Two Koreas to hold working-level talks to prepare Moon-Kim summit Officials from South and North Korea were set to meet in the border village of Panmunjom on Friday to discuss details of an upcoming meeting between their leaders.The working-level dialogue comes four days before South Korean President Moon Jae-in will embark on a trip to Pyongyang for his third bilateral summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.The third Moon-Kim summit is slated to be held Tuesday through Thursday. The two leaders held their first-ever summit in Panmunjom on April 27, then again on May 26.Friday's meeting was largely aimed at discussing Moon's itinerary, along with the sequence of events to be held that will likely include a welcome dinner hosted by Kim.It may also decide the list of South Korean delegates to visit the communist state.Seoul has said the sides have agreed to keep the total number of South Korean visitors to under 200.Already, several top political and business leaders are said to have found berths in the list. They include Lee Hae-chan, a former prime minister who was recently elected the chief of the ruling Democratic Party, and Lee Jae-yong, deSep 14, 2018
Inter-Korean liaison office opens in Gaesong South and North Korea launched their joint liaison office on Friday, securing a platform for round-the-clock communication that is expected to help foster cross-border exchange and ease tensions.The liaison office was launched in the North's border town of Kaesong, with around 50 people each from the two Koreas attending the opening ceremony.The move is a follow-up on an agreement that the leaders of the two Koreas reached in their April summit to run such an office on hopes that the office will serve as a communication channel to help facilitate inter-Korean cooperation on various fronts. "The inter-Korean joint liaison office is a channel for round-the-clock communication in the new era of peace," South Korea's Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said in a congratulatory speech. "From today, South and North Korea can have direct consultations 24 hours a day and 365 days a year over issues relating to advances in inter-Korean relations, peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula," he added.South Korea will station around 20 officials there, while the North will deploy 15-20 officSep 14, 2018
US looking at Pyongyang for possible November election meddling U.S. President Donald Trump gestures after speaking during the Congressional Medal of Honor Society reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, September 12, 2018. Trump ordered on the day the government to prepare sanctions against any foreign country that interferes with U.S. congressional elections in November. UPI-YonhapThe United States is monitoring North Korea, among other nations, for possible interference in the U.S. midterm elections in November, senior administration officials said Wednesday.U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order the same day to allow sanctions on foreign governments or their agents for interference in U.S. elections.The action is mainly aimed at addressing concerns following Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential race."We have seen signs of not just Russia, but from China, of capabilities, potentially from Iran and even North Korea," Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said in a telephone briefing with reporters. "So the others do incorporate ― it's more than Russia here that we'rSep 13, 2018
Two Koreas hold working-level military talks An undated file photo released by the North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the state news agency of North Korea, shows an 'underwater test-fire of strategic submarine ballistic missile' conducted at an undisclosed location in North Korea (reissued 06 March 2017). Korea Times fileThe two Koreas held working-level military talks Thursday to discuss details of a comprehensive agreement to flesh out the military part of their April summit accord aimed at reducing border tensions and building mutual trust.The meeting began at 10 a.m. at Tongilgak, a North Korea-controlled building in the truce village of Panmunjom within the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas. Pyongyang recently made the proposal for the talks, which Seoul accepted later.Army Col. Cho Yong-geun leads South Korea's three-member delegation, while the North's side is led by Col. Om Chang-nam."We will have discussions related to the agreement on the military part (of the summit accord)," Cho told Yonhap News Agency before the talks. The two sides are expected to discuss a series of issues, such as withdrawSep 13, 2018By Ko Dong-hwan
Inter-Korean summit on steady course despite delayed preparation meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (R) and Li Zhanshu (L), China's third highest ranking official, wave to the crowd during a parade celebrating the North Korea's National Day and the 70th anniversary of its Foundation in Pyongyang, North Korea, 09 September 2018. TASS-YonhapPreparations are being made for the upcoming inter-Korean summit despite a delay in a proposed working-level meeting between the two sides, officials in Seoul said Thursday.South Korean President Moon Jae-in is set to visit Pyongyang from Tuesday through next Thursday for what would be his third bilateral meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.The leaders earlier met on April 27 and May 26 in the border village of Panmunjom that sits directly on the inter-Korean border.The two Koreas earlier agreed to meet early this week to discuss details of the third Moon-Kim summit.North Korea, however, remains silent on a South Korean proposal to hold such a meeting in Panmunjom since the start of this week, according to officials from the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae."We have not yet received any replies from North Sep 13, 2018
