North Korea has discovered another ancient tomb, with mural paintings, believed to be from the sixth century Koguryo era (37B.C.-A.D.668), state media said Saturday. A research group from its cultural heritage agency found the tomb on a hillside in Undok area of Ryonggang County in the western city of Nampo, South Pyongan Province, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. The tomb consists of a burial chamber and passage, with a stone gate of about 125 centimeters tall and 60 meters w

North Korea said a recent Danish documentary claims to show Pyongyang bypassing international sanctions on arms trading is “fabricated” and called Denmark to find the infiltrator, according to media reports on Friday.  The North Korean Embassy in Stockholm said the documentary “is from the beginning to the end a fabricated film which aimed to cast a slur on the image of the DPRK,” Reuters reported, citing the embassy’s letter sent to Danish newspaper Ekstra Bl

Seoul and Washington are on the same page over the need to declare an end to the Korean War after denuclearizing Pyongyang, Seoul’s top security adviser said, seeking to end speculation that the two sides are in dissent over the matter.  Suh Hoon, director of South Korea’s National Security Office, stressed that the formally ending the Korean War cannot be separated from the denuclearization process of North Korea, adding it was “common sense” that the two matters

The Army said Friday it will push to establish a surveillance system that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) along the inter-Korean border areas and coastal regions to beef up its security posture. The move came after a series of security breaches this year, including illegal entries of Chinese people into a western coastal city on small boats and a North Korean defector's undetected border crossing back to his homeland through a drainage tunnel underneath barbed-wire fences. "By 202

North Korea said on Friday it has embarked on an "80-day battle" to see progress in recovery from COVID-19, floods and typhoons, as well as better economy. The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North Korean Workers’ Party, said in an editorial that the country "cannot successfully seize the extensive and pressing goals ahead of us by the year-end with the usual level of supervision and working attitude." "(We) must robustly fight on to achieve a glorio

A North Korean newspaper on Friday warned against a global hunger crisis in commemoration of World Food Day as the impoverished country continues to struggle with its own chronic food shortage. The Minju Joson, the North's cabinet newspaper, said that at least 820 million people around the globe were suffering from starvation as of June this year, among which 244 million are children under the age of 5. The paper pointed out that production levels in agriculture across the world dropped sharpl

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday it will kick off an annual military exercise next week amid persistent nuclear and missile threats from North Korea. The Hoguk exercise, set to run from Monday through Oct. 30 across the country, will involve the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, and diverse programs will be staged, such as joint landing drills and those to defend northwestern islands in the Yellow Sea. "As an annual drill, the Hoguk exercise is defensive in nature, an

A new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) that North Korea unveiled last week is believed to be labeled "Pukguksong-4ㅅ," featuring a Korean letter, not "Pukguksong-4A," which indicates that it is a sea-based system. On Saturday, the communist country unveiled a new SLBM during a massive military parade held in Pyongyang to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of its Workers' Party, along with a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and other advanced con

The UN special rapporteur on North Korea's human rights situation has urged Pyongyang to punish those responsible for the killing of a South Korean fisheries official, compensate the official's family and ensure no such incident happens again. Tomas Ojea Quintana made the appeal, denouncing the killing as a "violation of international human rights law" in his latest report on the North's human rights situation. The document was released by the UN human rights office in Seoul, and Qui

The resumption of a civilian tour program to the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom is likely to be announced as early as next week, a unification ministry official said Thursday. Since September last year, tours to the Joint Security Area (JSA) and other sites inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) have been suspended as part of an effort to stem the spread of the highly contagious African swine fever. "We are in the final stages of coordinating the resumption of the Panmunjom tour am

North Korea has upgraded its surface-to-air weapons to augment its air power considered way weaker than that of South Korea, the South's Air Force chief said Thursday, vowing to boost missile defense capabilities against the North's nuclear and missile threats. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Lee Seong-yong made the remark during a parliamentary audit session, saying around 10 new weapons have been identified from the North's military parade held last week. "We are analyzing the newly iden

More than 30 human rights groups from seven countries urged the United Nations to include North Korea's recent killing of a South Korean official adrift in its waters in its annual human rights resolution on the communist state. The groups said they made the request in a joint public letter to the UN after learning of the "shocking news" that North Korea killed the South Korean official and burned his body last month "in accordance with Pyongyang's shoot-to-kill order to prevent

North Korea's state media on Thursday confirmed that a close aide to leader Kim Jong-un has been appointed as new chairman of a party provincial committee after its previous head was dismissed last month over a failure in handling typhoon preparations. While reporting on a local army-civilian rally, the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the Workers' Party, referred to Ri Jong-nam, a vice director of the Organization and Guidance Department, as the "chairman of the party committee in

WASHINGTON -- US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that his country's efforts to reduce threats from North Korea have proven successful, noting the communist state conducted "zero" missile tests over the past two years. The top US diplomat insisted the US would not be where it is now without its diplomatic efforts toward the communist state. "Am I confident that our diplomacy has proven successful? Yes, absolutely," he told a press briefing. His remarks came da

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un once again visited a typhoon-hit region in the country's east and urged officials to redouble recovery efforts, state media said Thursday, in an apparent effort to rally public support and unity. Kim visited the country's eastern area, including Sinpo City and Hongwon County in South Hamgyong Province to inspect recovery efforts and encourage division members, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). "He said that the division members and service