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Seoul to review size, format of Pyongyang food assistance: Cheong Wa Dae

South Korean President Moon Jae-in's administration said Wednesday it will begin official procedures associated with its plan for food aid to Pyongyang. Courtesy of Cheong Wa DaeSouth Korea's Moon Jae-in administration will soon begin official procedures associated with its plan for food aid to North Korea, a Cheong Wa Dae official said Wednesday.The official, however, said it's still too early to talk in detail about the issue, as the government has yet to review the size, format and other specifics.Moon and U.S. President discussed the humanitarian issue in their phone conversation Tuesday night (Seoul time)."We are at a stage of beginning a review of all those matters," including preparations for domestic procedures, the official told reporters in a background briefing.Despite Pyongyang's latest show of power on the weekend, Trump expressed support for Seoul's provision of food aid to the poverty-stricken communist nation, according to Moon's office.In a joint report, the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization said 10 million people in North Korea, 40 percent

May 8, 2019
Seoul to review size, format of Pyongyang food assistance: Cheong Wa Dae

Red Cross to provide water pumps to Pyongyang as emergency aid

North Korea's Premier of the Cabinet Pak Pong-ju, left, visited Changyon and Sinchon Counties in South Hwanghae Province to check agricultural produces there, according to Korean Central News Agency, May 23, 2018. YonhapThe international Red Cross has decided to provide North Korea with water pumps as part of an emergency measure to help the impoverished nation cope with worsening food shortages caused in part by droughts. The emergency "action plan" for North Korea will include a provision of 15 mobile water pumps to help improve irrigation under the disaster relief emergency fund, according to a release by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) on Monday. The IFRC has set aside 76,946 Swiss francs ($75,466) for the aid program. The funds will be spent over a three-month period to provide the pumps and fuel to operate the pumps and educate farmers about proper use, it said. The provision is expected to benefit some 331,967 residents, or 5,831 households, in counties in eastern South Hamgyong Province. The IFRC said providing water pumps is essent

May 8, 2019
Red Cross to provide water pumps to Pyongyang as emergency aid

Unification minister travels to Pyongyang to visit inter-Korean liaison office

Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul, right, speaks during a debate geared towards better inter-Korean cooperation at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, May 1. YonhapUnification Minister Kim Yeon-chul crossed the inter-Korean border Wednesday to visit a joint liaison office in North Korea's border town of Gaesong in his first trip to the communist state since taking office last month.Kim plans to meet South Korean officials stationed there and check progress in their work before returning to Seoul in the afternoon."This visit is aimed at encouraging our staff working at the liaison office as it has been playing an important role in inter-Korean relations," a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.The official added that Kim does not have plans to have consultations with North Koreans during his visit.Still, his trip draws keen attention as it comes amid stagnated inter-Korean exchanges apparently tied down by little progress in denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington.On Saturday, North Korea fired multiple projectiles into the East Sea on Saturday, raisi

May 8, 2019
Unification minister travels to Pyongyang to visit inter-Korean liaison office

Moon should send envoy to North Korea: experts

Visitors use binoculars to see the North side from the unification observatory in Paju, South Korea, May 6. North Korea appears to have tested a new short-range missile. AP-YonhapBy Kim Yoo-chulPresident Moon Jae-in needs to send a special envoy to North Korea as early as possible to demand the halt of any further provocative actions following the North's recent missile launches, analysts said Tuesday.They said even conventional weapons testing could put Washington-Pyongyang relations on a downward spiral. As President Moon acts not only as a facilitator of nuclear dialogue, but as an advocate that Pyongyang and Washington can trust, sending an envoy will help the Koreas and the U.S. avoid further tension, they added.An envoy could discuss specific conciliatory incentives such as snapback provisions on sanctions easing, a resumption of humanitarian assistance, and Washington's promise for security guarantees.“North Korea's latest missile tests show how fragile both the nuclear issue and President Donald Trump's personal diplomacy with Kim Jong-un are. Against this backdrop, Moo

May 7, 2019By Kim Yoo-chul
Moon should send envoy to North Korea: experts

North Korea tests new missile - and Trump's resolve

In this May 4 file photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, observes tests of different weapons systems in North Korea. North Korea's test of what appears to be new short-range ballistic missile may not have been a direct threat to the United States, but experts warn it almost certainly an omen of bigger problems on the horizon. APNorth Korea appears to have tested a new short-range missile _ and President Donald Trump's resolve to keep it from doing more of the same in the future. The test early Saturday was quickly played down by Trump and his top advisers, who noted it was not the kind of long-range missile leader Kim Jong Un has refrained from launching since 2017. But the sudden activity on the North's east coast, complete with fiery photos of a purported bull's eye out to sea, alarmed Washington's regional allies and suggests that Kim's missiles are improving even as the Trump administration wrestles with how to get him back to the negotiating table. Kim personally supervised the test of what experts believe was a short-range ballistic missile first displayed by North Korea a

