Unification Minister Lee In-young said Thursday the government will push to resume long-suspended tours to North Korea on an individual basis as soon as the pandemic eases, saying it is "the best way to break the boundaries" between South and North Koreans. "There are still many South Koreans who wish to visit Mount Kumgang though it has been over 10 years since its suspension," he said, pointing out that such exchanges can help restore "national homogeneity." &qu

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presided over a Central Military Commission meeting to urge disciple among military officials and stricter control over younger officers, state media reported Thursday. At the expanded military commission meeting of the ruling Workers' Party on Wednesday, Kim stressed the importance of establishing "revolutionary moral discipline" particularly among the younger generation in the army, according to the Korean Central News Agency. "To establish the

The United States will unlikely ease or remove its sanctions on North Korea unless Pyongyang first makes a move to show its good faith, a US lawmaker said Wednesday. Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-NY) argued North Korean leader Kim Jong-un cannot be trusted and therefore the new Biden administration must become "more strategic" in dealing with the North. "I don't think that there's going to be sanction relief in the short term. I think there will have to be some sort of action by the Nor

North Korea failed to meet its previous five-year economic goals due to its dependence on heavy industries amid crippling sanctions, a researcher at a state-run think tank said Wednesday. Kim Seok-jin, a researcher at the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), cited the North's investment strategies in rebuilding the heavy industries and the following chronic power shortage as the main reasons for its failure in achieving the five-year economic goal. In 2016, North Korea pu

Former trade minister named to key post amid Kim Jong-un’s growth push

　North Korea ranked the lowest in a world democracy index last year for the 16th consecutive year, a recent report showed. 　North Korea placed at the bottom among the 167 countries polled, with an overall score of 1.08 out of a total of 10, according to the Democracy Index 2020 published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the research division of the British weekly The Economist. 　The North has ranked the lowest in the EIU index since the agency began compiling the data in 2006. 　South K

North Korea's official newspaper on Wednesday called for greater efforts to realize a self-reliant economy without outside help amid struggles to accomplish key goals unveiled in a rare party meeting last month. "When we face difficulties in the process of achieving our tasks, we must not depend on help from outside or from the top but rather solve the problems in close cooperation with the production, research and development sector," the Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the North's rulin

North Korea will convene a congress of the country's largest labor union in May for the first time in about five years to lend support to the decisions and plans unveiled by last month's congress of the ruling Workers' Party, state media said Wednesday. At the congress of the Workers' Party in early January, the North unveiled a new five-year economic development plan with a focus on self-reliance and other policy directions against the coronavirus pandemic and global sanctions on its regime.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday reaffirmed the US position that the country would continue to focus on North Korea’s denuclearization and closely cooperate with its allies and partners. He briefly mentioned North Korea during a speech at the United Nations-sponsored Conference on Disarmament, where he also said the US would demand greater transparency from China on its weapons development program. During the prerecorded speech, Blinken warned against Russia, referring to i

Unification Minister Lee In-young renewed calls Tuesday for building a joint response system with North Korea against infectious diseases to better cope with growing threats from global pandemics. Lee made the remarks during a seminar on inter-Korean cooperation in public health, noting that creating a joint system does not necessarily mean providing unilateral help to Pyongyang but is also a way of protecting "oneself and one's family." "South and North Korea must resume buildi

The World Food Programme (WFP) could suspend its operations in North Korea this year as restrictions on imports remain in place due the coronavirus pandemic, a report on its website showed Tuesday. According to the report, the UN aid agency has continued to be faced with difficulties in deploying its staff in the North, with its physical monitoring activities being curtailed for a prolonged period of time. "Pandemic-related restrictions do not ease and food imports, international staff de

Workers at a major steel plant in North Korea held a rally to firm up their commitment to meet their production target and call for nationwide efforts to achieve the first-year goal of the country's five-year economic development scheme, state media reported Tuesday. The rally held Monday at the Hwanghae Iron and Steel Complex came after leader Kim Jong-un criticized officials at a recent party meeting for showing "passive and self-protecting tendencies" in setting this year's goals a

Unification Minister Lee In-young called Monday for efforts to restart a long-suspended project to compile a unified Korean-language dictionary with North Korea, saying it will be a "firm step" toward unification. Lee made the remarks during his virtual speech at a forum on the inter-Korean project, urging for the early resumption of the project on the publication of a common Korean-language dictionary that began in 2005 as part of efforts to overcome language barriers between the two

The unification ministry said Monday that testimonies of North Korean defectors are "valuable records" that shed light on the human rights situation in their reclusive home country. On Sunday, four North Korean defectors said they will file a lawsuit against Unification Minister Lee In-young for defamation over his recent remarks casting doubt over what defectors said about human rights situations in the North. They claim that Lee has deemed defectors' testimonies as "untrustwor

North Korea's official newspaper on Monday stressed the importance of respecting government officials in the economic sector as the country strives to achieve a recently unveiled five-year economic development scheme. "We must respect economic officials in the administration and establish an orderly administrative system ... so that administrative orders can be delivered down and accurately implemented without hesitation," the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the ruling Worker