The government has put together a five-year blueprint for improving relations with North Korea and will report it to the National Assembly later this week, unification ministry officials said Tuesday.The Third Basic Plan for Developing Inter-Korean Relations lays out the objectives and directions of the government's policy on inter-Korean relations for 2018-2022. It will replace the second basic plan drawn up in 2013 during the administration of former President Park Geun-hye. (Yonhap)Officials

TOKYO -- North Korea's sports minister arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday to attend a meeting on the Olympics, local media reported.Kim Il-guk, who also serves as the president of the communist nation's Olympic Committee, plans to join the two-day session of the Association of National Olympic Committees to open in the Japanese capital on Wednesday. North Korea`s Sports Minister Kim Il-guk (Yonhap)The Japanese government allowed him to enter the country as an "exception" to far-reaching sanctions again

A senior US State Department official has suggested the possibility of Korean-Americans holding reunions by video or phone with their long-lost loved ones in North Korea, a news report said Tuesday.Radio Free Asia reported that the unidentified State Department official talked about the possibility of such reunions during a phone call earlier this month with the head of the National Coalition of Divided Families, an association of Korean-Americans seeking to organize reunions with relatives in t

The joint Korean handball team at next year's men's world handball championships will have four solider-athletes from the North, the South's head coach said Tuesday.Cho Young-shin said that the four North Korean players who will join the joint Korean team are soldiers, and they will team up with 16 South Korean athletes at the 2019 World Men's Handball Championship, to be co-hosted by Germany and Denmark from Jan. 10-27. The South`s head coach Cho Young-shin. (Yonhap)The rosters are set at 16 pl

South Korea is in talks with the United Nations Command to prepare for a joint railway inspection with North Korea expected to take place later this week, a government official said Tuesday."Working-level consultations are underway with the UNC," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity. "We have proposed holding the joint railway survey to the North and are waiting for its answer now."The consultations with the UNC, which monitors the implementation of the Korean War truce, are nee

A Chinese-based agency is selling tour programs to spend Christmas Day in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang.According to the website of Young Pioneer Tours, a three-day tour to Pyongyang sells for 475 pounds (US$608) and a four-day program, which also includes tours to the border city of Kaesong and the Demilitarized Zone bordering South Korea, sells for 595 pounds ($762). Pyongyang (Yonhap)The agency specializes in North Korea tourism. Late American student Otto Warmbier used one of its programs

WASHINGTON -- The United States' low-key response to North Korea's latest return of a detained American citizen could partly be attributed to stuttering nuclear negotiations, analysts said Monday.Bruce Byron Lowrance was reportedly flown out of North Korea soon after the country's state media announced his deportation on Nov. 16.Lowrance was detained last month after illegally crossing the border with China under the direction of the US Central Intelligence Agency, according to the Korean Centra

North Korea's media ramped up criticism of the United States and South Korea on Tuesday for joining the recent adoption of a United Nations resolution condemning the North's miserable human rights situation."Such irrational acts aimed at negating the other's dignity and regime and antagonizing it are bound to hinder improving bilateral relations and building mutual trust between North Korea and the US, with no help in moving things forward," Uriminzokkiri, a North Korean external propaganda outl

A pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan said Monday that the United States' recent move to coordinate the pace of denuclearization dialogue and the inter-Korean cooperation raises doubt over whether Washington has a willingness to move nuclear talks with Pyongyang forward. South Korea and the US launched a working group last week for more systemic and frequent discussions on ways to deal with Pyongyang as the US expressed concerns about a possible mismatch of progress in denuclearization talks and

North Korea’s state-run newspaper on Monday lambasted the US, claiming that the country has been using the communist nation’s human rights conditions as a means to draw concessions in denuclearization talks between the two countries. In a Korean-language commentary titled “Dissecting the US’ hideous intentions reflected in its complaints on human rights issues,” Rodong Sinmun mentioned the Human Rights Watch report released earlier this month, which had claimed there was widespread sexual violen

South Korea has proposed to North Korea that the two countries begin a joint railway inspection by the end of this week, the South’s Ministry of Unification said Monday.“(The ministry) has acknowledged that there are ongoing discussions (regarding the joint survey on cross-border railways) this week,” Baik Tae-hyun, a ministry spokesman, told a regular press briefing. A test-operation of a train on a section of a cross-border railway running through the west coast of the Korean Peninsula in 2007

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday said negotiating with North Korea over its nuclear program is a “lengthy process,” amid concerns in Washington over stalled denuclearization talks with Pyongyang. In an interview with a Kansas-based radio network, Pompeo said improving inter-Korean relations should move “in parallel” with progress on denuclearization, and establishing a working group with South Korea aims to serve that purpose. Talks between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled since

South Korea should show North Korea possible economic incentives it could get in exchange for giving up its nuclear program so as to reassure Pyongyang that denuclearization is the right way to go, the unification minister said Monday."It is necessary for us to show that we are actually moving in that direction so as to reassure that denuclearization is the right way to go," Cho Myoung-gyon told a local meeting in Seoul, referring to a possibility of economic development that would follow the No

The International Atomic Energy Agency has continued preparations for an "essential role" in the denuclearization process on the Korean Peninsula, encouraged by a round of recent talks involving Pyongyang, a senior agency official said Monday."Regarding the DPRK nuclear issue ... we have intensified our effort since last year to announce the agency's readiness to play an essential role in verifying the DPRK nuclear program if the political agreement is reached among countries concerned," Massimo

The two Koreas have completed nearly 80 percent of their inspection of the Han River's waterway and are set to complete the process by Dec. 11, a state-run research institute said Monday.A 20-member team has conducted the hydrographic survey of the mouth of the Han River since Nov. 5 and has completed 77 percent of the 660 kilometer route, the Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Agency said. (Yonhap)They have measured the waterway every 500 meters and discovered 16 reefs that haven't been regis