2 Koreas trade barbs at UN over Pyongyang's nuclear programs This photo, released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 28, shows a long-range cruise missile being launched from a transporter erector launcher on Jan. 25. YonhapBy Nam Hyun-wooNorth and South Korea traded barbs over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs at the United Nations Conference on Disarmament, Thursday (local time). While North Korea claimed that it is pursuing those programs for "self-defense," the South countered that such a claim is an "irresponsible excuse."During the conference, Ju Yong-chol, counselor of North Korea's Permanent Mission to Geneva, said the regime will “never give up nuclear deterrence” and will not respond to any calls for negotiations that bear the prerequisite that the North should denuclearize itself first. Ju continued that the North's measures of improving national defense are a legitimate exercise of self-defense rights in strict accordance with international laws and the United Nations Charter. According to Ju, the U.S. and South Korea are “threatening” the North's security with military exercisMar 3, 2023By Nam Hyun-woo
US unveils national strategy to counter cybercrimes by N. Korea, others U.S. President Joe Biden holds up a sign for the Frederick Douglass Tunnel as he speaks during the annual House Democrats Issues Conference at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland, March 1. AFP-YonhapThe United States on Thursday released a national strategy to enhance cybersecurity and mitigate illicit cyber activities by actors from countries such as North Korea.The strategy released by the White House calls for efforts to defend the country's "critical infrastructure" and "disrupt and dismantle threat actors.""The governments of China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and other autocratic states with revisionist intent are aggressively using advanced cyber capabilities to pursue objectives that run counter to our interests and broadly accepted international norms," says the text of the strategy released by the White House.North Korea or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) "conducts cyber activities to generate revenue through criminal enterprises, such as through the theft of cryptocurrency, ransomware and the deployment of surreptitious information technology (IT)Mar 3, 2023
NK leader calls for attaining grain production goal amid reports of food shortages North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks during a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee on its second day in Pyongyang to discuss rural issues, in this photo released by the North's Korean Central News Agency the following day, Feb. 27. Yonhap North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called on all farms across the country to focus on stepping up their grain production and meeting their goals for this year "without fail," wrapping up a four-day session of a key party meeting, Pyongyang's state media said Thursday.Kim urged its people to overcome the agricultural challenge for this year to achieve the future goals of development during the plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) held the previous day, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)."In order to increase the nationwide agricultural output, attention should be paid to overcoming the lopsidedness in the guidance on farming and keeping thMar 2, 2023
US imposes fresh sanctions to restrict North Korea's revenues This Feb. 24 photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows the North staging "strategic cruise missile" launch drills in an area of the northeastern city of Kim Chaek the previous day. YonhapThe U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday imposed sanctions on individuals and companies that it accused of illicitly generating revenue for the government of North Korea.The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Chilsong Trading Corporation, which it says is used by North Korea to earn foreign currency and collect intelligence; and Korea Paekho Trading Corporation, which is accused of generating funds for the North Korean government since the 1980s by conducting art and construction projects throughout the Middle East and Africa.OFAC also sanctioned two individuals ― Hwang Kil-su and Pak Hwa-song ― for helping the North Korean government generate revenue, the Treasury Department said in a statement.The department said the individuals established a company named Congo Aconde SARL in the Democratic Republic of Congo to earn revenuMar 2, 2023
S. Korea designates Aug. 13 on lunar calendar as Separated Families Day North Koreans wave to their family members from the South as they depart from a hotel at Mount Geumgang where they held a short reunion in October, 2015. Korea Times fileSouth Korea has designated Aug. 13 on the lunar calendar as a commemorative day for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, Seoul's unification ministry said Tuesday.The establishment of Separated Families Day came as the National Assembly on Monday approved a revised bill aimed at promoting inter-Korean exchanges over separated families, according to the ministry in charge of affairs related to the two Koreas.The date was selected by reflecting separated families' wishes, as many of them voiced hope to reunite with their kin in the North on Aug. 13 on the lunar calendar, a day before the start of the annual Chuseok fall harvest holiday.Chuseok, which falls on Aug. 15 on the lunar calendar, is one of the country's two biggest traditional holidays, when Koreans visit hometowns to meet their family members.The designation will also help the government and municipalities to hold and promote commemorative events onFeb 28, 2023
