Most Popular
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40 flights canceled on Jeju Island due to bad weather
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Pandemic left Korea more depressed than before: report
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N. Korea slams US, other countries for seeking alternative to UN sanctions monitoring panel
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Korean labor force to shrink by 10 million by 2044: report
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Gov't appears to shelve punitive measures against mass walkout by doctors
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[AtoZ Korean Mind] Does your job define who you are? Should it?
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Govt. asks hospitals to mitigate impact of medical professors' absence
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Allegations surrounding BTS resurface, enraged fans demand apology
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Doggy patrol team on the move to protect their cities
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S. Korea's working-age population to dip nearly 10m by 2044 amid low births
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China launches cruise to N. Korean scenic resort
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 Kumgang on a four-day itinerary early Friday.After crossing the border to North Korea by land from the city of Hunchun in the Yanbia
June 30, 2012
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N.Korean claims South agents tricked her to defect
N.Korean claims South agents tricked her to defectPYONGYANG--A North Korean woman said Thursday that she was tricked into defecting six years ago by South Korean agents who offered to arrange a reunion with her father who went to the South during the Korean War.The rare public account that 66-year-old Pak Jong Suk told to local and foreign reporters at a news conference at the People's Palace of C
June 29, 2012
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Documentary reveals divided lives
Film gives voice to Korean-Americans separated from relatives in N.K.When Korean-American Jason Ahn’s grandmother was hospitalized with stomach cancer in the U.S., she longed to see her sister in North Korea once more before she died. But she was unable to make the trip in response to her sister’s letter, and died without speaking to her sibling again.“For a reply, we had no other choice but to send her funeral photos to her sister,” recounted Ahn in an introduction to the new “Divided Families”
June 27, 2012
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N.K. leader seen moving toward economic reform
Kim cares more than predecessors about livelihood of ordinary citizens, encourages use of Internet, expert saysNorth Korea’s new leader Kim Jong-un appears to be more active in the consideration of economic reform and openness despite rampant skepticism about his willingness for change, a local expert claimed.Citing recent remarks by the fledgling leader and media reports, Cheong Seong-chang of the think tank Sejong Institute said there have been notable indications that Pyongyang is seriously c
June 27, 2012
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Forum invites overseas Korean leaders
Nearly 400 Korean business and community leaders from 72 countries will gather on Tuesday in Seoul to boost cooperation between Korean societies overseas. The four-day World Korean Community Leaders Convention is hosted by the state-run Overseas Korean Foundation and sponsored by the Foreign Ministry. Since its inception in 2000, the annual event has set the stage for networking between Korean entrepreneurs and politicians abroad and sharing knowhow in Korean language education and helping young
June 25, 2012
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Jeon to lead unification education agency
The government said Monday it appointed Jeon Kyong-mann, a leading defense specialist, as the new executive director of the state-run Institute for Unification Education.Jeon, 61, will replace Cho Myung-chul, a North Korean defector who became a proportional representative of the ruling Saenuri Party following the April general election. Jeon’s two-year tenure took effect immediately. He is a former vice president of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses and has held various posts at the gove
June 25, 2012
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N. Korea seeks heritage status for Gaeseong
North Korea has asked UNESCO to designate its southern border city of Gaeseong as a World Heritage Site, according to the U.N. body in charge of heritage.The North’s move was made public a day after the World Heritage Committee opened its 36th session in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The session is to last until July 6. The committee has a final say on whether a property is inscribed on the World Heritage List.Last year, North Korea proposed historic monuments and sites in Gaeseong for inscription o
June 25, 2012
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‘Unification jars’ latest effort to raise funds
The Unification Ministry on Monday unveiled six ceramic jars that emblemize its drive to boost public awareness and raise funds to prepare for unification with North Korea. Minister Yu Woo-ik on Saturday took part in the glaze firing of the so-called “unification jars” on the last leg of a 40-day course with a renowned potter Kim Jeong-ok in Mungyeong, North Gyeongsang Province.The white porcelain vessels are a symbol of Yu’s ongoing campaign to create a “unification account” to bankroll a futur
June 25, 2012
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‘N.K. executes 4 defectors repatriated from China’
North Korea has executed four of 44 defectors who were recently repatriated to their home country from China, a civic activist said Monday.Citing informed sources, Kim Heung-kwang, chief of North Korean Intellectual Solidarity, said the rest have been sent to political prisons. He was speaking at a seminar hosted by the online publication The Interview for discussing steps needed for the legislation of the North Korean human rights law.“According to information from North Korea, four of the 44 d
June 25, 2012
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N. Korea executed 4 defectors sent back from China: activist
North Korea has publicly executed four citizens who were recently repatriated from China after being caught by the Chinese authorities, a North Korean defector in South Korea claimed Monday. The four were among a group of 44 North Koreans who fled to China to avoid political oppression and chronic food shortages in the North, according to Kim Heung-kwang, the head of NK Intellectuals Solidarity,
June 25, 2012
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Thai police arrest 19 North Korean refugees
BANGKOK (AFP) -- Police arrested 19 North Korean refugees in northern Thailand on Friday who asked to be sent to a "third country", most likely South Korea, officials said, and charged them with illegal entry.The 11 women and eight men were taken into custody on a bank of the Mekong river in Chiang Rai province, some 780 kilometers (490 miles) north of Bangkok, after they disembarked from a boat,
June 22, 2012
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U.S. Senate approves bill banning food aid to N.K.
WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― The U.S. Senate passed a bill Thursday (local time) that includes a ban on giving North Korea food assistance without a presidential waiver.The five-year farm bill cuts agriculture subsidies and includes wording that prohibits North Korea from receiving food aid unless the president issues a national interest waiver. Under the amendment, which needs final approval from the Republican-led House, North Korea is only eligible for Food for Peace Act donations if the presid
June 22, 2012
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U.S. Senate approves farm bill banning food aid to N. Korea
The U.S. Senate passed a bill Thursday (local time) that includes a ban on giving North Korea food assistance without a presidential waiver.The five-year farm bill cuts agriculture subsidies and includes wording that prohibits North Korea from receiving food aid unless the president issues a national interest waiver.Under the amendment, which needs final approval from the Republican-led House, Nor
June 22, 2012
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N. Korea on U.S. list of worst-human trafficking nations for 10th year
North Korea remains on an annual U.S. list of the nations that could face sanctions for making little effort to combat human trafficking for a 10th consecutive year, according to the State Department's report Wednesday. In its annual Trafficking in Persons report, the State Department ranked North Korea once again in "Tier 3" for countries with the poorest record of fighting human trafficking. A t
June 21, 2012
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Up to 200,000 incarcerated in N.K. prison camps
Human rights groups claim up to 200,000 North Koreans are held in political prison camps and penitentiaries across the country facing malnutrition, harsh labor, torture and executions.Most prisoners were confined not for dissent but for political misdemeanors such as singing South Korean songs or joining a reading club, former detainees and activists say. According to Amnesty International, 150,000 to 200,000 are incarcerated in six sprawling gulag-style prisons ― Camp No. 12 in Hoeryeong, No. 1
June 20, 2012
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N.K. defector tells of death and despair at prison camp
Three years after defecting here from North Korea, Kim Hye-sook is slowly recovering from the wounds she incurred during nearly three decades in a prison camp.But potent memories of herself and fellow prisoners being starved, battered and unspeakably humiliated still haunt her.Kim, 49, thought she would have no more tears to cry. But her lips quivered and eyes brimmed over with tears while recounting the stories of her children and siblings still in the North.“I met my mother for the first time
June 20, 2012
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North Koreans increasingly open to outside media
Access to foreign news, entertainment seen changing people’s views, challenging regime Before crossing North Korea’s border with China in 1999, Joseph Park could never have imagined seeing a South Korean soap opera. When he visited the North about a decade later, he saw a booming black market in films, dramas and music produced in the democratic, affluent South.Sophisticated but low-cost gadgets are being sneaked into border towns, where food and daily goods had been clandestinely dealt in since
June 20, 2012
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Drought expected to worsen food shortages in N. Korea: expert
A severe dry spell in North Korea is expected to exacerbate chronic food shortages in the poverty-stricken nation where the U.N.'s food agency says 3 million people are in urgent need of food aid, a South Korean expert said Wednesday. The amount of cereal crops harvested in the June-July season is forecast to sharply drop due to the unusually long drought, said Kwon Tae-jin, a senior researcher a
June 20, 2012
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Obama extends sanctions on N.K.
Calls North Korean threat ‘unusual and extraordinary’U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday extended economic sanctions against North Korea for another year citing North Korea’s “unusual and extraordinary threat.”Tensions on the peninsula have been high in recent months, following repeated threats by Pyongyang against Seoul and the North’s failed long-range rocket launch in April, prompting the U.N. Security Council to tighten sanctions on Pyongyang. In a statement to Congress, Obama said the e
June 19, 2012
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North Korea under growing pressure over human rights
The campaign for North Koreans’ human rights is receiving fresh impetus as South Korea, the U.S. and the international community are ratcheting up pressure on the repressive regime to address grave living conditions and cease punishment of repatriated defectors. Seoul and Washington have been calling on the communist state to dismantle political prisons and divert scarce resources to food supplies. They are also beefing up cooperation to free four South Korean activists held in China, a shift fr
June 19, 2012