Most Popular
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40 flights canceled on Jeju Island due to bad weather
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Korean labor force to shrink by 10 million by 2044: report
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Pandemic left Korea more depressed than before: report
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[AtoZ Korean Mind] Does your job define who you are? Should it?
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N. Korea slams US, other countries for seeking alternative to UN sanctions monitoring panel
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Gov't appears to shelve punitive measures against mass walkout by doctors
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Allegations surrounding BTS resurface, enraged fans demand apology
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Students with history of violence will be barred from becoming teachers
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Samsung mocks Apple over iPhone alarm glitch
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Govt. asks hospitals to mitigate impact of medical professors' absence
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N. Korea launches air route to Mount Kumgang
North Korea has launched an air route from China to the scenic Mount Kumgang on its east coast, Pyongyang's official media said Friday.A group of Chinese tourists led by the manager of the Yanbian Chunwoo International Travel Agency flew into Pyongyang Thursday from the northeastern Chinese city of Yanji, according to the Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of the North's ruling Workers' Party. Chinese
July 13, 2012
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Top diplomats of two Koreas shun each other at ASEAN forum
Top diplomats of the two Koreas have pointedly shunned each other at annual security talks here, dashing hopes of a possible encounter and underscoring frozen inter-Korean relations. The ASEAN Regional Forum has served as an important venue for discussions on North Korea. This week's forum marked the first time South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan and his North Korean counterpart, Pak Ui-ch
July 13, 2012
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N. Korea tells Asia meet it needs nukes to deter U.S.
North Korea insisted Thursday it needs atomic weaponry to deter a U.S. nuclear threat, and vowed never to give up its right to launch rockets as part of what it called a peaceful space program.Washington's aim is to "eliminate the political ideology and system our people have opted for", Foreign Minister Pak Ui-Chun told a regional Asian gathering in Cambodia, according to a summary given to repor
July 12, 2012
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Two Koreas, two diplomatic games
The two Koreas were engaged in different diplomatic games at a forum in Phnom Penh on Thursday with the South seeking a Southeast Asian warning against provocations and the North calling for the resumption of the six-party talks. Foreign ministers of 27 Asia Pacific countries gathered in the Cambodian capital for the annual ASEAN Regional Forum hosted by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The region’s largest security conference brought together Pyongyang, Seoul, Washington an
July 12, 2012
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S. Korean firms in joint venture pay tax to N.K.
South Korean firms at a joint industrial estate in North Korea have paid about $160,000 in tax to the North as their businesses thrive despite political tensions, an official said Wednesday. The Gaeseong Industrial Complex in the namesake city just north of the tightly guarded border opened in 2004 as a symbol of cross-border reconciliation. It has continued to attract workers despite high political and military tensions in recent years, and is a source of legitimate hard currency for the cash-s
July 11, 2012
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Amid isolation, N.K. boosts China economic ties
Beijing seeks to gain from access to natural resources, tighter reins on wayward neighborAmid deepening international isolation, North Korea is ratcheting up economic cooperation with China through trade, investment and joint industrial projects. A barrage of sanctions targeting Pyongyang’s atomic programs has choked off revenue streams and outside assistance. A series of provocations including an April rocket liftoff have brought many inter-Korean projects to a halt in recent years. Closer ties
July 11, 2012
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S. Korean company in Kaesong paid first corporate tax to N. Korea
A South Korean company in the inter-Korean industrial zone in North Korea paid about $7,000 in corporate income tax to the North last year, the Unification Ministry said Wednesday.It was the first time a South Korean company has paid a tax to North Korea since 2004 when the two Koreas opened the complex in the North's border city of Kaesong to boost cross-border economic cooperation.South Korean c
July 11, 2012
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N. Korean economy logs first growth in 3 years in 2011
The North Korean economy is believed to have marginally grown last year after contracting for two straight years on increased agricultural production, South Korea's central bank said Sunday.The Bank of Korea (BOK) estimated that the communist country's economy grew 0.8 percent on-year in 2011, compared with a 0.5 percent contraction a year earlier. The 2011 data contrasted with a 3.6 percent expan
July 8, 2012
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Investigators raid home, office of pro-North Korea activist
Investigators on Thursday raided the home and office of Ro Su-hui, a key member of a pro-North Korea group who illegally traveled in the communist state for more than three months, as part of their probe into his unauthorized visit. Ro, 68, vice chairman of the Pan-Korean Alliance for Reunification, was arrested on charges of breaching the National Security Law upon his return to Seoul later in the day through the border village of Panmunjom. He will be questioned about his activities in the Nor
July 5, 2012
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Unruly S. Korean worker suspended from Kaesong complex in May
A South Korean worker was banned from working in an inter-Korean industrial zone in North Korea's border city of Kaesong for two weeks in May for a minor offense, the Unification Ministry said Thursday.It was the first time a South Korean has been denied access to the complex under a demerit point system designed to strengthen law and order among the hundreds of South Koreans in the complex.The co
July 5, 2012
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Failed 2002 reform sowed seeds of change in N.K.
