Most Popular
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Seoul transit pass for travelers to be available starting July
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Controversy rekindled over when to name criminals, suspects
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[Weekender] Pet food makers bet big on ‘recession-free’ pet food market
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N. Korea says to deploy new multiple rocket launcher starting this year
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[Drama Tour] Romantic trip to ‘Queen of Tears’ filming spots
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Hybe-Ador CEO conflict gets messier
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Battery makers ramp up efforts to diversify graphite supply chain
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[LLG] Unseen inheritance: Trauma of transnational adoption 'trickles down' to adoptees' children
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‘Monk’ DJ spreading Buddhism goes global
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Prosecutors to summon pastor who allegedly gave Dior bag to first lady
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N.K. spurns Seoul’s offer of talks over missionary
North Korea on Thursday turned down Seoul’s offer of working-level talks to discuss the release of a South Korean missionary who has been detained in the communist country for more than eight months, the Unification Ministry said. Kim Jung-uk was sentenced to life with hard labor on May 31 for plotting to subvert the state, espionage, illegal border-crossing, attempting to set up an underground church and other charges. He was arrested last October after entering the country from the Chinese bor
June 12, 2014
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N. Korea expanding passenger train lines with China, Russia
North Korea is expanding its passenger train routes to China and Russia, a North Korea website said Thursday, reflecting the communist country's efforts to attract more foreign travelers.North Korea's official portal site Naenara disclosed the expansion in its article featuring the country's international passenger train joint venture, established in April 2012, with Hong Kong.The joint firm is currently operating three passenger train lines linking Pyongyang to China's Dandong, Beijing and Shen
June 12, 2014
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Dilemma deepens for Seoul, Washington
The dilemma is deepening for Seoul and Washington as North Korea seeks to improve relations with Japan and Russia, shrinking the allies’ policy options already eroded by the communist regime’s continuing nuclear development. A series of unilateral moves by Tokyo to reengage Pyongyang has sparked concern that it could undermine international efforts to deter its nuclear ambitions and military provocations. Furthering the concern is a recent agreement between the two old foes to reopen a probe int
June 11, 2014
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German firm to set up in Gaeseong
WASHINGTON (Yonhap) ― As Groz-Beckert, based in Germany, is set to become the first foreign firm to join the inter-Korean industrial complex in Gaeseong since 2008, it is expected to serve as a test case for the future of Seoul’s push to draw foreign investment there, a U.S. expert said Tuesday.Earlier this week, South Korea approved a plan by the company supplying industrial needles to set up an office in the Gaeseong zone, just north of the inter-Korean border.It came as the South’s Park Geun-
June 11, 2014
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Goods transported through Gaeseong rising steadily
SEJONG (Yonhap) ― The daily volume of goods moving in and out of the inter-Korean industrial park in Gaeseong has spiked over the past years, customs data showed Wednesday.The joint industrial park opened in 2004 in the North Korean border city as a symbol of cross-border reconciliation. It was designed to combine cheap North Korean labor with South Korean capital and technology.According to the data provided by the Korea Customs Service, the daily average volume of goods moving in and out of th
June 11, 2014
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Singapore charges firm over arms-smuggling to N.K.
SINGAPORE (AFP) ― Singapore on Tuesday filed criminal charges against a shipping firm based in the city-state accused of helping smuggle missiles and other military hardware from Cuba to North Korea.The foreign and home affairs ministries said in a joint statement that the charges were filed against Chinpo Shipping Company Pte Ltd. and a Singapore citizen identified as Tan Hui Tin.Chinpo Shipping transferred $72,000 to a shipping company in Panama on July 8, 2013 in the knowledge the money could
June 11, 2014
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Park vows to keep up efforts for dialogue with N. Korea
President Park Geun-hye pledged Wednesday that she will spare no efforts to induce North Korea to embrace the path of dialogue and cooperation, the latest conciliatory gesture toward Pyongyang amid lingering tensions.Park also said she will not abandon her efforts, despite North Korea rejecting Seoul's offers for bilateral cooperation and refusing to give up its nuclear programs.North Korea has repeatedly vowed to develop its economy and nuclear arsenal in tandem.North Korea views its nuclear we
June 11, 2014
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N. Korea vows "merciless punishment" for plan to build U.N. rights office in South
North Korea on Monday strongly protested against the United Nations' plan to set up a field office in South Korea that will deal with North Korean human rights violations, threatening "merciless punishment" on those involved in the plan as well as workers at the envisioned office.The South Korean foreign ministry said late last month that it has accepted a request by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to set up the office in South Korea as part of the international communi
June 9, 2014
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Seoul vows relentless retaliation against N.K. if provoked
South Korea’s new national security adviser vowed a relentless retaliation against North Korea if provoked again, an official said Saturday, the latest in a series of harsh rhetoric against each other.Kim Kwan-jin, who currently doubles as the defense minister, also called on them to “have a strong fighting capability to relentlessly retaliate against the enemy and completely make it surrender in case of the enemy’s provocation.”He gave the instructions during his trip to a military unit near th
June 8, 2014
