NK to send delegation, athletes to Winter Paralympics

North Korea will send a delegation including athletes to the upcoming PyeongChang Paralympic Games in South Korea, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said Tuesday, which marks the reclusive nation’s first participation in the Winter Paralympics. North Korean delegation that attended the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics. (Yonhap)North Korea’s decision came as a result of Tuesday’s inter-Korean working-level talks and amid Seoul’s efforts to keep the momentum of rapprochement from the Winter Olympics

Feb. 27, 2018

Top US envoy on N. Korean nukes to retire this week: report

The top United States negotiator on the North Korean nuclear issue will retire this week, a foreign news report said Tuesday.The 63-year-old Special Representative for North Korea Policy Joseph Yun will retire at the end of the week, CNN reported."It was completely my decision to retire at this time," Yun was quoted as telling CNN. He also said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had accepted his resignation. (Yonhap)He was appointed to the current post in October 2016 under the previous President

Feb. 27, 2018

North Korean delegation returns

The North Korean delegation led by Kim Yong-chol returned to the North on Tuesday, after repeatedly stating Pyongyang’s willingness to talk with the US.Ahead of the departure, the North Koreans met with South Korean officials including Minister of Unification Cho Myoung-gyon and National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon. According to the Unification Ministry, the two sides agreed to cooperate in improving inter-Korean relations and to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula. Once back in the

Feb. 27, 2018

Koreas hold talks on NK's participation in Paralympics

South and North Korea held working-level talks Tuesday to discuss details of the North's participation in the Paralympics to be held in the South next month.Officials from the two sides met at the Tongilgak administrative building on the northern side of the Demilitarized Zone that bisects the two Koreas, according to Seoul's unification ministry.At last month's inter-Korean talks, the North agreed to send a 150-member delegation, including athletes, an art troupe and cheerleaders, to the March

Feb. 27, 2018

Trump says talks with N. Korea only under right conditions

WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump said Monday that talks with North Korea are possible only under the right conditions.His remark comes after the communist regime twice stated its willingness to hold dialogue with Washington over the weekend."They want to talk. And we want to talk also, only under the right conditions. Otherwise, we're not talking," Trump said at a meeting with US state governors at the White House.He did not elaborate on what the conditions would be, but slammed previous

Feb. 27, 2018

S. Korea-US military drills to resume after Paralympics: US official

The United States will resume military exercises with South Korea after the Paralympic Games in March, the Japanese media reported Monday, citing a US defense official. Randall Schriver, US assistant secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, told Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera that the joint drills would kick off after the Paralympics end on March 18, according to the Japanese Kyodo News Agency. Highlighting that there is no indication that North Korea would give u

Feb. 26, 2018

NK unveils list of its delegates for talks with South on Paralympics

North Korea on Monday unveiled a list of its three-member delegation for South and North Korea's talks on the North's participation in next month's Paralympics, Seoul officials said.Hwang Chung-song, an official at the North's state agency in charge of inter-Korean affairs, will be the chief delegate for working-level talks scheduled for Tuesday, according to Seoul's unification ministry.The delegation also includes Jong Hyon, a vice chairman of the central committee of the Korean Federation for

Feb. 26, 2018

NK delegate reiterates door open for dialogue with US: Cheong Wa Dae

A senior North Korean official said Monday that the reclusive state is willing to hold talks with the United States, noting the door for dialogue between the two countries remains open, according to an official from Seoul's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.The remarks from Kim Yong-chol, the North's point man on South Korea, came in a meeting with Chung Eui-yong, chief of South Korea's National Security Council and the top security advisor to President Moon Jae-in."Kim said the door remains ope

Feb. 26, 2018

North Korea reiterates willingness to talk to US

North Korea’s Kim Yong-chol on Monday reiterated his country’s willingness to directly engage the US, as South Korean President Moon Jae-in rallied support from China. According to South Korea’s presidential office, Kim “stated numerous times” that Pyongyang has intentions to hold talks with the US during his meeting with Seoul’s National Security Council chief Chung Eui-yong. Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the North's ruling Workers' Party, attends the closing ceremony for the 2018 PyeongChang

Feb. 26, 2018

NK cheerleaders and athletes return home

A group of North Koreans, including 229 cheerleaders and 22 athletes, returned home Monday after participating in the PyeongChang Olympics.  North Korean cheerleaders stand in line at the customs, immigration and quarantine office in Paju, just south of the inter-Korean border, on Monday to return home. (Yonhap)A total of 299 North Koreans crossed the inter-Korean border at 12:38 p.m. after going through the customs, immigration and quarantine office in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, on the southern s

