South Korea’s unification minister expressed optimism on thawing inter-Korean ties Tuesday, as the nuclear envoys of the two Koreas were set to hold more talks over resuming regional denuclearization talks. Yu Woo-ik, inaugurated as Seoul’s new unification minister on Monday, said his government “believes North Korea will respond” to Seoul’s effort in mending ties. “We will keep to the basic pr...

The Seoul government gave permission for heads of seven religious orders to visit Pyongyang, the Unification Ministry said Monday, as part of efforts to resume nongovernmental cultural exchanges with the North. A 24-person delegation including the seven religious leaders will travel to Pyongyang via China’s Shenyang on Wednesday, when the two Koreas are set to hold denuclearization talks in Beij...

BEIJING, Sept. 19 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's top nuclear envoy on Monday called for resuming the stalled six-party disarmament talks on its nuclear weapons programs without preconditions, reiterating a stance that dims prospects of reviving the multilateral dialogue. Ri Yong-ho repeated the call at a closed-door forum in Beijing, according to a forum attendee, two days before he is scheduled to h...

SEOUL, Sept. 19 (Yonhap) -- Kim Jong-un, the third son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and his heir apparent, has been actively participating in the communist regime's politics and policymaking process, the defense ministry here said Monday. Addressing North Korean affairs during the annual parliamentary audit, the ministry said North Korea has been laying down groundwork to "solidify its thi...

SEOUL, Sept. 19 (Yonhap) -- North Korea’s imports of luxury goods for its ruling elites have surged in recent years even as its people suffered from severe food shortages, a South Korean lawmaker said Monday. North Korea spent roughly US$1.04 billion (1.12 trillion won) on bringing in foreign luxury items over three years until last year, Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the ruling Grand National Party (G...

North Korea has expressed its willingness to hold talks with South Korea to resolve a dispute over assets at a scenic mountain resort in the North, a pro-North Korean newspaper said. Kim Kwang-yun, director of the North's Mount Kumgang International Tourism Leadership Bureau, said the talks could be held anytime if the South Korean authorities show an active desire to break the deadlock, the Cho...

North Korea's chief nuclear envoy arrived in China on Saturday for talks with his South Korean and Chinese counterparts on how to restart long-stalled negotiations on ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs. Vice Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho headed to Beijing's downtown area without making any comment to reporters upon arriving at an airport earlier in the day. Ri is scheduled to hold talks ...

South Korea’s spy agency has detained a North Korean defector for an alleged assassination attempt against a fellow defector acting as an anti-North Korean activist, an intelligence official said Friday. The suspect, identified by his last name Ahn in his 40s, was taken into custody for plotting to kill Park Sang-hak, who has led a high-profile campaign to send anti-Pyongyang leaflets into the N...

SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Yonhap) -- The chief nuclear negotiators of South and North Korea will meet in Beijing next week, a senior Seoul diplomat said Friday, in the second high-level, inter-Korean contact in nearly two months amid cautious hopes that they were inching toward resuming the broader talks on the North's nuclear weapons programs. Wi Sung-lac of South Korea and Ri Yong-ho of North Korea wil...

SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- The heads of South Korea's seven largest religious orders are scheduled to travel to Pyongyang next week to hold a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, a rare suprapartisan move aimed at promoting a breakthrough in inter-Korean relations, sources said Thursday. The Korean Conference of Religion for Peace (KCRP), an organization representing the country's seve...

MOSCOW (AFP) -- Russia will most likely write off North Korea's Soviet-era 11 billion-dollar-debt to clear the way for closer economic cooperation, Izvestia newspaper said on Wednesday. Moscow and Pyongyang discussed closer energy cooperation and the outstanding debt when North Korea's secretive leader Kim Jong-Il travelled to eastern Siberia for rare talks with President Dmitry Medvedev last mo...

The Japanese government is considering transferring nine apparent North Korean defectors to South Korea, a day after they were found adrift aboard a boat off Japan's west coast, local media reported Wednesday. The nine North Koreans, including three children, have been questioned by Japanese authorities and reportedly expressed their wish to defect to South Korea. The Yomiuri newspaper reported...

BEIJING (Yonhap) -- A renowned South Korean orchestra conductor arrived in North Korea on Monday, the North's media reported, on a trip he said is aimed at promoting cultural exchanges between the two countries. The North's Korean Central News Agency reported the arrival of the conductor, Chung Myung-whun, in Pyongyang in a one-sentence dispatch. The report gave no other details including the re...

BEIJING (Yonhap News) – A renowned South Korean orchestra conductor headed to North Korea on Monday to discuss cultural exchanges between the two Koreas in what could be another sign of a thaw in inter-Korean relations. Chung Myung-whun, who leads the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and doubles as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, got on a Pyongyang-bound flight at Seowudu Airport in Beijing at 1:20 p....

South Korea said on Monday that it is making efforts to resolve the issue of reunions for family members separated six decades ago by the Korean War, urging North Korea to help facilitate them as well. "The family reunions are an issue that must be resolved as a top priority, and the government is pushing to resolve it regardless of political hurdles," Vice Unification Minister Um Jong-sik said ...