WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) -- The United States Tuesday blacklisted a North Korean bank for its alleged involvement in arms trade banned under U.N. resolutions adopted after the North's nuclear and missile tests in 2009.The Treasury Department said in a statement that it has designated the Bank of East Land, or Dongbang Bank, "for its facilitation of weapons-related transactions for, and other suppo

North Korea detained three Japanese men on apparent drug smuggling charges in its special economic zone last month, but it later released one man, a news report said Wednesday.The three Japanese employees of a machine maintenance firm in Tokyo visited the city of Rason, near North Korea's border with Russia, in March to check machines at a food manufacturing factory, Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspape

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The United States Tuesday blacklisted a North Korean bank for its alleged involvement in arms trade banned under U.N. resolutions adopted after the North's nuclear and missile tests in 2009.The Treasury Department said in a statement that it has designated the Bank of East Land, or Dongbang Bank, "for its facilitation of weapons-related transactions for, and other support to

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― U.S. President Barack Obama has reinforced trade restrictions against North Korea to buttress a United Nations arms embargo on the North for its nuclear and missile tests, the White House said Monday.Obama has extended trade restrictions against North Korea every year since 2009 under Executive Order 13466 issued by former President George W. Bush upon his termination of

Senior Chinese officials invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's heir apparent son, Kim Jong-un, to visit Beijing during their trip to Pyongyang in recent months, an opposition lawmaker said Monday, citing South Korea's spy chief.   The verbal invitation is widely seen as China's seal of approval for Kim's plan to hand over power to his youngest son in what would mark the communist regime's seco

JEJU (Yonhap News) ― It is “premature” for the two Koreas to hold governmental talks for a joint survey of a North Korean mountain to assess the risk of its potential volcanic eruption, a high-level Seoul official said Sunday.The remark came days after the two Koreas agreed to conduct a joint on-site survey of Mount Baekdu during a rare civilian-led meeting that experts say may help open the way f

SEOUL, (Yonhap) - North Korea said Saturday its recent decision to void Hyundai Group's exclusive right to theoperation of a tour program at Mount Kumgang complies with domestic and international laws.In a report carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the communist nation's state organization in charge of the issue put the blame on the South Korean government for the st

The North Korea's inaugural golf tournament has drawn 21 amateur golfers from 10 countries with a rare chance to visit the isolated country and play golf within its borders, a U.S. broadcaster said Saturday.The Democratic People's Republic of Korea Amateur Golf Open is scheduled to tee off on April 29 at a 18-hole golf course in Pyongyang, sponsored by British travel agency Lupine Travel, in Pyong

North Korea leader Kim Jong-il and his heir apparent son watched a art performance celebrating the birthday of his late father and founder of the communist country, a state-run media organ reported Saturday."Kim Jong-il enjoyed a performance given by the art squad of the National Security Agency on the occasion of the Day of the Sun," the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency monitored in S

The North Korean military may eliminate the country’s leader Kim Jong-il and his heir Jong-un in case of a mass uprising, a researcher at a South Korean state-funded think tank said Friday.“If a commotion breaks out in North Korea, Kim Jong-il and Jong-un are likely to be the main target of public anger,” Park Hyeong-jung, senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, sai

A line of people carrying armfuls of symbolic red flowers was formed in front of a giant statue of North Korean President Kim Il-sung, official media in the isolated country said Thursday, a day before the 99th birthday of the communist state’s late founder. Following the series of performances and events prepared to greet the “Day of the Sun,” referring to the April 15 birth date of the late Kim,

   WASHINGTON -- An American citizen being held in North Korea has been accused of getting involved in unauthorized religious activities in the reclusive communist state, informed sources said Wednesday.   The Korean-American businessman has been held in North Korea since November for his involvement in missionary work, the sources said, adding the man in his 60s attends a church in Orange County,