Inter-Korean liaison office opens in Gaeseong By Kim Bo-eunThe much-awaited inter-Korean liaison office will open Friday in the North Korean city of Gaeseong, the Ministry of Unification said Wednesday.The office will house resident representatives at the now-closed joint industrial complex ahead of the upcoming summit between the leaders of the two Koreas in the North's capital of Pyongyang, from September 18 to 20.The unification ministry said the office will become the first channel enabling around the clock contact between the two Koreas.“We are hoping that through this communication, we will be able to stably manage inter-Korean relations, and this will contribute to bringing progress in the denuclearization talks between North Korea and the U.S.,” ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said in a media briefing. The opening of the office comes as Seoul extends its engagement with Pyongyang. While some say there appears to be a widening “rift” between Washington and Seoul over specifics on how to achieve the North's denuclearization, the foreign ministry said Tuesday that the office is a result of consultatSep 12, 2018By Kim Bo-eun
North's hospitality aimed to solidify relations with China North Korea leader Kim Jong-un, center, waves as he stands beside China's Li Zhanshu, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, during a Mass Games artistic and gymnastic performance at the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in Pyongyang, Sunday. / AFP-YonhapBy Park Ji-wonThe arrangements of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's exclusive banquet and performance for Chinese President Xi Jinping's special envoy to North Korea was likely part of the North's intention to solidify independent relations with China amid a fast-changing diplomatic landscape on the Korean Peninsula, critics say.Li Zhanshu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China, led an envoy to the North to participate in the North's 70th founding anniversary on Sept. 9 and returned to China, Tuesday. The anniversary is one of the most important events for the isolated country as it offers a chance for the country to attract public awareness domestically and internationally, part of moves to win diplomatic leverage as well as tourist cash.During the visit, Sep 12, 2018By Park Ji-won
11 million North Koreans suffer from malnutrition: UN report North Korean women pour water onto a dry rice paddy in this 2017 photo. Korea Times fileBy Jung Da-min, Park Si-soo Nearly 43 percent of North Korean people (11 million) are suffering a chronic food shortage and ensuing malnutrition, a report by five U.N. agencies showed on Tuesday.It was a 2.6 million increase from 10 years ago, the report said, reflecting the North's continuing food insecurity. A major culprit behind these calamities is raging climate extremes in recent years, coupled with natural disasters that wreaked havoc on the North's grain fields. International sanctions were considered another factor.The report is titled “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World: Building Climate Resilience for Food Security and Nutrition.” The U.N. agencies involved are the World Health Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the World Food Program, the U.N. Children's Fund and the Food and Agriculture Organization. “Analysis in the report shows that the prevalence and number of undernourished people tend to be higher in countries hSep 12, 2018
Obama mulled preemptive attack on North Korea: book Former U.S. President Barack Obama mulled a preemptive attack on North Korea after its fifth nuclear test in 2016, according to a book released Tuesday.Obama was deeply disturbed to learn that North Korea had conducted its biggest-yet nuclear detonation on Sept. 9, 2016, with the North claiming the new nuclear bomb could be mounted on a ballistic missile, journalist Bob Woodward wrote in "Fear: Trump in the White House.""Even with his intense desire to avoid a war, Obama decided the time had come to consider whether the North Korean nuclear threat could be eliminated in a surgical military strike," the book claims."The North Korean threat had not been diminished, and in September 2016 Obama posed a sensitive question to his National Security Council: Was it possible to launch a preemptive military strike, supported by cyber attacks, on North Korea to take out their nuclear and missile programs?" it continues.Woodward's account of the internal deliberations of the Trump White House has raised a storm in Washington, with the president bashing the book as "fake."The Obama anecdote indicSep 12, 2018
Putin says 'Normalization of US-North Korea ties is vital for peace' Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a roundtable meeting on interregional cooperation between Russia and China following the Russian-Chinese talks on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on September 11, 2018. AFPRussian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that it was vital for peace on the KoreanPeninsula that the United States and North Korea normalized their troubled relationship. Putin was speaking at a news conference in the port city of Vladivostok after holding talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The White House said on Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump had received a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un asking for a second meeting. (Reuters)Sep 11, 2018
