South Korea and the United States should modernize around 100 US tactical nuclear weapons to support the security of the South against North Korea's growing threats, a research report said Monday. The Asan Institute for Policy Studies and the Rand Corp. made the suggestion in a joint report, stressing the North has "already established a nuclear weapon force that could pose an existential threat" to South Korea and is "on the verge" of posing a serious threat to the US.

South Korea's vice defense minister has renewed Seoul's opposition against forced repatriation of North Korean defectors in China, the latest in a series of diplomatic pressure being put on Beijing to address the issue. South Korea's Vice Defense Minister Kim Seon-ho made the remark in talks with Lt. Gen. Jing Jianfeng, deputy chief of staff of China's Joint Staff Department, on the margins of the Xiangshan Forum, an international security dialogue, in Beijing on Sunday, Seou

A North Korean vessel stranded near the de facto inter-Korean maritime border in the East Sea was towed away by North Korean authorities several hours after it was spotted by the South Korean military, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday. The 10-meter-long vessel was spotted by a South Korean patrol ship while drifting in waters 200 kilometers east of the coastal town of Jejin and around 3 km north of the eastern Northern Limit Line at 2:16 p.m. Sunday, according to the JCS. "It is known

North Korea's top diplomat on Saturday criticized a trilateral statement released by Seoul, Washington and Tokyo earlier this week condemning the reclusive regime's arms transfer to Russia, calling it a "groundless criticism and defamation." North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui issued the statement via Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency, saying that others have "no right to interfere in the issues belonging to the national sovereignty of states.&q

South Korea's unification minister said Friday he leaves open the possibility that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's daughter, Ju-ae, could be the country's heir apparent given her public appearances. "We cannot rule out such a possibility at this point," Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho said during a parliamentary audit session when asked if the daughter could become the future successor of the reclusive regime. "We need to be open to the possibility when looking a

Britain's defense ministry has said it is "almost certain" that North Korean munitions have arrived in western Russia for the country's use in its war against Ukraine amid persistent speculation over their arms transfers. The information followed Washington's revelation that Pyongyang had sent more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Moscow as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a rare summit last month. &quo

The top diplomats of South Korea, the US and Japan strongly condemned the supply of military equipment and munitions by North Korea to Russia, confirming some of the deliveries in a joint statement Thursday. Foreign Minister Park Jin and his US and Japanese counterparts -- Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, respectively -- said such supplies would raise the “human toll” in Russia’s war in Ukraine. “We remain resolved to support Ukraine&r

North Korea plans to close its embassy in Uganda as part of efforts to raise the operating efficiency of the country's organizations abroad, a Ugandan media report has said. North Korea's Ambassador to Uganda, Jong Tong-hak, announced the plan during his courtesy call to Uganda's President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Ugandan newsmagazine, The Independent, reported Tuesday. Jong "informed him that North Korea has taken a strategic measure to reduce the number of embassies in Afric

Defense Minister Shin Won-sik met with US Ambassador to South Korea Philip Goldberg on Tuesday for talks on regional security and joint efforts to deter North Korea's military threats, Seoul's defense ministry said. During the meeting, the two sides shared the view that only a solid combined defense posture can deter North Korea's provocations as they discussed the implications of the recent conflict in Israel on South Korea's security, according to the ministry. They noted t

S. Korean military faces criticism for failing to detect border crossing of NK vessel

The European Union is working on a draft resolution on North Korea's human rights to be submitted to a United Nations committee, its delegation to South Korea said Tuesday, amid growing concerns over China's forced repatriation of North Korean defectors. The draft resolution, usually led by the EU, is submitted to the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly dealing with human rights and social affairs, and finalized after consultations with other UN members. "The EU is again pr

A group of four unidentified North Koreans crossed the inter-Korean maritime border in the East Sea on Tuesday, government sources confirmed to The Korea Herald. The South Korean military, in cooperation with the Coast Guard, has secured the four North Koreans in the waters off the city of Sokcho, Gangwon Province. The four North Koreans traveled across the border on a boat and were discovered by South Korea's Coast Guard. The four North Koreans were transferred to a Korean vessel, which wa

More than 2,200 South Koreans died in the first eight months of this year without having a chance to reunite with their family members in North Korea after being separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, government data showed. A total of 2,226 people passed away in the January-August period among around 133,700 applicants who had registered with the government for family reunion events, according to the data from the Unification Ministry. The number of surviving people came to 40,408 as of end-Augus

South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho met with the leader of a US-based civic group Monday to discuss ways of boosting cooperation on the improvement of human rights in North Korea, his office said. During the meeting, Kim and Thor Halvorssen Mendoza, chief of the Human Rights Foundation, expressed concerns about China's recent forcible repatriation of North Korean defectors and shared the need for the international community to work more closely to prevent such moves, according to

North Korea on Monday accused the United States of being behind the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, saying Washington is "entirely" responsible for the tragedy. Pyongyang raised the accusation following US President Joe Biden's recent trip to Israel where he reiterated his backing of Israel and condemned a deadly explosion at a hospital in Gaza by what he called a terrorist group. "The US is the ringleader in the Middle East situation,&quo