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US envoy calls on South Korea to consult with US about engagement with North Korea

U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris poses for a photo after a group interview at the ambassador's residence in Seoul on Jan. 16, 2020. AFPSouth Korea should consult with the U.S. about its plans to engage with North Korea to avoid any "misunderstandings" that may trigger sanctions, the top U.S. envoy to Seoul said Thursday. Ambassador Harry Harris made the remark as South Korea is pushing to expand inter-Korean exchanges to facilitate the stalled nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang. President Moon Jae-in said earlier this week that individual tours to the North do not violate the U.N. sanctions and that it could eventually induce the North to return to dialogue and win international support for partial relief of sanctions. "President Moon's continued optimism is encouraging," Harris was quoted by Reuters as saying to foreign journalists in Seoul. "But with regard to acting on that optimism, I have said that things should be done in consultation with the United States.""In order to avoid a misunderstanding later that could trigger sanctions, it's better to ru

Jan 17, 2020
US envoy calls on South Korea to consult with US about engagement with North Korea

South Korea, US agree to closely coordinate on inter-Korean projects

In this June 12, 2018, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump, right, meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Sentosa Island, in Singapore. APSouth Korea and the United States agreed Thursday to coordinate closely on possible inter-Korean projects amid stalled nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang, Seoul's chief nuclear envoy said Thursday.Lee Do-hoon, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, made the remark to reporters after holding talks with his U.S. counterpart, Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, in Washington.The pair met after President Moon Jae-in expressed a desire earlier this week to implement inter-Korean projects as a way to facilitate denuclearization negotiations between the North and the U.S. Most of the projects, including efforts to reconnect railways and roads between the Koreas, have stalled due to United Nations sanctions on Pyongyang."(Biegun) and I agreed that from now on, South Korea and the U.S. will continue to hold close consultations on inter-Korean cooperation projects. We are just beginning," Lee told

Jan 17, 2020
South Korea, US agree to closely coordinate on inter-Korean projects

Trump likens North Korea talks to 'beautiful game of chess'

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He before signing the Phase 1 trade deal between the United States and China, during a ceremony in the East Room at the White House on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020. UPI-YonhapU.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he views the on-again, off-again nuclear talks with North Korea as a "beautiful game of chess."Trump made the remark during a White House signing ceremony for a phase-one trade deal between the United States and China, giving Beijing credit for "helping us with North Korea.""China is helping us with a lot of the things that they can be helping us with, which you don't see in a deal, but they have been very, very helpful with respect to Kim Jong-un, who has great respect for President Xi," Trump said, referring respectively to North Korea's leader and Chinese President Xi Jinping.He continued: "It's all a very, very beautiful game of chess, or game of poker, or ― I can't use the word checkers because it's far greater than any checker game that I've ever seen, but it's a very beautiful mosaic."Trump appeared to

Jan 16, 2020
Trump likens North Korea talks to 'beautiful game of chess'

Australian student says North Korea forced him to admit spying

Alek Sigley says he was forced to sign a false confession while held in North Korea. (AFP/NICOLAS ASFOURI)An Australian student arrested for spying and expelled from North Korea last year said he was forced to write a false confession while held incommunicado.Alek Sigley was studying modern Korean literature at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang when he went missing in June, sparking international alarm.Canberra has no diplomatic representation in Pyongyang and turned to Sweden, the protecting power for its citizens.Stockholm sent an envoy and Sigley was released after nine days in detention ― a much shorter period than some foreigners arrested in the authoritarian North.Sigley had written articles for a number of publications while in Pyongyang and North Korean authorities accused him of espionage, saying they released him on grounds of "humanitarian forbearance". Writing in South Korean academic journal Monthly North Korea, Sigley said he was forced to admit guilt during an "unpleasant" nine-day interrogation "completely cut off from the outside world"."From my point of view, I wa

Jan 15, 2020
Australian student says North Korea forced him to admit spying

US slaps sanctions over North Korea overseas workers

The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on two companies for exploiting North Korean overseas labor after a UN deadline to return workers who bring vital revenue to the regime.The sanctions ― which block any US assets of the companies and criminalize any financial transactions with them ― come amid a stalemate in diplomacy as North Korea threatens to test a new weapon.The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the Korea Namgang Trading Corporation, a North Korean company which it said has maintained workers in Russia, Nigeria and the Middle East.It also blacklisted Beijing Sukbakso, a Chinese company that has handled lodging and remittances for workers."The exportation of North Korean workers raises illicit revenue for the government of North Korea in violation of UN sanctions," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.Under a UN resolution unanimously approved in 2017, countries had until December 22 last year to send back all workers from North Korea.Human rights groups have long charged that the workers live in virtually slavery-like conditions, with proceeds

Jan 15, 2020
US slaps sanctions over North Korea overseas workers

South Korea delivers $5.7 million in humanitarian aid to North Korea this month: UN

