South Korea has resumed defense cost-sharing talks with the new chief of the US negotiation team, but no meaningful progress has been reached yet.  Jeong Eun-bo, Seoul’s top negotiator for the talks, has been communicating with his new US counterpart Donna Welton via phone and email from early this month, according to the Foreign Ministry on Thursday.  But the two sides are said to have confirmed differences in their positions, while agreeing to continue communication to reso

Foreign Affairs Aug. 20, 2020

A group of civic and religious organizations here urged the Seoul government to send 14 aged North Korean spies and prisoners of war back to the North this year. 2020 marks the 20th anniversary of the first and last such large-scale repatriation. 　 The 14 North Koreans have been held in South Korean prisons for decades for refusing to abjure communism. Most are now in their 80s, and the majority of North Koreans held for similar reasons were released in the early 2000s. 　 Local organizations i

North Korea Aug. 19, 2020

Seoul’s Unification Ministry said Wednesday that it will justify its decision to revoke the operating permit of a defector-led group that sent anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border, in response to a recent court ruling suspending the government action. 　 “We respect the judiciary’s decision, which approved suspension of the ministry’s action,” Yoh Sang-key, the ministry’s spokesperson, said during a regular briefing Wednesday. “During the main laws

North Korea Aug. 19, 2020

Unification Minister Lee In-young met with US Ambassador Harry Harris on Tuesday, seeking support from the US for South Korea’s push for inter-Korean cooperation projects, and called for adjustments to the South Korea-US working group that coordinates North Korea policy.  It was the first time the minister had met with a foreign envoy since he took office last month.  During the meeting, Lee reiterated his stance of wanting to start with humanitarian cooperation and small-sca

North Korea Aug. 18, 2020

North Korea is set to convene a key meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party on Wednesday to discuss a “crucial” matter as the reclusive regime is grappling with severe flood damage and the COVID-19 pandemic amid a failing economy under international sanctions.  Top party officials will decide on the issue of “crucial significance in developing the Korean revolution and increasing the party’s fighting efficiency” during the plenary meeting of its central c

North Korea Aug. 18, 2020

A South Korean court has dismissed an appeal filed by a Japanese steelmaker against a ruling that authorized the seizure of its assets in Korea to compensate victims of wartime forced labor. 　 The Daegu District Court’s Pohang branch said Monday that it had found “no reason” to accept the appeal by Nippon Steel, formerly known as Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal. The decision, however, is not final and the case now moves to a higher court of appeal in Daegu. 　 Nippon Steel

Foreign Affairs Aug. 17, 2020

South Korea and the US are set to kick off their annual summertime combined military exercises on Tuesday, with drills to be reduced in scope due to the coronavirus pandemic. 　 The computer-simulated Combined Command Post Training will start Tuesday and run until Aug. 28, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement Sunday, while “comprehensively taking into consideration the COVID-19 situation.” 　 The joint exercise was initially scheduled to start Sunday, but the date was pushed

Defense Aug. 17, 2020

Caught in a spiraling spat between the US and China, South Korea should balance its strategy to maintain the alliance with its longtime ally the US and at the same time prosper from the Chinese economy, a renowned American political scientist said Thursday.  Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University professor emeritus who served as assistant secretary of defense for international security under former US President Bill Clinton, said South Korea, sandwiched between larger countries like China and

Foreign Affairs Aug. 13, 2020

Flooding in North Korea may have damaged the facilities at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, the communist regime’s main nuclear facility, a US-based North Korean monitoring website said Thursday. 　 Comparing satellite images of the region taken July 22 and Aug. 6, the website, 38 North, said they show a dramatic rise in the water level of the Kuryong River, which runs alongside the Yongbyon complex, and that the flooding appears to be the worst the North has seen in several years. 　 &ldquo

North Korea Aug. 13, 2020

The United Nations said it is willing to help North Korea recover from severe flood damage, and is in contact with authorities there. 　 “In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the unusually heavy rains this month have resulted in flooding,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters during a regular briefing on Tuesday (US time), referring to North Korea by its formal name. 　 “The UN team is in contact with authorities and stands ready to support its response

North Korea Aug. 12, 2020

While Germany welcomes South Korea’s participation in an upcoming Group of Seven summit in the US, it opposes the expansion of the setting if Russia is readmitted, the Foreign Ministry in Seoul quoted the country’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas as saying. 　 Maas made the remarks during his meeting in Berlin on Monday (local time) with South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung-wha. 　 The German official called South Korea an “important country in the world that shares values with Ger

Foreign Affairs Aug. 11, 2020

  South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha is in Berlin on her first overseas trip in six months since the coronavirus outbreak. 　 The Korean official was set to hold a meeting with German counterpart Heiko Maas on Monday morning (local time) to discuss various issues, including the two countries’ responses to the pandemic, bilateral ties, people-to-people exchanges and other international issues, according to the Foreign Ministry  　 Kang flew to the German capital Sunday

Foreign Affairs Aug. 10, 2020

Days of torrential downpours have flooded hundreds of houses and vast rice fields in North Korea, with damage expected to grow further, dealing a blow to a regime already grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic and a flailing economy under international sanctions.  Nearly 730 homes and 600 hectares of rice fields have been flooded. Some 179 houses were destroyed in Taechong-ri, Unpha County, northwest of capital Pyongyang, after a water levee broke due to the heavy rains, according to the No

North Korea Aug. 7, 2020

South Korea on Thursday decided to send $10 million in aid to North Korea via the World Food Program to address the nutrition needs of women and babies there, as the government seeks more engagements to break an inter-Korean impasse. 　 The decision was approved during a civilian-government committee on inter-Korean exchanges presided over by new Unification Minister Lee In-young, marking the first time that Seoul has reached out to the North since Lee was sworn into office last month. 　 Thro

North Korea Aug. 6, 2020

The South Korean Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said that there were no reports so far of South Korean casualties in a huge explosion in the Lebanese capital Beirut that left more than 100 people dead and more than 4,000 injured. 　 On Tuesday, two massive explosions at port warehouses storing highly explosive materials rocked the Port of Beirut, shaking buildings across the capital and sending a giant mushroom cloud into the sky. It is still unclear what exactly caused the blast, according to t

Foreign Affairs Aug. 5, 2020