South Korea 'reevaluates' opening of inter-Korean liaison office South Korea will re-evaluate the opening of a joint liaison office with North Korea, a presidential official said Monday, indicating a possible delay amid an apparent stumbling block in U.S.-North Korea talks on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions.The remarks came three days after U.S. President Donald Trump called off a scheduled trip by his State Secretary Mike Pompeo to the communist North."The opening of the liaison office had been planned under smooth progress (in denuclearization efforts), such as Pompeo's North Korea trip and the South-North Korea summit, but we believe there is a need to once again review the issue since a new development has emerged," Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told a daily press briefing.The liaison office was earlier expected to be opened as early as this month. The proposed office comes under an agreement reached by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un when they first met in the border village of Panmunjom on April 27.Moon and Kim are set to meet again next month in Pyongyang, which will mark their third bilAug 27, 2018
North Korea expels Japanese man who had been detained North Korea has expelled a Japanese tourist who had been detained by authorities on unspecified charges, the official Korean Central News Agency said late Sunday.A two-sentence report said that Tomoyuki Sugimoto had been ``kept under control'' for questioning about ``his crime.'' It did not say what he had been accused of.Authorities decided ``to leniently condone him'' and expel him on the principle of humanitarianism, the North Korean news agency said.The Japanese government confirmed about two weeks ago that it was looking into reports that one of its citizens was being held. It has not identified him by name.Japan's Kyodo News service, citing a government source, said the man was believed to be a videographer and may have been suspected of shooting video of a military facility while on a group tour to Nampo, a western port city.The government had sought his release through the North Korean embassy in Beijing, Kyodo said. Japan does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea. (AP)Aug 27, 2018
INTERVIEW 'Medical exchanges should come first in inter-Korean exchanges' Doctors and officials from government and non-governmental organizations attend a symposium on North Korea's healthcare and medical situation at Seoul City Hall, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Jung Da-minDoctors urge medical exchanges come first in inter-Korean projectsBy Jung Da-minWhen discussing the economic outlook, many believe AI (artificial intelligence) and inter-Korean joint economic projects will be the driving forces of the Korean Peninsula's future.However, doctors and officials who have been studying North Korea's health system say cross-border medical exchanges should come before joint economic projects. Among them is Park Sang-min, a professor of family medicine at Seoul National University Hospital. During an interview with The Korea Times on Thursday, he said there are two major reasons why medical issues matter.The gap between the two KoreasBefore the 1990s, when the former Soviet republics started to collapse, medical treatment and people's health were not much different in the two Koreas.North Korea's medical situation, however, deteriorated in the 1990s as the coAug 27, 2018
Seoul still hopeful on denuclearization talks In an image captured from a tweet by Dan Scavino Jr., the White House director of social media, U.S. President Donald Trump, left and officials involved in North Korea discuss the situation in Washington, Saturday (KST). / YonhapBy Park Ji-won, Kim Yoo-chulSouth Korea is hopeful the momentum toward the North's denuclearization will be kept alive, despite U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to North Korean capital of Pyongyang being delayed.Seoul's foreign ministry said Sunday South Korea would never stop communicating with the U.S. in Seoul's quest for nuclear negotiations, regardless of the delay.Foreign Minister Kan Kyung-hwa spoke with Pompeo over the phone immediately after the decision and agreed that the allies “should work” to keep the overall circumstances of the nuclear talks “alive.”Kang said she was “sorry” for the delay because many had seen Pompeo's visit as a possible booster to get stalled negotiations on the track.Some fear the delay could weaken the role of President Moon Jae-in, who is regarded as a “hidden force and Aug 26, 2018
PHOTOS Families from South and North Koreas share dishes at reunions By Jung Da-min, Joint Press CorpsDespite 70 years of separation, people from the two Koreas seemed to share the same taste in food.At the inter-Korean family reunions held over the week ― the first round from Monday to Wednesday and the second from Friday to Sunday ― participants shared dishes from their hometowns, including kimchi and traditional teas.The menu card for a lunch box provided by the North on Saturday at a resort on Mount Geumgang reads: butter bread, kimchi, cold steamed chicken, deep-fried shrimps, stir-fried cucumber, roasted Atka mackerel, stir-fried pork and vegetables, stir-fried eggplants with oyster-seasoned soy sauce, rice wrapped in perilla leaves, Korean melons and ginseng tea. YonhapThe lunchbox delivered to family reunion rooms on Tuesday, the second day of the first round of reunions at a resort on Mount Geumgang. Rice cakes in three colors and stir-fried Geumgang mushrooms were included. YonhapFamily members share North Korean snacks during the reunion on Tuesday at a resort on Mount Geumgang. YonhapSouth Korean family members pack snacks and instantAug 26, 2018
