent, seriousness on denuclearization,” the official said. “For instance, if it states a plan to abandon the policy of the simultaneous development (
June 3, 2014
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S. Korea rescues North Koreans drifting off coast
South Korea rescued three North Koreans who were drifting at sea and two of them want to stay in the South, officials said Monday, which would likely produce an angry response from Pyongyang. The men were rescued off the South's eastern coast on Saturday and while two want to stay, one said he wished to return to the North, Seoul's Unification Ministry said in a statement. Defections are a source of conflict between the Koreas. Seoul returns those who wish to return home but accepts tho
June 2, 2014
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S. Korea rejects N. Korea's demand for repatriation of citizens
South Korea rejected North Korea's demand that Seoul hand over all three North Koreans picked up from a fishing boat drifting off South Korea's east coast, an official said Monday, a move that could anger the North amid tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The three men, who are in their 20s and 30s, were picked up by a South Korean coast guard vessel near Ulleung Island on Saturday after their ship ran adrift. South Korea said two of the three North Koreans expressed their wish to remain in
June 2, 2014
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North Korea slams South Korea's new nominee for national security adviser
North Korea lashed out at a new nominee for South Korea's national security adviser on Monday, calling him a military gangster and a traitor, the latest in a series of diatribes against South Korean officials.The North's main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, claimed the nominee, Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin, is behind South Korea's confrontational policy toward North Korea.The accusation came a day after President Park Geun-hye nominated the defense chief to be her new national security adviser to avo
June 2, 2014
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[Herald Interview] ‘Cold War 2.0 would benefit North Korea’
JEJUDO ISLAND ― The reemergence of the Cold-War political structure amid the East-West standoff over the Ukraine crisis could benefit North Korea as it would put the isolated state under the protective umbrella of one of the two competing blocs, said a North Korea expert.During an interview with The Korea Herald, Rudiger Frank, professor at the University of Vienna, also pointed out that “Cold War 2.0” would pose a policy challenge to South Korea as it would limit Seoul’s bilateral diplomacy wit
June 1, 2014
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Japan to dispatch officials to N. Korea for abductee probe
Japan will send officials to North Korea while Pyongyang reinvestigates the fate of Japanese nationals it abducted in the Cold War years, a senior politician said Sunday.Dispatch of the mission is part of an accord made last week by the the two countries, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.Japan and North Korea have no diplomatic ties and they contact each other through their embassies in Beijing at present.Since North Korea in 2008 agreed to reopen investigations but failed to keep its
June 1, 2014
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North Korea gives SKorean missionary life sentence
North Korea said Saturday it has sentenced a South Korean Baptist missionary to hard labor for life for allegedly spying and trying to set up underground churches, the latest in a string of missionaries to run into trouble in the rigidly controlled North.North Korean state media said the missionary was tried Friday and admitted to anti-North Korean religious acts and ``malignantly hurting the dignity'' of the country's supreme leadership, a reference to the ruling Kim family. The rival Koreas ha
May 31, 2014
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N. Korea ignores S. Korean sea border in selling fishing rights to China
North Korea included part of South Korea's territorial waters near the inter-Korean western sea border when selling its fishing rights to China, military sources here said Saturday."Part of our waters in the Yellow Sea was included in the area that the North is allowing Chinese vessels to fish in," said a military officer in Seoul, requesting anonymity. "Upon learning this, we've notified China of such a fact and asked them to be careful not to cross the northern limit line (NLL) into the South,
May 31, 2014
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Japan’s move raises concern of weakened pressure on N.K.
Japan’s moves to improve ties with North Korea are triggering concerns that they would hamper the ongoing multilateral efforts to prevent Pyongyang’s provocative behavior and denuclearize the communist state.On Thursday, both Tokyo and Pyongyang announced their agreement to set up a special panel to investigate the abduction of Japanese nationals and lift Tokyo’s independent sanctions against Pyongyang when the probe opens.The agreement came as Seoul, Washington and even Beijing joined forces to
May 30, 2014
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N. Korea attacks S. Korea, U.S. over military drills
North Korea's new top diplomat has attacked South Korea and the United States over their joint military drills as he made a debut on the international diplomatic stage, Pyongyang's state news agency said Friday. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong also claimed that war drills and other provocative acts by Seoul and Washington reached a point where North Korea could not sit idle, though he did not elaborate on what actions Pyongyang could take. Ri, who assumed his job in April, made the c
May 30, 2014
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U.N. to open field office for N.K. rights in S. Korea
The United Nations plans to open a field office in South Korea this year which will monitor human rights violations in North Korea, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it has accepted a request by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to set up an office in South Korea.A foreign ministry official said that the U.N. selected South Korea as the most suitable place for the office, given its geographical closeness, language and accessibilit
May 29, 2014
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N.K. rail official named vice premier
North Korea has named an official believed to be a senior rail official as its vice premier, the country’s state news agency said Thursday, the latest in a series of personnel reshuffle in the communist country.North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament issued a decree last Thursday that Rim Chol-ung, 52, who served as a senior railways ministry official, was appointed as vice premier, the Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch.The dispatch did not give any further details.Rim’s appointm
May 29, 2014
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Inter-Korean ties at crossroads amid mixed signals
After a year and a half since President Park Geun-hye took office, relations between the two Koreas appear to be hanging in midair as the North escalates military tension while sending conciliatory signals at the same time. The communist state has in recent months threatened a fourth nuclear test, fired artillery shells toward southern waters, and churned out acerbic criticism against Seoul and Washington over their joint military drills and summit. Yet Pyongyang last week said it would join thi
May 28, 2014
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N.K. sees no improvement in S. Korea ties
North Korea said Wednesday it does not expect its relations with South Korea to improve so long as President Park Geun-hye remains in office in Seoul.The North’s main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, accused Park of plunging inter-Korean ties to their lowest point ever and called her North Korea’s sworn enemy.“Nothing will be resolved in inter-Korean relations as long as Park remains” in power, the newspaper said, as it called for the end of Park’s rule. Her single five-year term is set to end in 2018.
May 28, 2014