Kim Jong-un's wife absent from public view for 4 months Ri Sol-juThe wife of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been absent from public view for four months since June, spurring speculation about what is behind her prolonged disappearance.Ri Sol-ju was last seen in public when Chinese President Xi Jinping made his first visit to Pyongyang on June 20-21. She has since disappeared from state media reports for a total of 122 days, with leader Kim making public appearances without her.It is not the first time that Ri has disappeared from public view. In 2016, she was not seen in public for about nine months, spawning speculation that she might be pregnant or have given birth to a baby.This year, Ri made six public appearances up until June, including accompanying Kim on a visit to Beijing from Jan. 1-10. She also joined Kim in attending a performance marking the 71st anniversary of the North's armed forces in February and visiting a fish farm in April.Ri's disappearance from state media reports is considered unusual. Since state media began referring to her as first lady last year, instead of comrade, she was usually mentioned in media reporOct 20, 2019
UN projects North Korea's food situation to worsen this year Employees harvest grain at the Koh Chang cooperative farm near Pyongyang, Oct. 17, 2019. The farm has over 1.500 employees, and supplies agricultural products to the Chollima Steel Complex, one of North Korea's largest steel plants, as well as Pyongyang's grocery stores. TASS-Yonhap The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) forecast North Korea's food situation will worsen in the fourth quarter due to Typhoon Lingling and the African swine fever (ASF) outbreak there, a U.S. broadcaster reported Saturday.Citing the FAO's Early Warning Early Action report on food security and agriculture released Thursday, the Voice of America said North Korea is among nine high-risk countries that face further food shortages in the October to December period. The FAO picked drought, natural disasters such as the typhoon, and ASF as the main factors that will worsen the North's food problems. The UN agency called on the international community to provide humanitarian aid to NortOct 19, 2019
Denuclearization dialogue leads to more North Korean warheads North Korean leader Kim Jong-un smiles while riding a white horse on Mount Paektu, the Korean Peninsula's highest peak, in footage released Wednesday by the North's KCNA. YonhapBy Yi Whan-woo, Kim Yoo-chulAs nuclear negotiations between North Korea and the United States remain in a stalemate after no “substantial outcome” from their recent encounter in Sweden, the lack of visible progress in the denuclearization dialogue is raising concerns that the North is “buying time” for its military and nuclear advancement.During an Asan Institute for Policy Studies security forum held in Seoul, Tuesday, Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the Washington-based RAND Corporation, claimed that despite North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's promise to end his nuclear program, Pyongyang has not taken any meaningful measures toward this. Instead, the North has increased its capability since the failure of the summit between Kim and President Donald Trump in Hanoi, he said.Bennett estimated that North Korea now has about 45 nuclear weapons, something the Asan Institute confirOct 16, 2019By Yi Whan-woo
N. Korean leader scales sacred mountain on horseback. Any bold decision in making? North Korean state media, the Korean Central News Agency, reported Wednesday about the state leader Kim Jong-un riding a white horse to Mount Paekdu, the state's highest peak. YonhapNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-un rode a white horse to visit Mount Paekdu, the highest peak on the Korean Peninsula considered the birthplace of his late father, slamming U.S. sanctions and calling for greater "self-reliance" efforts to frustrate them, state media reported Wednesday.Kim has visited the mountain, considered one of the peninsula's most sacred places, ahead of big political or diplomatic decisions and events, and the latest trip has spawned speculation about whether another big decision might be forthcoming.The leader "climbed up Mount Paekdu, riding a white horse through the first snow," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, releasing a series of photos of him riding a horse running up the snow-covered mountain.Kim also visited a special tourist zone under construction in Samjiyon County at the foot of the mountain, and lashed out at the United States for sanctions and pressure agaOct 16, 2019
North Korea promises to give footage of Pyongyang World Cup qualifier to S. Korea Members of the South Korean football team prepare to board an Air China flight to Pyongyang for a World Cup qualifier match against North Korea from the airport in Beijing on Monday, Oct. 14, 2019. APNorth Korea agreed to provide South Korea with a video of an inter-Korean World Cup qualifier to be held Tuesday in Pyongyang, a unification ministry official said, after Seoul's push to televise the match live fell through.The North promised to give the video to the South's delegation before it departs from Pyongyang on Wednesday afternoon after the match to be held at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. The delegation is scheduled to arrive back home via Beijing early Thursday.South Korea had pushed for live broadcasting of Tuesday's match, but negotiations with the North fell apart. The match represents the first such match since 1990, when the two Koreas held a friendly in the North Korean capital."We have been promised to receive a DVD containing footage of the game," the ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity, adding that the file will be available to a South Korean audience aftOct 15, 2019
