Most Popular
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Key suspects grilled over alleged abuse of power in Marine death inquiry
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Marine Corps commander summoned by CIO for questioning on alleged influence-peddling case
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S. Korean children, teens grow taller, mature faster than before: study
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Army takes group action against Hybe for neglecting BTS
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Some junior doctors are returning: Health Ministry
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Debate rages over ‘overly fatty’ samgyeopsal
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Ador CEO's request for exclusive right to terminate NewJeans' contract with Hybe refused in February
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[Weekender] Korean psyche untangled: Musok
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Naver will consider company benefits in deciding on selling Line shares: CEO
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Woman dangling from power lines rescued by residents holding blanket
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N. Korea appears to struggle to shed negative image
North Korea actively received foreign guests and increased exchanges with the outside world this year, Pyongyang watchers said Tuesday, raising speculation that the North is trying to shed its negative image triggered by last month's rocket launch.The watchers said there have been an unusually large number of foreigners visiting Pyongyang, beginning on Jan. 7 with the arrivals of an economic trade-promotion delegation from China, and the four-day tour by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt and Former N
Jan. 15, 2013
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U.S. tells N. Korea to stop provocations before call for peace treaty
North Korea should first refrain from provocative acts and abide by international obligations before demanding the dismantlement of the United Nations Command (UNC) and the signing of a peace treaty on the peninsula, a U.S. government official said Monday."The United States has made clear that we are prepared to engage constructively with North Korea if it chooses to live up to its own commitments, fulfill its international obligations, deal peacefully with its neighbors, and refrain from acts t
Jan. 15, 2013
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UN urges focus on North Korea human rights
GENEVA(AP)—The human rights situation in North Korea is ``deplorable,'' with some 200,000 people held in political prison camps and subjected to torture, rape and slave labor, the top U.N. human rights official said Monday. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay's stinging criticism comes a year after Kim Jong Un became North Korea's new leader, after the death of his father. “There were some initial hopes that the advent of a new leader might bring about some positive change in the
Jan. 14, 2013
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Seoul wants U.N. action over N. Korean rocket by month’s end
South Korea is seeking to speed up lackluster discussions at the U.N. Security Council to hammer out its response to North Korea’s recent rocket launch by the end of the month, Seoul officials said Wednesday. The 15-member council has been mulling action over the Dec. 12 liftoff, which violates its bans on Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile activity. But talks languished in the face of China’s resistance to punishment against its unruly ally and the Christmas and New Year holidays. Now a member of
Jan. 9, 2013
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Richardson pressing N.K. over test ban
PYONGYANG (AP) ― Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Wednesday that his delegation is pressing North Korea to put a moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests and to allow more cell phones and an open Internet for its citizens.Richardson told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview in Pyongyang that the group is also asking for fair and humane treatment for an American citizen detained in North Korea.“The citizens of the DPRK (North Korea) will be better off with more cell p
Jan. 9, 2013
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Google chairman delegation pressing N. Korea to stop missile, nuke tests
Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who is in North Korea with Google‘s chairman, said his delegation is pressing the communist country to stop missile launches and nuclear tests, an international media outlet said Wednesday.Richardson is also calling on Pyongyang to allow more cell phones and unrestricted Internet access for North Koreans as well as humane treatment for an American detained in the country, the Associated Press reported in an interview story dispatched from Pyongyang.“The ci
Jan. 9, 2013
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Eight out of 10 S. Koreans see chance of war with North: poll
Almost eight out of 10 South Koreans still see a possibility of war breaking out with the North sixty years after the Korean War ended in a ceasefire, a survey showed Tuesday.According to the survey by the veterans‘ agency of 1,020 adults nationwide, 78.7 percent said another war with the communist rival may take place on the peninsula, while 15.7 percent thought the war was effectively over and only 4.2 percent considered the war completely over. The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs co
Jan. 9, 2013
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Quiet passing of N. Korean leader's birthday raises curiosities
The quiet passing of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's birthday on Tuesday raised curiosity over the regime's mythologization tactics toward the young leader in a country where the birthdays of his late father and grandfather are still observed as holidays of extravagant celebration.Normal broadcasting hours in the North on Tuesday indicate that the country has not designated the Jan. 8 birthday of the incumbent leader as a national holiday, even though he took power over a year ago.Kim became t
Jan. 8, 2013
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N.K. builds museum near Angkor Wat
North Korea spent $10 million to build a museum near the Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia, and the museum will begin its operations in April, a news report said Tuesday.Washington-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that the museum is located near the entrance of the Angkor Archaeological Park in northern Cambodia, the place of the largest Hindu temple complex in the world.The overseas construction unit of the state-run Mansudae Art Studio, the North’s group of artists, is building the museum with
