The South Korean government on Tuesday was looking into US media reports saying North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was in fragile condition after surgery. Officials from South Korea's Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service said they couldn't immediately confirm the report. CNN cited an anonymous US official who said Kim was in "grave danger" after an unspecified surgery. The Unification Ministry, which deals with inter-Korean affairs, said it couldn't confirm another r

South Korea has seen no unusual signs with regard to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's heath, a government source said Tuesday, after CNN reported that Kim is "in grave danger after a surgery." CNN cited an unidentified "US official with direct knowledge," but offered no further details. A South Korean government source said there have been no relevant signs detected with regard to Kim's health conditions, emphasizing that Kim continued to be shown in public until recent d

Speculation mounts over Kim's health, but no confirmation yet about rumors

North Korea's official newspaper Tuesday urged its people to stay on high alert against the coronavirus, warning that the devastation caused by the pandemic in other countries could take place anytime in the communist nation. North Korea claims to be free from the coronavirus, but Pyongyang has ramped up calls for its people not to let their guard down in warding off the COVID-19 pandemic as it is bracing for a long fight against the infectious disease that has been sweeping around the world.

Some university and high school students in North Korea are back at school after extended semester breaks that came due to the coronavirus outbreak, a propaganda outlet said Monday.    As the school vacations ended, classes reopened gradually, with students in their final years of university or high school first being allowed to attend lectures, according to an article carried by Naenara, a state media outlet.    The online outlet ran photos of students wearing masks and

Amid stalled relations between Seoul and Pyongyang, some experts assert that cross-border public health care cooperation could open up opportunities to resolve the impasse between the two Koreas, as both battle the novel coronavirus pandemic.   　 “North Korea has been pushing ahead with a policy of ‘self-reliance,’ but it would be difficult, especially as the country deals with COVID-19,” said Jeong Se-hyun, executive vice chair of the National Unification Advisory

North Korea warned US President Donald Trump not to use his personal rapport with leader Kim Jong-un for “selfish purposes,” saying Kim had not sent the “nice note” Trump claimed to have received. “The relations between the leaders of both countries are not to be taken up just for diversion or be misused for selfish purposes,” the North’s Foreign Ministry said on late Sunday in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency. The message ca

North Korea on Sunday denied any recent correspondence with US President Donald Trump, less than a day after Trump mentioned having received a "nice note" from leader Kim Jong-un. "The US media reported Saturday that the US President mentioned receiving a 'nice note' from our top leadership in a press conference," the North said in a statement carried by its outlet Korean Central News Agency. "We cannot know for sure whether the US president reminisced about past corr

North Korea's imports of refined petroleum products exceeded the annual limit imposed by the United Nations by up to eight times in the first 10 months of last year, a UN panel of experts said in a new report cited by foreign media Friday. The 267-page report for the UN Security Council's North Korea sanctions committee also said the communist country continued to enhance its illicit nuclear and ballistic missile programs in violation of Security Council resolutions. The annual report by the

North Korea continued nuclear activities last year in violation of its commitments to abandon all nuclear programs, the US State Department has said. In a summarized report to Congress Wednesday, the department also said North Korea has likely had a biological warfare program since at least the 1960s. The report discusses US and other nations' compliance last year with various arms control and nonproliferation agreements. "North Korea's continuing nuclear activities make clear that it

North Korea on Friday called for heightened vigilance against the novel coronavirus pandemic, and to continuously step-up national quarantine measures, even when the country insists it is totally free of the virus.  “Nothing is more precious than the safety of peoples’ lives,” said North’s state newspaper the Rodong Sinmun. “That is a major reason why national countermeasure against the global pandemic was discussed as the first agenda during the Politburo me

South Korea remains unchanged in its push for active cross-border exchanges, including allowing individual tours to North Korea, but such projects should be pursued in consideration of progress in the anti-coronavirus fight, the unification ministry said Friday. South Korea has pushed for individual trips to North Korea as a way to improve inter-Korean relations without violating sanctions on Pyongyang, but no progress has been made. Making matters worse has been the coronavirus pandemic that

The US Treasury Department on Friday said it had allowed nongovernmental organizations to provide coronavirus-related humanitarian aid to sanctioned North Korea, including testing kits and respiratory devices.  The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control released the list of items that have gained exemptions for countries like North Korea, Iran and Venezuela to assist in their battle against COVID-19.  OFAC said it is authorizing NGOs to provide items for the civilians o

North Korea's official newspaper Friday called for high-level alertness and tight border control to ward off the new coronavirus as the communist state is bracing for a long fight against the global pandemic. Last week, North Korea held a politburo meeting presided over by leader Kim Jong-un and adopted a resolution, calling for "strict national countermeasures to thoroughly check the infiltration of the virus" amid little prospect for the danger to disappear in a short time. "

A reporter quarantined for nearly a month in North Korea has said the communist nation was following strict coronavirus guidelines, including taking the temperatures of those quarantined three times a day. Roh Geum-soon, a journalist at the Choson Sinbo, a pro-North Korea newspaper in Japan, also said in a YouTube video posted Sunday that she was not allowed to go out of her hotel in Pyongyang during the quarantine period. Roh said she was quarantined for 30 days, though she did not specify t