China blasts Trump comment; Seoul regrets Pompeo trip delay In this file photo taken on November 9, 2017 shows U.S. President Donald Trump (L) and China's President Xi Jinping leaving a business leaders event at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Trump on August 24, 2018 announced the cancellation of his top diplomat's upcoming visit to North Korea, while taking a swipe at China over efforts to disarm the nuclear state. Trump says China is not 'helping' with North Korea. AFPChina on Saturday lashed out at President Donald Trump for accusing Beijing of not being supportive in efforts to denuclearize North Korea, while South Korea called the U.S. decision to call off a trip to the North by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ``unfortunate.''The reaction in Seoul and Beijing came hours after President Donald Trump directed Pompeo to delay his trip because of what he saw as a lack of progress on nuclear disarmament talks with the North. Trump also said the nuclear negotiations with North Korea have been hampered by a lack of support from China, which is the North's only major ally and is engaged in an intensifying trade dispute with the United SAug 26, 2018
Separated families from two Koreas begin 2nd day of reunions On the second day of the second round of family reunions on Aug. 25, North Koreans move to meet their South Korean family members in Mount Geumgang Resort in North Korea. YonhapAfter a tearful encounter after nearly 70 years, families from South and North Korea enjoyed more private time on the second day of their reunions Saturday. Starting at 10 a.m., 326 South Koreans from 81 families spent time with their long-lost kin residing in North Korea in their hotel rooms at the North's eastern resort of Mount Kumgang for small talks and lunch in a freer and more relaxed atmosphere. They crossed the border into the North on Friday for the first time after being separated by the 1950-53 Korean War as the second batch of families for this year's reunion event. The first round of reunions, involving 274 South Koreans, ended on Wednesday after a three-day gathering. The emotional reunions were last held in October 2015. Starting at 3 p.m on Saturday, the families plan to have a two-hour group meeting, the unification ministry said, adding that families will have dinner separately. On Sunday, tAug 25, 2018
South Korea, US vow efforts for engagement with North Korea U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pauses while speaking to members of the media following two days of meetings with Kim Yong Chol, a North Korean senior ruling party official and former intelligence chief, before boarding his plane at Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang, North Korea, July 7, 2018. REUTERS-YonhapThe top diplomats of South Korea and the United States vowed Saturday to make joint efforts to maintain the momentum for dialogue with North Korea after the cancellation of the U.S. envoy's visit to Pyongyang, the foreign ministry here said. On Friday (Washington time), U.S. President Donald Trump said in a Twitter message that he had canceled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to North Korea slated for next week, citing a lack of progress toward resolving the North's nuclear issues. Pompeo "looks forward to going to North Korea in the near future, most likely after our Trading relationship with China is resolved," Trump said, while expressing his hope for seeing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un again soon. In a telephone conversation early Saturday, Pompeo briefed SoAug 25, 2018
Elderly Koreans shut out of family reunions use backchannels In this Aug. 22, 2018, photo, Shim Goo-seob, 83, shows a photo of his family member during an interview at his office in Seoul, South Korea. Only a fraction of the elderly Koreans separated by the Korean War are able to attend the on-and-off reunions organized by their rival governments. So some South Koreans turn to unofficial networks of brokers, friends and others to correspond with their loved ones in the North. Shim said he has arranged face-to-face reunions in China among North and South Koreans via his own network of brokers and helpers. AP-YonhapKim Kyung-jae will probably never be chosen in the government lottery that would allow him to reunite one last time with his relatives in North Korea. But that's no problem, he said this week in an interview, even as a small group of the lucky South Koreans who won the lottery met with their loved ones in North Korea. The 86-year-old Kim is one of a dwindling number of elderly South Koreans who, frustrated with North Korea's reluctance to allow more frequent reunions and by the small chance that they'll be selected before they die, foAug 25, 2018
Trump calls off Pompeo's North Korea trip, blasts China President Donald Trump speaks during the 2018 Ohio Republican Party State Dinner, Friday, Aug. 24, 2018, in Columbus, Ohio. AP-YonhapU.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he has directed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to delay a planned trip to North Korea, citing insufficient progress on denuclearization.Trump put some blame on Beijing, saying he does not believe China is helping ``because of our much tougher Trading stance.''The surprise announcement appeared to mark a concession by the president to domestic and international concerns that his prior claims of world-altering progress on the peninsula had been strikingly premature.``I have asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to go to North Korea, at this time, because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,'' Trump tweeted Friday, barely two months after his June meeting with the North's Kim Jong Un in Singapore.Trump's comment followed a report issued Monday by the International Atomic Energy Agency outlining ``grave concern'' about the North's nuclear programAug 25, 2018
