About 60 percent of female North Korean defectors in China are believed to be trafficked for sexual exploitation, a London-based civic group said in a report, urging South Korea and China to take action to protect the women and girls. Of the victims, nearly half were forced into prostitution, over 30 percent were sold into forced marriages and another 15 percent were pressed into cybersex from 2015 to 2018, Korea Future Initiative said in the report, citing rescuers based in China.Titled "T

North Korea continued its criticism of South Korea on Monday, calling on Seoul to reject interference from foreign powers and taking issue with a meeting of a Seoul-Washington working group. Meanwhile, Chinese data showed that Pyongyang received aid from Beijing last year despite UN Security Council resolutions.  (Yonhap)A North Korean propaganda outlet on Monday accused the South Korean government of fueling discord by working with the US, focusing on a recent meeting of a Seoul-Washington work

After 2 years of peace efforts, tension back on Korean Peninsula with NK-US tug-of-war

A pro-North Korea newspaper in Japan urged the United States on Saturday to retract its position that Pyongyang should forgo nuclear arms first before rewards are given, in an apparent call for flexibility to resume nuclear talks between the two sides.The Chosun Sinbo also warned that diplomacy with Pyongyang could come to naught if the US fails to meet the year-end deadline that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has set for Washington to come up with the "right methodology" for the stalled negoti

Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul met with Christian pastors from major churches Friday to exchange views on humanitarian assistance to North Korea.The meeting came as North Korea is suffering food shortages, having apparently been hit by global sanctions and years of unfavorable weather conditions.The participants raised the need for the government to push for humanitarian assistance to Pyongyang as North Koreans are facing a food crisis at a time when inter-Korean ties remain strained, accord

South Korea decided Friday to donate $8 million to international agencies for aid projects in North Korea and allow a group of businesspeople to visit a shuttered joint industrial complex in the communist nation.  The decisions came as Seoul has been trying to keep the peace process with the North alive despite the North's firing of missiles and projectiles earlier this month. Seoul is also formulating plans to send food aid to the impoverished North.   "The government decided to approve the bus

South Korea's unification ministry said Friday that it will allow a group of businesspeople to visit a joint industrial complex in North Korea for the first time since its shutdown in 2016.About 200 businesspeople, who used to operate their plants in the North's border town of Kaesong, had earlier asked for approval of their travel plans in their ninth attempt to visit the complex to check the condition of the equipment they left behind when it was closed. (Yonhap)Up until Friday, the government

A top South Korean presidential official said Friday that Seoul would press ahead with food aid for North Korea despite its recent missile launches.Chung Eui-yong, head of the presidential National Security Office, stressed that the humanitarian issue should be separated from such a security issue.He said the government has already decided on the food assistance and it's making "various preparations" for specific measures. (Yonhap)"I think the food issue should be reviewed, irrespective of the s

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s late step brother Kim Jong-nam had refused a request from an anti-Pyongyang group to lead a government-in-exile, a Japanese newspaper reported Thursday.Citing Park Sang-hak, who leads an organization of North Korean defectors, the Sankei Shimbun said that Adrian Hong Chang, leader of the group that led infiltrated the North Korean embassy in Spain in February, told Park that he had sounded Kim out on leading a government-in-exile. Kim refused, saying he wished t

President Moon Jae-in and US President Donald Trump will hold their eighth summit in Seoul in June to discuss North Korea and bilateral issues, Seoul and Washington’s presidential offices said Thursday. “At the summit, the two leaders plan to discuss ways to strengthen the Korea-US alliance and to establish permanent peace through complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Ko Min-jung said in a statement. President Moon Jae-in and US President Donald Trump sha

Amid the Seoul government’s efforts to send humanitarian aid to the North, the Unification Ministry on Wednesday shrugged off reports that North Korea might not be facing a severe food crisis given that the price of rice in the country is on a downward trend. The price of rice in the North Korean market, known as jangmadang, had fallen to 4,000 won per kilogram as of April 30, from 5,000 won in November last year, according to a report by Daily NK, which regularly surveys the price. “We recogniz

US-based human rights group Human Rights Watch on Tuesday said seven North Korean defectors are in custody in China and urged Beijing to take steps to protect them. According to Human Rights Watch, the seven North Koreans were taken into custody on April 28 and held in Anshan, Liaoning province. It cited unnamed South Koreans assisting families of the detainees.  (Yonhap)Human Rights Watch said the detainees consist of a 10-year-old girl, three men and three women. Some of the detainees had arri

The South Korean government is considering sending food aid to North Korea before the harvest season at the request of a UN agency that called on the international community to support Pyongyang, which is facing its worst food crisis in 10 years, a ministry official said Tuesday. Citing a recent joint report from the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization on North Korea’s food situation, a Unification Ministry official said May to September would be an appropriate time to p