With Pyongyang not fulfilling agreement on excavation of remains at Arrowhead Ridge, Seoul starts digging on its own

A mysterious anti-Pyongyang group claiming responsibility for February's raid on North Korea's Embassy in Spain said it is preparing for unspecified "big events," warning the reclusive regime will experience more "humiliation" if its human rights abuses continue.In a statement posted on its website Sunday evening, Free Joseon urged North Korea to close down its political prisoner camps, halt repatriation of North Korean defectors and begin to reform and open up to the outside world."The more the

A mysterious case involving a recent break-in at North Korea's embassy in Spain has entered a new phase with speculation that US authorities might be involved in it.Apparent anti-Pyongyang activists carried out the raid on the embassy there a week ahead of the second US-North Korea summit in Hanoi in late February. A group calling itself Free Joseon claimed responsibility.They took computers and data and reportedly handed over some information to the FBI. (Yonhap)NBC News quoted a "law enforceme

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Monday that both the United States and North Korea are determined to continue their denuclearization negotiations despite the collapse of their latest summit in Hanoi."A temporary difficulty has been created due to the failure to reach an agreement at the second North Korea-US summit, but the fact that South Korea, North Korea and the US all do not wish to go back to the past is clearly being confirmed," the president said in a weekly meeting with his top

To advance the peace process on the Korean Peninsula, it is necessary for Seoul, Washington and Pyongyang to maintain bilateral and trilateral dialogues and to continue to pursue a top-down approach, a presidential aide said Saturday. “Because of the top-down approach, we were able to get results to this point,” Kim Hyun-chong, the new No. 2 deputy chief of Cheong Wa Dae’s National Security Office, said upon his arrival at Dulles International Airport in Washington. During his US trip, Kim will

North Korea on Sunday released its first official statement on the break-in at its embassy in Spain last month by an anti-Pyongyang group, calling it a "grave terrorist attack."A spokesperson of North Korea's foreign ministry told the Korean Central News Agency, Pyongyang's official mouthpiece, that "an illegal intrusion into and occupation of a diplomatic mission and act of extortion are a grave breach of state sovereignty and a flagrant violation of international law, and this kind of act shou

US President Donald Trump said Friday that he decided to stop additional sanctions on North Korea because he didn't think they were necessary at this time.Speaking in a press conference in Florida, Trump seemed to clear up confusion about which measures he was referring to when he announced last week that he had ordered the withdrawal of additional sanctions.Initially, it was thought that he was reversing the Treasury Department's sanctions on two Chinese shipping companies accused of helping th

South Korea will try to realize a visit to Seoul by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a summit with President Moon Jae-in this year so as to improve cross-border relations and help move the stalled denuclearization process forward, the unification ministry said Friday.The ministry said that it will also try to regularize such inter-Korean summits so as to maintain close communication between the two Koreas in effectively dealing with any cross-border issues. (Yonhap)Those plans are part of the

HANOI -- North Korean tourism officials on Thursday urged Vietnamese travellers to seize a "golden" opportunity to visit the country following a summit between Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump in Hanoi last month. With an economy crippled by international sanctions, isolated North Korea is keen to boost its nascent tourism sector by attracting more foreign visitors, the bulk of whom currently come from China. A North Korean tourism official said it is prime time for Vietnamese visitors

South Korea affirmed its stance on a comprehensive agreement and step-by-step implementation approach for North Korea’s denuclearization process, ahead of ministerial level talks with the US. Before departing for Washington on Thursday, Lee Do-hoon, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said he would discuss ways to rekindle the bilateral dialogue between the US and North Korea with US Special Representative for North Korea Ste

One of the suspects behind an attack on the North Korean Embassy in Spain has been revealed to be well-known human rights activist Adrian Hong Chang, according to a news outlet that specializes in North Korea issues. Hong, a Mexican passport holder who lives in the US, is believed to be the leader of a 10-member group that broke into the embassy in Madrid on Feb. 22 and tried to persuade a North Korean commercial attache to defect. The group left him tied up in the basement when he refused and t

A senior North Korean official left Beijing for Laos on Wednesday amid speculation about the possibility of secret contact with the United States.           Ri Su-yong, who is in charge of international affairs at the North's ruling Workers' Party, arrived in Beijing Tuesday morning for a layover on his way to Laos. Later that day, Pyongyang's state media, Korean Central News Agency, reported Ri's trip to the Southeast Asian country in a one-paragraph dispatch, without elaborating on its purpose

A mysterious anti-North Korea group has claimed it carried out last month's raid on North Korea's Embassy in Spain and shared some information with the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States.On Feb. 22, a group of unidentified intruders broke into the North Korean Embassy in the Spanish capital, tied embassy staff up, searched the compound and ran away with computers and documents about four hours later, according to news reports. (Yonhap)Spain has issued two international arrest w

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has attended a conference of low-ranking military officers, the North's news agency said Wednesday, in his first public appearance since the elections of the country's rubber-stamp parliament about two weeks ago.Kim guided the fifth meeting of company leaders and political instructors of the Korean People's Army that took place in Pyongyang on Monday and Tuesday, the Korean Central News Agency said. (Yonhap)Attending the meeting was Kim's first public activity rep