China says it hopes for peace and stability on Korean peninsula Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian / ReutersChina's foreign ministry said on Tuesday that Beijing hopes for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, amid escalating tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang.Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian made the remarks during a daily briefing in Beijing. (Reuters)Jun 16, 2020
North Korea destroys inter-Korean liaison office In this file photo taken on Sept. 9, 2018, Korean People's Army tanks take part in a military parade on Kim Il Sung square in Pyongyang. North Korea's army is "fully ready" to take action against the South, state media said on June 16, 2020, in the latest verbal sabre-rattling from Pyongyang, days after its leader's sister threatened military moves against Seoul. AFPNorth Korea blew up an office set up to foster better ties with South Korea in its border town of Kaesong on Tuesday after it threatened to take action if North Korean defectors went ahead with a campaign to send propaganda leaflets into the North.North Korea's KCNA state news said the liaison office, which had been closed since January over fears of the novel coronavirus, was "tragically ruined with a terrific explosion".South Korea also said the office had been blown up. Its media reported that an explosion was heard and smoke could be seen rising over Kaesong.The office, when it was operating, served as an embassy for both of the old rivals and its destruction represents a major set-back for efforts by South Korea's PrJun 16, 2020
North Korean paper warns of 'lightning strike' In this June 30, 2019, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump, left, meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea. APNorth Korea kept up criticism of South Korea over anti-Pyongyang leaflets Tuesday, with its main newspaper casting Seoul's plan to crack down on such leafleting as a trick to escape the crisis and warning of a "lightning strike" against South Korean authorities.The remarks came a day after President Moon Jae-in called on North Korea to leave the door open for inter-Korean dialogue, in a video message commemorating the first-ever summit between the leaders of the two Koreas.Last Thursday, Cheong Wa Dae's national security office warned that the government would thoroughly crack down on the act of sending leaflets and related materials to the North and deal strictly with any violation in accordance with the law.But on Tuesday, the Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the North's ruling party, dismissed Cheong Wa Dae's announcement, saying the strict measures thJun 16, 2020
North Korea 'has 30-40 nuclear warheads with 10 added last year' Captured from SIPRI websiteBy Park Si-soo North Korea continues to expand its nuclear arsenal with 30-40 nuclear warheads in stock, says a Sweden-based research institute in its annual paper published on Monday (local time). The North added 10 warheads to its nuclear weapon capacity in 2019 alone, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). It noted that the figures were “approximate” because the reclusive state didn't share details of its military power. Established in 1966, SIPRI is an independent institute dedicated to research into international security, armaments, arms control and disarmament.“North Korea continues to prioritize its military nuclear program as a central element of its national security strategy,” SIPRI wrote in the paper. Meanwhile, SIPRI said the nine nuclear-armed states ― the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea ― together possessed an estimated 13,400 nuclear weapons at the start of 2020. This marked a small decrease from 13,865 a year earlierJun 16, 2020
North Korea's military threatens to reenter disarmed border areas South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Monday, June 15, 2020. APNorth Korea's military said Tuesday it is reviewing plans to reenter border areas disarmed under inter-Korean agreements, days after the North threatened to take military action over the sending of leaflets by activists from South Korea.The General Staff of the Korean People's Army (KPA) also revealed that the North would send its own propaganda leaflets into the South, saying it is considering opening front-line areas and waters off the southwest coast to cooperate for a "large-scale leaflet scattering struggle against the enemy.""Our army is keeping a close watch on the current situation in which the north-south relations are turning worse and worse, and getting itself fully ready for providing a sure military guarantee to any external measures to be taken by the Party and government," the General Staff said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.The KPA is studying "an action plan for taking measures to make the army advanJun 16, 2020
