The South Korean defense minister said Thursday that the military was conducting a salvage operation for a segment of a North Korean space launch vehicle believed to be from the second stage of propulsion, and was tracing remaining debris from the projectile a day after the launch ended in failure. Speaking before the National Assembly’s national defense committee, Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup said it is looking into the possibility of retrieving the reconnaissance satellite that North Ko

North Korea June 1, 2023

North Korea's satellite launch failure on Wednesday was likely to have happened because of an unexpected technical error, rather than leader Kim Jong-un’s impatience to improve surveillance capabilities, according to defector-turned-Assemblyman Rep. Tae Yong-ho. Tae, who was a senior diplomat for North Korea before defecting to Seoul in 2016, said in a press release that the spy satellite’s attempted launch was a key military milestone that has been a long time in the making. Fo

Politics May 31, 2023

South Korea’s intelligence authorities suspect North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is suffering from insomnia, and drinking and smoking heavily. Rep. Yoo Sang-bum, the executive secretary for the Parliamentary Intelligence Committee, told reporters Wednesday that the National Intelligence Service believes Kim “may be experiencing a serious sleep disorder and engaging in excessive alcohol and tobacco consumption.” He said the spy service found North Korean authorities were “ho

Politics May 31, 2023

A South Korean team of experts said Wednesday they will be conducting an additional review after a visit to the now-defunct Fukushima nuclear power plant that was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami, leading to three nuclear reactor meltdowns, in 2011. Speaking at a briefing, Yoo Guk-hee, the government nuclear safety commission’s chairperson who is leading the review efforts, said his team will be acquiring extra data to look into facilities that treat the radioactive wastewater, dilut

Politics May 31, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday met with leaders of five Pacific island countries in the first such summit hosted in Seoul by the South Korean president to discuss ways to boost regional security and partnership in resource development. The Sunday leg of the Korea-Pacific Islands Summit was attended by President Taneti Maamau of Kiribati, Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni of Tonga, Prime Minister Kausea Natano of Tuvalu, Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau of Vanuatu and Prime Minister James Marape o

Politics May 29, 2023

South Korea will soon begin requiring its public servants to disclose any ownership of digital assets in the same way they do traditional financial assets. The National Assembly convened a plenary session Thursday and passed an amendment to the laws on public service ethics to include cryptocurrencies in their financial disclosures. Under the public service ethics laws, lawmakers and high-ranking public servants such as Cabinet members must regularly disclose their assets and investments. The am

Politics May 25, 2023

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s eldest child might not be a son after all. In patriarchal North Korea, the eldest son -- whose existence remains a mystery -- would naturally be the heir to the North Korean leadership. Kim’s only publicly seen child to date is Ju-ae, a girl who is believed to be around 10 to 12 years of age. Joao Micaelo, Kim’s friend from his school days in Switzerland, told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday that he has not heard the North Korean leader speak abou

Politics May 25, 2023

The Yoon Suk Yeol administration and the ruling People Power Party are mulling steps to restrict groups with a criminal background from staging protests, in an apparent aim at a labor union at the center of a spiraling North Korea spying scandal. At a policy meeting Wednesday, Cabinet officials and party leaders agreed to push an amendment to existing laws to curb criminally involved groups’ abilities to hold assemblies and demonstrations. The latest move follows the indictment of several

Politics May 24, 2023

Political bigwigs on Tuesday flocked to Bongha, a neighborhood in South Gyeongsang Province some 290 kilometers south of Seoul, to honor the late President Roh Moo-hyun who took his own life 14 years ago today. President Yoon Suk Yeol sent flowers, his office said, and the previous President Moon Jae-in attended the memorial ceremony held in Bongha -- Roh’s hometown where he returned after the end of his presidential tenure in 2008. Leaders of both the ruling People Power Party and the Dem

Politics May 23, 2023

The ruling People Power Party said Monday it may consider taking legislative action against the country’s main umbrella labor union, with four of its leaders recently indicted for alleged anti-government activities in collusion with North Korea. In the indictment released Friday, Seoul prosecutors said four of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions members holding leadership positions communicated with North Korean authorities on at least 90 different occasions in the planning and execut

Politics May 22, 2023

North Korean brothers who brought their family members out of the country earlier this month are late millennials, part of the tech-savvy younger generation of North Korea who have increased access to external information. Sources with knowledge of the latest defections told The Korea Herald on Sunday that it was the two brothers in their early 30s who had made the decision to leave North Korea with their family. The sources said that the brothers told Seoul officials here in a screening intervi

Politics May 21, 2023

[코리아헤럴드=김아린 기자] 이달 초 서해 북방한계선(NLL)을 넘어 한국에 온 북한 일가족의 귀순은 30대 초반의 ‘MZ세대’인 두 형제가 주도한 것으로 전해졌다. 21일 코리아헤럴드 취재를 종합하면, 9명의 일가족이 탈북을 감행하는 데에는 90년대생인 두 형제의 역할이 결정적이었다고 한다. 북한의 청년 세대는 이전 세대에 비해 개인주의 성향이 강하고, 휴대 기기를 통한 미디어 콘텐츠 활용에 익숙한 것으로 분석되고 있다. 북한 당국은 주민들의 한국 방송 시청을 강력하게 단속하고 있다. 3월 통일부가 공개한 북한인권보고서에는 북한에서 청소년이 한국 영상물을 봤다는 이유로 총살당한 사례가 소개됐다. 북한인권단체 ‘전환기정의워킹그룹’은 재작년 발간한 보고서에서 김정은 집권 이후 공개 처형된 주민들에게 적용된 죄목 중에서, 한국 방송 시청이 가장 많은 건수를 차지하고 있다고 분석했다. 귀순한 두 형제 역시 평소 USB에 저장된 한국 방송을 몰래

한국어판 May 21, 2023

A popular South Korean talk show featuring North Korea escapees motivated a group of North Koreans to flee their repressive home country earlier this month, they were quoted as telling Seoul officials in a screening interview. Nine North Koreans, who are related to each other, were being investigated here after they crossed a sea border west of the peninsula, Seoul officials said Thursday. Sources with knowledge of the interview told The Korea Herald it was a pair of brothers who took the initia

Politics May 19, 2023

South Korean intelligence authorities believe a Chinese restaurant in Seoul’s central Songpa secretly served as an overseas police station for China, according to a lawmaker. Speaking anonymously to The Korea Herald, the lawmaker said the National Intelligence Service believes the restaurant in Seoul “virtually functioned” as a secret police station for the Chinese government. The NIS declined to comment on the lawmaker's statement. After the restaurant was pegged as a cla

Politics May 19, 2023

A 21-member team of South Korean experts are visiting Japan for six days from Sunday to inspect safety of the waste water from the quake-wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant to be released into the Pacific. According to the Prime Minister’s office on Friday, the team comprises experts from the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety and the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology. Over the course of six days the South Korean experts will meet with Tokyo Electric Power Company officials

Politics May 19, 2023