Feb. 26, 2018

Govt. says no problem with N. Korean official's visit route

South Korea's defense ministry dismissed concerns Monday that some border security-related information might have been leaked to North Korea as its top officials were allowed to use a strategically important road to visit here.Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the North's Party Central Committee in charge of inter-Korean relations, and his entourage were supposed to pass through the Tongil Bridge in Paju, north of Seoul, on Sunday.But their motorcade took an alternative route via the Jeonjin Bridg

Feb. 26, 2018

Moon's top security aide holds talks with NK delegates in Seoul

South Korean President Moon Jae-in's top security aide held talks Monday with high-level North Korean delegates to the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, informed sources said.Chung Eui-yong, chief of the National Security Office, met the North Korean delegates for lunch at a Seoul hotel, according to the sources. Other details of the meeting could not immediately be confirmed.The meeting came one day after Moon met Kim Yong-chol, the chief of the eight-member North Korean delegation, who told Mo

Feb. 26, 2018

US offers cautious response to Pyongyang’s talk of dialogue

The White House responded cagily Sunday to a North Korean delegate’s mention of his country’s willingness to talk with the US.“We will see if Pyongyang’s message today, that it is willing to hold talks, represents the first steps along the path to denuclearization,” the White House said in a statement. White House senior advisor Ivanka Trump and North Korea`s Kim Yong-chol attend the closing ceremony of PyeongChang Olympics on Sunday. Yonhap“In the meantime, the United States and the world must

Feb. 26, 2018

S. Korea hopes for 'constructive' dialogue between US and NK

South Korea's unification ministry expressed hope Monday that the United States and North Korea could open "constructive" talks as the PyeongChang Winter Olympics helped create a mood for rapprochement.Kim Yong-chol, the visiting chief of North Korea's high-level delegation, told President Moon Jae-in on Sunday that North Korea has "enough" willingness to hold talks with the United States."The government hopes the North and the US could start constructive dialogue by using an appropriate opportu

Feb. 26, 2018

Govt. dismisses reports of discord between Olympic athletes of two Koreas

The government on Monday dismissed reports of a possible dispute with North Korea at the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, which was evident to some in the separate entry of their athletes at the closing ceremony, saying there had been no plans for a joint entry in the first place."There simply is no such thing as a joint entry at closing ceremonies," said Kwun Hyuk-ki, a press secretary at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae who also acted as a deputy chief of a government support group for t

Feb. 26, 2018

US 'will see' if NK willingness for talks is commitment to denuclearize

WASHINGTON -- The United States "will see" if North Korea's stated willingness to hold talks is a commitment to abandon its nuclear weapons program, the White House said Sunday.A visiting North Korean official, Kim Yong-chol, told South Korean President Moon Jae-in earlier in the day that Pyongyang has "enough" willingness to begin dialogue with Washington, according to Seoul's presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae.The US and North Korea have been in a standoff over the communist regime's pursuit o

Feb. 26, 2018

Ivanka Trump had no interaction with N. Koreans: White House

WASHINGTON -- Ivanka Trump has had no interaction with North Korean officials during her visit to South Korea, a White House official said Sunday amid keen interest in whether the two sides will resume dialogue.Ivanka, daughter and adviser to US President Donald Trump, led the US delegation to the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics the same day. She was seated close to the North Korean delegation, led by senior ruling party official Kim Yong-chol.Shortly before the ceremony, Kim

Feb. 26, 2018

Chief delegate says NK willing to hold talks with US

North Korea has “ample intentions” to hold talks with the US, a senior North Korean official leading the North Korean delegation to the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics told President Moon Jae-in, according to Cheong Wa Dae on Sunday. Moon had held an hourlong meeting with Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party Central Committee, in PyeongChang ahead of the closing ceremony of the Olympics, according to the presidential office. “President Moon poin

Feb. 25, 2018

N. Korea calls tougher US sanctions an act of war

North Korea accused the Donald Trump administration Sunday of elevating a war crisis on the peninsula through a set of tougher sanctions on Pyongyang despite Olympics-driven inter-Korean exchanges.In a statement issued by an unnamed foreign ministry spokesperson, the North stressed that every type of "blockade" by the US against it will be considered an act of war.The US is "running amok to bring another dark cloud of confrontation and war over the Korean peninsula by announcing enormous sanctio

Feb. 25, 2018

Moon meets N. Korean delegation chief in PyeongChang

South Korean President Moon Jae-in held a surprise meeting Sunday with North Korea's chief delegate to the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said.The previously unannounced meeting with Kim Yong-chol, a suspected mastermind of North Korea's deadly naval attack in 2010, was held in PyeongChang, the host city of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, located some 180 kilometers east of Seoul."President Moon held a meeting with Kim Yong-chol, th

Feb. 25, 2018