North Korea appears to be enforcing home classes for elementary school students as a way to avoid classroom gatherings amid nationwide anti-coronavirus efforts, according to state media reports. Uriminzokkiri, one of the North's propaganda websites, said that elementary school teachers in Pyongyang are visiting homes of their students every three days for education as vacation continues. "With the vacation for kids in place, such a new schedule has been started," the website said. &q

Unification Minister Lee In-young said Thursday that South Korea should provide food and fertilizer aid to North Korea next spring at the latest to help the impoverished nation address chronic food shortages. "There are warnings that the coronavirus is crippling production and supply chains for crops, and climate change is making things worse, which will likely cause extreme famine and difficulty in securing food," Lee said at an international forum in Seoul to discuss ways to realize

Unification Minister Lee In-young tried to convey his "sincerity" about inter-Korean cooperation when he called for sharing coronavirus vaccines with North Korea, an official said Thursday, following criticism the appeal was inappropriate as South Korea has yet to secure enough vaccines. Last week, Lee said that the South should share coronavirus vaccines with the North even if the country runs short of its own supplies. The remark came under fire from conservatives as it came at a ti

North Korea faces a serious humanitarian crisis due to shortages of food, clean water and medical services aggravated by poor governance and repressive internal political measures, a Swiss international nongovernmental organization has said. According to the annual "Inform Severity Index" report compiled by the Geneva-based Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS), North Korea faces a "very high" level of humanitarian crisis severity. This represented the highest level of a s

South Korea decided Wednesday to mass produce a new type of tactical ground-based missiles designed to destroy underground artillery bases in North Korea, officials said. During the defense project promotion committee presided over by Defense Minister Suh Wook, the government approved the plan to produce more than 200 units of the Korean Tactical Surface to Surface Missile (KTSSM) by 2025, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA). Under the 450 billion won ($406.14 m

North Korea's official newspaper called Wednesday for putting quality ahead of quantity in construction and manufacturing, saying an obsession with speed will end up with defects and a waste of money and efforts. "By focusing solely on the speed without ensuring quality, we cannot avoid re-production and re-construction and our precious materials and funds will only go to waste," the Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the North's ruling party, said in an editorial. The paper stressed the im

Europeanist referred to Iran as model for NK nuclear deal

A North Korean man who fled here early this month said he used to be a gymnast and was able to jump over the 3-meter fence along the inter-Korean border, a Seoul official familiar with the matter said Monday. The man, reportedly of small stature and in his late 20s, has been under investigation by Seoul’s defense authorities over his defection route and motives. Seoul officials had him jump twice to verify his claim. Authorities suspect his light body weight and gymnastics experience co

A recently resumed tour program to the truce village of Panmunjom will remain in operation despite this week's toughened social distancing measures against the coronavirus, as necessary preventive steps have already been enforced, a unification ministry official said Tuesday. The tours to the Joint Security Area (JSA) and other sites inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas resumed earlier this month after more than a year of suspension due to the outbreak of African swine

North Korea said Monday that self-help is the way to power through the obstacles ahead, like the coronavirus pandemic, and no one should challenge that direction. “Self-help is the way of life we’ve maintained to this day and it’s in our blood. We display that and there is nothing we cannot overcome,” the official state newspaper said, urging Workers’ Party members to be a brigade moving forward to grab victory. The North still claims it has yet to report an infec

A UN envoy on North Korea condemned South Korea for opting out of co-sponsoring a North Korean human rights resolution at the United Nations, saying this sends the wrong signal to the reclusive regime. 　 “They should have a more vocal and outspoken position with regards to the human rights agenda as it was in the past,” Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, said during a recent interview with Radio Free Asia. “I would like to see South

Unification Minister Lee In-young on Monday called on South Korean conglomerates to prepare for possible inter-Korean cooperation despite the current stalled relations, stressing that a breakthrough in cross-border ties could "come sooner than expected." Lee made the remark at a meeting with officials from South Korean conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics, SK Group, LG Group and Hyundai Motor Group, whose leaders accompanied President Moon Jae-in during his visit to Pyongyang

Resuming round-the-clock liaison communications between the two Koreas would be the starting point for a new change in the currently stalled inter-Korean relations, Unification Minister Lee In-young said Monday. Lee made the remarks during a forum arranged to discuss ways to normalize communication lines between the two Koreas that have remained severed since the North blew up the liaison office in its border town of Kaesong in June in protest of anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent from the South. &q

Defense Minister Suh Wook vowed Monday to safeguard peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula with strength as he marked the 10th anniversary of North Korea's deadly artillery attack on a South Korean border island. The shelling on Nov. 23, 2010, of Yeonpyeong Island, a front-line island near the Yellow Sea border, marked the North's first attack on South Korean territory since the 1950-53 Korean War. Two Marines and two civilians were killed. "True peace needs to be supported by stron

North Korea on Sunday called for tighter border controls against the coronavirus, urging its officials to stay on "high alert at all times" amid a global resurgence in the virus cases. North Korea has recently intensified calls for tightened preventive measures against COVID-19 after leader Kim Jong-un held a politburo meeting of the Workers' Party and stressed the need to "keep a high alert, build a tight blocking wall and further intensify the anti-epidemic work." "B