Size of N. Korea's rice paddies down 0.8% in 2022 This May 26, 2022 file photo shows the rice paddies of Gaepung County, North Korea. The Korea Times fileThe size of North Korea's rice paddies decreased 0.8 percent in 2022 from a year earlier, data showed Tuesday, reflecting the reclusive regime's challenging food shortages.The North's rice paddies totaled 539,569 hectares, slightly larger than the size of the U.S. state of Delaware, in 2022, compared with 544,006 hectares posted in 2021, according to Statistics Korea.The estimate is based on satellite images, taken over the May-September period of 2022.The figure is around 74 percent of the 727,158 hectares of rice paddies in South Korea. South Hwanghae Province accounted for 26 percent of North Korea's total, trailed by the North and South Pyongan provinces with 19.1 percent and 14.6 percent, respectively.The data came after South Korea's unification ministry said earlier this month that North Korea's food shortages appear to be worsening.The North is known for chronic food shortages that have been aggravated in recent years by global sanctions for its nuclear and missile programsFeb 28, 2023
US has no hostile intent but N. Korea continues to provoke: state dept. State Department Press Secretary Ned Price is seen answering a question during a daily press briefing at the department in Washington on Feb. 27, in this captured image. YonhapThe United States has no hostile intent toward North Korea, a state department spokesperson said Monday, adding that North Korea, on the other hand, continues to make provocations.The remarks come after the North cited what it claimed to be U.S. hostility toward the country, while warning that U.S. provocations against the North will be considered a "declaration of war.""It is the DPRK that time and again at an unprecedented rate has engaged in provocations, including multiple tests of ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) systems, other ballistic missiles and other provocative activities that have posed a threat to peace and security in the Indo-Pacific and, in some ways, even well beyond," State Department Press Secretary Ned Price told a daily press briefing."Even as we have pointed out the threat that we and our partners in the region face from these programs and these dangerous provocations, we have maFeb 28, 2023
N. Korean leader calls for 'radical change' in agricultural output within few years This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Feb. 28, shows the North's leader Kim Jong-un speaking at the second-day session of a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) over agriculture the previous day. YonhapNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for a "radical change" in agricultural production within a few years, attending the second-day session of a key party meeting, Pyongyang's state media said Tuesday.The North's leader stressed the need to find ways for "stable and sustained development of agriculture" during the plenary meeting of the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) held the previous day, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).The rare party meeting came as the North's food situation appears to be worsening amid deepening economic hardships caused by border lockdowns to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and global sanctions on its nuclear and missile programs.The main purpose of the meeting is to find ways "with perfect feasibility for successfully attaining the grain production goFeb 28, 2023
N. Korea remains on US shortlist of 'state sponsors of terrorism' in 2021: report North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, behind the podium, speaks during a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee on its second day in Pyongyang on Feb. 27, to discuss rural issues, in this photo released by the North's Korean Central News Agency the following day. YonhapThe United States maintained its designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism in 2021, U.S. report released Monday showed.North Korea was one of three countries to be place on the list, according to the 2021 Country Reports on Terrorism. The other two were Iran and Syria."On November 20, 2017, the secretary of state designated the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as a State Sponsor of Terrorism," said the report released by the state department, referring to North Korea by its official name.The report noted the country was designated a state sponsor of terrorism in 1988 "primarily because of its involvement in the 1987 bombing of a Korean Airlines passenger flight.The designation was rescinded in 2008."In 2017, the secretary of state determined the DPRK had repeatedlFeb 28, 2023
Kim Ju-ae's succession still unclear: unification minister North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center, and his daughter Ju-ae, second from right, attend a groundbreaking ceremony for a new street in Pyongyang, Saturday, in this photo provided by the North's official Korean Central News Agency. Yonhap By Kang Seung-wooIt is too early to tell if North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un's headline-grabbing daughter, Ju-ae, is the true heir apparent, South Korea's Unification Minister Kwon Young-se said, Monday. But he did not rule out the possibility either that she might become the next leader of the country, which has been ruled by three generations of the Kim family.“Even if North Korea begins grooming her as the next leader, questions remain as to whether she will be able to lead the military-oriented North Korean system,” Kwon said during a radio interview with CBS. “Kim Jong-un has just turned 40 and the North Korean regime is much more patriarchal and male-dominated than we are.”However, Kwon, a four-term lawmaker, said that the government needs to keep a close eye on whether Ju-ae will assume leadership, given that North KoFeb 27, 2023By Kang Seung-woo