Experts see conflicting signs over economic overhaul under young leader Kim Jong-unIn July 2002, North Korea raised expectations of a change toward a market-oriented system with a set of bold macroeconomic experiments. It eased the rigid command economy by dissolving the rationing scheme, allowing for street markets, increasing wages and prices and introducing incentives and graded compensation. North Korea watchers were surprised to see its leaders professing “reform,” a term loathed in the iso
July 4, 2012
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Pro-Pyongyang S. Korean activist meets with N. Korea's No. 2 leader
A South Korean unification activist on an unauthorized visit to North Korea met with the communist nation's No. 2 leader on Wednesday, Pyongyang's official news agency reported.Ro Su-hui, 68, a leader of a pro-Pyongyang organization, has been in North Korea since March 24 on an unsanctioned trip to attend a memorial service to mark the 100th day anniversary of the death of Pyongyang's long-time le
July 4, 2012
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English teachers nabbed for selling, using pot
Police said Tuesday they have arrested an American native English teacher for allegedly distributing marijuana to a circle of foreigners here, mostly English teachers.The international crime probe unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said they also booked eight foreigners for buying marijuana, including an American female college lecturer aged 28, as well as two South Koreans who shuttled the drug between the supplier and buyers.The arrested 31-year-old male, identified only as J, sold 9
July 3, 2012
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Leftist activist to return to Seoul
A pro-North Korean body warned South Korea Tuesday against arresting a unification activist who will return to Seoul later this week after his illegal trip to the North.Ro Su-hui will return home Thursday through the border village of Panmunjom that separates the two divided Koreas, the North and South Headquarters of the Pan-national Alliance for Korea’s Reunification said in a joint press release carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.Ro, the vice-chairman of the alliance’s
July 3, 2012
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NK vows to continue space program and bolster nuke deterrence
North Korea said Monday it will continue its space development efforts for "peaceful purposes," repeating its stance in defiance of the international community's call for an end to any action that could ratchet up ongoing tensions. In an interview carried in English by the (North) Korean Central News Agency, a spokesperson from North Korea's Foreign Ministry also vowed the country would strength
July 2, 2012
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Kim Jong-il ordered uranium nukes: reports
TOKYO (AFP) ― The late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il ordered his scientists to produce “a massive amount” of uranium bombs, according to internal regime documents, reports in Japan said Monday.The instruction was revealed in papers believed to have been compiled in February this year for senior officials of the ruling Workers’ Party, the Mainichi Shimbun and Tokyo Shimbun said.Pyongyang has long maintained that it was enriching uranium solely for the purpose of power generation, despite widesp
July 2, 2012
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N. Korean media promote hymn to Kim Jong-un
North Korea's state-run media have been playing a new hymn dedicated to the country's leader Kim Jong-un in an apparent effort to reinforce his personality cult and justify the regime's hereditary succession of power.The title of the song, "Onwards toward the final victory," is the last phrase of Kim's speech on April 15, which marked the 100th birth anniversary of his grandfather, the country's f
July 2, 2012
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China opens cruise tour of Geumgang resort
SHENYANG (Yonhap News) ― A cruise to North Korea’s scenic mountain resort from China has officially been launched, Chinese media reported Saturday.According to the China News, some 100 Chinese tourists from the northeastern province of Jilin sailed along the North’s east coast to visit Mount Geumgang on a four-day itinerary early Friday.After crossing the border to North Korea by land from the city of Hunchun in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, the tourists boarded a cruise ship in the
July 1, 2012
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Unification officials to be posted to Germany, Russia
South Korea will post two government officials in Germany and Russia next month as part of its diplomatic efforts to prepare for eventual reunification with North Korea, an official said Sunday.The new posts were created in April under the initiative of Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik, who has campaigned to win the interest and support of key partner nations for the reunification of the two Koreas.Since taking office last September, Yu has visited the United States, China and Germany as part of t
July 1, 2012
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Defector’s return to N.K. questioned
Some put forward sickness, threats to family as reasonsA flurry of speculation has arisen over why a 66-year-old North Korean defector returned to the communist state last month after six years here.Some of her close acquaintances argue that the authorities in Pyongyang might have threatened to kill her son. Others say that she had been informed that he was very sick.Park Jong-suk arrived to the South in June 2006 alone after having crossed the border into China in March of the same year. The No
July 1, 2012