North Korea vowed Friday to build up a "more reliable" force against military threats from the United States, saying the historic summit two years ago between leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump led to no improvement in relations between the two countries. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Son-gwon made the remark, adding that Pyongyang would "never again" provide the US with "another package" that President Donald Trump could use to boast as his polit

North Korea has reinstated tough-talking Kwon Jong-gun as chief of US affairs at its Foreign Ministry, six months after removing him from the post, as it struggles to find a way out of the prolonged stalemate in nuclear negotiations with the US. In an interview carried by the North’s Korean Central News Agency on Thursday, Kwon lambasted the US, which said it was disappointed at the North’s recent actions to cut off communication with South Korea. Kwon had delivered Pyongyang&rsqu

Conservative bloc riles at move, accuses government of violating constitutional rights

With North Korea severing all communications with South Korea and ratcheting up hostile rhetoric against both Seoul and Washington, there are growing concerns that inter-Korean relations could once again become confrontational. 　 But ex-unification ministers downplayed those concerns and remained optimistic, calling for patience, flexibility and consistency in dealing with North Korea. 　 “There were many similar times like this in the past. Inter-Korean relations are influenced by US-No

North Korea, which recently cut off all communication with the South, was seen moving several missiles, a local newspaper reported Friday, citing unidentified US authorities familiar with the matter. Several missiles were spotted atop transporter erector launchers, the road-mobile vehicles that elevate missiles to the firing position, in South Pyeongan Province, north of Pyongyang, where the North test-fired its first ICBM in 2017, the Donga Ilbo said. It added the US authorities suspect, fro

The United States has made clear to North Korea that an improvement in human rights conditions, including religious freedom, will be required for a full normalization of bilateral ties, a State Department report said Wednesday. According to the annual International Religious Freedom Report, the North Korean government continued to deny its people the right to religious freedom and committed violations that constituted crimes against humanity. The report covered the period between Jan. 1 and D

North Korea warned the United States on Thursday not to meddle in inter-Korean relations if it wants to avoid experiencing an unspecified "hair-raiser" and hold November's presidential election smoothly. Kwon Jong-gun, director general of the North Korean foreign ministry's American affairs department, made the remark after Washington voiced disappointment over Pyongyang's recent decision to cut off all communication lines with South Korea. "If the US pokes its nose into others

The Unification Ministry on Wednesday said it would press charges against two defector-run civic groups for sending anti-North Korean leaflets and bottles filled with rice across the border, a day after Pyongyang ceased all communication with Seoul over the matter.  The ministry said the two groups, Fighters for a Free North Korea, led by defector Park Sang-hak, and Keumsaem, headed by Park’s younger brother Park Jung-oh, violated the inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation law by se

Opposition says president must apologize for ‘policy failure,’ reshuffle security team

After North Korea severed all communications with South Korea, referring to South as its “enemy,” experts in Seoul agreed on the gravity of the situation and called for a breakthrough to mend the frayed ties before things get any worse. 　 “It’s a critical time where there is a mounting sense of crisis that (inter-Korean relations) could revert back to the period before June 15,” Koh Yu-hwan, president of the Korea Institute for National Unification, said Wednesday

North Koreans need food and clean drinking water now more than ever before, but the situation is set to worsen, Elisabeth Byrs, spokesperson for the World Food Program, said Tuesday, urging the international community not to look away. More than 10 million people -- nearly 40 percent of the country’s population – are in need for humanitarian assistance, she told reporters, adding that about the same number also lacked access to safe water supplies. Children as well as pregnant an

North Korea will reach out again through inter-Korean communication lines, a ex-unification minister said, despite its vows to cut all channels with South Korea in anger over the flying of leaflets into the North. Jeong Se-hyun, a top North Korea expert who served as unification minister from 2002 to 2004, made the remarks in a press conference to disclose his new book, a day after the North vowed to cut off all phone lines with the South. "They did not cut the phone cords. They just un

South Korea will fully implement a military tension-reduction agreement with North Korea despite Pyongyang's threat to scrap it, the defense ministry said Wednesday, amid heightened tensions over anti-Pyongyang leaflets. During a meeting of top commanders presided over by Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, officers said the agreement signed in 2018 has "specifically and practically" contributed to reducing tensions between the two Koreas, according to the ministry "Despite the

South Korea will not attempt to call North Korea via a liaison communication line until its operation returns to normal, the unification ministry said Wednesday, after Pyongyang apparently severed cross-border phone lines in anger over anti-Pyongyang leaflets. On Tuesday, North Korea called the South an "enemy" and vowed to cut off all inter-Korean communication lines in anger over anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent from the South. It has since not answered routine daily phone calls from t

North Korea's main newspaper on Wednesday lashed out at South Korea over anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent by defectors and other activists into the communist state, saying "the whole country is ablaze with fury." On Monday, the North called the South an "enemy" and vowed to cut off all inter-Korean communication lines in anger over such leafleting, and it has since not answered routine daily phone calls from the South via liaison and military hotlines. The Rodong Sinmun, the o