North Korea has had a gun control law since 2009, recently obtained data showed Monday, in what was seen as an effort to tighten control over the society at a time of power succession.North Korea’s new leader Kim Jong-un was groomed as the successor to his ailing father Kim Jong-il, with the hereditary succession plan becoming official for the first time in 2010 when the young Kim was named as a four-star general in the military. Kim Jong-un took the helm of the communist country after the death

The minimum wage for North Korean workers at the South-run industrial complex park in the communist nation rose 5 percent over the past year, the same annual rate of increase since 2007, Seoul’s unification ministry said Monday. The joint industrial park in the border city of Kaesong opened in 2004 as a symbol of cross-border reconciliation and has been in operation without any major interruptions despite high cross-border tensions between the two Koreas. The factory park’s management officials

The Chosun Taepung International Investment Group, North Korea’s official investment firm, has been disbanded due to sluggish foreign capital inflows amid tightened sanctions, a news report said Sunday. Citing an unnamed source familiar with the country’s inner workings, Yonhap News reported that the breakup took place in early May. The North’s state media last mentioned the company in late December when its president Pak Chol-su attended the funeral of its longtime autocrat, Kim Jong-il.Taepung

South Korea has come under mounting pressure as its dispute with China over the suspected torture of a North Korea human rights activist is showing no signs of abating, with both sides reiterating their own claims. Beijing on Friday again denied allegations that its investigators abused Kim Young-hwan during his detention, in response to Seoul’s request for a reinvestigation into his claims. During the 114-day confinement, Kim said he was tortured with electricity, beaten on the face, deprived o

The alleged torture of North Korean human rights activist Kim Young-hwan by Chinese investigators is escalating into a diplomatic dispute between the two governments.Seoul’s Foreign Ministry toughened its stance Tuesday, promising to assist Kim’s and his supporters’ plans to take China’s human rights abuses to the United Nations.Earlier in the day, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman denied the claim of torture, saying China had “proceeded with the investigation according to the law” and “prote

South Korea and Australia launched a regular high-level meeting here on Monday to boost cooperation in politics and defense between the two middle powers in the Asia Pacific, Seoul officials said. The first strategic dialogue was designed to provide a wider framework for detailed bilateral discussions to better cope with the region’s changing security environment, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.It is an integration of two high-level talks between the two sides, which have separately co

An appeals court in Seoul on Thursday ordered the government to pay more compensation to the family of Cho Bong-am, former President Syngman Rhee’s political rival, who was executed on false charges of espionage in 1959. The Seoul High Court set the damage payment at 2.97 billion won ($2.6 million), up 500 million won from a lower court ruling. The family sued the government last year demanding 13.7 billion won after the Supreme Court overturned a guilty verdict on Cho. The former independence f

South Korea plans to demand an apology and other diplomatic steps from China after verifying a claim by a prominent rights activist of abuse during his detention, Seoul officials said Thursday.Kim Young-hwan and three other South Korean crusaders for human rights in North Korea were deported to Seoul last week after 114 days of confinement in China. They were arrested on March 29 on charges of “endangering national security.” Kim said Wednesday that he was tortured, deprived of sleep and forced

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― In a further clarification of its view on a key history issue between South Korea and Japan, the U.S. government said Tuesday that Japan’s trafficking of Korean women for sex services during the World War II is an unassailable “fact.”“These were women who were trafficked for sexual purposes,” a State Department official told Yonhap News Agency.The official stressed that how to characterize the incident is more important than the terminology to describe the victims.“Rat