Most Popular
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Jennie, Stray Kids's Met Gala attendance puts them on 'digital guillotine' blacklist
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Korean industries gauge impact of Biden's steep tariffs on China
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Do Korean doctors make too much money?
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Another suspect behind murder of Korean tourist in Pattaya arrested in Cambodia
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Is FTC's conglomerate listing a boon or bane for Hybe?
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NewJeans to headline palace show
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Coupang's Kim Bom escapes chaebol chief designation again
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Rare mid-May heavy snow warning issued over mountainous areas of Gangwon
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CIO chief nominee to explain allegations at confirmation hearing
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Yoon vows to run country 'rightly' on Buddha's birthday
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N. Korea accepts Moscow's invitation for May visit: report
SEOUL – North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has accepted Russia's invitation to visit Moscow in May, Russia's state media reported Wednesday.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a news conference in Moscow that "a positive signal has been received" from the North, apparently referring to Pyongyang's affirmative response to its invitation to the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to a May 9 ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, according
Jan. 21, 2015
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N. Korea threatens counteraction against joint S Korea-U.S. drills
North Korea threatened Wednesday to take unspecified countermeasures if South Korea and the United States go ahead with their plan to conduct joint military exercises planned for March.Despite North Korea's repeated calls for a suspension in recent weeks, South Korean military officials confirmed earlier this week that it will carry out its joint military drills with the U.S. in March as scheduled.Two major joint drills -- Key Resolve and Foal Eagle -- are expected to kick off in South Korea in
Jan. 21, 2015
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Late N.K. leader's half-brother named ambassador to Czech Republic
The half-brother of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was recently appointed Pyongyang's top envoy to the Czech Republic after serving 17 years as ambassador to Poland, a South Korean government official said Wednesday.Kim Pyong-il is a younger brother of Kim Jong-il, the father of current leader Kim Jong-un. He will be replaced in Warsaw by Ri Kun, the director general for North American affairs at North Korea's foreign ministry, the official said on condition of anonymity."It has been deter
Jan. 21, 2015
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N. Korea's envoy in Beijing after nuke talks with ex-U.S. diplomats
North Korea's top nuclear envoy arrived in Beijing on Tuesday after two days of unofficial talks in Singapore with former U.S. diplomats on his country's nuclear and missile programs.Ri Yong-ho, the North's chief negotiator to the long-stalled six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, was tightlipped on whether he plans to meet with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei in Beijing.Upon his arrival at the Beijing airport, Ri was whisked into a waiting sedan with a North Korean embassy pl
Jan. 21, 2015
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Ministry against blocking anti-N.K. leaflets
A group of North Korean defectors and human rights activists warned Tuesday that it would send to the North copies of "The Interview,” a comedy about a plot to assassinate its leader Kim Jong-un, should Pyongyang reject Seoul’s request for dialogue.The previous day, the group launched toward the North five balloons carrying some 100,000 leaflets from Tanhyeon in the border city of Paju, Gyeonggi Province. The leaflets were designed to make North Koreans aware of the brutality of the dictatorial
Jan. 20, 2015
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N. Korea plans IR session on eastern tour zone project
North Korea plans to hold an investor relations session in April as part of efforts to develop its scenic eastern coastal region into a world-class tourist zone, its state media said Tuesday.According to a report by the North's Korean Central News Agency, the North Korean company in charge of developing the eastern coastal areas of Wonsan and Mount Kumgang plans to invite potential investors in April for a presentation and tour of the region. "We are planning to push for diverse measures to attr
Jan. 20, 2015
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Activists spread anti-N. Korea leaflets over border
A group of local and foreign activists has sent balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the inter-Korean border, but DVDs of the controversial film "The Interview" have been excluded, the group's head said Tuesday."As previously announced in November, (we) scattered 100,000 anti-North Korean leaflets near (the border town) of Paju last night," Park Sang-hak, the head of the Fighters for a Free North Korea, told Yonhap News Agency. "The DVDs of 'The Interview' were not included on purpos
Jan. 20, 2015
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Seoul to enact unification law
South Korea said Monday it was seeking to spur its efforts this year to bring about reunification by establishing a legal and institutional framework, holding joint economic and cultural events with the North and boosting cooperation with other countries. While pushing for robust defense and the North’s denuclearization, it vowed to formulate a vision for an integrated Korea, build consensus at home and abroad and expand dialogue and economic exchanges with Pyongyang. The measures were submitted
Jan. 19, 2015
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Key North Korean defector 'misled' him on life story
A prominent North Korean defector who fled a prison camp and became the face of international efforts to hold the country accountable for widespread human rights abuses has changed important parts of his life story. Author Blaine Harden says in a statement on his website that he has pressed Shin Dong-Hyuk to "explain why he had misled me'' during interviews for Harden's book on Shin, "Escape from Camp 14.'' North Korea tried to discredit Shin late last year as it fought a U.N. General Assembly r
Jan. 19, 2015
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Park calls for creating conditions for talks with N. Korea
