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N. Korea warns Seoul not to wreck Kaesong industrial complex
North Korea warned Tuesday that if South Korea moves to shut down a joint industrial complex at the center of new friction between the two sides, it will never be pardoned. The two Koreas are at loggerheads over how to do with the joint industrial complex in the North's border city of Kaesong whose future has been thrown into doubt after both sides withdrew all of their manpower from the zone. In a commentary by its government newspaper Minju Joson, North Korea argued that the current troubl
April 30, 2013
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N.K. urges U.S. action to end nuclear standoff
North Korea on Tuesday urged the United States to take steps to fundamentally end the nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula.The Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, said in a commentary that Washington is to blame for the current crisis and as such it must make the first move to resolve the impasse.Speculations that Pyongyang wants to use its nuclear capability as a bargaining chip in negotiations are based on ignorance of the true intent of the country, it added. “O
April 30, 2013
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Pyongyang glitters, but most of North Korea still dark
PYONGYANG (AP) ― The heart of this city, once famous for its Dickensian darkness, now pulsates with neon.Glossy new construction downtown has altered the Pyongyang skyline. Inside supermarkets where shopgirls wear faux French designer labels, people with money can buy Italian wine, Swiss chocolates, kiwifruit imported from New Zealand and fresh-baked croissants. They can get facials, lie in tanning booths, play a round of mini golf or sip cappuccinos.Nearly 2 million people are using cell phones
April 30, 2013
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Gaeseong complex hangs in the balance
The fate of the Gaeseong industrial park appeared to be hanging in the balance on Tuesday as Seoul remained firm that the inter-Korean project cannot normalize without Pyongyang showing change and accepting dialogue. “It is pointless to normalize operations at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex if it entails accepting unreasonable claims and preconditions,” Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae told a gathering of the National Unification Advisory Council.“Operations at Gaeseong will return to normal
April 30, 2013
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Seven left behind at Gaeseong due to disputes over payment
Seven South Koreans were left at the Gaeseong industrial park late Monday after the two Koreas failed to reach an agreement over back pay, income tax and telecom fees. The last 50 South Koreans in Gaeseong initially planned to leave the suspended factory zone at around 5 p.m. but Pyongyang demanded they first pay some $7.2 million in overdue wages for North Korean workers for March, telecom bills and income taxes for businesses. After hours of negotia the two sides agreed that 43 will return f
April 29, 2013
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S. Korean workers face delay in leaving Gaeseong complex
The return home of the last group of South Koreans from a suspended inter-Korean industrial complex in North Korea was being delayed Monday for reasons that were not clearly explained.More than 400 South Korean workers and managers have returned home since April 9 when North Korea unilaterally withdrew all of its 53,000 workers from the South Korean-run factory zone in the North's border city of Gaeseong in anger over U.S.-involved military exercises in the South.The last group of 50 South Korea
April 29, 2013
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Park slams N.K. as 'too unpredictable'
South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Monday lashed out at North Korea, calling it "too unpredictable" over its unilateral suspension of a jointly run factory complex, saying there is nothing Pyongyang can achieve unless it becomes responsible about its promises.Park made the remark during a meeting with two U.S. lawmakers -- Rep. Steve Chabot, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, and Rep. Eni Faleomavaega, a Democrat from American Samoa -- calling on the
April 29, 2013
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N.K. missile launch preparations still underway: Seoul
North Korea is still working on preparations for a medium-range ballistic missile launch, South Korea’s presidential office said Monday, denying a news report that the communist nation halted such preparations.For weeks, North Korea showed signs of preparing to fire the missile, known as “Musudan,” which is believed to be capable of reaching as far as the U.S territory of Guam, in what outside experts suspect as an attempt at demonstrating its capability to launch nuclear missiles.Pyongyang had
April 29, 2013
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Gaeseong pullout cuts off one of few inter-Korean links
The withdrawal of South Koreans from the joint industrial park in Gaeseong would leave the two Koreas with no means of official bilateral communications, further dampening the prospects of reconciliation.The absence of regular contact channels would augment challenges to the Seoul government, which has sought dialogue-based trust building to mend fences with the reclusive state, experts said.For North Korea, the suspension of the complex has reaffirmed that the unruly state was not a reliable an
April 29, 2013
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Seoul moves to ease financial woes of Gaeseong companies
In the wake of a complete suspension of the Gaeseong industrial park, South Korea launched a pan-government task force on Monday to craft ways to alleviate companies’ financial woes and help them map out their futures. Fifty remaining South Koreans planned to come home at around 5 p.m. but their schedules were delayed due to “operational” matters, Unification Ministry officials said. They followed 125 who returned the day after the government’s decision Friday to withdraw all its citizens from t
April 29, 2013
