South Korea will push actively ahead with cooperation with North Korea once coronavirus vaccines and cures are developed, Unification Minister Lee In-young said Friday, after coming under fire for calling for sharing coronavirus vaccines with the North. "When vaccines and treatment for COVID-19 are developed and distributed in the near future, a new environment will be created in the Korean Peninsula in which people and goods can come and go," Lee said during a meeting with medical ex

UNICEF will direct $22.7 million in 2021 to aid projects in North Korea, where socioeconomic conditions are thought to be worsening due to the coronavirus pandemic, a report showed Friday. According to the Humanitarian Action for Children 2021-Democratic People’s Republic of Korea report released Wednesday, UNICEF calculated it would need a greater amount than this year’s $19.5 million initial budget for North Korea when physical access is again possible next year. UNICEF originall

North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations has criticized the UN Security Council for labeling its outer space program as threats, calling the agency an "undemocratic organ devoid of impartiality." Kim Song, the chief of the North Korean mission to the UN, delivered a statement at the plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly session earlier this week, stressing the importance of reform of the UN agency for better representation of its member states. "Until now even after 7

WASHINGTON -- US President-elect Joe Biden's approach toward North Korea will be different from that of former US President Barack Obama, a group of South Korea's ruling party lawmakers said Thursday. The South Korean delegation, led by Rep. Song Young-gil of the Democratic Party, said that the Biden administration's North Korea policy will not resemble that of the Obama administration, which is often described as "strategic patience." "Personally, I believe the biggest differen

WASHINGTON -- The United States needs to be more strategic when dealing with North Korea but move as quickly as possible to help denuclearize the communist state and reunify the divided Koreas, a US lawmaker said Thursday. The remarks from Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) came one day after the House of Representatives unanimously adopted a resolution, submitted by Suozzi in April, highlighting the importance of the South Korea-US alliance and urging US efforts to further strengthen it. "I think th

WASHINGTON -- The US Department of Treasury on Thursday added two new companies to its list of entities subject to sanctions on North Korea that seek to prevent the communist state's weapons programs. They include Korea Cholsan General Trading Corp., a North Korean enterprise based in Pyongyang that operates in Russia, according to the latest update posted on the department website. The company is also known as Chkholsan, Cholsan Trading Co. or Cholson LLC. The other is Mokran LLC, a Russian

Acknowledging that the US policy of “maximum pressure” and its focus on North Korea’s denuclearization have failed to change the reclusive regime, Joseph Yun, former US special representative for North Korea policy, said the incoming Joe Biden administration should steer both denuclearization and peace building in tandem in dealing with the North. 　 Yun, who served as Washington’s point man on North Korea during the early Trump administration, stressed that Biden needs

A UN committee adopted a North Korean human rights resolution on Wednesday in the US for the 16th consecutive year. For the second consecutive year, South Korea participated in the resolution’s consensus passage but did not co-sponsor the resolution. The resolution, adopted by the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, is expected to be put to the General Assembly next month. The resolution, drafted by the European Union, highlights human rights violations in North Korea, saying

More verification is necessary to determine whether North Korea has atmospheric reentry technology for its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), the defense ministry said Thursday, following a US think tank report suggesting Pyongyang has already mastered the technology. In the 2021 Index of US Military Strength report, the Heritage Foundation said Pyongyang's ICBM reentry vehicles "would likely perform adequately if flown to a normal trajectory to continental US targets," citin

The UN special rapporteur on North Korea's human rights situation has sent the two Koreas letters calling for sufficient information on the North's killing of a South Korean fisheries official in September, a diplomatic source said Thursday. On Tuesday, Tomas Ojea Quintana handed the "joint communication" letters to the diplomatic missions of the two Koreas in Geneva, Switzerland, as Pyongyang has yet to respond to Seoul's call for a joint probe into the official's death, with his fam

North Korea's official newspaper said Thursday the country should intensify antivirus efforts on its own without any outside help that could increase the risk of the spread of COVID-19 in the country. North Korea has recently intensified calls for tightened preventive measures against the coronavirus 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.&q

Unification Minister Lee In-young held a videoconference with former US Defense Secretary William Perry on Wednesday to discuss ways to achieve the denuclearization of North Korea under the future administration of US President-elect Joe Biden. 　 Jeong Se-hyun, a former unification minister and current executive vice chairperson of the presidential National Unification Advisory Council, also attended the hourlong session. 　 During the three-way meeting, Perry said using a “diplomatic so

The US Central Intelligence Agency took the family of Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, after Kim Jong-nam was murdered in February 2017, although it is unclear where the family resides now, said a Korean American writer. The activist group that helped the bereaved family get out of Macao shortly after Kim Jong-nam was killed in Kuala Lumpur reportedly lost them to people who identified themselves as CIA officers at the Taipei airport. In an article in the New

China's commitment to peace and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula will remain consistent regardless of the leadership change in the United States, Chinese Ambassador Xing Haiming said Wednesday. Xing also said during a forum hosted by his embassy that Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit South Korea first ahead of any other country once the coronavirus pandemic situation stabilizes. "That remains unchanged," he said. Asked about the prospects of Beijing's cooperation wit

North Korea poses major threats to "vital interests" of the United States as it continues to advance its missile and nuclear capabilities, a Washington-based think tank report showed Wednesday. According to the "2021 Index of US Military Strength," an annual report published by the Heritage Foundation, North Korea was ranked as "high" in terms of threat level, the second highest out of its five-tier threat assessment scale. It came in the same category with Russia,