Dismantlement of NK missile test site to have ‘positive effect’ on denuclearization: Cheong Wa Dae

Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday said it believes North Korea’s reported decision to dismantle a key nuclear test site will have a “good effect” on denuclearization, seeing it as a step forward amid the perceived lack of progress in US-North Korea talks. Pyongyang began dismantling key facilities at its Sohae satellite launching station, including a rocket engine test stand and a rail-mounted processing building, where space launch vehicles were assembled before being transferred to the launch pad, acco

July 24, 2018

S. Korean team visits N. Korea to inspect railways in western region

A group of South Korean officials visited North Korea on Tuesday to inspect railway conditions in the western region as part of efforts to modernize and eventually connect railways over the inter-Korean border.The 15-member team, headed by Hwang Sung-gyu, a senior transportation ministry official, crossed into the North at around 8:30 a.m. on a bus, according to a unification ministry official.The team is to conduct a joint inspection with North Korean officials on the 15.3 kilometer-long railwa

July 24, 2018

N. Korea begins dismantling rocket test site: analysts

WASHINGTON -- North Korea appears to have started dismantling key facilities at a rocket-engine test center, a group of experts said Monday, potentially marking a significant step after last month‘s summit between Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump.According to the 38 North group, commercial satellite imagery of the Sohae satellite launching station indicates Pyongyang has begun taking down a processing building and a rocket-engine test stand that had been used to test liquid-fuel engines

July 24, 2018

US says peace regime with NK after denuclearization

WASHINGTON -- The United States said Monday that any peace regime with North Korea will come only after Pyongyang has dismantled its nuclear weapons program.The comment by a State Department spokesperson comes as denuclearization talks have stalled amid North Korea's demands for a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War.The conflict, in which the US fought alongside South Korea, ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the two sides technically at war."Peace on the Korean Peninsula is a g

July 24, 2018

N. Korea to hold conference of Korean War veterans

North Korea plans to hold a national conference of war veterans this year to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, its state media said Tuesday."Taking part in the conference will be war veterans across the country who honorably defended the dignity and sovereignty of the country and made a miraculous victory in the war," the Korean Central News Agency said in English. The conference, the fifth of its kind, will be held in Pyongyang. The KCNA didn't provide other d

July 24, 2018

US ambassador to Seoul stresses synchronization on nuke issues

United States Ambassador Harry Harris stressed the allies’s synchronization in dealings with North Korea‘s nuclear issues in a meeting with Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon on Monday.“I think it is important that we work together in synchronization,” Harris, who made a courtesy call on Cho after taking office on July 7, said ahead of the meeting with Cho.  South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon (left) and US Ambassador to Seoul Harry Harris (right). (Yonhap)“The Korea-US alliance

July 23, 2018

Blue House refutes reports of negligence in NK coal import

Cheong Wa Dae on Monday said the government has been looking into North Korean coal being imported since October, refuting reports that the presidential office had sat on the information for four months. “(Cheong Wa Dae) has been receiving information since immediately after North Korean coal was brought (into South Korea) in October,” Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said. “Since then, the matter has been under investigation, with the customs office taking the central role. (The investigat

July 23, 2018

Korean Air terrorist faces libel suit

Families of the victims of the 1987 terror attack orchestrated by North Korea filed a lawsuit against Kim Hyon-hui, who was convicted of the attack, on Monday for libel and obstruction of business, nearly three decades after the incident took place. The bombing of Korean Air Flight 858 shocked the nation, as the flight exploded mid-air over Myanmar on its way from Baghdad, Iraq, to Seoul, killing all 115 passengers and crew aboard, who were mostly South Koreans. (Yonhap)The Chun Doo-hwan adminis

July 23, 2018

NK media call for Seoul's active efforts to formally end Korean War

North Korea's media intensified its demands on Monday for South Korea to implement its summit agreement to work toward declaring an end to the Korean War, calling it a "historic task" that cannot be delayed anymore.South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed in their April 27 summit to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War this year, replacing the armistice that halted the hostilities with a peace treaty for permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula."Given that the

July 23, 2018

[Newsmaker] Two Koreas form panel to bring home remains of colonial-era forced laborers from Japan

Civic groups from South and North Korea have formed a committee to bring home the remains of Koreans forced into hard labor in Japan during the 1910-45 colonial era, a leading organizer of the project here said Sunday.Kim Hong-gul, head of the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation (KCRC), told reporters that he and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Yong-dae, a vice president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, signed an agreement for the joint project in Pyongyang on W

July 22, 2018

NK tirades may indicate dismay over sanctions, lack of progress in cross-border exchanges

