North Korea will have a hard time making progress in its peace talks with the rival South and other regional powers unless it first apologizes for the two deadly attacks it conducted against Seoul last year, officials here said Monday. The comments by senior officials here come as the Seoul government is yielding to international pressure by agreeing to hold nuclear talks with Pyongyang. Internati

Foreign Affairs April 18, 2011

Korea’s Supreme Court suggested Monday that judges be allowed to discharge suspects on conditional bail as a way to bridge differences with the prosecution over the country’s controversial pre-trial warrant issuance system.The two legal sectors have long been at odds over what prosecutors claim is the court’s “much too strict” standard in issuing arrest and search warrants. The court argues such a

Social Affairs April 18, 2011

South Korea will be spending $500 million within the next five-year period to increase its contribution to ongoing international peacekeeping efforts in Afghanistan, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry announced Friday following the meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Berlin. Revamping its Afghan strategy, Washington has been broadening the mission to include pressure on neighboring Pakistan in a bid to roo

Foreign Affairs April 14, 2011

A line of people carrying armfuls of symbolic red flowers was formed in front of a giant statue of North Korean President Kim Il-sung, official media in the isolated country said Thursday, a day before the 99th birthday of the communist state’s late founder. Following the series of performances and events prepared to greet the “Day of the Sun,” referring to the April 15 birth date of the late Kim,

North Korea April 14, 2011

South Korea has included a section about North Korea’s young heir apparent in its annually-released guidelines for unification education, noting the need for students to develop critical views about the ongoing three-generation succession in the North, officials said Wednesday. Seoul’s state-run Institute of Political Education for Unification provides teachers with new guidelines in educating ele

North Korea April 13, 2011

China ups pressure over 6-party talksSecretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit South Korea later this week to coordinate the allies’ position on the resumption of peace talks with North Korea, according to the U.S. State Department. Clinton’s two-day trip to Seoul, which will begin Saturday, comes as regional powers have been increasing diplomatic efforts to restart the stalled denuclearizatio

Foreign Affairs April 12, 2011

Officials delay food situation report as international calls grow for assistanceUnlike past springs, South Korea has not been making public its own assessment of the food situation in the North, indicating its dilemma as international charity groups are pressing for shipment of aid to the impoverished regime. Since the 1990s, the South Korean government has every February released its estimation o

Foreign Affairs April 11, 2011

Nuclear experts from South Korea and Japan will meet in Tokyo Tuesday to discuss countermeasures for the radiation leaks from a crippled nuclear plant in tsunami-ravaged northeastern Japan, officials here said. Concerns have been growing here since Japan discharged some 11,000 tons of radiation contaminated water into the ocean after using it to cool off reactors in its wrecked Fukushima Daiichi p

Foreign Affairs April 11, 2011

North Korea has ordered its citizens in Libya not to return home, a move apparently aimed at preventing the news of anti-government movements in the northern African state from spreading among its isolated people, a source here said Sunday. The communist North has ordered its embassy in Libya to “obey the measures taken by the Libyan government” instead of sending people back home, the source said

North Korea April 10, 2011