North Korea should offer an explanation about its demolition of an inter-Korean liaison office building, a special adviser to President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday, urging the communist state to change course and return to talks. Moon Chung-in, special adviser for diplomatic and security affairs, made the remark during a peace forum hosted by Yonhap News Agency, stressing that the liaison office was built as a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation and peace. "The Kaesong liaison office doe

The Unification Ministry on Tuesday said it was reconsidering the timing of a $10 million aid package to North Korea via the World Food Program, amid heightened tensions between the two Koreas. 　 The ministry said that earlier this month the unification minister and WFP Executive Director David Beasley held a videoconference and they were planning to go ahead with an aid project for assisting nutrition needs for women and babies. But it decided to delay the plan after Kim Yo-jong, North Korean

North Korea has registered the trademark for “Masikryong Hotel” inside a luxury ski resort with a UN agency on intellectual property rights, as the reclusive regime seeks to develop its nascent tourism industry to garner more revenue amid international sanctions. 　 The North listed the trademark on April 2 at the World Intellectual Property Organization, the website showed Tuesday. The trademark is set to expire in 2030, but it could apply for extension afterward. 　 The luxury ho

A third US-North Korea summit is unlikely before the US presidential election in November, but the door is open to diplomacy, US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said Monday. “I think it’s probably unlikely between now and the US election,” Biegun told a forum hosted by the Washington-based think tank German Marshall Fund when asked about a potential summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The US point man on North Korea, however, sa

South Korea reiterated its will toward achieving denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula, a unification ministry official said Tuesday, marking the anniversary of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the Demilitarized Zone. "Today marks the first anniversary of the meeting between the two Koreas and the United States in Panmunjom. The government hopes to achieve denuclearization and lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula, and will st

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

Speculation about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's health is nothing more than "empty rumors" and the communist neighbor is functioning normally with the leader making major decisions, Russia's ambassador in Pyongyang said. Ambassador Alexander Matsegora also said in an interview with Russia's TASS news agency Monday that there is no reason to believe that the North Korean leader's younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, is being trained as the next leader of the communist nation. Matsegora a

WASHINGTON -- The top US envoy for North Korea said Monday that another summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is unlikely before the November presidential election in the United States. Stephen Biegun, deputy secretary of state and lead negotiator on North Korea's nuclear weapons program, made the comment during a virtual forum hosted by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a think tank headquartered in Washington. "I think it's probably unli

North Korea on Monday called on its people to rally behind leader Kim Jong-un amid lingering tensions on the peninsula, marking the fourth anniversary of Kim’s rise to chairman of the State Affairs Commission, the highest leadership institution there. The post was established in 2016 as part of branding the communist regime as a legitimate member of the international community. As chairman, Kim undertook a series of diplomatic breakthroughs including the historic first Washington-Pyongyan

The Unification Ministry on Monday held a hearing on two North Korean defector-led groups, as the final step before revoking their permits for floating anti-North Korea propaganda materials across the border, in defiance of the government. 　 The ministry said it held a hearing on Kuensaem, an organization that has sent bottles filled with rice to the North, and Fighters for a Free North Korea, which has floated anti-Pyongyang leaflets. 　 North Korean defector Park Jung-oh, who heads Kuensaem

North Korea's official paper lauded leader Kim Jong-un on Monday on the occasion of the anniversary of his fourth year as chairman of the State Affairs Commission, the communist state's highest decision-making body, in an apparent effort to bolster internal unity. Monday marks the fourth anniversary of Kim being designated as the commission's chairman, but the North appears to have skipped any celebratory events amid coronavirus concerns. This year's anniversary also does not fall on a five-ye

The unification ministry held a hearing on Monday to give two North Korean defector groups a final chance to explain themselves before going ahead with a decision to revoke their operation permits for sending propaganda leaflets into the North. The hearing came weeks after the ministry decided to file a criminal complaint with police against Fighters for a Free North Korea and Kuensaem and revoke their business permits for their sending of leaflets into the North. "We held a hearing toda

North Korea has recently stepped up monitoring of its citizens whose family members have defected to the South, a local news outlet reported Sunday. Defectors here have been sending cash to and corresponding with their family left behind in the North via Chinese brokers, but that has stopped after Pyongyang delegated the job of monitoring defector families to a central party organ in charge of state security, from provincial branches, the report said. The latest inter-Korean crisis over the

Korean War veterans, bereaved families and future generations wished for the end of war and lasting peace on the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the 1950-1953 Korean War. South Korea’s northeastern Gangwon Province held a commemorative ceremony at Baekma Goji Memorial Tower in the border county of Cheorwon on Thursday. Under the theme “Beyond Memory, Together with Hope,” 400 people, including the members of the Korean War Veterans Association and officials from the Ga

Nine out of 10 South Koreans think North Korea will not give up its nuclear weapons, but nearly half think the South should still seek dialogue with the North, according to a recent poll. In an annual face-to-face survey of 1,003 adults conducted from May 20 through June 10 by the Korea Institute for National Unification, 89.5 percent said Pyongyang will not denuclearize, the highest since 2016. Only 15.6 percent said they think dialogue and compromise are possible with the North’s Kim