North Korea will be provided with 1.99 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine by June this year to inoculate nearly 1 million people, COVAX said Wednesday. COVAX is an international group that helps less wealthy countries with vaccination efforts. The North will start receiving vaccines in late February at the earliest. But the program could face delays as the AstraZeneca vaccine has yet to be approved by the World Health Organization, which expects to discuss the matter later

The UN secretary-general’s office said Monday that it believes South Korea will respect human rights when it implements the ban on the cross-border launching of anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets. The leafleting is set to become a felony in March under legislation introduced by Seoul to protect residents near the border, in fear of retaliation by Pyongyang, which fired at balloons carrying leaflets, food and medicine in 2014. The two countries exchanged gunfire at the border. “W

South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense did not single out North Korea as “the enemy” in this year’s white paper, revealed Tuesday. That is the second time since 2019, when it removed the designation amid a flurry of diplomatic activity to build an inter-Korean detente. The Moon Jae-in government is seen as trying not to upset North Korea while working to repair inter-Korean ties frayed over disagreement on denuclearization and sanctions relief. In the paper, an enem

A prolonged pause in South Korea-US joint military exercises involving full-scale field training will diminish Seoul’s capability to mount a defense against North Korea, military experts said ahead of March drills. They are expected to be conducted indoors through computer-based war games. Last week, Defense Minister Suh Wook confirmed that the March drills will not involve troops on the ground. Seoul and Washington, which have held drills annually to deter aggression from Pyongyang sinc

US Rep. Chris Smith, who until recently co-chaired the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, said the commission will open a hearing in early March at the latest to discuss South Korea’s ban on the cross-border launching of anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets. The leafleting is set to become a felony in March under legislation introduced by Seoul to protect residents near the border, in fear of retaliation by Pyongyang. “I think appointments to commissions -- such as the Tom Lantos

South Korea stands fully capable of countering the latest short-range missiles that North Korea has test-fired, South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook said Wednesday. Speaking at a New Year’s press conference, Suh highlighted Seoul’s missile defense, saying it could bring down even some of Pyongyang’s untested new missiles. The military is seeking a foolproof shield against the remaining missiles, Suh said. “Our defense is airtight and we’re superior. We hav

North Korea, which has often been criticized by the United Nations for recurring human rights abuses, condemned Australia at a UN meeting for committing human rights violations, UN Watch said Tuesday. The group is a Geneva-based organization that follows UN activities. “The deep-rooted racial discrimination and xenophobia rampant in the Australian public sector must come to an end,” North Korea’s UN ambassador said at a United Nations Human Rights Council session Jan. 20. He

North Korea’s former acting ambassador to Kuwait has been living with his family in South Korea for at least a year, a local newspaper reported Monday. The diplomat, Ryu Hyun-woo, was the North’s acting chief of mission in Kuwait in 2019, when he defected to the South with his family, who the source said had motivated him to defect in hopes of a “better future.” If true, it is the third time a ranking official from Pyongyang has defected to Seoul since 2012, when leade

It all began in June. North Korea threatened retaliation over the cross-border launch of anti-North propaganda leaflets. Municipal leaders representing residents of border towns demanded a halt to the leafleting. A lawmaker drafted legislation that would ban the practice. The fate of the law, which was approved in the National Assembly in December and is set to take effect in late March, is hanging in the balance as critics have petitioned the Constitutional Court to review it, saying it infrin

Nearly five out of ten North Koreans were undernourished from 2017 to 2019, the highest in the Asia-Pacific region, the UN said in an inter-agency report. East Timor and Afghanistan followed. In the same period, seven out of ten North Korean children aged two or below did not have minimum acceptable diet. In the report released Wednesday by the Food and Agriculture Organization, World Food Program, World Health Organization and UNICEF, seven out of ten infants younger than six months old i

North Korean experts said Thursday it would be a mistake for US President Joe Biden to build on the 2018 Singapore agreement to address North Korea’s denuclearization. President Moon Jae-in has suggested Washington start re-engaging with Pyongyang based on the deal. “What the administration should strive for instead is a comprehensive, well-crafted agreement such as the arms control agreements we had with the Soviet Union,” Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow for Northe

President Moon Jae-in reaffirmed his commitment to reviving the stalled nuclear talks with North Korea at a meeting Thursday, where he was briefed by his security aides on major initiatives this year to improve inter-Korean relations and South Korea’s ties with the outside world. At the briefing, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would work closely with the Biden administration in the US to help restart nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang. Senior-level talks w

North Koreans are growing skeptical of the so-called “self-sufficient” economy that their leader Kim Jong-un champions, Radio Free Asia said Monday, citing anonymous sources there. North Koreans complained that they had yet to get their usual New Year’s gifts, calendars, and that put things in perspective. “For the first time, we celebrated the New Year without the calendar. As trivial as this looks, I think this is just evidence of how empty the economic plans are -- th

South Korea pulled its anti-piracy Cheonghae Unit from the Strait of Hormuz near Iran in a show of good faith in the negotiation to release a South Korea-flagged tanker seized by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps for polluting the sea, Seoul officials said Monday. Tehran lodged a strong complaint with Seoul on Jan. 5, a day after it seized the tanker, when South Korea deployed the unit to the strait off the Iranian coast. South Korea withdrew the destroyer in a sign of goodwill before fi

North Korea experts are divided over the seriousness of the threat posed by the missiles revealed Thursday at North Korea’s latest military parade attended by leader Kim Jong-un. North Korea showcased what appeared to be new ballistic missiles -- a submarine-launched missile, the Pukguksong-5-siot and a short-range missile akin to Russia’s Iskander, the KN-23. The Korean letter “siot” refers to it being sea-based, and the previous fourth version was displayed at a parade