UN food aid to N. Korea still underfunded despite some growth

The U.N.'s food aid to North Korea has been on the rise in recent months, but its program remains seriously underfunded, a news report said Wednesday.The World Food Program (WFP) provided North Korea with around 2,300 tons of food assistance last month, only half of its target amount, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA) based in Washington D.C.It marks a 10-percent increase from 2,075 tons delivered to the communist nation in August.The number of North Korean kids and pregnant women who received

Oct. 8, 2014

U.S. expects progress in inter-Korean ties

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) ― The weekend visit to the South by a group of three top North Korean officials might not have come as a surprise to the United States because officials from Seoul have suggested to Washington that they are trying to make progress with Pyongyang, an expert said Monday.The three officials ― Hwang Pyong-so, Choe Ryong-hae and Kim Yang-gon ― made a one-day surprise trip to the South’s western city of Incheon on Saturday to attend the closing ceremony of the Asian Games, where No

Oct. 7, 2014

S. Korea, Ivory Coast agree to bolster economic cooperation

South Korea and Ivory Coast agreed Tuesday to strengthen economic cooperation as Seoul is turning to resource-rich Africa for new business opportunities to boost its sagging economy.The two sides inked a memorandum of understanding meant to expand trade and investment between the two countries after a summit between South Korean President Park Geun-hye and her Ivory Coast counterpart, Alassane Ouattara, in Seoul.The summit is part of South Korea's push to engage with Africa in recent years. Park

Oct. 7, 2014

U.N. official urges Seoul to further address racism

A U.N. special rapporteur on racism and discrimination on Monday recommended that South Korea ratify the international convention on protecting rights of migrant workers, saying that there are "serious problems" of racial discrimination in the country.Mutuma Ruteere, U.N. special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, is in Seoul to do research on situations involving racial discrimination, marking his first visit to South Korea. He

Oct. 6, 2014

Park urges regular inter-Korean talks to improve ties

President Park Geun-hye called Monday for regular inter-Korean talks to improve relations following a surprise visit to South Korea by top North Korean officials."I hope that the two Koreas will open the door for peace through dialogue on the occasion of the visit," Park said in a meeting with her top aides.Her comments came two days after the North Koreans met with South Korean officials in Incheon, a port city west of Seoul, on the sidelines of the closing ceremony for the Asian Games.The two

Oct. 6, 2014

U.N. biodiversity convention opens in Pyeongchang

A United Nations convention on biodiversity kicked off in the eastern city of Pyeongchang on Monday, bringing together government officials, environmentalists and businesspeople from around the world.The 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, also called the COP 12, will run until Oct. 17, with some 20,000 representatives from 124 countries attending.The conference themed "Biodiversity for Sustainable Development" aims to give midterm evaluations

Oct. 6, 2014

Seoul, Washington to have talks on N. Korea, security issues

Senior U.S. government officials handling Korean affairs were to have talks with South Korean officials Monday on ways to beef up the alliance between the two countries and other pending issues such as North Korea, Seoul officials said.Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel and Assistant Secretary of Defense David Shear arrived in Seoul on Sunday to hold talks with South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Lee Kyung-soo early Monday, according to Seoul's foreign ministry.The

Oct. 6, 2014

Korea, Japan resume strategic talks

South Korea and Japan held a strategic dialogue in Tokyo on Wednesday for the first time in nearly two years to discuss an array of bilateral issues and North Korea's nuclear program, Seoul's foreign ministry said.Seoul's First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yong met with his Japanese counterpart, Akitaka Saiki, for talks on pending bilateral, regional and global issues, including the situation on the Korean Peninsula, officials said. The meeting comes as bilateral relations have been at their lo

Oct. 1, 2014

U.S. says cannot confirm rumors of N.K. coup

The United States said Monday it cannot confirm rumors of a military coup in North Korea that have spread widely amid growing questions about leader Kim Jong-un’s prolonged absence from public view.Kim has not been seen in public for nearly a month, leading to rumors that a military coup has broken out in North Korea and Kim has been arrested. Other rumors have it that Kim suffered a sort of stroke just as his late father, Kim Jong-il, did in 2008.“I can just say that I have no confirmation of t

Sept. 30, 2014

S. Korea notifies WTO of plan to liberalize rice market via tarrification

South Korea on Tuesday formally notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Tuesday it will open its rice market starting next year with a 513 percent tariff rate."The government has submitted to the WTO secretariat its plan to revise the country's tariff rate on rice imports ahead of market opening through tarrification that will go into effect Jan. 1, 2015," the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said in a press release.The move comes as a special agreement with the WTO that allowed the

Sept. 30, 2014

N. Korea, Japan set for fresh talks on abductions

Senior diplomats from North Korea and Japan were set to resume a fresh round of talks on Monday as Pyongyang snubs Tokyo's demand to quickly produce a preliminary report on the North's probe into the fate of more than a dozen Japanese nationals it has admitted to kidnapping decades ago. North Korea agreed in May to re-investigate the issue of Japanese nationals kidnapped by the North's agents in the 1970s and 1980s. In return, Japan lifted some of its unilateral sanctions imposed on the North ov

Sept. 29, 2014