Jan. 8, 2013
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Gaeseong firms irked by prolonged New Year’s break
A group of South Korean companies operating at a joint-venture factory park in North Korea has filed a formal complaint that the communist country’s sudden decision to take a longer New Year’s holiday seriously hurt their business, officials said Monday.Currently, 123 South Korean firms are operating at the joint industrial park in the North’s border city of Gaeseong, producing garments and other labor-intensive products. Despite cross-border tension, the park has been running without any restri
Jan. 8, 2013
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N.K. linking mineral development with infrastructure construction
SHENYANG, China (Yonhap News) ― North Korea is moving to give mineral resources development rights to Chinese companies in return for pledges to upgrade its backward infrastructure, sources said Monday.Sources with ties to North Korea and Chinese businesses, said Pyongyang would give resources development rights to Chinese investors if they are willing to build social infrastructure such as roads and hotels.Such moves come as the impoverished North that does not have not many manufactured goods
Jan. 8, 2013
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Google chairman’s visit may boost N.K. diplomacy
Despite lingering furor over North Korea’s recent rocket launch, a high-profile U.S. delegation’s visit is seen to give a boost to its leader Kim Jong-un’s budding peace offensive. Google chairman Eric Schmidt and former New Mexico governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson landed in Pyongyang late Monday for a four-day stay, dismissing Washington’s discontent about the timing. On Tuesday, they visited the elite Kim Il-sung University in the capital to see how students th
Jan. 8, 2013
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Google chairman in N. Korea on tour called 'ill-advised' by U.S. gov't
The U.S. government on Monday remained firm on its disapproval of a trip to North Korea by former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt.They flew into Pyongyang earlier in the day, defying Washington's advice not to go there when efforts to punish the communist nation for its long-range rocket launch in December are under way.In a one-sentence dispatch, the North's official news agency KCNA described the American visitors as part of a "delegation of the Google Corp. of
Jan. 8, 2013
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S. Korea to push for quick deployment of long-range ballistic
South Korea will speed up the development of longer-range missiles capable of striking all of North Korea and deploy them as early as possible, an official on the presidential transition team said Monday.In October last year, South Korea announced a new missile agreement with the U.S. that allows Seoul to extend the range of its ballistic missiles from 300 kilometers to 800 ㎞, a distance long enough to reach the northern tip of North Korea."We will work toward quickly putting in force ballistic
Jan. 7, 2013
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N. Korea linking mineral resources development with infrastructure building
SHENYANG -- North Korea is moving to give mineral resources development rights to Chinese companies in return for pledges to upgrade its backward infrastructure, sources said Monday.Sources with ties to North Korea and Chinese businesses, said Pyongyang would give resources development rights to Chinese investors if they are willing to build social infrastructure such as roads and hotels.Such moves come as the impoverished North that does not have not many manufactured goods to sell abroad wan
Jan. 7, 2013
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S. Korean employers at Kaesong complex indignant over North's
A group of South Korean companies operating at a joint-venture factory park in North Korea has filed a formal complaint that the communist country's sudden decision to take a longer New Year's holiday seriously hurt their business, officials said Monday.Currently, 123 South Korean firms are operating at the joint industrial park in the North's border city of Kaesong, producing garments and other labor-intensive products. Despite cross-border tension, the park has been running without any restric
Jan. 7, 2013
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[Newsmaker] 'Not great' time for N.K. troubleshooter
Despite Washington’s discomfort with the timing, Bill Richardson may end up playing troubleshooter for yet another American detainee in North Korea when the former New Mexico governor wraps up his trip to the communist country later this week. This time, he is bringing an even bigger carrot: Google Inc. chairman Eric Schmidt, an apostle of global Internet freedom and its role in lifting people out of poverty and persecution. In the North, precious few of the elite are granted access to the Web.
Jan. 7, 2013
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N. Korean leader sends sweets to kids to mark his birthday
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent a bunch of candy to every young child in the poverty-stricken country to celebrate his birthday, the North‘s state-run media reported Monday.The Korean Central Broadcasting Station picked up in Seoul said Kim sent bags filled with candy and other confectionaries to children attending elementary school, kindergarten and day care centers.The presents mark the first time that Kim has given candy on his birthday after inheriting power following the sudden death o
Jan. 7, 2013
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U.S. politician, Google boss leave for Pyongyang
Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt left Beijing for North Korea on Monday, defying the U.S. government's advice not to visit there.Diplomatic sources said the delegation departed for Pyongyang on a scheduled Air China flight and the CA121 flight should land at Sunan International Airport later in the afternoon.In a meeting with reporters at the airport, Richardson made clear that the visit has nothing to do with the U.S. government and that he is not represen
Jan. 7, 2013
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Pyongyang calls Seoul's chief security advisor a 'traitor'
North Korea strongly denounced South Korea's national security advisor Sunday, calling him a traitor and a bad element who, it said, only worked to justify Seoul's hostility toward Pyongyang.The harsh criticism came two days after a local daily here published a recent interview with the top presidential advisor for national security, Chun Young-woo, in which he claimed the incumbent South Korean government has fundamentally changed the nature of relations between the divided Koreas.The North's C
Jan. 6, 2013