N. Korea issues warning over US military provocations

North Korea's representative told the United Nations-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva last month that Pyongyang stands ready to fight back against any military provocation from the United States, the North's official media reported Saturday.The Korean Central News Agency quoted the North's representative to the UN office in Geneva as telling the plenary meeting of the UN disarmament conference on Tuesday that it is a legitimate right of a sovereign state to take measures to increase

March 3, 2018

US determines NK used chemical weapons: reports

The United States has determined that North Korea used chemical weapons, foreign media reported Saturday, adding it is apparently pointing to the death of the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The Associated Press reported that the finding made by the State Department was posted on the website of the Federal Register and takes effect Monday. With the determination, the US is expected to restrict its assistance to the North, which has already been under multilayered sanctions due t

March 3, 2018

Majority of N. Koreans negative about nuclear program: US survey

The majority of North Koreans are negative about their country's nuclear weapons program, with many of them saying it is not a source of national pride or prosperity, a US survey showed Friday.   The poll, conducted through individual conversations with 50 North Korean citizens in summer and fall last year, found that 43 of the respondents were ambivalent to highly negative about the nuclear development, according to Beyond Parallel, a project of the Center for Strategic and International Studie

March 3, 2018

Who will carry President Moon’s message to North Korea?

With President Moon Jae-in announcing his plan to send a special envoy to North Korea, attention is now on who will carry the president’s message amid Seoul’s efforts to open up direct dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington. 　During his 30-minute telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump late Thursday, Moon said he would send an envoy “soon” in return for the visit by Kim Yo-jung, younger sister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, who invited Moon for a summit in Pyeongyang, the

March 2, 2018

S. Korea previously sent special envoys to NK for summits, nuclear issue

As President Moon Jae-in has unveiled a plan to send a special envoy to North Korea, attention is being paid to what purposes South Korea dispatched special emissaries in the past.Since the 2000s, the South has sent special envoys to North Korea either to prepare for inter-Korean summits or to help resolve North Korea's nuclear issue.Moon said Thursday during a phone conversation with US President Donald Trump that he will send a special envoy to the North. The main topic of that conversation wa

March 2, 2018

US, S. Korea in close contact on Seoul's envoy to NK: State Dept.

The US State Department has said that Washington and Seoul are in close contact for a "unified response" to North Korea in relation to South Korea's plan to send a presidential envoy to Pyongyang, a US broadcaster reported Friday.South Korean President Moon Jae-in told his US counterpart Donald Trump over the phone Thursday that he will soon dispatch a special envoy to the North. He expressed the intent while explaining the outcomes of recent visits by a special envoy and a high-level delegation

March 2, 2018

NK denies supplying Syria with chemical weapons equipment

North Korea slammed a UN probe Friday that says Pyongyang has been providing Syria with materials that can be used to manufacture chemical weapons, claiming it has not developed and produced them.The North has supplied to Syria materials that can be used to produce chemical weapons like acid-resistant tiles and valves, and the country sent its missile technicians to Syria's chemical and missile facilities, The New York Times reported last week, citing a UN panel report.A director of the press at

March 2, 2018

NK high-level delegation reiterates position against S. Korea-US military drills

A high-level North Korean Olympic delegation reiterated Pyongyang’s position against the resumption of annual South Korea-US joint military drills during its recent visit to South Korea, Seoul’s Unification Minister was quoted Thursday as saying.  A North Korean high-level delegation led by Kim Yong-chol, the head of the United Front Department. (Yonhap)Asked whether the North Korean delegation expressed any concerns about the exercises, Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said the North expres

March 1, 2018

Pro-NK newspaper: US should create 'right conditions' for talks with N. Korea

A pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan said Thursday that the United States should create the right conditions if it wants talks with the North, claiming Pyongyang never begged for dialogue with the US.The possibility of talks between Washington and Pyongyang surfaced after a senior North Korean official, Kim Yong-chol, said during meetings with South Korean officials earlier this week that Pyongyang is willing to hold talks with the US.US President Donald Trump said in response that talks are po

March 1, 2018

Hill slams Trump administration over handling of NK threat

WASHINGTON -- A former senior US diplomat slammed the Donald Trump administration Wednesday for what he called a lack of recognition of the South Korea-US alliance in the face of North Korea's growing nuclear threat.Christopher Hill, who served in the 2000s as Washington's chief envoy to the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program, said he would like to see a greater commitment from the administration toward the alliance."This is not about a series of transactions. This is about a relat

