The newly launched panel on unification faces daunting challenges in the face of frozen inter-Korean relations, steadfast cross-border military tension and President Park Geun-hye’s rigid North Korea policy. The 50-member preparation committee set sail Tuesday with the aim of devising a unification blueprint and detailed action plans. The president will head the group, supported by former Ambassador to China Chung Chong-wook and Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae as vice chairs, as well as other

The two Koreas agreed to hold a meeting Thursday to discuss the North’s plans to dispatch a group of athletes and cheerleaders to the forthcoming Asian Games in Incheon, South Korean officials said Monday. Three officials from each side will gather at Freedom House on the southern part of the truce village of Panmunjeom. The South’s delegation is to be led by Kwon Kyung-sang, secretary-general of the event’s steering committee. Last Thursday Pyongyang offered working-level talks on Tuesday via a

North Korea on Thursday proposed working-level talks with the South next week to discuss its plans to dispatch a group of athletes and cheerleaders to the upcoming Asian Games in Incheon. Pyongyang suggested the meeting take place at the peace village of Panmunjeom on July 15, its official Korean Central News Agency said. The offer was also made through a border telephone line, the Unification Ministry said. The proposal came three days after the North said that it will send a cheering squad to

North Korea has allegedly confirmed the survival of some Japanese nationals kidnapped decades ago, a Japanese news report claimed Thursday, suggesting a potential breakthrough in the two countries’ long-festering diplomatic tug-of-war. During a meeting in Beijing last week, North Korean officials presented a list of 30 survivors along with their birthdates, occupations and family members’ names, including “several” of the 17 people officially recognized as abductees by Tokyo, the Nikkei daily re

Just like the namesake board game, diplomacy needs at least two players. Your every move entails a message for your counterparts, while shaping your options for the next step. Seoul officials have long been grumbling about the cozy relationship between the Japanese government and the media. In particular since Shinzo Abe was sworn in as prime minister in late 2012, Tokyo officials have apparently been trying to test public opinion by leaking a secret policy agenda or pursue domestic political in

Japan’s Cabinet on Friday formally approved a lifting of part of its sanctions against North Korea as Pyongyang launches an investigation into its abduction of Japanese citizens in the 1970-80s.The decision will ease restrictions on people-to-people exchanges and port calls by North Korean ships for humanitarian purposes such as carrying medical supplies. Up to 30 million yen ($294,000) can be sent and 1 million yen be brought from the communist state without declaration. But the Mankyongbong-92

TOKYO (AP) ― North Korea said Monday it is preparing to try two Americans who entered the country as tourists for carrying out what it says were hostile acts against it.Investigations into Americans Matthew Todd Miller and Jeffrey Edward Fowle concluded that suspicions about their hostile acts have been confirmed by evidence and their testimonies, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a short report.KCNA said North Korea is making preparations to bring them before a court. It d

BEIJING (AFP) ― Talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang on the abduction of Japanese citizens during the Cold War opened in Beijing on Tuesday, with Tokyo’s envoys giving the North Koreans a diplomatic rebuke over missile launches.Sunday’s test launch of two short-range Scud missiles was “extremely regrettable”, Junichi Ihara, the head of Japan’s delegation, told his North Korean counterpart Song Il-ho as talks got under way at Pyongyang’s embassy in the Chinese capital.Speaking in front of internatio