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North Korea says it is holding an American tourist
Kim Jong-un(Yonhap)North Korea has detained a 56-year old man from Ohio, accusing him of an unspecified crime after he traveled to the communist-led country as a tourist, the nation's state news agency and the man's family said Friday. The North is now holding three Americans.The state Korean Central News Agency identified the latest detainee as Jeffrey Edward Fowle. It said he arrived in North Korea on April 29 and authorities were investigating him for committing acts inconsistent with the pur
June 7, 2014
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North Korea arrests US tourist
North Korea has arrested a US tourist for "hostile activities", Pyongyang's state media said Friday, bringing the total number of Americans held by the reclusive regime to three.The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the man was being questioned, identifying him only in Korean without providing the English spelling of his name."US citizen in custody for committing anti-DPRK (North Korea) hostile activities", KCNA said in the headline of a brief dispatch."The US Citizen, who entered
June 6, 2014
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Hwang may be vice chief of top military panel
Hwang Pyong-so, a high-flying military figure in North Korea, may have been appointed as a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry. The communist state has also abolished the party’s administration department, which was led by Jang Song-thaek, the uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Jang was executed last December for plotting to overthrow the authoritarian regime.The ministry presented these changes i
June 4, 2014
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N. Korea slams Seoul security policy chief
North Korea on Wednesday ratcheted up its criticism of President Park Geun-hye’s decision to appoint hawkish Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin as her security office chief, warning that inter-Korean ties would further deteriorate.“The reality is that as long as felonious confrontational fanatics like Kim live on, inter-Korean ties cannot improve, and the situation on the Korean Peninsula would further worsen,” said the North’s official Korean Central News Agency in a commentary.“Park Geun-hye should
June 4, 2014
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Putin looks east to bolster ties with N.K.
TOKYO (AP) ― Angry with the West‘s response over Ukraine and eager to diversify its options, Russia is moving rapidly to bolster ties with North Korea in a diplomatic nose-thumbing that could complicate the U.S.-led effort to squeeze Pyongyang into giving up its nuclear weapons program. Russia’s proactive strategy in Asia, which also involves cozying up to China and has been dubbed “Putin‘s Pivot,” began years ago as Moscow’s answer to Washington‘s much-touted alliance-building and rebalancing o
June 4, 2014
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Pyongyang bristles at opening of U.N. rights office in S. Korea
North Korea lashed out at South Korea on Wednesday for its acceptance of the United Nations’ request to open a field office on its soil to monitor human rights violations in the communist country.Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said last week that it has accepted the request by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to set up the office in South Korea in order to join the international body‘s efforts to shed light on the North’s appalling track record on the issue.The U.N. selected S
June 4, 2014
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North Korea, China to resume tours to Korean Peninsula's highest mountain
North Korea is set to open its portion of the Korean Peninsula's highest mountain to Chinese tourists this month, a travel agency official said Wednesday, resuming the tour route that has been suspended since the North conducted its third nuclear test. If realized, it would represent another bid by North Korea to increase tourism income by approving more tour routes that start in Chinese cities.The peninsula's highest peak, Mt. Baekdu, sits on the border between North Korea and China. Tourists c
June 4, 2014
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Abe may visit N.K. in kidnap probe
TOKYO (AFP) ― Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may visit North Korea, Japan said Tuesday, days after announcing a deal to reopen the probe into Japanese citizens kidnapped by spies in the Cold War.Any such visit would be controversial, especially in Seoul and Washington, which have led the charge to further isolate Pyongyang over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.Tokyo and Pyongyang have no formal diplomatic ties, partially because of what Japan says is the North‘s unwillingness to come clean
June 3, 2014
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‘No meaningful talks if N.K. sticks to nuke state claim’
A South Korean government official told reporters Monday that a meaningful dialogue in the six-party talks is out of the question as long as Pyongyang keeps describing itself as a nuclear state in its constitution and sticks to the policy of seeking nuclear weapons development and economic growth at the same time.“North Korea should show, to some extent, seriousness on denuclearization,” the official said. “For instance, if it states a plan to abandon the policy of the simultaneous development (
June 3, 2014
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S. Korea rescues North Koreans drifting off coast
South Korea rescued three North Koreans who were drifting at sea and two of them want to stay in the South, officials said Monday, which would likely produce an angry response from Pyongyang. The men were rescued off the South's eastern coast on Saturday and while two want to stay, one said he wished to return to the North, Seoul's Unification Ministry said in a statement. Defections are a source of conflict between the Koreas. Seoul returns those who wish to return home but accepts tho
June 2, 2014
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S. Korea rejects N. Korea's demand for repatriation of citizens
South Korea rejected North Korea's demand that Seoul hand over all three North Koreans picked up from a fishing boat drifting off South Korea's east coast, an official said Monday, a move that could anger the North amid tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The three men, who are in their 20s and 30s, were picked up by a South Korean coast guard vessel near Ulleung Island on Saturday after their ship ran adrift. South Korea said two of the three North Koreans expressed their wish to remain in
June 2, 2014