President Moon Jae-in has decided not to visit Japan for a summit with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga timed with the Summer Olympics this week, Cheong Wa Dae said Monday, after lewd remarks by a Japanese diplomat regarding Moon sparked fresh tension amid already strained diplomatic ties between the two countries.  The last-minute announcement comes as the two countries have been discussing Moon’s possible visit to the Japanese capital to attend the Olympics that kicks off on Friday.&

Foreign Affairs July 19, 2021

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has a new concern: how to control the country’s younger generation. The 37-year-old leader warned in April that “a serious change” was taking place in the “ideological and mental state” of young North Koreans, and that their ideological education was vital to the survival of the party and the country. Furthermore, the reclusive regime has been cracking down hard on the attire, speaking habits and culture of North Korean millennia

North Korea July 17, 2021

  US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will visit South Korea and Japan next week for talks on global and regional security issues, such as North Korea, the State Department said Thursday.  On the first leg of her weeklong trip to Asia, Sherman will stop in Japan, where she is to hold a trilateral session with her Japanese and South Korean counterparts Wednesday.  Sherman, Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Mori and South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun

Foreign Affairs July 16, 2021

Around 42 percent of North Koreans were undernourished last year, a UN report said Tuesday, as the impoverished nation faces acute food insecurity amid the prolonged pandemic and severe weather conditions, compounded by international sanctions. 　 As many as 10.9 million people in North Korea, or 42.24 percent of the population, were undernourished from 2018 to 2020, according to the report jointly published by five UN agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Pr

North Korea July 13, 2021

A UNESCO committee on Monday expressed strong regrets over Japan not fulfilling its pledge to honor victims of wartime forced labor at an information center on its industrial revolution site registered on the World Heritage List.  Japan opened the Industrial Heritage Information Center last year, introducing 23 modern Japanese Meiji-era sites added to the UNESCO World Heritage List, including the notorious Hashima Island, also known as Battleship Island, where many Koreans were forced int

Foreign Affairs July 12, 2021

A South Korean missionary couple kidnapped by an unidentified group in Haiti were released over the weekend, the Foreign Ministry said Monday. 　 The two Korean nationals were freed at around noon on Saturday, local time, after being held captive for 17 days. They left the country on Sunday and are to return home via a third country. The couple remain in good health, the ministry said. 　 The two were abducted by a gang on the outskirts of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince on June 24 while m

Foreign Affairs July 12, 2021

Debate over the Unification Ministry, which oversees inter-Korean affairs, further heightened Sunday after remarks from the main opposition party leader drew backlash from the minister and ruling party lawmakers. People Power Party chief Lee Jun-seok had floated the idea of scrapping the ministry altogether, a notion his critics called “regrettable” and “unreasonable.” 　 Lee suggested doing away with the ministry during an interview with a local radio station Friday. Whi

North Korea July 11, 2021

Ri Pyong-chol, who has led North Korea’s nuclear and missile development, appears to have been ousted from the presidium of the Politburo, the highest decision-making body of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, according to a photo released by the North’s state media on Thursday. 　 A picture released by the Korea Central News Agency showed Ri, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, missing from the front row alongside four other presidium members at the Kumsusan Pal

North Korea July 8, 2021

The four decades between 1905 and 1945, starting when Korea was forced to sign the Eulsa Treaty, which made it a protectorate of Japan, is largely considered a lost period in the history of the country’s foreign policy. 　 As a result of the 1905 treaty -- which laid the foundation for the country’s subsequent annexation in 1910 -- Korea was stripped of its diplomatic sovereignty, losing its voice and representation on the international stage until its liberation in 1945. 　 With Ja

Foreign Affairs July 7, 2021

President Moon Jae-in’s visit to Europe last month ushered in a pivotal moment for South Korea: His debut at the Group of Seven meeting signaled the country’s elevated status, on a par with the world’s wealthiest democracies. It also heralded the return of in-person diplomacy since the coronavirus pandemic forced the leaders to communicate virtually for more than a year. It was Moon’s second overseas trip since the pandemic, following his brief visit to Washington for a

Foreign Affairs July 4, 2021

People who have been vaccinated overseas against COVID-19 will be exempted from the mandatory two-week quarantine upon arrival in South Korea starting Thursday.  The new policy applies to Korean nationals and foreigners alike if they are entering Korea to do important business or serve the public interest, for academic or humanitarian purposes, or to visit immediate family.  Previously, Korea waived the self-isolation rule only for those vaccinated in Korea starting May 5.  To

Foreign Affairs June 30, 2021

The United Nations provided $5.9 million to North Korea last year to tackle the country‘s severe food shortage and for its COVID-19 response, UN data showed Tuesday. 　 The Central Emergency Response Fund, a global humanitarian fund established by the UN, said it allocated $5 million to the North in June last year to “tackle severe food insecurity and undernutrition,” in its 2020 annual report. The amount is earmarked for 3.59 million people in the country, it said. 　 

North Korea June 29, 2021

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is continuing his quest to tighten his grip on his country, and to create an image of it as a “normal state.” His new title as of 2021, president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, reflects this. On June 29, 2016, Kim was named chairman of the newly established State Affairs Commission, the regime’s top branch of government and policymaking. The SAC replaced the National Defense Commission, the all-powerful

North Korea June 28, 2021

Over 30,000 North Korean defectors have risked their lives to escape their communist homeland and settle in the South since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. 　 But before starting a new life in the more prosperous South, all refugees must go through a period of investigation and a debriefing by the spy agency.  　 Run by the National Intelligence Service, the North Korean Refugee Protection Center in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province, is where defectors get their first glimpse of the South. At

North Korea June 24, 2021

South Korea and the US have agreed to consider ending a controversial working group on North Korea, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, as Washington’s point man on Pyongyang called for a resumption of dialogue with the recalcitrant regime. 　 Pyongyang, however, poured cold water on the allies’ engagement gesture Tuesday when the North Korean leader’s powerful younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, issued a statement saying the US’ expectation for talks would “plunge them in

North Korea June 22, 2021