A renowned South Korean conductor said Wednesday his push along with the Seoul metropolitan government for an orchestra performance in Pyongyang will likely bear fruit soon, raising the prospect of the South Korean musical group's first concert in the North Korean capital in a decade.   &n

China has agreed to invest about $3 billion in developing North Korea’s northeastern free trade zone as an export base, a report said Wednesday.The deal was probably reached before or just after the North’s long-time leader Kim Jong-Il died on Dec. 17 of a heart attack, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency said.China will build an airport, a power plant, a cross-border railway and piers in the North’s Rason economic zone bordering China and Russia by 2020, it said.In return China has secured the rig

North Korea’s idolizing of its late leader Kim Jong-il intensified ahead of his 70th birthday, calling him generalissimo for his role in turning the communist state into a nuclear power, the state media said Wednesday.The news came one day prior to the late Kim’s Feb. 16 birthday, for which the entire state is to celebrate the event.Pyongyang’s party, military and people’s commissions released a joint declaration through the Korean Central News Agency that the authorities decided to award the ti

Kim Jong-un regime in Pyongyang warns of ‘three-generation wipeout’ for defectionAn international human rights group urged U.S. President Barack Obama to pressure Beijing to stop forcefully repatriating North Korean refugees during his talks with China’s Vice President Xi Jinping.The call came as South Korea’s Rep. Park Sun-young of the conservative Liberty Forward Party said 24 North Korean defectors were being held in China ahead of repatriation to their home country.In a letter sent to the Wh

Four armed North Korean soldiers killed a Chinese family of four and robbed their house last Thursday after having deserted from their unit to cross the border with China, a lawmaker claimed on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources. Rep. Park Sun-young of the minor conservative Liberty Forward Party also said that another armed soldier entered China across the Tumen River on Monday.Experts said that such desertions underline worsening food shortages and waning troop morale in the impoverished state.

A U.S.-based website on Wednesday made public several photos showing the interior of the newly opened Western coffee shop in Pyongyang.The Viennese “Helmut Sachers Kaffee” opened inside the Museum of Korean History near Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang last October through an investment of the Austrian coffee producer and bakery supplier. According to eight pictures included in the posting carried by the North Korean Economy Watch, the shop offers diverse kinds of coffee, such as Wiener coffee, c

North Korean workers at the industrial park jointly operated by the two Koreas have softened their views on the South, a Seoul official said, indicating growing social exchanges despite lingering political tensions on the divided peninsula.More than 50,000 North Koreans work at the complex located in the North‘s border city of Gaeseong, producing clothes, utensils and other goods at 123 South Korean companies operating there. The factory park opened in 2004 amid efforts toward reconciliation fol

Free North Korea Radio will not be deterred in reaching North Korean citizens, despite the authoritarian state’s recent creation of an anti-foreign media unit to crack down on black market radios, the station said. According to a local news report, Pyongyang created Unit 114 in January to remove music CDs and any foreign published media circling among North Korean citizens.This could hamper the activities of the FNKR, which relies on black market radios to send messages to citizens of the impove

North Korean officials swore loyalty to their new leader Kim Jong-un in a rally, the country’s television reported Monday, in the latest public display of support for his dynastic power succession.Kim became the supreme commander of the country’s 1.1 million-strong military soon after the December death of his father, Kim Jong-il. The young leader is believed to be consolidating his power.Ri Yong-ho, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People‘s Army, vowed to safeguard supreme leader Kim Jo

Three South Korean pro-unification activists will face punishment for making illegal contact with North Koreans in China, a Seoul official said Saturday. An official with the Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said the three civilians, representing a pro-unification activist group called the South Side Committee for Implementing the June 15 Joint Declaration, will pay the price for violating the law aimed at regulating inter-Korean contact.No South Koreans can visit North

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon denied reports that he will join the main opposition Democratic United Party within the month, calling it premature.The Yonhap news agency reported Friday that Park and South Gyeongsang Gov. Kim Du-kwan are to join the left-wing party next Thursday, quoting the South Gyeongsang governor’s office and the provincial branch of the DUP, but both the party headquarters and the mayor denied it.“I currently have no plans to join the DUP next week,” Park told reporters during h

Compensation exceeding legal ceiling apparently designed to woo Busan votersQuestions have arisen over the fairness and legitimacy of a special bill to compensate the victims of last year’s Busan savings banks’ bankruptcy beyond the current deposit loss compensation ceiling.The parliamentary state affairs committee on Thursday approved the bill to make up for 55 percent of financial losses over the legally guaranteed 50 million won ($44,500) for the savings bank depositors and its subordinated b