The UN's World Food Program (WFP) will resume humanitarian food aid to 771,000 North Koreans, the Voice of America said Saturday, citing a WFP report. In the report, the WFP said it needs an estimated $27.5 million from July to December to help the North handle the COVID-19 pandemic, and it lacks $3 million. The WFP said there is a need to find out what impact two months of delay in North Korea's reopening of schools had on the health of children in the communist nation, given North Korean c

North Korea feels no need to meet with the United States for talks, a top diplomat of the communist nation said Saturday, accusing Washington of taking advantage of dialogue between the two countries only as "a tool for grappling its political crisis." First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui made the remark as talk of another summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un gained traction recently after President Moon Jae-in said he would push for such a

US President Donald Trump could push to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for the third time in October to bolster his November reelection, said former national security adviser John Bolton. “If the president felt he was in deep, deep trouble, another meeting with his friend Kim Jong-un might look like something that could turn things upside down again,” Bolton told a video press conference hosted by New York foreign journalists Thursday. But he was doubtful whether the North wo

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un convened a Workers’ Party Politburo meeting on COVID-19 for the first time in three months, and called for strengthened efforts to contain the epidemic, the North’s state news agency said on Friday. Pyongyang has claimed so far that there have been no confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the country. Nevertheless, Kim presided over the extended Politburo meeting on Friday during which the party’s top brass checked on how the government

The leaders of the US and North Korea are unlikely to push for their third summit before November, experts said Thursday, as domestic priorities override foreign policy concerns in the lead-up to the US presidential election in November. President Moon Jae-in floated the idea of a potential Donald Trump-Kim Jong-un meet at a videoconference with EU leaders Tuesday, saying they should try dialogue one more time to revive the stalled denuclearization process. The nuclear talks are stalled over

North Korea was named the 39th most dangerous country in the world, according to a risk management report published by the European Commission on Thursday. In the Index for Risk Management 2020 report, North Korea received 5.2 out of 10 points in the Inform global risk index, 39th highest among the 191 countries reviewed. The Inform global risk index is calculated based on the country’s hazard and exposure; vulnerability; and lack of coping capacity. The higher the index, the greater t

South Korea is closely monitoring North Korea in coordination with the United States, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Thursday, after a media report that the North is building a replica of the South's presidential office for a possible assault drill. On Wednesday, local cable network Channel A reported that the North is building a mini replica of what appears to be the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae or the defense ministry on a desert island near Kilju, North Hamgyong Province. "

North Korea fully supports China, the country's main newspaper said Thursday, amid intensifying rivalry between Washington and Beijing over a series of contentious issues, including China's security legislation for Hong Kong. "The most critical thing is that the US is badgering Chinese socialism, calling it a dictatorship and completely denying the regime... China-US relations are shifting into an all-out confrontation," the Rodong Sinmun said. "We fully support the Chinese in

Amid heightened uncertainties over inter-Korean relations, a special adviser to President Moon Jae-in called for the leaders of the two Koreas to meet in order to break the deadlock and move forward after the North’s demolition of a joint liaison office last month. 　 “Kim Yo-jong, the vice department director of the North’s Workers Party, said the relationship with the South has changed to that of an enemy and blocked all communication channels between the two Koreas. The onl

US national security adviser Robert O’Brien on Tuesday urged North Korea to avoid provocations and return to negotiations. He said the US hopes to see North Korea achieve a “bright economic future” under leader Kim Jong-un, and that US President Donald Trump remains committed to “enduring peace” on the Korean Peninsula. “Tangible progress has been slow,” O’Brien said during a virtual seminar hosted by the Center for the National Interest, appare

A total of 12 North Korean refugees arrived here between April and June this year, the lowest figure since 2003 when Seoul’s Unification Ministry started compiling the data, it said Wednesday. The figure is down 96 percent from the same period last year, when 320 defectors fled the communist regime. The downward trend was a continuation from the previous quarter -- from January to March -- when 135 North Koreans arrived here, compared to 229 in the same period last year. The coronavirus

North Korea's grain imports from Russia nearly tripled on-year in April, data showed Wednesday, amid Pyongyang's chronic food shortages compounded by extreme weather and the coronavirus pandemic hampering cross-border trade. According to the data by the US International Trade Commission, the North imported around $7.41 million worth of grain from Russia in April, compared with $2.55 million worth of imports reported a year earlier. The amount far exceeded $3.79 million tallied in 2019. It was

The average North Korean can expect to live 72 years, a UN population organization's data showed, putting the impoverished communist nation at 118th in the world in terms of life expectancy. The life expectancy of North Korean babies born this year is estimated to be 11 years shorter than that of South Korea, according to the latest "State of World Population 2020" report by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). South Korea came in 9th among 198 countries with an average life expectancy o

WASHINGTON -- US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien on Tuesday called on North Korea to refrain from provocations and return to dialogue. O'Brien's comment comes after North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office in anger over anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets sent by defectors but then suspended plans to take military action against South Korea. He said the United States wants to see North Korea achieve a "bright economic future" under leader Kim Jong-un, and that Pres

Police on Tuesday called in North Korean defector brothers over their groups' anti-North Korea leafleting campaign, which Seoul views as a breach of law and Pyongyang vehemently criticizes. Park Sang-hak, head of Fighters for a Free North Korea, and his younger brother Jung-oh, who leads another defector group, Kuensaem, showed up for questioning at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency at 9:20 a.m. Police were trying to determine whether the brothers' campaign has breached the inter-Korea ex