People hold a banner reading "Let us complete the revolutionary cause of Juche following the leadership of the respected Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un" as they attend a rally in support of the 5th Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang on Jan. 5, 2020. AFPSouth Korea has donated US$5.73 million in humanitarian assistance for North Korea so far this year to help the impoverished country improve its public health situation and restore villages still reeling from the aftermath of typhoons, U.N. data showed Tuesday.According to the data released by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, South Korea has delivered $4 million to the World Health Organization (WHO) and another $1.7 million to the North's Red Cross Society as of Friday.The combined amount marks the largest portion of $7.75 million donated to the North this year so far, followed by Switzerland's $1.35 million donation and Germany's $672,000. South Korea unveiled the plan last month to provide money to help North Korea repair typhoon-hit

Jan 14, 2020
South Korea delivers $5.7 million in humanitarian aid to North Korea this month: UN

Moon gov't losing ground in NK-US nuke talks

By Kang Seung-wooPresident Moon Jae-in is seeing his role as a facilitator in the denuclearization talks between the United States and North Korea diminishing as Pyongyang has made it clear that there is no room for his government to meddle.Kim Kye-gwanThis may deal a hard blow to the South Korean leader, given that the cold shoulder came just days after he proposed various inter-Korean projects to use as a stepping stone to revive the stalled dialogue, and Cheong Wa Dae touted its delivery of the U.S. president's birthday message to the North Korean leader, Friday.“South Korea, not a member of the U.S. clan, went so frivolous as to convey the greetings from the U.S. president. It seems it still has lingering hope for playing the role of mediator in the DPRK-U.S. relations,” Kim Kye-gwan, a former North Korean chief nuclear envoy and currently a foreign ministry adviser, said in a statement released by the (North) Korean Central News Agency, Saturday. The DPRK is the official name of the North, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.“It is somehow presumptuous fo

Jan 12, 2020By Kang Seung-woo

UN sanctions panel approves humanitarian aid activities for two agencies

This picture taken on July 29, 2019 shows life jackets stored on the deck of the Ocean Viking, which conducts search and rescue activities in the central Mediterranean for French NGO SOS-Mediterranean and Doctors Without Borders, as it docks in Marseille. AFP-YonhapThe U.N. Security Council committee on sanctions against North Korea has approved applications by two aid agencies to commence humanitarian activities in the reclusive state, its website showed Saturday, in the first such approval this yearOn Tuesday, the committee gave the green light to Doctors Without Borders and the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit that have applied to take items to the North that are required for emergency medical support and repairs to a drinking water supply system, respectively.Under the sanctions exemptions that will remain valid for six months, Doctors Without Borders can take 65 items, including medical microscopes, ambulances and tuberculosis diagnosis kits, to the North.Detailed items the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit are allowed to bring were not made public. (Yonhap)

Jan 11, 2020
UN sanctions panel approves humanitarian aid activities for two agencies

US downplays link between North Korean provocation and Iran

North Korea's Korean Central News Agency released this photo of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, the Pukkuksong-3, Oct. 3, 2019. YonhapU.S. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said Friday that he recognized there was a risk of North Korea taking provocative action in light of tensions between the United States and Iran, but denied there was a direct correlation. At an event at the Brookings Institution, McCarthy was asked about the possibility of North Korea launching a provocation as the U.S. military focuses its operations on threats from Iran."There's always a risk with that. I don't see a direct correlation right now," he said without elaborating.Since late last year, North Korea has suggested it could test an intercontinental ballistic missile to protest stalled denuclearization negotiations with the U.S.In a New Year's message, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened to take "shocking actual action" and soon reveal a "new strategic weapon."Asked about the readiness of American troops stationed in South Korea following the scaling back of several allied exercises in support o

Jan 11, 2020
US downplays link between North Korean provocation and Iran

PHOTOS N. Korea's Yangdok spa resort begins operations

An aerial view of Yangdok spa report in North Korea's Pyongan Province. Captured from Korea Central TVNorth Korea began operations of a new spa resort in the country's central region Friday, according to state media, as Pyongyang pushes to attract more foreign tourists in the face of global sanctions crippling its economy.The construction of the Yangdok spa resort in the North's South Pyongan Province was completed last month, which the North's leader Kim Jong-un described as a demonstration of "steady development and prosperity" achieved by the country despite "the worst adversity." "Visitors will receive various services that combine both treatment and relaxation ... at the Yangdok Hot Spring Cultural Recreation Center," the North's state radio said the previous day. Captured from Korea Central TVCaptured from Korea Central TVKim visited the spa resort multiple times last year, highlighting his strong determination to build a competitive tourism industry. The radio station also said Masikryong Ski Resort, located on the outskirts of the eastern city of Wonsan, began receiving touri

Jan 10, 2020
N. Korea's Yangdok spa resort begins operations [PHOTOS]
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