Park Su-nam can neither read music nor play an instrument, but the 19-year-old North Korean defector is a proud member of the Heemang Poongcha Orchestra, along with 75 others who crossed the border to escape poverty and oppression.The orchestra, whose name means Windmill of Hope, was launched earlier this month by the Korean Red Cross to help the teens overcome their scars and adapt to life in the South.“The orchestra will aspire to support young North Korean defectors by helping them get used t

Kim Young-hwan, the prominent anti-North Korea activist freed Friday from detention in China, pledged to continue his fight for democracy and human rights in the communist country. Kim, 49, and his three colleagues arrived in Seoul on the same day China expelled them after 114 days of detention. They were arrested on March 29 in the northeastern border city of Dalian apparently for helping North Korean refugees. They were charged with “endangering national security.”“The reality in North Korea i

‘N. Korea bombing plot claim effort to rally its people’North Korea’s claim that it has captured a “terrorist” plotting to blow up a statue of its national founder Kim Il-sung appears to be part of its fledgling leader’s efforts to rally his people around him, experts said Friday.They also noted that the claim reflects the level of insecurity Kim Jong-un feels while striving to tighten his control on the country faltering under poverty and international isolation resulting from its provocative b

North Korea’s trade with China jumped about 28 percent during the first five months of this year, a state-run think tank here said Friday, proving the North’s heavy reliance on its neighboring ally on the economic front.According to the data by the Korea Development Institute, the two allies’ trade came to US$2.51 billion during the January-May period, up 27.9 percent from the same period a year earlier.The North’s exports to China totaled $1.05 billion during the cited period, up 29 percent fro

A commemorative postal stamp showing statues of former North Korean leaders Kim Il-sung (left) and Kim Jong-il (Yonhap News)A North Korean defector, arrested by the North for allegedly attempting to destroy key communist statues, has said he was ordered by South Korean and U.S.intelligence to launch the attacks, claims flatly denied by Seoul.Earlier in the week, the North said it had arrested Nort

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― The U.S. government conducted its own investigation into the mid-air bombing of a South Korean jet in 1987 and concluded it was an act by North Korea, a set of declassified State Department documents shows.U.S. government officials interrogated Kim Hyun-hui, a self-confessed North Korean terrorist responsible for the bombing of Korean Air 858, which killed 115 people, shortly after the incident in November 1987, according to the dossier.Kim, traveling with a fake Japan

North Korea on Wednesday announced that its leader Kim Jong-un had been given the title of marshal ― the highest military rank after grand marshal held only by his late grandfather Kim Il-sung and late father Kim Jong-il.“A decision was made to confer the title of marshal upon comrade Kim Jong-un, supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army,” the North’s state media said in a “crucial report” broadcast at noon.The report appears intended to show that the fledgling leader is in full control of