N. Korea begins regular wintertime drills, no unusual signs detected yet: JCS

North Korea has begun regular wintertime military drills, and no unusual movements have been detected so far, the South Korean military said Tuesday. "We believe that North Korea began their regular wintertime drills," Col. Kim Jun-rak, spokesperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), told a regular briefing. The drills have yet to be in full swing, and there are no signs indicating any imminent provocative acts, according to another JCS officer. The communist country usually kicks

Dec. 15, 2020

Defector activist mulls constitutional complaint over ban on anti-Pyongyang leafleting

A high-profile North Korean defector activist is considering filing a constitutional complaint against the recently legislated ban on the sending of anti-Pyongyang leaflets into the communist nation, his lawyer said Tuesday. On Monday night, the National Assembly, controlled by the ruling Democratic Party, passed the bill penalizing the sending of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets into the North despite strong objection by opposition party lawmakers. Critics, including Park Sang-hak, a defect

Dec. 15, 2020

Pompeo says N. Korea a greater threat than Russia in cyber security

North Koreans are consistently trying to break into US servers for classified information, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday, adding North Korea and China pose greater threats than Russia to the US. "It's an ongoing battle, an ongoing struggle to keep our systems safe," the top US diplomat said in an interview with US radio network Breitbart News. Pompeo said the United States faces similar threats from Russian and Chinese actors. "I can't say much other than it's b

Dec. 15, 2020

Panmunjom tours to be suspended again over coronavirus concerns

Tours to the truce village of Panmunjom will be suspended again this week due to coronavirus concerns, the unification ministry said Sunday, just about a month after the program resumed following a yearlong suspension over worries about African swine fever. The ministry made the announcement to suspend the program on Tuesday as South Korea's single-day coronavirus cases broke the 1,000-mark for the first time since the country saw its first COVID-19 case in January. "We have decided to te

Dec. 13, 2020

Man acquitted in retrial 41 years after getting prison term for extolling NK founder

A Seoul court has reversed the prison sentence delivered to a man more than 40 years ago for watching North Korean propaganda TV content and praising the communist country's late founder, judicial sources said Saturday. The man was initially convicted of violating the now-defunct anti-communist security law and served 10 months behind bars in the 1970s, when anti-communist sentiment was running high in South Korea. In a recent retrial of the case, the Seoul Central District Court found him, no

Dec. 12, 2020

US reaffirms commitment to complete denuclearization of N. Korea: State Dept.

US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun has reaffirmed his country's continued commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea, the State Department said Friday. Biegun, while meeting with top South Korean officials in Seoul, also confirmed the United States' commitment to coordinating its denuclearization efforts with South Korea. "During his meetings with senior ROK officials in Seoul, Deputy Secretary Biegun expressed appreciation for the ROK's continued partnership in C

Dec. 12, 2020

Dismantlement of Yongbyon complex should not be underrated: US expert

The dismantling of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex should not be underestimated in the denuclearization process, an American nuclear expert said Friday. Siegfried Hecker, known for his 2010 visit to the Yongbyon complex, made the remarks during a video conference with Unification Minister Lee In-young and Moon Chung-in, special foreign policy adviser to President Moon Jae-in, also stressing the need for a "flexible approach" in dealing with the North, including sanctions relief

Dec. 11, 2020

[Newsmaker] N. Korea says no confirmed cases of coronavirus as of early Dec.: WHO

North Korea has conducted tests on more than 9,000 people, but there has been no reported outbreak of the coronavirus in the country, a World Health Organization report showed Friday. The North has conducted tests on 9,373 people and claims that no cases have been reported as of Dec. 3, according to the agency's latest weekly situation report on COVID-19. Nearly half of those tested had influenza like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) or were people who developed fev

Dec. 11, 2020

N. Korea bans smoking in restaurants, bus stops and public squares

North Korea has designated restaurants, bus stops, public squares and other venues as nonsmoking areas after adopting an anti-smoking law last month, a propaganda outlet said Friday. DPRK Today, one of the North's propaganda websites, pointed out that smoking is banned in several public spaces, including hotels, stores, restaurants, public baths, cinemas, libraries, gymnasiums, public squares and (bus) stops. Also designated as nonsmoking areas are ideological education centers, nurseries, sc

Dec. 11, 2020

Biegun says diplomacy 'best' and 'only' course to resolving NK challenges

US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said Thursday that diplomacy remains the "best" and "only" course to address the North Korean nuclear quandary, calling for Pyongyang to return to dialogue. Biegun, who doubles as Washington's top nuclear envoy, made the remarks during a lecture in Seoul recapping his yearslong, unfinished negotiations with the North, which he cast as being marked by "setbacks, disappointments and missed opportunities." "As we look

