Most Popular
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Marine Corps commander summoned by CIO for questioning on alleged influence-peddling case
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Debate rages over ‘overly fatty’ samgyeopsal
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[Weekender] Korean psyche untangled: Musok
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40 flights canceled on Jeju Island due to bad weather
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N. Korea slams US, other countries for seeking alternative to UN sanctions monitoring panel
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[Eye Interview] 'If you live to 100, you might as well be happy,' says 88-year-old bestselling essayist
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Pandemic left Korea more depressed than before: report
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Gov't appears to shelve punitive measures against mass walkout by doctors
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From fake prostitution ring to nonexistent robber, prank calls hamper police
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Missing S. Korean traveler in Paris found safe after 2 weeks
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N. Korean defector-spy gets 4-year jail term for assassination attempt
A North Korean defector-turned-spy was sentenced to four years in prison for attempting to kill a fellow defector in South Korea at the order of the communist regime, court officials said Thursday.The secret agent, surnamed Ahn, was charged with plotting to kill Park Sang-hak, a defector leading anti-Pyongyang propaganda activities in the South, with a poisoned needle in September.He was also orde
April 5, 2012
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U.S. argues against observers of N. Korean space launch
The United States cautioned the world Wednesday against any action that may send the wrong signal to North Korea as it seeks to justify its planned rocket launch."We call on the international community to abstain from taking any actions, such as sending observers, that might be seen as endorsing a launch that would be in blatant defiance of the DPRK’s international obligations and commitments,” a
April 5, 2012
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China seen flinching on N.K. defectors
Four N.Korean defectors arrive in South Korea secretly after three years of forced stay in ChinaThe recent secret arrival of four North Korean defectors in South Korea from China indicated that international pressure not to repatriate North Koreans may be having an effect. However, it is still unclear whether the move was part of a long-term policy change.News reports from Beijing said Tuesday China allowed four North Korean defectors, who had been staying at a South Korean consulate in China fo
April 4, 2012
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N. Korea threatens third nuclear test after rocket launch
U.S., Japan renew warning; N. Korea vows to go ahead with launch; Manila to divert flights to shun debris North Korea hinted on Wednesday that it could conduct a third nuclear test if the U.S. and its allies put additional sanctions on the North over its planned rocket launch in mid-April.The Chosun Shinbo, a newspaper published in Japan by an association of pro-Pyongyang Korean-Japanese residents, pointed out Wednesday that Pyongyang had conducted a second nuclear test after the U.N. Security
April 4, 2012
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Rocket plan shows N.K. regime’s intransigence: Lee adviser
North Korea’s determination to go ahead with a planned long-range rocket launch is indicative of the new regime’s “structural intransigence” under young leader Kim Jong-un and a “self-defeating” choice, a South Korean unification policy adviser said Wednesday.Hyun In-taek, a unification policy adviser to President Lee Myung-bak who served as Seoul’s point man on North Korea for almost three years until last October, forecast a repeat of the North’s provocations in 2009, when it last launched a l
April 4, 2012
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U.N. urged to investigate prison camps in N. Korea
An international organization of more than 40 human rights groups around the world on Tuesday urged the U.N. Human Rights Council to address the issue of North Korean prison camps.The International Coalition to Stop Crimes against Humanity in North Korea, or ICNK, submitted a petition to call on the U.N. to carry out an investigation and report on the gulags.“The U.N. used a similar procedure to investigate the situation of U.S. detainees at Guantanamo Bay,” human rights lawyer Jared Genser, for
April 4, 2012
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IAEA cautious on visit to North Korea
VIENNA (AP) ― As international tensions rise over a planned North Korean rocket launch, the U.N. nuclear agency is taking a wait-and-see attitude on an offer from the North to allow agency experts back into the country, according to a letter shared with the Associated Press.In the March 30 letter, circulated internally among the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35 member-nations, IAEA head Yukiya Amano expresses thanks for the March 16 overture by North Korean Atomic Energy head Ri Je-son an
April 4, 2012
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N. Korea to hold international art festival amid tensions over rocket launch
North Korea plans to kick off an international art festival in Pyongyang next week, a pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan said Tuesday.The April Spring Friendship Art Festival, to be held from April 11 to 19, is designed to celebrate the centennial of the birth of North Korea‘s late founder Kim Il-sung.The festival will bring together about 800 artists from 23 countries, including China, Russia, France and Italy, the Choson Sinbo said on its Internet edition.Their performances will be devoted to
April 4, 2012
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5 N.K. defectors arrive in S. Korea after 3 years in China
Five North Korean defectors have arrived in South Korea after spending three years in a South Korean consulate in China, a South Korean official said Wednesday.China has allowed them to travel to South Korea via a third country, the official said, a step Beijing usually takes to handle those involved in high-profile cases.The five people, who include three family members of a late South Korean sol
April 4, 2012
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ASEAN may issue statement on N.K. rocket
