North Korean media remaining silent on Trump summit Capella Hotel, on the resort island of Sentosa, Singapore, where U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are supposed to meet on June 12 / YonhapBy Choi Ha-youngNorth Korean state-run media outlets have kept mum for over 10 days about the planned summit between their leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump which is slated for June 12, possibly out of uncertainty about its denuclearization initiatives. Pyongyang's main newspaper Rodong Sinmun briefly mentioned the summit on the front page of the paper, May 26. Afterward, however, the paper as well as state-run Korean Central News Agency stopped reporting on the summit, including North Korean envoy Kim Yong-chol's four-day Washington visit. This is in contrast with Western media outlets that are closely chasing the progress of the preparations for the summit. The U.S. government also confirmed the summit schedule, saying the two leaders will meet at the Capella Hotel on the resort island of Sentosa, Singapore, at 9 a.m. local time. Regarding this move, experts said the Kim regime is being cautious aboJun 7, 2018
Air China's Pyongyang flights back in service Air China resumed flights to Pyongyang on Wednesday after the service was suspended in November 2017. Wikimedia CommonsBy Grace Lee, Oh Young-jin Air China has resumed flights between Beijing and Pyongyang after stopping the service last November. The suspension came after China supported what was called the toughest sanctions by the United Nations against North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The North relies on China for most of its imports and exports. The service resumed following two meetings this year between the North's leader Kim Jong-un and China's President Xi Jinping. Air China's medium-haul Boeing 737-700s fly the route Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons for fares as low as 1,770 yuan (about 300,000 won).Grace Lee is an intern.Jun 7, 2018
Two Koreas to unite for East Asian competition South Korea's Jeong Gyeong-mi, right, and North Korean Sol Kyong compete in the women's half-heavyweight judo event in the 2014 Incheon Asian Game on Sep. 22. Korea Times fileSouth Korea and North Korea will form a joint judo team to compete in an upcoming East Asian competition, Seoul's judo governing body said Thursday. The Korea Judo Association (KJA) said the two sides agreed to field a unified team at the 11th East Asian Judo Championships, although details need to be further discussed. The East Asian Judo Championships will be held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from Saturday to Sunday, featuring eight nations, including Japan and China. The KJA said the South will send college judokas selected by the Korea University Judo Federation to the East Asian Judo Championships. "Our team departed for Mongolia today," the KJA said. "Once they arrive, we'll talk with North Koreans and finish discussions on the joint team and will compete in the tournament." The KJA said Mongolian organizers and officials from East Asian judo body first proposed idea of forming a joint Korean team in this yeaJun 7, 2018
Opposition leader says Trump should walk away if North Korea rejects CVID The main opposition Liberty Korea Party chairman Hong Joon-pyo encourages people in Buk-gu, Pohang in North Gyeongsang Province, June 1, to vote for his party in the local elections on June 13. YonhapThe chief of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) said Thursday that the United States should pull out of next week's summit with North Korea if Pyongyang does not agree to complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization (CVID). Hong Joon-pyo, the party chairman, also objected to a possible declaration of an end to the 1950-53 Korean War when U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un hold a summit on June 12 in Singapore. "If any moderate deal provides North Korea with assistance, there is a risk that Pyongyang would advance its nuclear and missile programs, posing a threat (to the Korean Peninsula)," Hong said in a press conference with foreign correspondents in Seoul. Hong's conservative party takes a hard-line stance toward the North, calling North Korea's recent olive branch a "fake peace show." He said that a declaration of an end to the war shoJun 7, 2018
China blocks online searches insulting Kim Jong-un North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un during a meeting with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at Kumsusan Palace of the Sun. TASS-YonhapChina has completely blocked Internet searches for words and articles that could be used to insult North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, sources here said Thursday, reflecting warming bilateral relations between the two countries. Besides the alleged online censorship, Beijing's authorities have also been prodding state-controlled Chinese media to run as many articles favorable to the North and Kim as possible, said the sources. China's alleged moves to suppress negative public opinion towards Kim come as Beijing strives to restore relations with Pyongyang after the North Korean leader's two recent summit meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The sources said Chinese expression "Jin San Pang," which means "Kim Fatty the Third," a nickname used to poke fun at Kim's status, has completely disappeared from Baidu, China's largest portal site. Until early this year, searches for Jin San Pang had produced several dozen posts and articles. "When bJun 7, 2018
