The dismantling of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex should not be underestimated in the denuclearization process, an American nuclear expert said Friday. Siegfried Hecker, known for his 2010 visit to the Yongbyon complex, made the remarks during a video conference with Unification Minister Lee In-young and Moon Chung-in, special foreign policy adviser to President Moon Jae-in, also stressing the need for a "flexible approach" in dealing with the North, including sanctions relief

North Korea has conducted tests on more than 9,000 people, but there has been no reported outbreak of the coronavirus in the country, a World Health Organization report showed Friday. The North has conducted tests on 9,373 people and claims that no cases have been reported as of Dec. 3, according to the agency's latest weekly situation report on COVID-19. Nearly half of those tested had influenza like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) or were people who developed fev

North Korea has designated restaurants, bus stops, public squares and other venues as nonsmoking areas after adopting an anti-smoking law last month, a propaganda outlet said Friday. DPRK Today, one of the North's propaganda websites, pointed out that smoking is banned in several public spaces, including hotels, stores, restaurants, public baths, cinemas, libraries, gymnasiums, public squares and (bus) stops. Also designated as nonsmoking areas are ideological education centers, nurseries, sc

US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said Thursday that diplomacy remains the "best" and "only" course to address the North Korean nuclear quandary, calling for Pyongyang to return to dialogue. Biegun, who doubles as Washington's top nuclear envoy, made the remarks during a lecture in Seoul recapping his yearslong, unfinished negotiations with the North, which he cast as being marked by "setbacks, disappointments and missed opportunities." "As we look

The unification ministry considers adjusting a recently resumed tour program to the truce village of Panmunjom amid toughened social distancing measures against the coronavirus, a ministry official said Thursday. The official did not specify what the adjustments might be, but observers say they could include scaling down or suspending the tours altogether in consideration of a recent spike in daily infection cases. "We will announce plans soon for tours starting next week in consideration

North Korea is likely to propose a beefed-up drive for "self-reliance" at the upcoming party congress to bolster its faltering economy under the strain of global sanctions and the fallout from the global pandemic, a Seoul-based think tank said Thursday. The Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University also said that the January-February period will be a "golden time" to make progress in the stalled nuclear talks and inter-Korean ties. The North is expected to ho

North Korea's trade with China nose-dived to a record low in October due to Pyongyang's border closure with its ally to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, a report showed Thursday. Exports and imports between the two countries came to $1.7 million in October, down a whopping 99.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the report by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA). The October reading was the lowest monthly tally and down 92 percent from the previous month. North Korea

US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, who doubles as Washington’s point man on North Korea, stressed close bilateral cooperation with Seoul as he reflected over the past years of nuclear diplomacy with North Korea, while meeting senior officials in South Korea on Wednesday. 　   　  Biegun arrived here Tuesday for a four-day trip -- most likely his last visit to Seoul as the No. 2 American diplomat and the US special representative for North Korea, as US President Donald Tr

Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s powerful younger sister, lashed out at South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha for questioning Pyongyang’s claim that it is free of the coronavirus, warning that she may “pay dearly” for the remarks, state media said Wednesday.   　 Kim was apparently responding to Kang’s remark delivered Saturday at the Manama Dialogue, an annual regional security forum held in Bahrain. Seoul’s top diplomat said that i

The US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Tuesday announced sanctions against six trading companies and four vessels over their involvement in North Korea’s illicit trade of coal. The OFAC’s latest move, which comes a day after a US newspaper published US government-provided satellite photos indicating coal trade between North Korea and China, appears to be the Trump administration’s message to Pyongyang that it will not loosen the reins until i

North Korean leader's sister Kim Yo-Jong on Wednesday slammed South Korea's foreign minister over her recent remarks on Pyongyang's antivirus measures, saying that she will "pay dearly" for them and warning the already frozen inter-Korean relations could get worse. Last week, South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told a forum in Bahrain that the North has been unresponsive to Seoul's calls for cross-border antivirus cooperation, adding that Pyongyang's claim that it has no cor

Inter-Korean relations could improve in the coming year, and Pyongyang may respond to Seoul’s proposal on dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, Unification Minister Lee In-young predicted Tuesday, saying the situation on the Korean Peninsula was at a tipping point. 　 Lee made the remarks during an interview with local radio broadcaster CBS on Tuesday morning, assessing that the tension between the two Koreas had eased from its peak in early June, when the North demolished the inter-Korea

North Korea and China are no longer even trying to avoid international surveillance when trading coal illegally, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Citing senior officials in the US State Department and satellite photos provided by the State Department, the US newspaper said North Korea-flagged vessels have lugged hundreds of coal shipments to China’s Ningbo-Zhoushan area over the past year. North Korea, prohibited from exporting coal under United Nations sanctions since 2017, had

The United States will seriously consider helping North Korea contain the spread of the coronavirus if it requests such assistance, Robert O’Brien, US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, said Monday. “They (North Korea) have been reticent to ask for outside help for things in the past but if they did we would certainly look at that very seriously,” O’Brien said in an interview with 19FortyFive, a website on global affairs. He said Pyongyang appears

US early warning aircraft and reconnaissance planes have flown over South Korea, aviation trackers showed Tuesday, in an apparent move to monitor North Korea. One E-3B Sentry airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) jet departed Kadena Air Base in Okinawa and carried out a mission over South Korea and the Yellow Sea on Tuesday, Aircraft Spots tweeted. This type of aircraft provides all-altitude, all-weather surveillance, command, control and communications, according to the US Air Force.