Leaders of Southeast Asian countries may release a statement during the ASEAN summit this week highlighting concerns about North Korea’s planned rocket launch, news reports said Tuesday.The Association of Southeast Asian Nations kicked off the summit Tuesday and is likely to call on states to refrain from escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula, a government official was quoted by Yonhap News as saying.“What we want is to secure peace and security on the Korean Peninsula. At the summit, ther
April 3, 2012
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‘Kim Jong-un did not adapt well to school in Switzerland’
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un did not adapt well to an international school in Switzerland in the 1990s and his grades were poor, a news report has said.Kim was absent for 75 days and 105 days in his first and second year at the International School of Bern, respectively, Swiss newspaper Le Matin Dimanche reported Sunday, citing unidentified sources.Kim sometimes came to the school only in the afternoons, the newspaper said, citing an former classmate of Kim.Kim, who used the pseudonym Pak Un,
April 3, 2012
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U.S. faces limited options on North Korea
Despite tough talk from President Barack Obama, the United States and its allies have limited options if North Korea goes ahead with its planned long-range rocket launch in mid-April. Washington is likely to take the matter to the U.N. Security Council, analysts say, and could tighten its already tough sanctions. Such efforts would struggle without support from China, which can be expected to resist any moves that might threaten the stability of its neighbor. There also is deep uncertainty abo
April 3, 2012
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Kim Jong-un did not adapt well to school in Switzerland: report
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un did not adapt well to an international school in Switzerland in the 1990s and his grades were poor, a news report has said.Kim was absent for 75 days and 105 days in his first and second year at the International School of Bern, respectively, Swiss newspaper Le Matin Dimanche reported Sunday, citing unidentified sources.Kim sometimes came to the school only in the a
April 3, 2012
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U.S. suggests N.K. rely on China or Russia for satellite launch
The U.S. suggested in an informal meeting in Berlin that North Korea ask China or Russia to launch its satellite Kwangmyongsong-3, but the North refused, a news report said.Japan’s TV Asahi reported that a civilian U.S. delegation, which met with its North Korean counterpart, offered the alternative if the North’s planned rocket launch was for peaceful purposes as claimed.However, the North rejected the offer, it said.The report said Ri Gun, director-general of the North American affairs bureau
April 2, 2012
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N.K. set to cement Kim’s power before rocket launch
North Korea said Monday its ruling Workers’ Party will hold a special conference on April 11 in Pyongyang where it is expected to name its new leader Kim Jong-un as General Secretary of the Workers’ Party, the party’s highest post.The scheduled conference comes just before Pyongyang’s planned launch of a rocket to put a satellite into orbit between April 12 and 16 and also to mark the 100th year of the North’s late founder Kim Il-sung’s birth on April 15.The Workers’ Party conference is one of t
April 2, 2012
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Rocket to cost North equivalent of feeding 19 million for 1 year
This month’s long-range rocket launch will cost North Korea some $850 million, the equivalent of feeding 19 million people for one year, intelligence authorities in Seoul estimated Monday.According to the estimate, revealed by a military official, construction of the launch site is expected to cost the North $400 million, while the rocket and its payload will cost $300 million and $150 million, respectively.The North says the rocket launch set for sometime between April 12 and 16 is designed to
April 2, 2012
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Informal NKorea-US meeting in Germany
A think tank says North Korean and American delegations have held informal talks in Germany _ talks that come amid tensions over Pyongyang's plans for a long-range rocket launch.Charles King Mallory, the executive director of the Aspen Institute think tank in Berlin, said Sunday that the informal so-called ``track 2'' dialogue took place over the weekend.He wouldn't comment on the contents of the
April 2, 2012
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S. Korea to ‘take steps’ if N.K. launches rocket
The South Korean government will take countermeasures in cooperation with the international community should North Korea go ahead with its plan to launch a rocket, Seoul’s Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik said Saturday.Yu, an advocate of “flexible” policies on North Korea in the Lee Myung-bak administration oft-described as “hardline,” likened the North Korean regime to a “car running down a slope with its wheels and brakes broken” in an interview with Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun.“We are at the s
April 1, 2012
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N. Korea ramps up Lee bashing ahead of vote
North Korea ratcheted up its rhetoric against President Lee Myung-bak Saturday, in an apparent bid to impact the April 11 general election.The Lee government has been seen as tough on North Korea over military provocation and food aid issues.“The South Korean people will have to sternly punish Lee Myung-bak and his groups who are behind all the misfortunes and disasters,” the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland was quoted by the Korea Central News Agency as saying.
April 1, 2012
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N.K. completes electing new leader Kim as party delegate
After a series of party meetings countrywide, North Korea has elected new leader Kim Jong-un as a delegate to this month’s ruling party conference, the North’s state media said Sunday, in a move seen by outside analysts as another effort to consolidate Kim’s grip on power.The North’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea plans to hold a special session on April 13 and is expected to appoint the young Kim, believed to be in his late 20s, to the post of general secretary of the party. The same post was h
April 1, 2012