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N. Korea warns S. Korea of final action against Gaeseong park
North Korea warned Monday that it could take final and decisive action against a suspended inter-Korean industrial complex if South Korea follows through with removing the remaining 50 South Korean workers from the site.The warning came after South Korea's unification ministry said Friday that all remaining personnel at the complex in the North's border city of Gaeseong will be withdrawn after Pyongyang rejected talks aimed at normalizing the zone.The Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Worker
April 29, 2013
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Gov't launches task force on Gaeseong firms
South Korea set up a task force Monday to support companies hit by the suspension of a joint inter-Korean industrial park in the North Korean border town of Gaeseong, officials here said.The move follows Seoul's decision on Friday to pull its workers from the Gaeseong Industrial Complex over Pyongyang's rejection of an offer for dialogue. Out of a total of 175 South Koreans, 125 returned home the following day along with one Chinese national who was there with them. The remaining 50 South Korean
April 29, 2013
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N.K. charges American in plot to overthrow regime
PYONGYANG (AP) ― North Korea announced Saturday that an American detained for nearly six months is being tried in the Supreme Court on charges of plotting to overthrow the government, a crime that could draw the death penalty if he is convicted.The case involving Kenneth Bae, who has been in North Korean custody since early November, further complicates already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington following weeks of heightened rhetoric and tensions. The trial mirrors a similar situ
April 28, 2013
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Pyongyang unlikely to close Gaeseong first: observers
Despite its menacing rhetoric, North Korea is unlikely to move first to shut down the inter-Korean joint industrial park in Gaeseong, which would fatally harm investor confidence and further worsen its economic isolation, experts said.As Seoul decided to withdraw all of its citizens from the complex on Friday following Pyongyang’s rejection of dialogue, the park, the last remaining symbol of cross-border cooperation, appeared to be edging closer to its end.“Among its major special economic zones
April 28, 2013
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Seoul focuses on safety of Gaeseong assets, compensation to firms
With South Korean citizens withdrawing from the inter-Korean industrial park in Gaeseong over the weekend, the Seoul government faces a double whammy of challenges of protecting business assets from the North’s possible seizure and meeting the companies’ demand for huge compensation for the suspension. All of the 126 workers including one Chinese returned to the South in 63 vehicles on Saturday, a day after the government decided to withdraw all South Korean citizens from the park following Pyon
April 28, 2013
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U.S. fully understands, supports Seoul's decision to withdraw from Gaeseong: official
South Korea's foreign ministry said Sunday that the United States fully understands and supports the country's decision to withdraw all of its personnel from the inter-Korean industrial complex after no progress was made to negotiate an end to the stalemate regarding the halt of allbusiness operations. It said Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, who met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns the day before, explained developments leading up to the pull-out of South Korean workers from th
April 28, 2013
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S. Korea should take full responsibility for shutdown of joint
A North Korean official said Saturday that South Korea should be held responsible if a troubled inter-Korean industrial complex in the communist country is shut down permanently. In a report by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), monitored in Seoul, the official, in his capacity as a spokesperson for the General Bureau for the Special Zone Development Guidance, said responsibility should squarely rest with South Korea if the complex is folded. The warning came as South Korea began pullin
April 28, 2013
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Timetable not decided on when to discuss resumption of six-party
South Korea's foreign ministry said Saturday that no decision has been made yet on when to hold a three-way meeting among Seoul, Washington and Tokyo to discuss the resumption of long-stalled talks on denuclearizing North Korea. Japan's Asahi Shimbun had reported earlier that U.S. nuclear envoy Glyn Davis called his Japanese counterpart on Friday to discuss the stalled six-party talks. The U.S. has been discussing the issue periodically with its two major Asian allies. "It is our turn this
April 28, 2013
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S. Korean workers return home from Gaeseong
More South Korean workers returned home from North Korea Saturday, a day after their government decided to pull all of them out of a troubled joint industrial complex in the communist country following Pyongyang's rejection ofan offer for dialogue. A total of 175 South Koreans were staying at the Kaesong Industrial Complex in the North's border city of the same name when the Seoul government announced its decision to pull them out on Friday. Of them, 125 returned home on Saturday together wi
April 27, 2013
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N. Korea says it will try detained Korean-American for 'crimes'
North Korea said Saturday it will try a Korean-American detained in Pyongyang for unspecified "crimes" he has admitted to committing.In a short dispatch, Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), monitored in Seoul, said Pae Jun-ho will soon be taken to the North's Supreme Court to face trial.The report said the preliminary inquiry into Pae's crimes has been closed. It said Pae entered Rason City in the North on Nov. 3 of last year and was arrested "for committing crimes" against the commun
April 27, 2013