Former Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha’s bid for the post of director general of the International Labor Organization is being met with criticism from labor groups, while the government backs the bid that could see the first woman and first Asian leader in the organization’s 103-year history.  The election is slated for March. If Kang gets the job, her term would start next October, when current Director General Guy Ryder of the UK leaves the office. 　 The South Korean govern

Foreign Affairs Oct. 14, 2021

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has vowed to build a powerful military to strengthen war deterrence, but insisted that the country’s main enemy is “war itself,” and not South Korea or the US. 　 Kim made the remarks Monday as he gave a rare speech at a defense development exhibition to mark the previous day’s 76th founding anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party, the North’s official Korea Central News Agency said Tuesday. 　 It was the first time the North

North Korea Oct. 12, 2021

Japan’s new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday that his government would strongly urge South Korea to take appropriate action to resolve the strained bilateral relations between the two countries, signaling that he will likely maintain the same hard-line stance toward Seoul as his predecessor Yoshihide Suga.  In his first policy speech since taking office Monday, Kishida briefly mentioned South Korea, saying Tokyo would maintain its “coherent stance” toward Seoul,

Foreign Affairs Oct. 8, 2021

The COVID-19 medical supplies sent by the World Health Organization and other UN agencies have reached the North Korean port of Nampo, an apparent signal that the reclusive regime is easing its strict border lockdown and welcoming outside help.  A few months ago, the WHO and other UN agencies were informed by North Korea’s Public Health Ministry that it would allow items stranded in China since the onset of the pandemic to be transported to the North through the seaport Dalian, acco

North Korea Oct. 8, 2021

North Korea has been advancing its nuclear and missile capabilities over the past decades, and time is running out to prevent the country from becoming a full-fledged nuclear state, experts said Thursday.  Pointing out that past South Korean and US administrations had failed to dismantle the regime’s nuclear program, experts attending a Korea Institute for National Unification seminar called for “creative solutions.”  “One of the reasons why North Korea&rsquo

North Korea Oct. 7, 2021

South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong stressed the need to declare an official end to the Korean War in his talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, amid recent signs of potential discrepancies between Seoul and Washington in their approaches to Pyongyang. 　 The two envoys held a pull-aside meeting Tuesday on the margins of a meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. 　 Chung told Blinken that President Moon Jae-in’s recent proposal to

North Korea Oct. 6, 2021

North Korea has continued its nuclear and ballistic missile programs this year, despite international sanctions and a dire economic situation exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a UN report on Tuesday. 　 A panel of experts monitoring sanctions on Pyongyang, in a report sent to the UN Security Council, said the North “continued to seek material and technology for these programs overseas.” 　 “Despite the country’s focus on its worsening economic travails, t

North Korea Oct. 5, 2021

Communication between South Korea and the North was restored Monday about two months after Pyongyang unilaterally cut off contact in August, raising cautious hopes of an inter-Korean rapprochement. 　 Liaison officials from both Koreas held two phone calls via a cross-border channel on Monday, one at 9 a.m. and one at 5 p.m., the Unification Ministry said, after previous calls from the South went unanswered. The two sides agreed to hold regular phone calls twice a day as they had in the past.&n

North Korea Oct. 4, 2021

Communication channels between South Korea and the North were restored Monday about two months after the North unilaterally cut off the hotlines in August in protest over the joint military drills between Seoul and Washington.  The Unification Ministry confirmed that liaison officials from the two Koreas held a phone call via a cross-border channel at 9 a.m. on Monday -- a call that had gone unanswered previously. The two sides also had contact via a military hotline, according to the Defe

North Korea Oct. 4, 2021

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held out an olive branch to South Korea, saying he was willing to reopen the severed inter-Korean hotlines in October, while denouncing the US offer of dialogue without it changing its “hostile policy” toward the regime, the North’s state media said Thursday. 　 Speaking on the second day of a meeting of the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly, Wednesday, Kim expressed his willingness to restore from earl

North Korea Sept. 30, 2021

  Former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida won the ruling Liberal Democratic Party leadership election on Wednesday, making him all but certain to become Japan’s new prime minister.  The 64-year-old replaces outgoing party leader Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who decided early this month to step down after a year in office amid plummeting approval ratings over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Kishida is effectively assured to be named the prime minister at an extraor

Foreign Affairs Sept. 29, 2021

North Korea fired a short-range missile into the East Sea on Tuesday, the South’s military said, just as Pyongyang’s UN envoy defended the country’s right to test weapons and called on the US to drop its “hostile policy” toward the reclusive regime. 　   　 South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North fired one “unidentified projectile” at around 6:40 a.m. into the sea off its east coast from the country’s northern Jagang Province n

North Korea Sept. 28, 2021

South Korea has been named the next head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors, marking the first time a Korean representative is to hold the post since the UN nuclear watchdog was established in 1957, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.  Shin Chae-hyun, the South Korean ambassador to Austria and permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, was elected as the chairman of the board during a meeting held in Vienna on Monday. His one-year term start

Foreign Affairs Sept. 27, 2021

North Korea dismissed the US as the “most heinous human rights abuser” for using its human rights agenda to put pressure on other countries and interfere in their internal affairs, its state media said Monday. 　 The Korea Central News Agency published an article written by Kim Jin-hui, a researcher with the Institute of International Studies of the DPRK, accusing the US of interfering in the sovereignty of countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and Syria, crippling their economic develo

North Korea Sept. 27, 2021

South Korea on Friday decided to provide up to 10 billion won ($8.51 million) to civilian organizations that are carrying out aid projects for North Korea, as the government seeks to engage the North through humanitarian assistance.  Under the decision approved during a civilian-government committee on inter-Korean exchanges, the Unification Ministry set aside up to 10 billion won to support civilian group-led projects that tackle nutrition and health conditions for vulnerable groups in No

North Korea Sept. 24, 2021