Sweden’s UN envoy on Wednesday raised concerns that human rights conditions in North Korea are worsening due to sanctions on the country, calling for exemptions for selected items. Although humanitarian aid for North Korean citizens are exempt from current sanctions, banking and customs restrictions hamper aid efforts, Sweden’s UN envoy Olof Skoog told reporters following a briefing by the sanctions committee and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Permanent Representativ

A year of warming relations between North and South Korea has raised the prospects of closer ties, if not some form of unification for the still-warring neighbors far in the future. But it might not be obvious in a typical South Korean classroom.“I really don’t know anything,” 17-year-old student Roh Ha-na said. “It’s like only twice a year that the school teaches about unification and national security, and about North Korean life... but I just let most of it go in one ear and out the other.”Th

North Korea's media criticized hostile forces for imposing "most heinous" sanctions on the North on Thursday but emphasized that they could not deter it from realizing economic development."The sanctions ruckus being led by hostile forces who don't want us to live well have been the most heinous, persistent and unprecedented in terms of its scale, implementing methods and duration," said Uriminzokkiri, a North Korean external propaganda outlet. (Yonhap)"Though hostile forces stick to shameful ta

WASHINGTON -- US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that he continues to hope for a second meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un early next year.Pompeo was scheduled to meet a senior North Korean official in New York earlier this month to plan the second summit and discuss details of the North's commitment to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (Yonhap)The meeting was abruptly postponed a day before it was sup

A North Korean soldier who made a dramatic escape to the South via the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) last year said Wednesday he received a message of apology from a Japanese newspaper for running an interview with him with distorted facts. Oh Chong-song is seen running across the border to the South in a CCTV footage. YonhapOh Chong-song told Yonhap News Agency that he made a complaint to the Sankei Shimbun about the content of the interview and got a text message apologizing to him through an inter

South and North Korea will hold a working-level meeting later this week to discuss ways to modernize underground cables set up across their border for direct phone and other communication lines, the unification ministry said Wednesday.The meeting, set for Friday at the joint liaison office in the North's border town of Kaesong, will focus on cooperation in replacing the current copper communications cables with fiber-optic cables, the ministry said. (Yonhap)Chung Chang-rim, a senior communicatio

The Jeju Special-Governing Provincial Council on Wednesday adopted a resolution calling for the leaders of the two Koreas to together visit the southern resort island's Mount Halla during North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's future visit to South Korea.The resolution, which was unanimously approved by 38 Jeju councilors, also expresses support for the fourth summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim. (Yonhap)In the resolution, the Jeju councilors urged the Moon government to make al

Most of Gyeonggi Province’s planned inter-Korean projects failed to materialize this year and are likely to be pushed back to next year.In late 2017, Gyeonggi allocated 5.5 billion won ($4.9 million) for inter-Korean cooperation projects, but so far only 1.8 billion won has been spent, according to Gyeonggi Province on Wednesday. In keeping with the mood of detente that arrived on the Korean Peninsula after the inter-Korean summit held in April at the truce village of Panmunjom, Gyeonggi Provinc

　A comprehensive inter-Korean military pact in the absence of significant progress on North Korea’s denuclearization could weaken South Korea’s defense capabilities, security experts and former generals said Wednesday. 　At a defense seminar in Seoul, the participants criticized the Moon Jae-in administration for signing a “one-sided deal” that leaves South Korea vulnerable to North Korea’s asymmetric capabilities, pointing to the establishment of a no-fly zone and the suspension of joint exercis

South Korean conservatives, including former generals, reiterated concerns Wednesday over an inter-Korean military accord on arms control and trust-building measures, saying it would imperil their country's security.They have argued that concrete steps toward denuclearization by Pyongyang must precede such measures, and raised the possibility that North Korea could exploit the good-faith accord to its own advantage.They are set to gather at an afternoon forum on the September accord aimed at eas

North Korea has abstained from voting on two United Nations resolutions on arbitrary executions and freedom of association and assembly, American broadcaster Radio Free Asia reported on Wednesday.According to RFA and the UN website, North Korea did not vote on a resolution condemning extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions during a session of the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.The resolution was adopted with 110 votes in favor and 67 abstentions. South Korea voted i

The United States has expressed its "strong support" for the Koreas' plan to study the possibility of reconnecting a railway across their border, a South Korean official said Tuesday.Lee Do-hoon, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, relayed the US position to reporters after meeting with his American counterpart, Stephen Biegun, earlier in the day. Lee Do-hoon, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs. (Yonhap)"The US expressed its

An international anti-land mine coalition welcomed a demining operation that South and North Korea have been undertaking along their border, saying it hopes the confidence-building measure will reduce tensions on the Korean Peninsula.Since Oct. 1, the Koreas have been removing land mines in an area inside the Demilitarized Zone as part of a joint project to retrieve war remains from the site. It's part of a peace agreement that President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reached at

South Korea and the United States on Tuesday held the inaugural session of a working group designed to help coordination on efforts to denuclearize North Korea.The two sides met in Washington as diplomatic efforts to dismantle Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program have stalled since historic meetings between the North's leader, Kim Jong-un, and his South Korean and US counterparts.The meeting was co-chaired on the South Korean side by Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security

The United States wants to ensure that progress in denuclearizing North Korea is not outpaced by efforts to improve inter-Korean ties, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday.Pompeo's remark underscores US concerns that a recent flurry of inter-Korean activity could undermine sanctions placed on the North for its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.(Yonhap)"We have made clear to the Republic of Korea that we do want to make sure that peace on the peninsula and the denuclearizat