South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Monday called on officials to create conditions to allow North Korea to come forward for talks in the latest conciliatory gesture toward Pyongyang to jump-start stalled dialogue.Park also said the two Koreas should start substantial dialogue to lay the groundwork for their potential unification.The call came as North Korea has remained silent on South Korea's recent offer to ministerial talks in January to discuss such bilateral issues as the reunion of fa
Jan. 19, 2015
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S. Korea to redouble efforts to prep for unification
South Korea plans to ramp up efforts to prepare for unification and seek dialogue with North Korea on a variety of cooperative projects this year, the government said Monday.Under the plan, Seoul will push for a trial run of a rail line connecting Seoul to the North Korean cities of Pyongyang and Sinuiju and try to enact a law to lay the foundation for the peaceful reunification of the divided Korean Peninsula, the unification, foreign and defense ministries said in their joint policy report to
Jan. 19, 2015
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N. Korea repeats calls to cancel allies’ drills
North Korea has repeated its calls for the United States to cancel the annual South Korea-U.S. military drills in return for its nuclear moratorium in an apparent show of its desire for talks with Washington amid toughened U.S. economic sanctions against the isolated regime.In a rare media interview on Friday, Hyon Hak-bong, the North’s ambassador to Britain, reiterated Pyongyang’s stance against the Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercises to begin next month, saying the North was ready to take “respon
Jan. 18, 2015
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U.S. ex-officials meet N. Korean nuclear chief amid standoff
U.S. academics and former senior officials met with North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator in Singapore on Sunday to get a feel for each other's positions amid a yearslong standoff over the North's nuclear weapons buildup. Leon Sigal, director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council, a U.S.-based nonprofit, told reporters that the meeting would cover the North's nuclear missile programs. He said ``it's two ways of taking each other's temperatur
Jan. 18, 2015
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N.K. defector apologizes for inaccuracy in gulag survival story
North Korean defector and human rights activist Shin Dong-hyuk said Sunday he was "very sorry" for having altered certain details in a book about his former life at a notorious prison camp in the secluded country."To those who have supported me, trusted me and believed in me all this time, I am so very grateful and at the same time so very sorry to each and every single one of you," Shin said via a posting on his Facebook page.Shin, 32, hinted that he "may or may not be able to continue in (his)
Jan. 18, 2015
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Kim Jong-un visits foodstuff factory for athletes
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited a foodstuff factory for athletes, calling for a boost in production of nutritious food to help the country's sportsmen, Pyongyang's official news agency reported Sunday.The Korean Central News Agency, monitored in Seoul, said Kim gave his field guidance to the Kumkop General Foodstuff Factory for Sportspersons, without giving a specific time frame for his visit.The English-language report said Kim praised the workers for their high productivity and their a
Jan. 18, 2015
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No sign of N. Korea nuclear test preparations: U.S. think tank
North Korea is showing no signs of preparing for a new nuclear test, a U.S. think tank said Friday, citing recent satellite imagery.However one or more tunnels at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site are complete and ready for another test should Pyongyang decide to carry one out, the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said.On its closely-watched 38 North website, the institute said commercial satellite pictures of the Punggye-ri test site revealed no signs of test preparations."As a r
Jan. 18, 2015
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No signs of nuclear test preparations at N. Korea's test site
Commercial satellite imagery shows no signs of preparations for a nuclear blast at North Korea's underground test site, the website 38 North said Friday."As a result, a fourth nuclear test seems unlikely in the near-term, for at least the next two to three months," the website said. "However, it is quite possible that one or more tunnels at the facility are sufficiently complete to be readied for another nuclear test should Pyongyang make the political decision to move forward."The North has so
Jan. 18, 2015
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Ex-CIA director calls latest sanctions on N.K. 'symbolic at best'
The latest U.S. sanctions on North Korea are "pretty light and symbolic at best," a former CIA director has said, calling for tougher restrictions to make life harder for leaders of the communist regime.Early this month, the U.S. announced retaliatory sanctions in response to the North's alleged cyber-attack on Sony Pictures, blacklisting three North Korean entities and 10 officials, including the Reconnaissance General Bureau, Pyongyang's top spy agency."I think they're pretty light and symboli
Jan. 18, 2015
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Defector group to scale back anti-N.K. leaflet campaign
Heeding a government suggestion, a key anti-North Korean civic group said Friday that it will scale back its campaign to send anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border amid a burgeoning thaw in inter-Korean relations."We understand the government's position and accept its request," Lee Min-bok, head of the Campaign for Helping North Korean in Direct Way, a civic activist group, told Yonhap News Agency by phone. "We're not going to excessively spread anti-North Korea leaflets for the t
Jan. 18, 2015
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No signs of nuclear test preparations at N. Korea's test site
Commercial satellite imagery shows no signs of preparations for a nuclear blast at North Korea's underground test site, the website 38 North said Friday."As a result, a fourth nuclear test seems unlikely in the near-term, for at least the next two to three months," the website said. "However, it is quite possible that one or more tunnels at the facility are sufficiently complete to be readied for another nuclear test should Pyongyang make the political decision to move forward."The North has so
Jan. 17, 2015