North Korea's recent series of tirades against South Korea appear to indicate its discomfort over Seoul's adherence to the international sanctions regime and a lack of progress in cross-border exchanges, analysts in Seoul said Sunday.From discounting South Korean President Moon Jae-in's recent remarks on peace efforts as "useless instructions" to slamming his economic policy, the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North's ruling Workers' Party, has sharpened its rhetoric.However, it showed sign

July 22, 2018

Moon's security adviser on way home from US visit

Chung Eui-yong, South Korea's presidential security adviser, is set to arrive in Seoul on Sunday after his two-day visit to the United States apparently aimed at facilitating denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang.After arriving in Washington on Friday, Chung held talks with his counterpart John Bolton possibly over a range of issues such as how to maintain the current momentum for dialogue with the communist state amid reports on a lack of progress in the North's denuclearizati

July 22, 2018

US struggling to convert N.Korea promises into progress: experts

The US appeal at the United Nations for "full enforcement" of sanctions against North Korea underscored the difficulty of attaining real progress on denuclearization, more than a month after the much-vaunted Donald Trump-Kim Jong Un summit.In their joint declaration after the historic meeting June 12 in Singapore, the North Korean leader "reaffirmed his commitment" to the "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." But the actual details of the process, including how and by what timetab

July 22, 2018

Unified Korean team wins mixed doubles ping pong title

DAEJEON -- A unified Korean team captured the mixed doubles table tennis title at an international tournament in Daejeon on Saturday.The duo of Jang Woo-jin (South Korea) and Cha Hyo-sim (NorthKorea) defeated Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha of China 3-1 (5-11, 11-3, 11-4, 11-8) in the mixed doubles final at the International Table Tennis Federation World Tour Platinum Korea Open in the city, 160 kilometers south of Seoul.Cha Hyo-sim (left) of North Korea and Jang Woo-jin of South Korea hold up their

July 21, 2018

S. Korean foreign minister vows to see NK denuclearization through

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON -- South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said Friday she seeks to ensure North Korea delivers on its promise to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.Kang was in New York to meet with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and member states of the UN Security Council over the latest developments since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made a commitment earlier this year during his summits with the South Korean and US presidents to the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean

July 21, 2018

US presses China and Russia to enforce sanctions on North Korea

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The United States on Friday welcomed the UN Security Council’s united support for the fully verified denuclearization of North Korea and pressed China and Russia to strictly enforce UN sanctions to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused North Korea of violating an array of tough sanctions imposed by the council. He warned that “when sanctions are not enforced, the prospects for the successful denuclearization of North Korea a

July 21, 2018

Trump signs NK human rights act into law

WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump on Friday signed into law a bill designed to promote human rights in North Korea.The legislation, called the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2017, renews a law that was first adopted in 2004 during the George W. Bush administration. It will be in effect until 2022.US President Donald Trump (AP-Yonhap)“This legislation is intended to promote human rights and freedom in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” Trump said in a statement re

July 21, 2018

President Moon vows independence for spy agency

President Moon Jae-in on Friday pledged to guarantee the independence of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and help the agency stay free from politics.   "I certainly promise that the government will never use the NIS for political purposes," Moon said after receiving a report from the spy agency. "I will never exact loyalty from you."   The briefing marked the first official report from the NIS since Moon took office in May 2017, though Cheong Wa Dae, especially the National Security Offi

July 20, 2018

Unified Korean men's doubles team loses in semis, takes bronze

A unified Korean men's doubles ping pong team settled for the bronze medal after losing in the semifinals of an international tournament in South Korea on Friday.   The duo of Lee Sang-su (South Korea) and Pak Sin-hyok (North Korea) lost to Ho Kwan Kit and Wong Chun Ting of Hong Kong at the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour Platinum Korea Open in Daejeon, 160 kilometers south of Seoul. The top-seeded Ho and Wong beat Lee and Pak 3-0 (11-9, 11-9, 11-8) at Chungmu Sports Aren

July 20, 2018

Unified ping-pong team heads into mixed doubles final

DAEJEON -- A unified Korean mixed doubles ping-pong team advanced to the finals Friday, propelled by thunderous cheers and applause from South Korean spectators. At the semifinals that kicked off around noon, the impeccable teamwork of Jang Woo-jin of South Korea and Cha Hyo-sim of North Korea caught Taiwan’s Chen Chien-An and Cheng I-Ching off guard with a score of 3-2 (6-11, 11-5, 16-14, 11-6, 11-4) at the International Table Tennis Federation World Tour Platinum Korea Open in Daejeon, 160 kil

July 20, 2018