North Korea on Monday expressed its support for the international community’s peace efforts on the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and negotiations. Diplomats from Asia-Pacific countries held videoconferences as part of the Senior Officials‘ Meetings of three regional dialogue platforms -- the ASEAN-plus-three meeting, which involves the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, South Korea, China and Japan; the East Asia Summit; and ASEAN Regional Forum -- last Monday a

The man who North Korea claimed returned across the border with coronavirus symptoms after defecting to the South three years ago appears to have crossed by swimming after going through a drainage ditch to escape guards, military officials in Seoul said Monday. 　 The South Korean authorities spotted a specific location on the island of Gangwhado, where a bag believed to belong to him was found, said Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Kim Jun-rak. 　 The 24-year-old man, identified by the surna

A North Korean defector believed to have swum across a river to return to North Korea earlier this month spoke of a “hopeless life” in the North and his perilous journey to the South on YouTube last month. Appearing in a video posted by a channel run by defectors, the man, presumed to be in his 20s and surnamed Kim, shared his story of fleeing the North for a better life in 2017, a year after the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex was closed over Pyongyang’s long-range m

President Moon Jae-in on Monday appointed Lee In-young, a four-term ruling party lawmaker, as the new unification minister in charge of inter-Korean relations, according to Cheong Wa Dae. 　 Lee immediately began his term the same day, following Moon‘s appointment. 　 Lee was nominated for the post early this month to succeed the former minister, Kim Yeon-chul, who resigned last month over frayed inter-Korean relations. 　 “I will put all my efforts for the Unification Ministry to ta

Eleven North Korean defectors went back to their communist homeland from South Korea in the past five years, the unification ministry said Monday, after Pyongyang claimed that a defector suspected of having virus symptoms recently crossed the demarcation line to return home. The 24-year-old defector is believed to have fled back to the North while he was under police investigation over suspicions of raping a female defector last month. His return was made known after the North said Sunday that

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un marked the 67th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War by visiting a war cemetery and presenting army officers with pistols, state media said Monday. Kim paid homage to the North's soldiers killed in the Korean War and buried at the Fatherland Liberation War Martyrs Cemetery to commemorate the anniversary of the armistice, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. "The undying feats of the defenders

South Korea’s military said Sunday that an unidentified person may have crossed the inter-Korean border to North Korea, supporting the North’s claim that a defector returned home a week ago with COVID-19 symptoms.  The North’s Korean Central News Agency said earlier in the day that the homecoming had prompted leader Kim Jong-un to chair an emergency Politburo meeting, where he raised the country’s coronavirus alert to the highest level and ordered a complete shutdow

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un convened an emergency politburo meeting of the Workers' Party and adopted the "maximum emergency system" against coronavirus after a defector returned home from South Korea with virus symptoms, state media reported Sunday. During the meeting held on Saturday, Kim also said he took "the preemptive measure of totally blocking Kaesong" after the "runaway" returned to the border city on July 19 after crossing the military demarcation li

Swedish Ambassador Joachim Bergstrom has been practicing yoga at iconic sites in North Korea’s capital Pyongyang since May. The Swedish ambassador practices yoga near the Ryugyong Hotel on May 9. Ambassador Bergstrom practices yoga in front of the Juche Tower on June 21. The ambassador practices yoga at various places in Pyongyang earlier this month. (Photos: Reuters-Yonhap) By Kim Tae-eun (kimt17@heraldcorp.com)

Kim Yo-jong may be key to breakthrough in stalled Washington-Pyongyang talks, head of parliamentary unification committee says

SINGAPORE -- A Singaporean defense expert who has regularly interacted with North Korean diplomats here until last year said he expects Pyongyang to conduct a seventh nuclear test or a nuclear warhead reentry test, which is its next crucial step in achieving recognition as a nuclear power, around the US presidential election in November. “My assessment, with high level of confidence, is that the Kim Jong-un regime will resume testing strategic nuclear weapons,” Graham Ong-Webb

North Korea could respond if South Korea and the United States exercise flexibility on their summertime joint military exercises as it could be seen as a "new message" for Pyongyang, unification minister nominee Lee In-young said Thursday. Lee made the remarks during a parliamentary confirmation hearing as military authorities of South Korea and the US are in discussion on whether to scale back or call off a major combined exercise reportedly scheduled for next month amid the global

A UN investigator on North Korea said it will request a detailed explanation from the South Korean government for its decision to inspect defector-led activist groups. 　 Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, voiced concern and expressed discontentment over Seoul’s recent actions against the North Korea-focused human rights groups, in an interview with Radio Free Asia and Voice of America on Wednesday (local time). He stressed that while all countr

North Korea is set to hold a national conference of war veterans for the first time in two years, to mark the 67th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, state media reported on Wednesday. 　 The Korean War ended in an armistice on July 27, 1953, and was never replaced with a formal peace treaty, leaving the two sides technically at war. The North officially refers to the war as the Fatherland Liberation War and claims victory. 　 The Korea Central News Agency reported the sixth national con

Unification Minister nominee Lee In-young on Tuesday proposed small-scale trade, or bartering, between the two Koreas as a way to break the inter-Korean impasse and work around the international sanctions imposed on Pyongyang. 　 Resorting to the barter system is one of Lee’s “new and creative” solutions to rekindle stalled relations with Pyongyang under the current sanctions regime, which bans the transfer of “bulk cash” into North Korea. 　  “I hope t