Dec. 10, 2020

Ministry mulling adjustments to Panmunjom tours over virus concerns

The unification ministry considers adjusting a recently resumed tour program to the truce village of Panmunjom amid toughened social distancing measures against the coronavirus, a ministry official said Thursday. The official did not specify what the adjustments might be, but observers say they could include scaling down or suspending the tours altogether in consideration of a recent spike in daily infection cases. "We will announce plans soon for tours starting next week in consideration

Dec. 10, 2020

N. Korea likely to propose beefed-up 'self-reliance' drive at party congress: think tank

North Korea is likely to propose a beefed-up drive for "self-reliance" at the upcoming party congress to bolster its faltering economy under the strain of global sanctions and the fallout from the global pandemic, a Seoul-based think tank said Thursday. The Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University also said that the January-February period will be a "golden time" to make progress in the stalled nuclear talks and inter-Korean ties. The North is expected to ho

Dec. 10, 2020

N. Korea-China trade hits all-time low in Oct. amid pandemic

North Korea's trade with China nose-dived to a record low in October due to Pyongyang's border closure with its ally to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, a report showed Thursday. Exports and imports between the two countries came to $1.7 million in October, down a whopping 99.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the report by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA). The October reading was the lowest monthly tally and down 92 percent from the previous month. North Korea

Dec. 10, 2020

Biegun stresses close cooperation with Seoul in dealing with NK

US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, who doubles as Washington’s point man on North Korea, stressed close bilateral cooperation with Seoul as he reflected over the past years of nuclear diplomacy with North Korea, while meeting senior officials in South Korea on Wednesday. 　   　  Biegun arrived here Tuesday for a four-day trip -- most likely his last visit to Seoul as the No. 2 American diplomat and the US special representative for North Korea, as US President Donald Tr

Dec. 9, 2020

[Newsmaker] NK’s Kim Yo-jong lashes out at South Korean FM for coronavirus remark

Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s powerful younger sister, lashed out at South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha for questioning Pyongyang’s claim that it is free of the coronavirus, warning that she may “pay dearly” for the remarks, state media said Wednesday.   　 Kim was apparently responding to Kang’s remark delivered Saturday at the Manama Dialogue, an annual regional security forum held in Bahrain. Seoul’s top diplomat said that i

Dec. 9, 2020

US sanctions N. Korea over coal smuggling

The US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Tuesday announced sanctions against six trading companies and four vessels over their involvement in North Korea’s illicit trade of coal. The OFAC’s latest move, which comes a day after a US newspaper published US government-provided satellite photos indicating coal trade between North Korea and China, appears to be the Trump administration’s message to Pyongyang that it will not loosen the reins until i

Dec. 9, 2020

NK leader's sister says S. Korean FM will 'pay dearly' for remarks on COVID-19

North Korean leader's sister Kim Yo-Jong on Wednesday slammed South Korea's foreign minister over her recent remarks on Pyongyang's antivirus measures, saying that she will "pay dearly" for them and warning the already frozen inter-Korean relations could get worse. Last week, South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told a forum in Bahrain that the North has been unresponsive to Seoul's calls for cross-border antivirus cooperation, adding that Pyongyang's claim that it has no cor

Dec. 9, 2020

Minister hopes NK agrees to COVID-19 cooperation

Inter-Korean relations could improve in the coming year, and Pyongyang may respond to Seoul’s proposal on dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, Unification Minister Lee In-young predicted Tuesday, saying the situation on the Korean Peninsula was at a tipping point. 　 Lee made the remarks during an interview with local radio broadcaster CBS on Tuesday morning, assessing that the tension between the two Koreas had eased from its peak in early June, when the North demolished the inter-Korea

Dec. 8, 2020

NK, China no longer hiding illicit trade in coal: report

North Korea and China are no longer even trying to avoid international surveillance when trading coal illegally, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Citing senior officials in the US State Department and satellite photos provided by the State Department, the US newspaper said North Korea-flagged vessels have lugged hundreds of coal shipments to China’s Ningbo-Zhoushan area over the past year. North Korea, prohibited from exporting coal under United Nations sanctions since 2017, had

Dec. 8, 2020

[Newsmaker] US says willing to help N. Korea fight coronavirus

The United States will seriously consider helping North Korea contain the spread of the coronavirus if it requests such assistance, Robert O’Brien, US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, said Monday. “They (North Korea) have been reticent to ask for outside help for things in the past but if they did we would certainly look at that very seriously,” O’Brien said in an interview with 19FortyFive, a website on global affairs. He said Pyongyang appears

Dec. 8, 2020