March 1, 2018

Koreas' religious groups exchange messages for Independence Movement Day

The religious groups of the two Koreas have exchanged congratulatory messages for the March 1 Independence Movement Day for the first time amid a growing mood of detente driven by the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.(Yonhap)The South's Celebratory Committee of the March 1 Independence Movement said Wednesday it exchanged statements with a religious coalition of the North. The messages will be read out, during the anniversary events for the 1919 anti-Japan movement, in Seoul and Pyongyang on Thursday

Feb. 28, 2018

Cheonan sinking was orchestrated by intelligence agency led by Kim Yong-chul: defense chief

With criticism mounting over a visit by North Korea’s former spymaster suspected of having orchestrated attacks on South Korea, Seoul’s defense chief confirmed Wednesday that Kim Yong-chol’s organization was behind the sinking of a South Korean warship in 2010. During a meeting with lawmakers Wednesday, Defense Minister Song Young-moo said South Korea’s Cheonan warship was torpedoed by North Korea’s Yeono-class midget submarine belonging to that country’s top intelligence agency Reconnaissance G

Feb. 28, 2018

FM Kang soon to meet Tillerson in effort to broker talks between Pyongyang, Washington

GENEVA -- Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha will soon meet with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in the United States as Seoul ramps up efforts to broker dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang, the ministry has said."I am trying to talk to my counterpart Tillerson whenever there's the chance and time. ... (The two sides) are currently discussing the meeting to take place in the near future," Kang said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency in Geneva on Tuesday.She was on a three-day visit t

Feb. 28, 2018

Moon’s special adviser calls for ‘maximum prudence’ on NK

South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s special adviser has called for “maximum prudence” in dealing with North Korea’s nuclear program, warning Washington’s maximum pressure campaign would only worsen the military standoff between the US and North Korea. Presidential foreign affairs and unification adviser Moon Chung-in also urged the Trump administration to separate the North’s nuclear issue from its human rights issues, asserting that such an approach could help Pyongyang return to denuclearizat

Feb. 28, 2018

Sanctions to hit NK economy harder: report

A series of international sanctions will likely plunge the North Korean economy into a deeper slump this year and sharply worsen the living conditions of its citizens, a report said Wednesday.The United States, the United Nations and other nations imposed tough economic sanctions on the reclusive country in retaliation for its nuclear and missile tests last year.Lee Suk, a senior researcher at the state-run Korea Development Institute and one of the report’s authors, said the international sanct

Feb. 28, 2018

NK leaders used Brazilian passports to apply for Western visas

LONDON -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his late father Kim Jong Il used fraudulently obtained Brazilian passports to apply for visas to visit Western countries in the 1990s, five senior Western European security sources told Reuters. While North Korea’s ruling family is known to have used travel documents obtained under false pretences, there are few specific examples. The photocopies of the Brazilian passports seen by Reuters have not been published before. “They used these Brazilian pas

Feb. 28, 2018

US talks possible when NK shows will to denuclearize: envoy

The right condition for the US to engage in dialogue with North Korea is Pyongyang showing willingness to give up its nuclear weapons programs, the acting US ambassador in South Korea said Wednesday. Despite the retirement of Joseph Yun, US special representative for North Korea policy, there is no shift in the US’ North Korea policy that talks with Pyongyang are possible on the condition of denuclearization, Marc Knapper, charge d‘affaires at the US Embassy in Seoul, told reporters. Marc Knappe

Feb. 28, 2018

EU steps up sanctions against N. Korea in line with UN resolution

The European Union said it has tightened its sanctions against North Korea in line with the latest resolution adopted by the United Nations Security Council over the communist country's nuclear and missile programs. In a statement released Monday, the EU said it has completed transposing resolution 2397, adopted by the UNSC in December last year, into its law to strengthen restrictive measures against North Korea. Ju Yong Choi, Counselor at North Korea's Mission to UN Geneva, listens during the

Feb. 27, 2018

Kim Jong-nam believed life in danger before hit, court told

The half-brother of North Korea's leader expressed fears for his life months before he was assassinated in Malaysia in a Cold War-style hit, a court heard Tuesday. The chilling new detail emerged at the trial of two women, Siti Aisyah from Indonesia and Doan Thi Huong from Vietnam, who are accused of murdering Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13 last year. Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, center, is escorted by police as she arrives for a court hearing at Shah Alam High Court

Feb. 27, 2018

Japan reports fresh suspected N. Korea sanctions breach

Japan has reported a fresh suspected sanctions violation by Pyongyang to the UN after spotting an apparent cargo transfer involving a North Korean tanker, the Japanese foreign ministry said Tuesday.The statement came after US President Donald Trump rolled out what he called the "heaviest sanctions ever" levied on the Pyongyang regime, designed to put the squeeze on North Korea's already precarious economy and fuel supply. The screenshot snapped Tuesday by Yonhap News Agency at the Japanese Forei

Feb. 27, 2018