The United States would hope to see a freeze in the North Korean nuclear program as the start of a process of denuclearization, the State Department said on Tuesday, ahead of fresh talks with Pyongyang supposed to take place this month.US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had a surprise meeting at the end of June in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas and agreed to resume a working-level dialogue, stalled since a failed summitin Vietnam in Feb. US Secreta

US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun has no plans to meet with North Korean officials during his trip to Europe this week, the State Department said Tuesday.Negotiations on North Korea's denuclearization are expected to resume in the coming days after US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to continue the talks at their impromptu meeting on the inter-Korean border on June 30. "There is no plan to meet with North Korean officials on this trip

The latest encounter between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the inter-Korean border was a meeting, not a summit or a negotiation, the State Department said Tuesday.The impromptu meeting in the Demilitarized Zone on June 30 had raised questions about whether it was a summit akin to the previous encounters in Singapore in June 2018 and in Vietnam in Feb. this year. "It wasn't a summit, it wasn't a negotiation; it was a meeting of two leaders," department

The government said Tuesday it had raised the issue of Tokyo’s economic retaliatory measures against Seoul at a World Trade Organization meeting amid intensifying tensions between the two countries, stemming from a long-standing dispute regarding forced labor during Japan’s 1910-45 occupation of the Korean Peninsula.During a meeting of the WTO’s Council for Trade in Goods held in Geneva, Ambassador to Geneva Paik Ji-ah said that that Japan’s restrictions on exports of key

A South Korean man who made a rare defection to North Korea was partly driven by the stigma and financial hardship that followed his parents' own high-profile flight to Pyongyang more than three decades ago, friends said Tuesday.Choe In-guk, 72, arrived in Pyongyang on Saturday and announced he would live there in a video published by North Korean media, following in the footsteps of his parents who made a switch of allegiance in 1986.Such a move is highly unusual and is more frequently seen in

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister Yo-jong appears to have become the ninth most powerful person in the country.The seating arrangements at the memorial service marking the 25th anniversary of the death of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung, Monday at Pyongyang Gymnasium showed her current political status.She was seated just four places to the left of her brother, after vice chairmen of the central committee of the ruling Workers’ Party Pak Pongju, Ri Man-gon and Ri Su-y

North Korea's trade with Russia's Far Eastern region nearly tripled in the first quarter from a year earlier, data showed Tuesday, amid intensifying efforts by the two neighbors to strengthen bilateral relations.According to the data by South Korea's Consulate General in Vladivostok, the trade between the North and Russia's Far Eastern region totaled $10.69 million during the Jan.-March period, up from $3.72 million tallied a year earlier. Russia's exports to the North came to $10.67 million, wh

North Korea's media Monday slammed Japan's recent restriction on high-tech exports to South Korea, calling the measure a "shameless" act that indicates a lack of remorse for Tokyo's historical wrong-doings against the Korean people.Japan began to tighten regulations last week on shipments to South Korea of three materials essential to the production of semiconductors and display panels.    South Korea suspects the move may be retaliation for a Seoul court's order fo

North Korea’s official media on Monday urged its people to build an economic powerhouse as the country marked the 25th anniversary of the death of founding leader Kim Il-sung. “Today’s grand advance in economic development is a sacred and rewarding struggle of our great leaders to realize their aspirations for a patriotic and powerful country,” the Rodong Sinmun, the official mouthpiece of the Workers’ Party, said in an editorial.  On Monday, Kim Jong-un paid h

North Korea has not responded to South Korea's invitation to join an international swimming event set to kick off later this week, the unification ministry said Monday.South Korea and FINA earlier invited North Korea to the biennial 2019 FINA World Championships to be held from Friday to July 28 in Gwangju and Yeosu, its two southern cities. FINA is the French abbreviation of the International Swimming Federation. "We have nothing new to share with regard to the issue of the North's partici

National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang is expected to push for sending a delegation of lawmakers to North Korea in a bid to lay the groundwork for an inter-Korean parliamentary meeting, officials said Monday.Moon plans to propose the idea to North Korea this week in a shift from his plan for an immediate inter-Korean parliamentary event, according to the parliamentary officials. Moon will hold a press conference Friday to mark the first anniversary of his inauguration."A parliamentary meet

As Hanawon celebrates 20th anniversary, defectors say still room for improvement

Top negotiators of South Korea and the US will meet in Germany this week in an apparent move to coordinate and discuss details of upcoming working-level talks between Washington and Pyongyang, aimed at the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday that Lee Do-hoon, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, will visit Germany from Tuesday to Friday to meet with Ina Lepel, director general for Asia and the Pacific of the Fede

A South Korean son of Ryu Mi-yong, the late chairwoman of a North Korean minor political party, has arrived in Pyongyang to live in the communist country for good, a North Korean propaganda media outlet said Sunday.Ryu and her husband, Choe Tok-sin, who served as foreign minister in South Korea during the 1960s, emigrated to the United States in 1976 and defected to the North in 1986, leaving behind two sons and three daughters.In the North, Ryu served as chairwoman of the central committee of t

The parents of Otto Warmbier have filed a claim for a seized North Korean cargo ship, seeking to collect on a multimillion-dollar judgment awarded in the American college student's death.     The Warmbiers filed court papers Wednesday in New York federal court saying they have a right to the assets after North Korea failed to respond to a wrongful death claim that accused it of abducting Warmbier, who had traveled there for a guided tour ahead of a study abroad program in Hon