North Korea dismantling missile site to seek breakthrough Satellite image courtesy of Airbus Defense and Space and 38 North obtained July 23 shows the apparent dismantling of facilities at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, North Korea. North Korea appears to have started dismantling key facilities at a rocket-engine test center, a group of experts said, potentially marking a significant step after last month's summit between Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump. AFP By Kim Bo-eun North Korea has begun to dismantle key facilities at its Sohae Satellite Launching Station, its first tangible step toward denuclearization since leader Kim Jong-un made that pledge at his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, June 12.Trump said after the summit that North Korea would shut down the site, also known as the Tongchang-ri missile test site.The move is expected to serve as an impetus in North Korea’s denuclearization talks with the U.S. that appeared to have been stalled in the past weeks.According to U.S. monitoring group 38 North, Monday (local time), satellite images showed Pyongyang was dismantling its rail-mounted processiJul 24, 2018
N. Korea demands probe into restaurant workers' defection By Yi Whan-wooNorth Korea's state-run media outlets are insisting on opening an investigation into a claim that 12 North Korean waitresses in China were kidnapped by South Korea in 2016.They are also asking for the punishment of those responsible for plotting the abduction and producing propaganda that the restaurant workers defected to the South en masse.They reiterated Pyongyang's call to repatriate the waitresses and warned that any failure could “result in obstacles” for a reunion of separated families planned from Aug. 20 to 26.The status of the North Korean waitresses have been hotly debated, especially since May when their male manager revealed that he tricked them into going to the South at the bidding of the National Intelligence Service.The incident took place under the conservative Park Geun-hye administration. The Moon Jae-in government maintains the view that the 12 young women defected of their own free will and rules out their family members' claim that they were forcibly taken to the South.The debate apparently embarrassed the South that had accused the NoJul 22, 2018
INTERVIEW 'North Korea needs economic reform to survive' North's economy suffers worst performance in 20 yearsBy Kim Jae-kyoungNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-un should pursue economic reforms to rehabilitate the isolated country's moribund economy, according to William Brown, a Washington-based North Korea expert, Sunday.He believes that without proper reforms, the North won't be able to get its economy back on track even if it gets sanctions relief for giving up its nuclear weapons.William Brown“For Kim to realize his prosperity, much more than ending sanctions will be required,” Brown, adjunct professor at Georgetown School of Foreign Service, said in a recent interview.“Economic reforms are clearly the only answer. I would say Chinese-style economic reforms need to get started and Trump can help that very positive process along.”In a highly visible way Kim has promised his people economic progress in the face of severely damaging sanctions.?Brown's advice came as the Bank of Korea (BOK) announced Friday that the North's gross domestic product (GDP), the total value of all the goods and services produced in a countrJul 22, 2018
US presses China and Russia to enforce sanctions on North Korea The United States on Friday welcomed the U.N. Security Council's united support for the fully verified denuclearization of North Korea and pressed China and Russia to strictly enforce U.N. sanctions to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused North Korea of violating an array of tough sanctions imposed by the council. He warned that ``when sanctions are not enforced, the prospects for the successful denuclearization of North Korea are diminished.''Nonetheless, Pompeo told reporters after meeting behind closed doors with the 15 council members that President Donald Trump ``remains upbeat about the prospects for denuclearization'' following his historic summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. ``So do I, as progress is happening,'' he added without elaborating.The Trump administration hopes that one day North Korea will be at the United Nations ``not as a pariah but as a friend,'' Pompeo said. But ``it will take full enforcement of sanctions for us to get there'' as well as Kim following through ``on his personal commitmeJul 21, 2018
S. Korean foreign minister vows to see N.K. denuclearization through South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said Friday she seeks to ensure North Korea delivers on its promise to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.Kang was in New York to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and member states of the U.N. Security Council over the latest developments since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made a commitment earlier this year during his summits with the South Korean and U.S. presidents to the "complete denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula.Kang and Pompeo held talks at the South Korean mission to the U.N. before providing a joint briefing to representatives from the 15 member states of the U.N. Security Council.The minister reminded reporters ahead of the meetings that North Korea has repeatedly made a "clear commitment" on complete denuclearization, including during last month's summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump."We will hold them up to that commitment," she said.Kang and Pompeo last met in Tokyo early this month after the top U.S. diplomat visited Pyongyang to seek more detailed commitments regarding the summit agreJul 21, 2018
