South Korean President Moon Jae-in, having reshuffled his top security team with figures known to be for engagement with North Korea, is widely expected to push to make a breakthrough in stalled relations with North Korea. 　 On Friday, Moon tapped Suh Hoon, director of the National Intelligence Service, as his national security adviser, and nominated Park Jie-won, a former lawmaker and special envoy to North Korea, to succeed Suh as the spy chief. Lee In-young, a four-term lawmaker from

Foreign Affairs July 5, 2020

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha on Thursday said the government is making an all-out effort to resume stalled dialogues with North Korea, amid recent heightened tensions between the two Koreas.  “For the time being, North Korea has stopped taking additional measures that could worsen the situation in the Korean Peninsula. The ministry will remain vigilant and focus on managing the situation to prevent deterioration, and make all-out diplomatic efforts for the North to return to the

Foreign Affairs July 2, 2020

Amid heightened uncertainties over inter-Korean relations, a special adviser to President Moon Jae-in called for the leaders of the two Koreas to meet in order to break the deadlock and move forward after the North’s demolition of a joint liaison office last month. 　 “Kim Yo-jong, the vice department director of the North’s Workers Party, said the relationship with the South has changed to that of an enemy and blocked all communication channels between the two Koreas. The onl

North Korea July 1, 2020

The Unification Ministry on Tuesday said it was reconsidering the timing of a $10 million aid package to North Korea via the World Food Program, amid heightened tensions between the two Koreas. 　 The ministry said that earlier this month the unification minister and WFP Executive Director David Beasley held a videoconference and they were planning to go ahead with an aid project for assisting nutrition needs for women and babies. But it decided to delay the plan after Kim Yo-jong, North Korean

North Korea June 30, 2020

North Korea has registered the trademark for “Masikryong Hotel” inside a luxury ski resort with a UN agency on intellectual property rights, as the reclusive regime seeks to develop its nascent tourism industry to garner more revenue amid international sanctions. 　 The North listed the trademark on April 2 at the World Intellectual Property Organization, the website showed Tuesday. The trademark is set to expire in 2030, but it could apply for extension afterward. 　 The luxury ho

North Korea June 30, 2020

The Unification Ministry on Monday held a hearing on two North Korean defector-led groups, as the final step before revoking their permits for floating anti-North Korea propaganda materials across the border, in defiance of the government. 　 The ministry said it held a hearing on Kuensaem, an organization that has sent bottles filled with rice to the North, and Fighters for a Free North Korea, which has floated anti-Pyongyang leaflets. 　 North Korean defector Park Jung-oh, who heads Kuensaem

North Korea June 29, 2020

The police on Friday raided the two defector-run organizations at the center of anti-Pyongyang leaflet campaigns here on allegations that they violated laws governing inter-Korean exchanges. 　 Investigators from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency were dispatched to the offices of Fighters for a Free North Korea, led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, and Keunsaem, led by Park’s younger brother Park Jung-oh. Both offices are in Gangnam-gu, southern Seoul. 　 FFNK is accused of flyi

North Korea June 26, 2020

Five South Korean sailors and a Ghanaian have been kidnapped by unidentified armed groups in waters off Benin in West Africa, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.  Unknown gunmen, believed to be pirates, attacked the fishing vessel at about 3:40 p.m. Wednesday, Benin time, in waters 111 kilometers south of the country’s Contonou Port.  A total of 30 crew members were onboard the Ghanaian-flagged Panofi Frontier ship, but the kidnappers took off with only six people. The remaini

Foreign Affairs June 25, 2020

Thursday marks the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War. Now, military tension is still palpable on the Korean Peninsula, seven decades on.  Last week, Pyongyang demolished a liaison office that stood as a symbol of improved inter-Korean ties, worrying many here that several years of progress toward detente could so quickly be undone.  While a big question mark hangs over the direction the two Koreas are heading now, one thing history shows is that relations between th

North Korea June 25, 2020

A group of North Korean defectors claimed Tuesday it had sent anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border, continuing an activity that has enraged the North regime, which cited it as the reason it wrecked a liaison office with the South last week. 　 The launch was also in defiance of a ban by South Korean authorities on the cross-border propaganda campaign. 　 “The six members of Fighters for a Free North Korea sent anti-North Korea leaflets between 11 p.m. and midnight on Monday in Paju,

North Korea June 23, 2020

North Korea is reinstalling propaganda loudspeakers along the inter-Korean border and preparing to drop 12 million anti-Seoul leaflets here, amid escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula since the North demolished a joint liaison office. 　 South Korea’s military said the North appears to be setting up loudspeakers “in multiple places” inside the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas. Both Koreas dismantled their propaganda loudspeakers in May 2018 after agreeing to st

North Korea June 22, 2020

  Even in the 21st century with all its technical wizardry and social media, old-fashioned propaganda leaflets seem to matter a great deal on Korean Peninsula, the world’s last remaining Cold War frontier.  The act of flying huge gas-filled balloons carrying leaflets and other materials denouncing the rival regime has lately become the source of sudden ratcheting up of tensions between the two Koreas. 　 Enraged by defectors here sending anti-North Korea leaflets across the bor

North Korea June 21, 2020

The practice of sending anti-North Korean propaganda flying across the border attached to hot air balloons has become a thorny issue amid worsening tensions between the two Koreas. 　 Enraged by the defector groups sending leaflets condemning North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the country’s reclusive regime, Pyongyang publicly blew up the inter-Korean liaison office in its border city Kaesong on Tuesday, and warned that it would take further action if Seoul failed to stop the balloon lau

North Korea June 18, 2020

Tuesday was a devastating day for a group of South Korean businessmen who once ran factories inside the Kaesong industrial park, a now-shuttered joint manufacturing zone in North Korea’s border city. When Pyongyang blew up the inter-Korean liaison office there, it shattered their last hope of a dramatic breakthrough in cross-border ties that would have allowed their factories to resume operation. 　 “This is tragic. We are devastated that our worst fear has come true,” Chung

North Korea June 17, 2020

South Korea on Monday expressed deep regret over Tokyo’s neglect of its pledge to commemorate victims of wartime forced labor at a newly opened facility celebrating its industrial revolution, and condemned the exhibitions as “distortion of facts.” 　 On Monday, the Industrial Heritage Information Center was opened to the public in Tokyo, introducing 23 modern Japanese Meiji-era sites added to the UNESCO World Heritage List, including the notorious Hashima Island, also known as

Foreign Affairs June 15, 2020