Defense minister Suh Wook on Friday met with the elder brother of a South Korean fisheries official killed by North Korea near the western sea border as the bereaved family raised doubts about the government's finding that the slain official attempted to defect to the North. On Sept. 22, North Korea fatally shot the 47-year-old official, who was adrift on its side of the Yellow Sea, and burned his body, according to the South Korean military. He went missing the previous day while on duty near

The standing committee of the North Korean parliament adopted a non-smoking law and a revised corporate law, the North’s state media reported on Thursday. Under the new law, smoking is banned in designated areas such as theaters, cinemas and other public spaces, childcare centers, educational institutions, medical and health facilities, commercial facilities and on public transportation, said the North’s Korean Central News Agency. Pyongyang had enacted a “smoking control&rdq

The military has launched an inspection into a border security failure that enabled a North Korean man to cross the heavily guarded border into the South unhindered earlier this week, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said (JCS) Thursday. The man, whose identity was withheld, was captured 14 hours after he crossed the border late Tuesday following the military's extensive search operations. Sensors were installed at the barbed wire fences through which the man climbed over, but they did not ring, rais

PANMUNJOM -- Unification Minister Lee In-young on Wednesday called on North Korea to restore suspended communication channels between the two Koreas in a move to achieve a thaw in inter-Korean relations. 　 He also expressed hope of rebuilding the now-demolished inter-Korean joint liaison office, as well as resuming reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. 　 Lee’s remarks came during the ceremony for the opening of the tourism support center at Panmunjom to mark the resu

A North Korean propaganda outlet on Wednesday stressed the country's strengthening ties with China on the day of the US presidential election, calling it an "undefeatable friendship." "The North Korea-China ties are drawing global attention as an unprecedented and special relationship and an undefeatable friendship that cannot be broken by anything," the Tongil Sinbo, the North Korea's propaganda weekly, said in an article. "The two countries share a long history and t

A North Korean man was captured and taken into custody by South Korea’s military after he crossed the inter-Korean border on foot along the east coast, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday. Late Monday night, military surveillance first picked up the man approaching the northern side of the fortified military demarcation line separating the two Koreas in Goseong County.  At around 7:25 p.m. Tuesday, the man triggered the highest alert here, when he was spotted climbing over barb

SEOUL/PANMUNJOM -- Unification Minister Lee In-young called Wednesday for North Korea to restore severed cross-border communications lines and resume the operation of a now-destructed joint liaison office to bring the stalled inter-Korean relations back on track. Lee made the remarks in a speech at the opening ceremony for a tourism support center held at Panmunjom to mark the resumption of tours to the truce border village after more than a year of suspension caused by the spread of the Africa

A 2.8 magnitude natural earthquake struck North Korea early Wednesday, South Korea's state weather agency said. The quake was detected at 4:41 a.m., 10 kilometers northeast of Songlim, North Hwanghae Province, which is not far from the capital Pyongyang, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration. "Our analysis shows that it was a natural earthquake," a KMA official said. The quake posted 1 on a seismic intensity scale, which means that most people would not have felt the

North Korea has taken extreme measures to fend off the coronavirus, including laying landmines in border areas with China, Seoul's National Intelligence Service told lawmakers Tuesday. During a closed-door session at the Intelligence Committee of the National Assembly, the spy agency said North Korea fears the spread of COVID-19 could bring catastrophic results to the country due to its poor medical infrastructure, according to Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the main opposition People Power Party.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears to have ordered an investigation into the killing of a South Korean civil servant, Seoul’s National Intelligence Service revealed Tuesday. “Chairman Kim ordered an investigation into the incident. There was circumstantial evidence of a search for the body,” Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the main opposition People Power Party told reporters after the parliamentary audit of the NIS. Rep. Kim Byung-kee of the ruling Democratic Party added that he

South Korea's state intelligence agency said Tuesday that there is circumstantial evidence indicating that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered a probe into the military's fatal shooting in September of a South Korean fisheries official, according to lawmakers. Officials from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) made the remarks during a parliamentary intelligence committee's regular audit session into the agency, lawmakers who attended the meeting said. "According to intelligen

North Korea has yet to report a single infection case of the noble coronavirus as of Oct. 29, the World Health Organization said in its latest report released Friday. The country has tested 10,462 people, it added. 　 The WHO said in August it had been informed of zero infections in the North. Only about 3,000 North Koreans had been tested until September, according to Edwin Salvador, WHO representative to Pyongyang. All the rest took the test in October alone, but the WHO report did not offer

South Korea's military intelligence community told a parliamentary committee Monday that there are multiple pieces of circumstantial evidence indicating that the North Korean military incinerated the body of a South Korean fisheries official at sea in September.    Officials at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) under the defense ministry made the remarks during the annual National Assembly audit of its work, according to participants in the session.    "There are v

North Korea on Monday argued that South Korea is scheming to deploy an additional US missile defense system in the country, and warned that doing so would lead to “self-destruction.” 　 Pyongyang propaganda outlet Uriminzokkiri claimed that at recent defense ministers’ talks, Seoul and Washington had agreed to establish a long-term plan for a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery in the town of Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province, and that the plan was aimed at deploying a

South Korea and the United States are closely watching movements at North Korea's main Yongbyon nuclear complex, military authorities said Monday, amid a report on signs of brisk activities there. Last week, 38 North, a US website monitoring North Korea, reported that activity has picked up throughout the Yongbyon site, citing commercial satellite imagery showing "smoke or vapor" emanated from a building just south of its uranium enrichment plant. "Historically, this building w