Behind a sudden change in Kim Jong-un’s posture is a maximum pressure campaign, a looming possibility of Washington’s use of a military option and its confidence to deter the US, experts say

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha is expected to visit Washington next week to further discuss with US officials talks with North Korea on denuclearization, media reports said Thursday, citing diplomatic sources.  South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha (Yonhap)The news comes as South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s trop security adviser Chung Eui-yong embarked on a trip to the United States to explain the outcome of his recent visit to North Korea, where he met the country’s lead

China, Japan and Russia -- members of the six-party talks on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula -- are showing different views on the inter-Korean summit slated for April. While China and Russia welcome the development, Japan appeared to be perplexed, expressing cautious doubt toward the communist regime.(Yonhap)The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement late Tuesday showing support for the decision to hold the top-level meeting, which would be the third of its kind. The first inter-K

After North Korea said it was willing to discuss denuclearization with the US, both hope and skepticism are growing over a potential diplomatic breakthrough between Washington and Pyongyang. 　US President Donald Trump hailed the North’s offer to denuclearize as “very positive” and “sincere.” He also said in the Oval Office it would be “a great thing” for the world, North Korea and the peninsula, adding he will “see what happens.”　In what many see as an unexpectedly bold move, North Korean leader

The key achievement of President Moon Jae-in’s envoys to North Korea is that the two Koreas laid the groundwork for easing of tensions on the Korean Peninsula and opened a possibility for talks between the reclusive regime and the US to tackle the nuclear deadlock, experts said Tuesday. South Korea and North Korea have agreed to hold an inter-Korean summit at the Peace House in Panmunjeom at the end of April, Moon’s top security adviser said Tuesday, following a two-day trip to Pyongyang as Moon

In Korea, spring always comes with an unwelcome guest -- fine dust -- and it has become a norm to check the fine dust level every morning, put on a mask and bear with it. But that does not have be a norm. South Korean people hold the key to challenging the status quo by pressuring the government and businesses, said Marco Lambertini, director general of World Wide Fund for Nature. Marco Lambertini, director general of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)“Negative changes can be reversed. We decide t

South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s special envoys to North Korea have no plans to discuss the release of South Koreans and Americans detained in the communist state just yet, the presidential office said Monday.“I cannot be 100 percent certain that the matter will not be discussed, but it is not an agenda item (for the special envoys to North Korea,)” an official from the presidential office told reporters on condition of anonymity. “The core of preliminary talks between North Korea and the US

With the position of the US ambassador to South Korea still vacant amid ongoing inter-Korean exchanges, analysts speculate that an official with a military background may surface as a viable candidate.  Former USFK commander Walter Sharp. (US Department of Defense)“There are talks in the diplomatic sphere that someone with a military background may fill the position,” Shin Beom-chul, a professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, told The Korea Herald. The post -- which has been vacant fo

With South Korean President Moon Jae-in planning to send a special envoy to North Korea on Monday, the delegation’s pressing task will be convincing Pyongyang to put its nuclear weapons programs on the negotiating table to open talks with the US, experts say.　The presidential office said Sunday that Moon would send a five-member delegation led by Chung Eui-yong, head of the National Security Office, to North Korea. The delegation includes the National Intelligence Service’s chief Suh Hoon and Vi

The top diplomats of South Korea and Russia have agreed to step up their diplomatic cooperation toward peacefully resolving North Korea's nuclear issue, the foreign ministry here said Wednesday. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha (Yonhap)Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and her Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, met in Geneva earlier in the day (local time) on the sidelines of the U.N. Human Rights Council meeting, according to the ministry. "The two agreed to make diplomatic efforts to maintain th

WASHINGTON -- Joseph Yun, a 30-year veteran of the US foreign service who retained quiet contacts with North Korea amid the Trump administration’s turbulent first year, is retiring as Washington and Pyongyang step up considerations for formal diplomatic talks.Yun told The Associated Press he will stand down as special representative for North Korean policy on Friday. He said his decision to retire is entirely his own but it comes at a surprising juncture, just after American ally South Korea rel

WASHINGTON -- Russia would be acting rationally if it sought to weaken the international sanctions regime against North Korea, a US expert on Korea said Tuesday.Scott Snyder, chief Korea analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations, was commenting on concerns Russia has not been fully enforcing United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang. Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council, backed all four resolutions that were adopted last year in response to the North's nuclear a

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha called for international unity for a peaceful resolution of North Korea's nuclear issue at the Conference on Disarmament held in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday, her ministry said.The conference's high-level session on Tuesday was attended by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Lassina Zerbo, executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization as well as ministers from roughly 30 countries to discuss North Korea's nuclear and

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha on Monday called on North Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile programs and improve human rights of its people in her keynote speech to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. Kang also raised the issue of Japan’s sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II, saying a controversial 2015 deal between Korea and Japan on “comfort women” lacked a “victim-oriented approach.”“North Korea must heed the call of the international commu

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha on Monday called on the North Korean regime to improve the human rights of its people during her keynote speech to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, her ministry said."North Korea must heed the call of the international community and abandon its nuclear and missile programs. It should invest more of its resources in its people and the protection and promotion of their human rights," Kang said in her speech to the high-level meeting of