The Koreas will connect a 3-kilometer-long tactical road across the Military Demarcation Line inside the Demilitarized Zone on Thursday to support a joint project to excavate Korean War remains at a notorious battle site.The road will be established at Arrowhead Ridge, or Hill 281, in Cheorwon, 90 kilometers northeast of Seoul -- a site that the two sides have designated for the project to retrieve war remains from April to October next year.The Koreas' first road connection in 14 years came ami

North Korea on Tuesday demolished 10 frontline guard posts located inside the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said, in a symbolic effort to sustain momentum for inter-Korean detente. According to the Ministry of National Defense, the demolition began at 3 p.m. by simultaneously exploding the guard posts scattered across the DMZ. The ministry said North Korea had notified it of the plan several days earlier. The two Koreas had originally planned to explode the guard

　North Korea on Tuesday ratcheted up its criticism of South Korea’s military procurement projects and a recent joint exercise it undertook with the US Marines, but struck a different tone on Iran’s efforts to expand its military capabilities. 　In an editorial titled “Unjustifiable move,” the state-run Rodong Sinmun denounced the South Korean military, saying the South had damaged the inter-Korean detente by purchasing an air-refueling tanker and surface-to-air missiles and by holding a joint exe

South Korea's private humanitarian aid groups are planning to visit North Korea this month to discuss various assistance programs with the North's authorities, officials said Tuesday.Representatives of the Korea NGO Council for Cooperation with North Korea, a consultative body of about 50 South Korean private organizations committed to humanitarian aid for the North, reportedly plan to visit Pyongyang from Wednesday to Saturday to discuss various cooperation projects with the North's National Re

BEIJING -- North Korea's ceremonial head of state, Kim Yong-nam, arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, apparently on his way to Latin America.Kim, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, arrived at Beijing's Capital International Airport. He and his entourage, consisting of around 10 officials, were greeted by North Korean Ambassador to Beijing Ji Jae-ryong at the airport. (Yonhap)Kim apparently came here on his way to Latin American countries. Observers say that Kim is likely to m

South Korea will continue to closely cooperate with the international community in enforcing global sanctions on North Korea even when it pushes for inter-Korean economic cooperation, Seoul's unification minister said Tuesday."The South Korean government strongly sticks to the goal of complete denuclearization (of the Korean Peninsula) and also respects the framework of global sanctions," Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon told a forum in Seoul."Going forward, our government will closely coope

ALBANY (AP) -- There's now a national veterans cemetery not far from where John Martin grew up along the upper Hudson River, but when it came time to pick a burial place for the soldier 68 years after he was killed in the Korean War, his niece picked the family plot at a nearby cemetery."Nope, he's going in the plot with his mom," Tamaris Martin Dolton said Monday, when the Pentagon announced Martin's remains were identified nearly seven decades after he died. "She's been without him too long."M

Amid the prolonged international sanctions on North Korea, the health of the North's infants and pregnant women is in a very vulnerable state, a South Korean government think tank said Tuesday.The Seoul-based Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs said in a report that North Korea's maternal mortality rate was 82 per 100,000 newborns, about eight times higher than the rate of 11 in South Korea, based on the United Nations Population Fund's 2017 World Population Survey.The North's maternal

South Korea has allowed a man to visit Pyongyang to attend a memorial service for his mother who was a high-ranking North Korean official, a unification ministry official said Tuesday.The ministry gave the green light to the travel request by the 72-year-old second son of Ryu Mi-yong, who was the chairwoman of the central committee of the Chondoist Chongu Party and a member of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea. The event is scheduled for Friday. He will enter the Nort

North Korea's external propaganda media on Tuesday urged Japan to withdraw its "anachronistic and self-destructive" support for the United States-led sanctions on the North.The Tongil Sinbo, a weekly magazine controlled by the Pyongyang regime, said in an article that Tokyo should deviate from its unilateral participation in Washington-initiated policies, including its support for anti-North Korea sanctions. (Yonhap)"Japan's blind pursuit of the United States' instruction for sanctions on North

The North Korean soldier who defected to the South in a hail of bullets last year is a general's son but says most Northerners of his age have no loyalty to Kim Jong-un, according to a Japanese newspaper.Oh Chong-song's dramatic dash across the border at the Panmunjom truce village in the Demilitarized Zone -- under fire from his comrades -- made global headlines last year, and saw him hospitalised with serious injuries.It is very rare for the North's troops to defect at Panmunjom, a major touri

The United States on Monday sanctioned a South African individual for allegedly helping North Korea buy oil through illicit means.Vladlen Amtchentsev, a Russian-born South African national, advised an already sanctioned entity, Velmur Management Pte. Ltd., on how to evade US sanctions to support purchases of fuel oil for North Korea, the Department of the Treasury said in a statement. (Yonhap)Velmur assisted the operations of Transatlantic Partners Pte. Ltd., which has been sanctioned for operat

WASHINGTON -- US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo thanked his Swedish counterpart Monday for the Nordic country's help in securing the release of an American citizen from North Korea, the State Department said.Pompeo spoke with Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom in a phone call after North Korea announced last week its decision to deport an American identified as Bruce Byron Lowrance. (Yonhap)The man illegally entered North Korea via China last month and confessed to have done so under the

North Korea's media Tuesday reported on recent events to mark the 20th anniversary of a now-suspended tour program to a scenic North Korean mountain. More than 100 South Koreans, including Hyundai Group executives, lawmakers and journalists, arrived at a resort at Mount Kumgang on the North's east coast on Sunday for a two-day visit to attend the joint events with the North. (Yonhap)"Attending there from the north side were officials concerned of the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee and the DP

Top South Korean and US officials will meet in Washington this week to coordinate efforts to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons program, the US State Department said Monday.Lee Do-hoon, South Korea's special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, will hold talks Tuesday with his US counterpart, Stephen Biegun, to "further strengthen our close coordination on efforts to achieve our shared goal of final, fully verified denuclearization," the department said in a statem