May 7, 2019
North Korea tests new missile - and Trump's resolve

US says nuclear deal 'still possible'

In this Feb. 2, 2018, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with North Korean defectors where he talked with reporters about allowing the release of a secret memo on the FBI's role in the Russia inquiry. AP-YonhapBy Kim Yoo-chul, Yi Whan-woo Despite North Korea's decision to launch what appeared to be short-range missiles into the sea off its eastern coast on the weekend, officials in the United States and political analysts have ruled out the possibility that this could end Washington's joint diplomatic efforts to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program.Cheong Wa Dae said Monday that it had no new information on the North's provocative action, such as the launch method or exact type of missiles used; while the U.S. is apparently reacting to the firing in a “thoughtful manner.”Early Monday (KST), U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the launches “didn't present a threat to the United States” and its allies, nor will it derail the Trump administration's attempts to reach a denuclearization deal. “We still believe there

May 6, 2019By Kim Yoo-chul
US says nuclear deal 'still possible'

Provocations 'intended to scuttle Trump's North Korea policy'

North Korean military conducts a live-fire drill for multiple launchers and tactical guided weapons in the country's east coastal city of Wonsan, Saturday. / YonhapBy Yi Whan-wooNorth Korea fired several short-range projectiles, Saturday, to ratchet up pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump to return to the negotiating table with a compromise on easing sanctions, analysts said Sunday.They said Trump, however, will keep sanctions and that sanctions relief will not happen, just like when the summit between leaders of the two counties collapsed in Hanoi, Vietnam late February. The experts said such a deadlock will force North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, not Trump, to consider whether to go back on the path to war as in 2017 or comply with the U.S. demand for full denuclearization in return for sanctions relief.Pyongyang apparently did not want to anger the U.S., Saturday, as they did not fire intermediate- or long-range missiles. A series of test launches in 2017 showed that the North's intermediate-range missiles can reach the U.S. military base in Guam while the latter can target the

May 5, 2019By Yi Whan-woo
Provocations 'intended to scuttle Trump's North Korea policy'

Cheong Wa Dae concerned about North Korea's breach of inter-Korean military deal

President Moon Jae-in speaks at the start of a weekly meeting with senior presidential secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae, April 15. Moon's right is National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong. YonhapSouth Korea's presidential office said Saturday that North Korea's firing of short-range projectiles is contrary to the purpose of inter-Korean military accords last year.It urged Pyongyang to stop acts of escalating military tensions on the Korean Peninsula, briefing media on the results of an emergency meeting of top security officials held hours after North Korea fired unidentified projectiles into the East Sea.Chung Eui-yong, director of Cheong Wa Dae's National Security Office, presided over the session, according to presidential spokesperson Ko Min-jung.Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo and National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon joined the meeting, along with some other officials in charge of national security.They "assessed the background and intention of the launch," she said, adding the national crisis management center is keeping close tabs on related situations.Currently, Ko

May 4, 2019
Cheong Wa Dae concerned about North Korea's breach of inter-Korean military deal

Trump urges Putin to keep pressure on Pyongyang

This combination of file photos created on January 16, 2017, shows US President-elect Donald Trump on December 16, 2016 in Orlando, Florida and Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 19, 2016 in Berlin. AFP-YonhapU.S. President Donald Trump urged Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to help keep pressure on North Korea until it dismantles its nuclear weapons program, Trump's spokeswoman said.The two leaders spoke by phone and discussed nuclear agreements, trade, and the political situations in North Korea, Ukraine and Venezuela, according to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders."They spoke about North Korea for a good bit of time on the call and reiterated both the commitment and the need for denuclearization," Sanders told reporters at the White House."And the president said several times on this front as well the need and importance of Russia stepping up and continuing to help and put pressure on North Korea to denuclearize," she said. "And that was again the focus of the president's comment on that front."Putin held his first summit with North Korean leader Kim Jon

May 4, 2019

US detainee's mother calls for continued pressure on Pyongyang

Cindy Warmbier, mother of late US prisoner in North Korea Otto Warmbier, speaks at a seminar on North Korean abductees in Washington, DC, on May 3, 2019. AFP-YonhapThe mother of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who died in 2017 after being detained in North Korea, made a plea Friday for continued pressure on the regime.Cindy Warmbier spoke at a seminar alongside family members of South Korean, Japanese and U.S. citizens who are believed to have been abducted by North Korea in past decades."Unless we keep the pressure on North Korea, they are not going to change," she said at the event co-hosted by the Hudson Institute, the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, and the Japanese government."I am very afraid that we're going to let up on this pressure. So I need everyone here to keep the pressure on everybody you can. There are still a lot of families here that deserve to see their family members," she said.Cindy Warmbier, mother of late US prisoner in North Korea Otto Warmbier, speaks at a seminar on North Korean abductees in Washington, DC, on May 3, 2019. AFP-YonhapThe

May 4, 2019
US detainee's mother calls for continued pressure on Pyongyang
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