A ruling party lawmaker demanded Monday that one of South Korea's best-known former pro-unification activists and now an opposition lawmaker offer a sincere apology again for insulting him and North Korean defectors as "traitors."Rep. Lim Su-kyung of the main opposition Democratic United Party hurled the insult and other abusive remarks during an impromptu meeting with a defector-turned-college st

A Seoul man has been arrested on suspicion of colluding with a North Korean reconnaissance unit in China and distributing game programs infected with malignant codes to South Korea, police said Monday. The man, only identified by his family name Cho, was apprehended after allegedly meeting in September 2009 with several spies, including a man surnamed Kim, from the North's Reconnaissance General B

South Korea, the United States and Japan agreed to steadily strengthen trilateral defense cooperation to deter provocations by North Korea, Seoul's defense ministry said Saturday.The agreement was reached during a meeting of the three countries' top defense officials held on the sidelines of the 11th Asia Security Summit, also known as the Shangri La Dialogue, in Singapore, the ministry said.South

South Korea unveiled two cases of North Korean spies in less than a week, fraying the nerves of opposition politicians who prioritized reconciliation with Pyongyang or even once worked for pro-communist organizations. The National Intelligence Service said Friday that it is investigating a female North Korean defector on suspicion of spying for her homeland. Lee Kyung-ae, 46, who entered Seoul via Thailand late last year, reportedly confessed that she was an undercover agent for the North’s mili

South Korea plans to increase diplomatic pressure on North Korea over human rights issues, including the case of three people from the South believed to have been held in the communist nation for decades, a senior official said Friday.The move could further exacerbate the already frayed relations between Seoul and Pyongyang. An immediate focus of the campaign is expected to be on the case of Shin Suk-ja and her two daughters who are believed to have been held in the North since 1987, a year afte

Constitutional revision aimed at political, diplomatic benefits, likely to undermine six-party talksInternational efforts to denuclearize North Korea face a bigger hurdle as the communist state recently codified its atomic-armed status, which analysts see as a move to enhance its leverage in future negotiations. Pyongyang’s state-run website on Wednesday unveiled the text of its recent constitutional revision, which added “nuclear-armed state” to its preface.“National Defense Commission Chairman

The arrest of two South Koreans on charges of attempting to hand over sensitive military equipment to North Korea has sparked fears about other possible hidden spies who pose a serious security threat.The revelation on Wednesday is expected to add fuel to the ongoing controversy over leftist politicians in the Unified Progressive Party who were involved in pro-North Korea organizations in the past. The two businessmen are accused of attempting to divulge advanced military technologies to the Nor

North Korea calls itself a "nuclear-armed state" in its recently revised constitution, according to its full text confirmed on Wednesday in the North's "Naenara" web site.Following December's death of leader Kim Jong-il, the North has revised its constitution to add three new sentences and one of them contains the term of a nuclear-armed state."National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il has

Kang Ho-bin, a South Korean human rights activist and survivor of an apparent assassination attempt in 2011, died in a car accident in China on Sunday. Kang, who had been working for North Korean human rights in China’s Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture for more than 10 years, died in a car accident on Sunday as he was driving to a church at about 2 p.m.Officials at the church said that Chinese authorities have not elaborated on the accident, but said that Kang is suspected of having fallen a