Koreas begin inspections to connect railways Officials of South and North Korea check the condition of tracks at Kamho Station in the North, Friday. / Courtesy of Unification Ministry By Kim Bo-eunSouth and North Korean officials inspected a section of the railway along the North's east coast, Friday, as the first measure following an agreement to modernize the North's railroads and reconnect the lines between the two Koreas. A South Korean delegation of 15 officials led by a senior transport ministry official went to the North to examine a railroad section between the Mount Geumgang area and the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), eventually to connect the railway with the South. Seven North Korean officials joined the inspectionThey inspected Kamho, Samilpo and Mount Geumgang stations and found that the roadbed and tracks were in good condition.A joint study team also held their first meeting.Next Tuesday the Koreas will check the railway from the North's city of Gaeseong to the MDL along the west coast.Within Jul 20, 2018
North Korea may link defector issue with family reunion Korean Red Cross President Park Kyung-seo, right, shakes hands with Pak Yong-il, vice chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, at a hotel on Mount Geumgang, North Korea, June 22, at the beginning of Red Cross talks for reunions of families separated by the Korean War. / Joint Press CorpsBy Park Ji-wonThe issue of North Korean restaurant workers' 2016 defection to the South is likely to become a major hindrance in inter-Korean relations, after Pyongyang hinted at cancelling planned reunions of separated families in August if Seoul does not return them. Uriminzokkiri, an external North Korean propaganda website, criticized the Moon Jae-in government's lukewarm reaction to the issue Friday, citing recent testimony that said the defection was orchestrated by South Korea's spy agency.The criticism follows a recent press briefing by United Nations Special Rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana that some of the 12 workers at a North Korean restaurant in China did not know they were being taken to South Korea. The manager of the restaurant also said in a recent intJul 20, 2018
North Korea's media ramp up calls for repatriation of 12 restaurant workers North Korea's media on Friday ramped up their calls for South Korea to repatriate its restaurant workers who defected here years ago, saying that any delay in resolving the issue could negatively affect inter-Korean relations.Twelve North Korean women had been working at a restaurant in the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo and came to the South in April 2016. The group defection has been causing controversy amid claims that some of them were duped into coming to the South."If our female citizens' repatriation issue is not resolved as quickly as possible, it could serve as an obstacle not just to the planned reunions of separated families between the two Koreas but also to the overall inter-Korean relations," said Uriminzokkiri, the North's external propaganda website.The website claimed that those workers were coerced into the South and sending them back would be a "touchstone" by which the Seoul government's commitment to carrying out the April inter-Korean summit agreement can be tested."We will closely watch what action the South Korean government will take," it said.Meari, another Jul 20, 2018
UN diplomats: Russia and China block US on North Korea oil In this file photo taken on July 21, 2017, a petrol pump attendant fills up a taxi with gasoline at a fuel station in Pyongyang. Russia and China on July 19, 2018, asked for more time to consider a request from the U.S. to the UN Security Council to halt all deliveries of refined oil products to North Korea, U.S. diplomats said. The U.S. asked a UN sanctions committee last week to ban further shipments after accusing North Korea of exceeding a UN cap on the fuel deliveries through illegal imports. AFPRussia and China blocked the United States on Thursday from getting the United Nations to publicly accuse North Korea of smuggling in refined petroleum products beyond the annual quota of 500,000 barrels allowed under U.N. sanctions, diplomats said.The Russians and Chinese, who are key suppliers of petroleum products to North Korea, said they needed more time to examine the U.S. allegations, the diplomats said.Last week, the U.S. asked the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against North Korea to send a letter to U.N. member states and the general public saying North Korea hJul 20, 2018
Modern slavery most prevalent in North Korea YonhapNorth Korea and Eritrea have the world's highest rates of modern slavery, said a global survey on Thursday that highlighted how conflict and government repression are the main drivers of a crime estimated to affect more than 40 million people worldwide.The Central African nation of Burundi also has a high prevalence of slavery, according to the 2018 Global Slavery Index published by the human rights group Walk Free Foundation."Each of these three countries has state-sponsored forced labor, where their government puts its own people to work for its own benefit," said Fiona David, research chair of Minderoo Foundation, which led the data collection.More than 40 million people were enslaved around the world as of 2016, according to an estimate by the Walk Free Foundation and the United Nations' International Labour Organization (ILO).India was home to the largest total number with an estimated 8 million slaves among its 1.3 billion population, according to Walk Free's 2018 calculation.Two years ago, the index showed 18.3 million people living in modern slavery in India. The differJul 20, 2018
