Signs of activity have recently been detected at some North Korean nuclear facilities, the UN nuclear watchdog chief said Monday, expressing “serious concern” at the reclusive regime’s continued activities. 　 Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the board of governors that there was evidence that the regime has continued construction at an experimental light-water reactor at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex, including testing of the

The military will overhaul an infantry division in charge of guarding the heavily fortified border separating South and North Korea, the defense ministry said Tuesday, following a series of security failures in the eastern region. Officials from the ministry, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Army will soon visit the 22nd infantry division in the eastern border town of Goseong to assess the unit "from a perspective of reorganization and operation," according to the ministry. The divi

North Korea's official newspaper on Tuesday stressed the importance of planting trees to make the country less vulnerable to natural disasters as Pyongyang marked its arbor day. "Forestry is a valuable resource for our country and important asset for our country's prosperity and people's happiness," the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party, said in an editorial. "Planting and taking care of trees is important work that cannot be delayed or suspended

A North Korean propaganda outlet Tuesday strongly criticized a US professor over his controversial claim that victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery are voluntary prostitutes, calling him a "disgusting money grubber" and "pseudo scholar." This marked the first time that a North Korean media outlet has mentioned J. Mark Ramseyer, Mitsubishi professor of Japanese Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, since he caused a stir by describing the former sex slaves as prostitutes u

North Korea has been showing signs of operating a thermal plant used to provide heat to a nuclear fuel rod reprocessing facility, the chief of the UN nuclear watchdog said, an indication that Pyongyang could try to harvest plutonium for nuclear weapons. During Monday's session of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi took note of the indications at the Yongbyon complex, north of Pyongyang, calling the North's continuing nuclear progr

The US State Department said North Korea’s border shutdowns to combat the pandemic are preventing the country from receiving outside help from humanitarian aid groups. “These severe measures have significantly hindered the efforts of humanitarian organizations, UN agencies, and other countries to deliver aid to those most in need after they received swift exemptions from the 1718 Committee,” the State Department told Voice of America on Sunday The statement came in response t

The US State Department assessed that North Korea's stringent measures against COVID-19 have significantly impeded efforts of outside organizations to deliver humanitarian aid to the impoverished nation, according to a news report Sunday. Radio Free Asia quoted a State Department spokesperson as saying that Pyongyang's "extremely stringent COVID-19 response" has "significantly hindered the efforts of humanitarian organizations, UN agencies and other countries to deliver aid to th

North Korea has staged worker pep rallies en masse across the country to boost morale in achieving a new five-year state economic development put forward by leader Kim Jong-un last month, the country's state media said Sunday. The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that workers' rallies aimed at encouraging the fulfillment of the year-one goals of the five-year economic plan were held in multiple industrial fields and units. The rallies were held as answers to an earli

Human rights activist Park Ji-hyun is first North Korean defector to run for office outside Korean Peninsula

Unification Minister Lee In-young called Friday for efforts to ensure that international sanctions on Pyongyang do not result in unintended negativec effects on the lives of ordinary North Korean people. "We need to assess how effective sanctions have been on the desired goal of denuclearization five years since they were imposed," Lee said in an interview with the Financial Times, according to a Korean-language release from his ministry. "If the lives of North Koreans have wors

A US federal court ordered North Korea to pay over $2.3 billion in damages to the crew and their families of the naval spy ship USS Pueblo, for torturing them for 11 months upon capturing the vessel in 1968 in the East Sea. It is the most in damages a US court has ordered North Korea to pay, raising the chances of further US actions to seize North Korea-related assets overseas in a bid to collect damages from the destitute country. The Washington court said in its decision handed down on Feb.

North Korea convened an extended plenary session of its Cabinet to discuss ways to give businesses greater independence as part of efforts to achieve the economic goals set forth at last month's rare party congress, state media said Friday. The Cabinet meeting took place Thursday via a "teleconference system" to discuss a series of important tasks set forth at the party congress and the following parliamentary session, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. At Thurs

A North Korean firm filed a lawsuit against a South Korean company in 2019 to claim payment related to a business deal, sources here said Thursday, a rare legal battle between businesses from the two Koreas. The company affiliated with Pyongyang's national economic cooperation federation filed the suit with the Seoul Central District Court seeking 5.3 billion won ($4.7 million) for its alleged unpaid supply, according to the sources. Their names have not been made available. The North Korean

South Korea should put off or suspend its combined springtime military exercise with the United States as part of efforts to improve inter-Korean relations, a researcher at a state-run think tank said Thursday. Kim Sang-ki, a researcher at the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), made the point in a report amid concern that the joint exercise, expected to take place next month, could provide North Korea with a pretext for provocations. "It is necessary to postpone th

Leading experts on North Korea underscored the need Thursday to address Pyongyang's human rights issues should Washington engage in talks on the normalization of relations between the two countries. Speaking at a virtual forum on peace efforts on the Korean Peninsula, Robert Gallucci, former US nuclear negotiator, and Victor Cha, Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, made the point, as the administration of US President Joe Biden is intent on reasserting America's r