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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Key suspects grilled over alleged abuse of power in Marine death inquiry
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Seoul alerts overseas missions to NK terror threats
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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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Kenneth Bae's mother in N. Korea to see jailed son
The mother of a U.S. missionary, jailed in North Korea for unspecified anti-government activities, was allowed to meet her son Friday, a news report said.Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American based in China, was traveling in North Korea late last year when he was arrested by authorities on charges of trying to overthrow the North's communist regime. In April, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.On Friday, Japan's Kyodo News reported from Pyongyang that the missionary's mother, Bae Myung-hee, met
Oct. 11, 2013
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N.K. confirms appointment of Ri Yong-gil as KPA chief of staff
North Korean media on Thursday confirmed the appointment of Ri Yong-gil as the Korean People’s Army chief of general staff.Ri’s appointment to the senior post had been suspected since August when he was seen making public appearances as a four-star general and was consistently mentioned ahead of Jang Jong-nam, the minister of People’s Armed Forces, in various public announcements.The confirmation was made when the North’s Korean Central News Agency reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un p
Oct. 10, 2013
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N. Korea threatens to release comments by big-name S. Korean visitors
North Korea on Thursday warned it could disclose comments made by South Korean politicians during their visits to the communist country if Seoul continues to make an issue out of the 2007 inter-Korean summit transcript.The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) said the ongoing dispute in South Korea over alleged comments made by late President Roh Moo-hyun is an insult to its "highest dignity" and can only be viewed as an unacceptable provocation.In the North, the term "highes
Oct. 10, 2013
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N. Korea confirms appointment of Ri Yong-gil as KPA chief of staff
North Korean media on Thursday confirmed the appointment of Ri Yong-gil as the Korean People's Army (KPA) chief of general staff.Ri's appointment to the senior post had been suspected since August when he was seen making public appearances as a four-star general and was consistently mentioned ahead of Jang Jong-nam, the minister of People's Armed Forces, in various public announcements.The confirmation was made when the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that North Korean leader
Oct. 10, 2013
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N. Korea-China trade in 2013 largely unchanged from previous year
North Korea's trade with China remained largely unchanged in the first eight months of this year compared to 2012, a government report showed Wednesday. According to the Ministry of Unification, bilateral trade stood at $4.01 billion during the cited period, effectively the same as the $4.1 billion tallied for the same period a year earlier. The latest data showed North Korea's exports to its neighboring country reaching $1.89 billion, with imports hitting $2.2 billion for a deficit of $310
Oct. 9, 2013
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N.K. has restarted reactor: NIS chief
South Korea’s intelligence chief told the parliament Tuesday that North Korea restarted its nuclear reactor capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium in August, ruling party lawmakers said.National Intelligence Service Director Nam Jae-joon was also quoted as saying that the North tested a long-range rocket engine around that time and recently beefed up naval forces and artillery near the border. “North Korea has restarted the 5-megawatt reactor to boost its nuclear capabilities,” Nam told th
Oct. 8, 2013
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S. Korea's spy agency confirms N. Korea restarted Yongbyon reactor
South Korea's spy agency confirmed Tuesday that the North has restarted its Yongbyon reactor that had been mothballed since 2007.The National Intelligence Service (NIS) told lawmakers from the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee that the five megawatt graphite moderated reactor has been in operation since around August.The confirmation is the first to come out of the NIS, although there have been much speculation that the North had recently turned on the reactor again. The reactor, locate
Oct. 8, 2013
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N.K. puts military on emergency posture, slamming joint drills
North Korea has placed its troops on an emergency posture in protest against joint drills here by South Korea, the U.S. and Japan which involved a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, Pyongyang’s state media said Tuesday. The General Staff of the Korean People’s Army lambasted the deployment of the USS George Washington in the East Sea, which arrived in Busan on Sept. 30 for four-day Seoul-Washington maritime exercises and trilateral programs with Tokyo scheduled for Oct. 8-10. The latter drills we
Oct. 8, 2013
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N. Korea's exports to China rise 8 pct in Jan. - Aug.
