South Korea's unification ministry on Monday urged North Korea to start the new year with a step for dialogue and cooperation, as Pyongyang is set to convene a key party meeting this week to discuss domestic and foreign policy issues. North Korea earlier announced the ruling Workers' Party will hold a plenary meeting of its central committee "in the last third of December" to "discuss and decide on work plans for the new year." "The plenary has been usually held for on

North Korea is spurring online education at major universities as part of efforts to train "intellectual-type workers" with science and technology expertise, according to its state media Monday. The North's main newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, said around 100,000 workers are currently enrolled for online classes across the country, including 10,000 newly registered this year. North Korea has been highlighting its efforts to develop the remote education system as a tool to help workers

US likely ‘playing along’ as Pyongyang not ready to play ball

SEJONG -- North Korea's economy shrank 4.5 percent in 2020 from a year earlier due to international sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Thursday. The drop in the reclusive country's real gross domestic product (GDP) represents a turnaround from a 0.4 percent increase a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The statistics agency attributed the decline to international economic sanctions for its weapons program and border lockdowns stemming from th

Chinese Ambassador to North Korea Li Jinjun will leave Pyongyang following a seven-year stint, according to the North's state media Thursday, with his departure having been delayed apparently due to tight border control to stave off the COVID-19 pandemic. The envoy met with Choe Ryong-hae, a member of the North Korean ruling party's politburo presidium, and other ranking officials at the Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang for a farewell, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) s

One critical precondition would be to reduce inter-Korean conventional tensions　

US President Joe Biden has banned the provision of nonhumanitarian aid to North Korea for fiscal year 2022, accusing the reclusive state of human trafficking, according to the White House. It marks the 19th consecutive year for a US president to take such a measure against Pyongyang. In a presidential memorandum for the secretary of state, posted on the White House website Tuesday (Washington time), Biden said the US will not provide "nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related assistance" or

North Korea issued a cold wave alert Wednesday, forecasting strong winds and heavy snow over the weekend amid keen attention from the outside world about whether leader Kim Jong-un will again visit Mount Paektu on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his ascension to power. Extreme cold weather is expected from Friday night to Sunday, with the temperature in the region of Mount Paektu, the highest peak on the Korean Peninsula, likely to drop to as low as minus 35 C to 40 C on Saturday mornin

North Korea's mortality rate for children under age 5 was estimated at 17 per 1,000 births last year with a 3.2 percent annual rate of reduction over the past three decades, a recent UN report showed. The number is down from 43 in 1990 and 60 in 2000, according to the Level and Trends in Child Mortality: Report 2021. The global average of under-five mortality rate came to 37 per 1,000 in 2020, while the comparable figure for South Korea declined from 16 in 1990 to eight in 2000 and three last

Premature declaration would have adverse security ramifications for alliance strength, UNC status 　

Families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War in South Korea have produced more than 24,000 video messages for their long-lost relatives in the North, but almost all of them have yet to be delivered, Seoul's unification ministry said Tuesday. Of the 24,077 video letters produced since 2005, including 1,004 created this year, only 20 of them were sent to North Korea in 2008 following inter-Korean Red Cross talks the previous year, according to the ministry. South Korea has been pushing to hold r

North Korea's military is conducting a wintertime exercise, as South Korea and the United States are closely monitoring related moves, Seoul's defense authorities said Tuesday. "We believe that wintertime drills by North Korea's military are under way," Col. Kim Jun-rak, the spokesperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), told reporters. The North usually kicks off a regular military training in December, which continues through early spring often involving artillery firing drills.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is the third most searched politician by internet users worldwide this year, data showed Tuesday. Online searches for Kim totaled a monthly average of 1.9 million, behind US President Joe Biden, who topped the list with 7 million searches, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson with 2 million, according to German data analytics firm Statista. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel ranked fourth with 1.4 million searches. The most searched keyword related to t

Discourse with Koh Yu-hwan, president of Korea Institute for National Unification

South Korea's unification ministry responded cautiously Monday to reports of a possible change in the stature of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister, days after she was seen standing alongside members of the powerful politburo of the North's ruling party during a memorial event last week. Kim Yo-jong, apparently influential in the secretive regime, was spotted between members and alternate members of the politburo during a memorial event for her father and late North Korean leader Kim Jong