Negotiations on turning JSA into tourist spot drag out

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has picked economic development as his country's urgent task, state media said Saturday, amid speculation that the North may launch a rocket.In a letter to a national conference of propaganda officials held in Pyongyang earlier this week, Kim stressed the need to concentrate all efforts on building the socialist economy.He called on party officials to spur efforts to handle ideology education for citizens to ensure that "a great progress will be made in socialist

The United Nations Security Council on Friday granted a sanctions waiver to the shipment of equipment to North Korea for video reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, diplomatic sources said.The UN sanctions committee on North Korea approved South Korea's request to permit relevant equipment to be sent to the North for the Koreas' video reunions of divided families on humanitarian grounds.Women walk through the streets of downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, March 7, 201

North Korea's state media Friday acknowledged for the first time the collapse of the summit between leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump last week without a deal.   The high-stakes meeting in Vietnam was supposed to build on the leaders' historic first summit in Singapore last year, but ended without any agreement on walking back North Korea's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.    Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency, however, had made no mention of the breakdown of

South Korea's weather agency says a small earthquake detected in North Korea was likely caused by a mining operation.    An official from the Korean Meteorological Administration said Friday that a magnitude 2.1 earthquake was detected in North Korea on Thursday at a region near the border with the South.     The official says the quake was artificial and likely caused by an intentional blast in a coal mine.  Yonhap    "Our map data shows the locations of mines across North Korea, and we also de

WASHINGTON, (AFP) - The US still believes the "fully verified denuclearization" of North Korea is possible by the end of President Donald Trump's "first term," a senior official said Thursday, despite warnings a key rocket launch site appears to have resumed operations.The specialized website 38 North and the Center for Strategic and International Studies used commercial satellite imagery to track construction at the site -- which they said began before last week's aborted summit in Hanoi betwee

The United States is seeking clarification on the purposes of North Korea's reassembly of a key missile facility, a senior US official said Thursday as President Donald Trump expressed repeated disappointment over the activity.North Korea began to rebuild parts of the missile engine testing site in Dongchang-ri in the runup to Trump's second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Feb. 27-28, according to two US think tanks earlier this week.By Wednesday, commercial sat

North Korea has completed the registration of candidates for parliamentary elections to be held over this weekend, Pyongyang's media reported Thursday.The candidates include workers, farmers, intellectuals and soldiers who are striving to uphold leader Kim Jong-un's ideology and leadership and fighting for national development, according to the Korean Central News Agency.It did not provide the list of the candidates, however, nor did it confirm whether leader Kim was among them.  (Yonhap)The Sup

North Korea blasted South Korea and the United States on Thursday for carrying out a joint military exercise, saying that it is a violation of summit agreements they reached with the North last year.On Monday, South Korea and the US kicked off a new weeklong combined exercise named Dong Maeng that replaced their major springtime Key Resolve drills.The military exercise, which will run through Tuesday, is seen as a scaled-down replacement for the usually two-week-long Key Resolve exercise. (Yonha

North Korea seems to be operating uranium enrichment facilities normally at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, South Korea's spy agency was quoted as saying by lawmakers."(North Korea's) uranium enrichment facilities have been in normal operation, even before the recent summit between the United States and North Korea," the National Intelligence Service was quoted as telling lawmakers at the closed-door briefing Tuesday. (Yonhap)The spy agency said that North Korea stopped the operation of its 5-mega

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he would be "disappointed" if reports that North Korea is rebuilding a missile engine test site are true.Trump made the remark at the White House when asked about two US reports that North Korea is rebuilding the Sohae satellite launching facility, which it began to dismantle last year.(Yonhap)"I would be very disappointed if that were happening," he told reporters. "It's a very early report. We're the ones that put it out. But I would be very, very disap

South Korea has detected signs of North Korea restoring an ancillary building of its Dongchang-ri long-range missile launch site that it partially disassembled last year, a government source in Seoul said Wednesday.On Tuesday, Beyond Parallel, a project of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that its satellite imagery analysis showed Pyongyang is pursuing a "rapid rebuilding" of the site on its west coast in what may be a move to demonstrate "resolve" in the fa

A senior North Korean foreign ministry official recently visited the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian, informed sources here said Wednesday, amid speculation that leader Kim Jong-un may soon hold another summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.Vice Foreign Minister Ri Gil-song visited Beijing last Thursday, when Kim's two-day talks with US President Donald Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam, finished without a deal. (Yonhap)He then traveled unexpectedly to Dalian the following day, according to the sou

Speculation is running rampant as to the locations of the additional weapons-grade uranium-producing sites in North Korea that US President Donald Trump demanded be dismantled, met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s refusal, during their second summit in Vietnam last week. In Hanoi, Pyongyang offered to destroy its Yongbyon facilities that produce the two key materials used in making nuclear weapons -- plutonium and highly enriched uranium -- but Washington demanded an additional step beyond

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un returned to Pyongyang early Tuesday via train through China after a trip to Vietnam. The North’s state-run Korea Central News Agency reported that Kim had arrived at the Pyongyang station at 3 a.m. Tuesday after wrapping up his official visit to Vietnam and the second North Korea-US summit last week.  (Yonhap)The KCNA’s English news service, however, did not mention Kim’s summit with US President Donald Trump.North Korean state-run media have so far refrained from