North Korea has continued its nuclear and ballistic missile programs this year, despite international sanctions and a dire economic situation exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a UN report on Tuesday. 　 A panel of experts monitoring sanctions on Pyongyang, in a report sent to the UN Security Council, said the North “continued to seek material and technology for these programs overseas.” 　 “Despite the country’s focus on its worsening economic travails, t

The unification ministry will keep a close eye on discussions between North Korea and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for any possibility of its participation in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, an official said Tuesday. Last month, the IOC decided to suspend the North from the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing for refusing to participate in the recent Tokyo Games over COVID-19 concerns. The IOC said the participation of any individual North Korean athletes in the Beijing Olympics will be de

South Korea continues to make preparations necessary to resume long-stalled dialogue with North Korea after their inter-Korean communication lines were restored following about two months of suspension, a unification ministry official said Tuesday. On Monday, the two Koreas reopened their liaison and military hotlines, which had been suspended since early August due to Pyongyang's protest of a joint military drill by South Korea and the United States. Their reactivation came days after North Ko

China supplied about 12,000 barrels of refined oil to North Korea in August, the largest monthly shipments in 13 months, a UN report showed Tuesday. According to the report posted on the website of the UN sanctions committee on North Korea, China's monthly supplies of refined oil to its communist ally came to 11,745 barrels, or 1,410 tons, in August. The amount represented the largest since July last year when the corresponding figure stood at 12,479 barrels. During the January-August period,

South and North Korea held daily phone calls via their liaison and military hotlines Tuesday, officials said, a day after Pyongyang restored the inter-Korean communication channels. On Monday, the two Koreas reopened the cross-border communication lines following a near two-month suspension. The move came hours after the North's state media announced that the lines would be back in normal operation as of 9 a.m. on the day. "South and North Korea's daily call at 9 a.m. took place normall

WASHINGTON -- North Korea continues to advance its nuclear and ballistic missile programs despite worsening economic conditions exacerbated by UN Security Council (UNSC) sanctions, a UN report showed Monday. The report by a panel of experts on North Korean sanctions also said the North continues to evade sanctions by ever sophisticating means. "During the reporting period, despite the country's focus on its worsening economic travails, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea continued t

BERLIN - Unification Minister Lee In-young said Monday that South and North Korea's restoration of cross-border hotlines marks a "restart" in efforts to improve ties. Lee spoke to Yonhap News Agency during a visit to Berlin to mark the 31st anniversary of German reunification. Earlier Monday, the two Koreas restored their communication lines 55 days after they were cut off by the North in protest of annual military exercises between South Korea and the United States. Lee had previou

Communication between South Korea and the North was restored Monday about two months after Pyongyang unilaterally cut off contact in August, raising cautious hopes of an inter-Korean rapprochement. 　 Liaison officials from both Koreas held two phone calls via a cross-border channel on Monday, one at 9 a.m. and one at 5 p.m., the Unification Ministry said, after previous calls from the South went unanswered. The two sides agreed to hold regular phone calls twice a day as they had in the past.&n

Communication channels between South Korea and the North were restored Monday about two months after the North unilaterally cut off the hotlines in August in protest over the joint military drills between Seoul and Washington.  The Unification Ministry confirmed that liaison officials from the two Koreas held a phone call via a cross-border channel at 9 a.m. on Monday -- a call that had gone unanswered previously. The two sides also had contact via a military hotline, according to the Defe

North Korea blasted the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Sunday for convening a meeting on its recent missile launches, calling it "a manifestation of double-dealing standard." Jo Chol-su, director of the international organization department at the North's foreign ministry, made the remark in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), stressing that the missile tests were for "self-defense" purposes. The statement came after the Security Council convened a

The US State Department said allies should continue enforcing UN sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, in response to the South Korean foreign minister’s suggestion to ease sanctions for nuclear talks amid North Korea’s latest weapons tests. “It is important for the international community to send a strong, unified message that the DPRK must halt provocations,” the State Department told Voice of America on Friday, referring to the North’s

A civic group advocating for national reunification called Saturday for the lifting of South Korea's standalone sanctions against North Korea and the resumption of a now-shuttered joint industrial complex to pave the way for a thaw in cross-border ties. The South Korean Committee for Implementation of the June 15 Joint Declaration made the call, as Seoul is struggling to resume dialogue with Pyongyang to advance its stalled peace agenda despite the regime's recent missile tests. The committee

North Korea test-fired a new anti-aircraft missile Thursday, its official Korean Central News Agency said amid an impasse over nuclear negotiations with the US and frayed ties with South Korea. The launch is the latest weapons test Pyongyang has conducted since test-firing a hypersonic missile Tuesday and ballistic missiles and a cruise missile earlier in September. It is considered a follow-up on Pyongyang’s plan to bolster its defense capabilities made public at its January congress. &

Unification Minister Lee In-young on Friday asked Europe to support South Korea's efforts in advancing the peace process on the peninsula, his office said Friday. Lee met with Jutta Urpilainen and Janez Lenarcic of the European Commission in Belgium on Thursday and requested Europe play a "more active role" in providing humanitarian assistance to the North and in building trust among the two Koreas and the United States. The two sides discussed "creative ways" to cooperate an

North Korea remained unresponsive to South Korea's regular calls via military and liaison hotlines Friday morning after leader Kim Jong-un offered to restore severed cross-border communication lines in early October. "North Korea did not answer the opening call through the inter-Korean liaison office at 9 a.m.," a unification ministry official said. The calls through military hotlines also went unanswered, another official said. Leader Kim told a session of the rubber-stamp parliament