Inter-Korean relations on the line after North Korea's threat A visitor walks in front of a sign showing the distance to the North Korean city of Gaeseong and the South Korean capital of Seoul near a wire fence decorated with ribbons written with messages wishing for unification of the two Koreas at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Sunday. / AP-YonhapKim Yo-jong warns Pyongyang will take ‘next step’ against SeoulBy Kang Seung-wooRather than celebrating the 20th anniversary of the first-ever inter-Korean summit that pledged increased dialogue and cooperation between the two Koreas, bilateral ties are now reverting almost to the situation before the historic event. There has been a buildup of tense confrontation and the possibility of war after Pyongyang recently threatened to end its relationship with Seoul and take military action. The development comes after Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's powerful sister and first vice department director of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee, issued a statement Saturday night following hostile rhetoric from two other senior officials against the Moon JaeJun 14, 2020By Kang Seung-woo
Filmmaker gives Korean War orphans voices Two Korean War orphans pose with a Hungarian boy in this 1953 file photo. / Courtesy of Kim Deog-young'Kim Il-sung's Children' to hit local theaters on June 25, the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean WarBy Kang Hyun-kyungDirector Kim Deog-young's “Kim Il-sung's Children” is a tale of the doomed fate of thousands of Korean War orphans who found homes in Europe and lived there for several years only to have their “fond” childhood abruptly ended with their forced repatriation to North Korea in 1959. Since their separation, these North Koreans and their European friends missed one another, longing in vain to see each other again. Their hopes, however, never came to pass. The then North Korean leader Kim Il-sung turned a deaf ear to the Europeans' repeated pleas to allow reunions. This sad but informative movie shows how individuals' lives were shattered by the turbulence of Korea's modern history caused by the clash of democracy and communism. In 1952 winter, hundreds of Korean children arrived at a railway station in Bulgaria on board a train. The chiJun 14, 2020By Kang Hyun-kyung
Seoul urges Pyongyang to keep reconciliatory deals Cheong Wa Dae / Korea Times fileSouth Korea held an emergency security meeting on Sunday and pressed North Korea to keep reconciliatory deals as Pyongyang continued to up the ante by threatening to sever inter-Korean relations and even use military action.Seoul's top security officials, led by Chung Eui-yong, director of national security at the presidential office, reviewed the current security situation on the Korean Peninsula as well as Seoul's response to the recent harsh rhetoric by Pyongyang, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kang Min-seok. The emergency security meeting came as Pyongyang built up tensions in inter-Korean ties with a threat to cut off all communication lines with South Korea last week.Protesting against anti-North Korea leaflets sent by activists and North Korean defectors in the South, Pyongyang threatened to disconnect all telephone lines between the two Koreas last Tuesday. Since then, the North has ratcheted up tensions with South Korea with a series of more harshly worded rhetoric, spearheaded by Kim Yo-jong, the powerful younger sister of North Korean Jun 14, 2020
Kim Jong-un's sister threatens South Korea with military action North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his sister Kim Yo-jong attend a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the Peace House at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, South Korea, April 27, 2018. ReutersThe powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened military action against South Korea as she bashed Seoul on Saturday over declining bilateral relations and its inability to stop activists from floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border.Describing South Korea as an ``enemy,'' Kim Yo Jong repeated an earlier threat she had made by saying Seoul will soon witness the collapse of a ``useless'' inter-Korean liaison office in the border town of Kaesong. Kim, who is first vice department director of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee, said she would leave it to North Korea's military leaders to carry out the next step of retaliation against the South. ``By exercising my power authorized by the supreme leader, our party and the state, I gave an instruction to the arms of the department in charge of tJun 14, 2020
N. Korean military ready for action on Seoul, warns leader's sister Kim Yo-jongNorth Korea will take its next step against South Korea, for what it claims to be Seoul's betrayal and crimes against the communist state, it said Saturday, adding that its army has been entrusted to plan and take any necessary action."I feel it is high time to surely break with the South Korean authorities. We will soon take a next action," Kim Yo-jong, first vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), said in a statement carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency.Kim is also younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un."By exercising my power authorized by the Supreme Leader, our Party and the state, I gave an instruction to the arms of the department in charge of the affairs with enemy to decisively carry out the next action," the statement said.She added, "the right to taking the next action against the enemy will be entrustedto the General Staff of our army."The statement came about a week after Yo-jong threatened to cut off all communication with South Korea and scrap a military agreement aimed at reducingJun 14, 2020