North Korea's exports to China rose 8 percent on-year to $1.85 billion in the first eight months of this year, thanks to higher exports of coal, ores and woven garments, a South Korean diplomat said Monday. The North's imports from China fell 6 percent on-year to $2.24 billion in the eight-month period, with two-way trade totaling $4.09 billion, said the diplomat at the South Korean Embassy in Beijing.Total trade volume between North Korea and China was little changed in the January-August perio
Oct. 7, 2013
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N. Korea warns of pre-emptive strike to counter S. Korea, U.S. provocation
North Korea warned Monday that it will carry out pre-emptive strikes to counter military provocations by South Korea and the United States.In a statement released by spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK), Pyongyang strongly denounced the agreement reached at the latest joint South Korea-U.S. Security Consultative Meeting that calls for so-called customized deterrence against North Korea's nuclear weapons.Customized deterrence calls on South Korea and the Unit
Oct. 7, 2013
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N. Korea says security needed to expand economy
PYONGYANG (AP) ― The head of North Korea’s parliament said Friday that his country wants to focus on improving its struggling economy and raising its standard of living, but can only do so if the United States abandons what he called a hostile policy toward Pyongyang. Kim Yong-nam, head of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly and North Korea’s de facto head of state, said economic growth is the top goal of the government under its new supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, who took over nearly t
Oct. 6, 2013
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N. Korea needs external aid to feed its people
North Korea remains one of the 34 countries in the world that require external assistance to properly feed their people, a media report said Friday.The Voice of America said the October issue of Crop Prospects and Food Situation by the Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that there will be some 2.8 million “vulnerable” people in the communist country needing assistance until this year’s fall harvest.The Washington-based media outlet said that judging by official estimates tallied by the
Oct. 6, 2013
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N. Korea vows not give up nuclear weapons under U.S. pressure
North Korea reiterated its nuclear ambition Saturday, saying it will never give up its nuclear arsenal unless the United States first ends its hostility toward the communist country.The North's acerbic rhetoric, which is not new, comes as the United States is set to launch joint naval exercises with South Korea and Japan off the Korean Peninsula's east coast next week. The U.S. naval fleet taking part in the routine drills includes nuclear-powered supercarrier USS George Washington."Under the co
Oct. 6, 2013
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N. Korea slams joint naval exercise as plot to start nuclear war
North Korea on Saturday lashed out at the planned trilateral joint naval exercise next week among South Korea, the United States and Japan, calling it a plot to start a nuclear war.The Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), said in a commentary monitored in Seoul that the large-scale maneuver involving a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier can only be seen as a move that pours cold water on dialogue efforts with the North and will lead to heightened tensions.The d
Oct. 5, 2013
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N. Korea lashes out at President Park
North Korea on Friday criticized the South Korean leader by name and reiterated its resolve to simultaneously develop its nuclear capability and economy, a goal that President Park Geun-hye has said is doomed to fail.The North said that all efforts by Park and her cohorts to join forces with foreign powers and strive to denuclearize the North will only end in failure, according to a statement by the North's National Defense Commission. It said such a move amounts to perpetrators "digging their o
Oct. 4, 2013
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Seoul takes wait-and-see stance on Japan's military plan
South Korea plans to wait and see how Japan's move to win the constitutional right to strengthen its military will affect Seoul's national interests, government sources said Friday.South Korea's stance on the issue came after United States Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel signed a landmark agreement with their Japanese counterparts on Thursday in Tokyo. The two countries pledged to further tighten their military cooperation and renew their bilateral defense coop
Oct. 4, 2013
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More signs of reactivated N.K. reactor: think tank
Fresh evidence has surfaced to shore up speculation that North Korea has restarted a nuclear reactor to produce plutonium for bombs, a U.S. think tank said Thursday. Satellite photos from Sept. 19 showed hot waste water being discharged into the nearby Guryong River from a recently installed drainpipe that is part of a new cooling system at the Yongbyon nuclear complex. This indicates that “the reactor is in operation and the turbine-powered electrical generators are producing power,” said Nick
Oct. 3, 2013
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U.S. mulls conditions for talks with N. Korea
After months of strategic disregard of North Korea, the Obama administration appears to be listing specific actions North Korea should take for the resumption of talks. A senior State Department official described it as a "credible threshold" for North Korea on diplomacy.Secretary of State John Kerry will confer with his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, "on what that means in terms of specific steps," the official told reporters on background, as they were heading to Tokyo, according to a tr
Oct. 3, 2013
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N. Korea slams Seoul's Armed Forces Day parade
North Korea on Wednesday lambasted South Korea's large-scale Armed Forces Day parade as evidence of Seoul's hostility against it and said such provocations "will get them nowhere."South Korea's military mobilized some 11,000 troops, 190 pieces of various equipment and 120 aircraft for the ceremony held at an airbase south of the capital city on Tuesday. The event, which was the largest organized in a decade, also included a parade by troops and military hardware through the center of Seoul."The
Oct. 2, 2013
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N.K. official, U.S. experts meet informally in London
LONDON (Yonhap News) ― North Korea’s chief negotiator to the stalled six-party talks and U.S. civilian experts on the Korean Peninsula held informal talks in London on the current impasse surrounding the communist country’s nuclear ambitions, sources said Wednesday.The meeting comes as Pyongyang has repeatedly called for unconditional talks to resolve the nuclear standoff, although Washington has made clear that the North must first show its firm commitment to past denuclearization pledges befor
Oct. 2, 2013