Scalpers to hit Pyongyang with WC qualifier tickets Tottenham Hotspur attacker Son Heung-min, rear, and Valencia midfielder Lee Kang-in will play for South Korea in its FIFA World Cup qualifier against North Korea in Pyongyang, Tuesday. / YonhapBy Yi Whan-wooA scalper's ticket at the upcoming inter-Korean FIFA World Cup qualifier, Oct. 15 would be estimated to cost around 50,000 North Korean won, or $6, sources familiar with the issue said, Sunday.They said the tickets were expected to be sold out and that some North Korean football fans would “willingly purchase” scalper's tickets because North Koreans were excited about key South Korean international footballers Song Heung-min and Lee Kang-in coming to Pyongyang.“Many fans still find the price worthy enough as long as they can see Son and Lee on the pitch,” a source said, adding that the $6 ticket was equivalent to buying 10 kilograms of rice. Part of the second round of World Cup qualifiers, the Oct. 15 match will take place at the 50,000-seat Kim Il Sung Stadium.Son, 26, and Lee, 18, are familiar names, with the former a Tottenham Hotspur ace and the latterOct 13, 2019By Yi Whan-woo
North Korean citizens not buying rhetoric against Moon President Moon Jae-in is still being lauded in Pyongyang for his humble gestures shown during his visit last year, and Pyongyang citizens are not buying North Korea's rhetoric against him, according to sources familiar with the matter. / YonhapBy Yi Whan-wooDespite an inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang last year, North Korea has continued to ratchet up harsh rhetoric against the South Korean leader.Many Pyongyang citizens, however, are not buying the propaganda coming from state-controlled outlets.According to sources familiar with the matter, this is because the citizens witnessed Moon's humble and friendly gestures on site when they were mobilized to greet him during an inter-Korean summit in September.Back then, Moon appeared to have sparked comments in North Korea by giving a full 90-degree bow to those who greeted him at the airport. It was believed to have had a deep impact on citizens, especially those who witnessed it in person.“A number of people were impressed by such a humble gesture from a head of state. Their impression remains unchanged, and people, although they doOct 11, 2019By Yi Whan-woo
North Korea threatens to end freeze in long-range missile testing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attends the 74th anniversary of the foundation of the Workers' Party of Korea at Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday. North Korea has warned that it could end a freeze in long-range missile testing. YonhapNorth Korea issued a veiled warning on Thursday that it could eventually end a freeze in long-range missile testing as it criticised a call by U.N. Security Council members for it to give up its nuclear weapons and denounced a recent U.S. missile test.Five European members of the U.N. Security Council met on Tuesday to urge North Korea to take "concrete steps" toward giving up its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.That call came days after North Korea said it had test-fired a new submarine-launched ballistic missile, the latest in a series of missile tests since it resumed dialogue with the United States in 2018, and the break-off over the weekend of a round of talks in Sweden.Despite the recent tests, Pyongyang has stuck to a freeze in testing of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistOct 11, 2019
US surveillance aircraft over the Korean Peninsula: aviation tracker E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System. YonhapThe United States flew E-8C surveillance aircraft over areas near the Korean Peninsula, an aviation tracker said Thursday, on an apparent mission to collect intelligence regarding North Korea.Two E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) aircraft arrived at Kadena Air Base in Japan's Okinawa on Sunday "to resume missions over the Korean Peninsula," Aircraft Spots said in a Twitter post. The aircraft flew over Japan on Wednesday and took off from the base again later in the day for a "Korean Peninsula mission," the tracker said. It was unclear whether both of the two E-8C planes were involved in the mission.It is the first time that the U.S. has dispatched the surveillance aircraft to the base in Japan since early 2018, though the U.S. has often flown its reconnaissance plane, an RC-135W Rivet Joint, over Seoul and surrounding areas recently more often than before to step up its surveillance of North Korea. The deployment came after North Korea test-fired a new type of SLBM, the Pukguksong-3, on Oct. 2. It wasOct 10, 2019
PM highlights inter-Korean dictionary project on Hangeul Day Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon delivers a speech at a ceremony to mark the 573rd anniversary of the promulgation of Hangeul, held at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, Wednesday. Hangeul is the Korean alphabet developed under King Sejong of the 1392-1910 Joseon Kingdom. YonhapBy Jung Da-min Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon called for the resumption of a now-halted inter-Korean project to jointly compile a Korean dictionary, during his speech at a ceremony marking the 573rd anniversary of the pomulgation of Hangeul, Wednesday.“Seventy years of division has even brought a linguistic gap between South and North Korea,” Lee said. “The two Koreas agreed on the Gyeoremal-Keunsajeon Joint Compilation in 2005, but it has not seen much progress.”Hangeul is the Korean alphabet which was developed under King Sejong of the 1392-1910 Joseon Kingdom and promulgated in 1446. But the decades of division between the two Koreas has led to a linguistic gap between the two sides. The Gyeoremal-Keunsajeon Joint Compilation, which aims to publish a unified dictionary of the Korean lanOct 9, 2019
