US and North Korean officials met at the inter-Korean border last week, and the North Koreans expressed a willingness to resume working-level nuclear talks very soon, a senior US official told foreign media on Tuesday.A US National Security Council official traveled to the Demilitarized Zone while in the region for "unrelated talks" and met with a North Korean counterpart to deliver photographs from last month's DMZ meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim

The United States is aware of reports of a missile launch from North Korea and will continue to monitor the situation, a State Department spokesperson said Tuesday ahead of the expected resumption of denuclearization negotiations with the regime.The response comes after South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea had fired multiple unidentified projectiles into the East Sea early Wednesday (Seoul time), six days after it launched two short-range ballistic missiles into the waters. "

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast Wednesday, South Korea's military said, the second such launch in less than a week. The first missile was launched at 5:06 a.m., and the second at 5:27 a.m., from the Kalma area in the North's eastern port of Wonsan, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.Both are estimated to have flown about 250 kilometers at an approximate altitude of 30 km, the JCS said, adding that the South Korean and US militaries are analyzing more d

The US Treasury Department on Monday slapped a sanction on a North Korean man for allegedly evading trade restrictions by importing and exporting goods to support the regime’s weapons program.The move came amid growing skepticism over the US president’s North Korea policy, with last week’s short-range ballistic missiles tests by the North and a delay in resumption of denuclearization talks. Kim Su-il, who works in Vietnam, was blacklisted by the US Department of the Treasu

Korean American pastor Kim Dong-chul, who was freed from North Korea last year after about 2 1/2 years in detention, said he had been spying for Seoul and Washington, NK News reported Monday.Kim was arrested in the northeastern city of Rason in October 2015, and was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor on charges of espionage and subversive acts against Pyongyang in April 2016. The North Korean state media at the time said Kim confessed in a press conference to collecting Workers’ Party, go

South Korea will continue to make preparations toward producing tangible achievements in inter-Korean ties, despite stalemated relations between two Koreas, the unification ministry said Tuesday."We will continue to make efforts to improve inter-Korean relations, including the implementation of South-North join declarations," the ministry said in a report submitted to the National Assembly, referring to summit agreements their leaders signed last year."We will consistently send a

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that he's hopeful working-level talks with North Korea will resume "very soon."In remarks to The Economic Club of Washington DC, Pompeo also said he hopes there are "creative solutions to unlocking" the current impasse over dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons program in exchange for sanctions relief."We hope that we can have working-level discussions starting again very soon, so that we can unlock the Rubik's Cube,"

The United States on Monday sanctioned a Vietnam-based North Korean on suspicion of supporting North Korea's weapons of mass destruction program in violation of UN sanctions.The US Treasury Department announced the measure on its website, saying the individual, Kim Su-il, is tied to the North's ruling Workers' Party and an employee of its affiliate, the Munitions Industry Department.That department, it said, was previously sanctioned by the US and the UN for its involvement in "key aspects&

　North Korea’s fragile economy is estimated to have contracted for a second consecutive year in 2018, South Korea’s central bank said last week, an apparent outcome of what many have called unprecedentedly strong international sanctions against the communist state.　The country’s real gross domestic product  is believed to have shrunk 4.1 percent last year from the year before, according to the Bank of Korea. (Yonhap) 

Three North Koreans who crossed into South Korea in the East Sea on Saturday were repatriated to the North, as a daylong investigation uncovered no evidence of espionage activities, the Ministry of Unification said Monday. A wooden boat and the three crew members were transferred to North Korean authorities in the afternoon after the ministry announced that they had departed for the inter-Korean sea border. The government notified the North of the repatriation decision through the inter-Korean l

The three North Koreans who crossed into South Korea in the East Sea will be returned to the North, the Ministry of Unification said Monday. The three North Koreans crossed into South Korean waters late Saturday on a wooden boat. The vessel was detected by South Korean Navy and towed into a military port in Gangwon Province on Sunday. “The government plans to return the North’s wooden boat and the crew across the Northern Limit Line in East Sea this afternoon,” the Unifica

A Russian fishing vessel and its crew, including two South Koreans, held by North Korea have returned home, the Ministry of Unification said Sunday. The South Korean fishermen were held in North Korea along with 15 Russian crew members, after their ship Xiang Hai Lin 8 was seized by North Korea’s coast guard in the country’s northeastern waters on July 17.  The Russian crab fishing boat arrived in Sokcho in South Korea’s Gangwon Province at about 1 p.m. on Sunday, after ha

A North Korean fishing boat carrying three passengers crossed the marine border into South Korea in the East Sea late Saturday, Seoul’s military said Sunday. The boat has been towed to a South Korean military port for investigation.According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the wooden boat was first spotted about 5.5 kilometers above the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border, at around 10:15 p.m. on Saturday. It started moving down in a straight line to cross the NLL at 11:21 p.m.

A fishing boat apparently operated by North Korea's military has been towed into a South Korean port for investigation after sailing across the inter-Korean sea border, the military authorities here said Sunday.Three North Koreans, one wearing the communist nation's military uniform, were aboard the 10-meter-long wooden boat, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It was first spotted sailing in waters 5.5 kilometers north of the Northern Limit Line in the East Sea at around 10:15 p.m. on Satur

North Korea urged its people to focus on economic development with a strong will to protect its regime on the armistice anniversary Saturday. The Rodong Sinmun, the North's main newspaper, said in an editorial that people and its soldiers should move forward in creating a strong communist nation, adding they should make a leap in the area of economic development on the 66th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.The armistice signed on July 27, 1953, l