Seoul denies inter-Korean liaison office related to Gaesong Industrial Complex Gaesong Industrial Park Support Center in Gaesong, North Hwanghae Province in North Korea / Korea Times fileSouth Korea on Thursday denied that a liaison office that the two Koreas agreed to open in the North's border town of Gaesong is related to a possible resumption of the long-suspended operation of a joint economic complex there. The two Koreas agreed last week to open a liaison office in Gaesong "at an early date" in a bid to establish a key communication channel in preparation for increasing cross-border exchanges going forward. It is seen as a first step to implement promises their leaders made in the historic April and May summits but raised speculation that the move might be a precursor to the resumption of the suspended joint industrial park in the same city. "The opening of the liaison office is not related to the matter of whether to resume the Gaesong industrial park," a unification ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity. Gaesong is the western border city in the North where the two Koreas have operated a joint industrial complex since 2004. It was hJun 7, 2018
Bolton to be in Singapore for US-North Korea summit U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, and National Security Advisor John Bolton applaud as President Donald Trump presents the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy to the U.S. Military Academy football team in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, May 1. REUTERS-YonhapU.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton will be in Singapore for next week's highly anticipated summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, a White House official said Wednesday. Bolton has been a target of North Korean anger since he called for applying a so-called Libya model to the dismantlement of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. That means removing all nuclear weapons and related facilities from the North before rewarding the regime with economic benefits. Pyongyang threatened to cancel the June 12 summit over the remarks and later singled out U.S. Vice President Mike Pence for suggesting North Korea could meet the same fate as Libya's collapsed regime if it failed to denuclearize. In response to a query from Yonhap, a White House National Security Council officialJun 7, 2018
Kim Jong-un 'begged for summit on hands and knees': Giuliani In this photo taken on Nov. 20, 2016, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani stands with then president-elect Donald Trump before their meeting at Trump International Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. / AFP-YonhapNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-un got on his hands and knees to beg for the reinstatement of a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, the latter's attorney said Wednesday. Rudy Giuliani made the remark at a business conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, with six days to go before the highly anticipated summit in Singapore. "Kim Jong-un got back on his hands and knees and begged for it, which is exactly the position you want to put him in," Giuliani said, according to an AP transcript. The former New York mayor was referring to when Trump canceled the summit last month in response to provocative North Korean statements. "That's what has to happen with the Palestinian Authority," he said. "They have to be seeking peace. They have got to change the dynamic and put the pressure on them." Trump reinstated the summit last Friday after meeting with a North Korean envoy at the WhiteJun 7, 2018
Trump mulls inviting Kim Jong-un to his golf resort in Florida U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a working lunch with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida on April 18, 2018. / AFPBy Ko Dong-hwanThe U.S. President Donald Trump may invite North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to his Florida compound Mar-a-lago, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.Trump, after the scheduled Washington-Pyongyang summit in Singapore on June 12, may consider inviting Kim to the Palm Beach Resort in Florida for a follow-up summit. The follow-up summit, possible if the June summit turns out positive, could happen in fall, the report said citing an unnamed U.S. official.Trump has invited other foreign leaders to what he refers to as “the winter White House” or “Southern White House” even before he became the president. After becoming the president, he has hosted two world leaders ― Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Before becoming the president, he had invited celebrities to Mar-a-Lago, including Newlyweds Michael Jackson and wife Lisa Marie Presley, Elton John and WoodyJun 7, 2018
Koreans living in Japan without nationality Zainichi Korean Kim Song-ran, right, poses at a Zainichi school reunion commemorating the 70th anniversary of Fukushima Korean School's foundation. / Courtesy of Kim Song-rang'Chosen-seki' hate to be called South or North Koreans; they want unificationBy Park Ji-wonAs related countries move quickly toward the June 12 summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore with the aim of denuclearizing the North and possibly declaring an end to the 1950-53 Korean War, there is one group that for decades has hoped to see a unified Korean Peninsula.They are ethnic Koreans living in Japan, known as “Zainichi Koreans,” especially those who choose to live without a passport, hoping to see the two Koreas reunite. The word Zainichi refers to the ethnic Korean community that arrived in Japan during the 1910-45 occupation of Korea and stayed on after Japan's defeat in World War II. As years passed and bilateral ties between Seoul and Tokyo were forged, the Zainichi largely split into two groups depending on their historical backgrounds: permanenJun 6, 2018
