Regional powers likely to increase small-scale contactThe six partners of the stalled regional dialogue aimed at denuclearizing North Korea are expected increase small-scale contact in the following weeks after Washington and Pyongyang made a breakthrough in their recent talks, analysts and officials here said Sunday. Two days of rare talks between the U.S. and North Korea ― the first in 19 months

Japanese lawmakers are expected to go ahead with their planned trip to an island near South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo on Monday, upping tensions as the Seoul government plans to ban them from entry. Despite South Korea’s official announcement that it will bar the Tokyo politicians from entering its land, three lawmakers of Japan’s opposition Liberal Democratic Party said they would go ah

South Korea said Thursday it will ban two Japanese lawmakers from visiting an island near the country’s easternmost islets of Dokdo, a move that has been rekindling criticism over Tokyo’s longstanding territorial claims. Four lawmakers of Japan’s opposition Liberal Democratic Party said last week they plan to visit the island Ulleungdo on Aug. 1 to see for themselves “how South Koreans feel” about

Seoulites must be prepared for more rain through Friday, with the weather agency forecasting some 150 millimeters of rainfall in the central region. Rain will continue in central parts of the peninsula through Friday afternoon with the rain front moving southward later that day, the Korea Meteorological Administration said.  A section of the Olympic Expressway and parts of a riverside park near Ha

South Korea is considering sending anti-malaria supplies to North Korea, an aid group here said Wednesday, indicating Seoul’s softening stance toward its northern rival.The Seoul government is positively considering the group’s request to approve sending two items of ultrasonic diagnostic equipment to the North, the Korean Sharing Movement said. Charity groups here need government approval to send

Ieodo is not a disputed territory and both South Korea and China are aware that this submerged rock in the East China Sea cannot be claimed by either side, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. The ministry unofficially announced its position as news reports unveiled China had recently renewed its territorial claim over Ieodo by demanding South Korea halt its work to hoist a sunken commercial s

North Korean envoy Kim leaves for New York, expected to hold talks ThursdayWhile South Korea and the U.S. are seemingly very much together in dealing with North Korea patiently, the allies may find themselves in different positions after the upcoming Pyongyang-Washington talks, analysts and officials here said Tuesday. Pyongyang’s First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan reportedly left for New Yo

Police said Friday they are currently investigating telephone calls made between a reporter and politician related to the alleged bugging of a Democratic Party meeting. “We are currently looking into telephone calls made by the reporter, politician and his aides to verify whether they shared information over the alleged bugging,” an officer at the Yeongdeungpo Police Station in Seoul said Friday.

‘Chance of North’s News analysis communication with S. Korean media slim’North Korea’s recent gesture to open its doors wider to Western media indicates the reclusive state’s dilemma of wanting to escape international isolation while keeping its people marooned, analysts and officials here say. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency recently signed agreements with the New York-based Ass

North Korea’s imports of luxury goods from China almost doubled in a year, a report from China showed Wednesday, indicating the ongoing shopping spree by the elite class of the reclusive regime even as its people are supposedly dying of hunger. According to Beijing customs, quoted by Seoul officials, the total volume of trade between Pyongyang and its last-remaining ally and economic benefactor su

Foreign minister warns Tokyo to end Korean Air boycott over DokdoJapan has more to lose than gain from its recent boycott against South Korea’s main airline, as such a move is far from enough to undermine South Korea’s sovereignty over Dokdo islets or Korean Air’s business, the Foreign Ministry here said Tuesday. Last week, Japanese foreign minister instructed officials to refrain from using Korea

Official says Seoul will not highlight N. Korea’s attacks in chairman’s statementAn unofficial meeting between top diplomats of the two Koreas during a regional security forum this week may pave the way for the resumption of long-stalled official dialogue between the countries, officials and analysts said Monday. South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan will visit Indonesia from Thursday to att

North Korea reported deaths and damage to farmland and homes from heavy rain, sparking concerns as the communist state is already struggling to overcome chronic food shortages that were deepened by floods last year. Downpours hit several provinces from July 12-15, “leaving dwelling houses, public buildings and roads destroyed and causing casualties,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency

Starving North Koreans have been conducting aggressive campaigns to deliver rice to their 1.2 million-strong active military, the South Korean government said Sunday, as disputes continue over the conditions in the communist state. North Korean farmers vowed to “carry out active campaigns to send more rice to the military” during a July 4 assembly, the Seoul government said, quoting a recently acq

Advisory body vice chief calls for preparations for North Korea’s hard landingThe reunification of the two Koreas has an absolute, significant value that must not be undermined by rash discussions over insignificant details, according to vice chief of Seoul’s presidential advisory body on reunification. The ways and forms of reunification, such as “how much it would cost us to reunite with it can

South Korea said Tuesday it will work on gaining a non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council in 2013-14, saying it can play an important role in the body for international peace and security as a country adjoined with the nuclear-armed North Korea. The council, which currently has five permanent veto-wielding members ― the United Kingdom, China, France, Russia and the United States

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is one of the biggest contributions Korea has made to the United Nations over the past two decades, according to Gabon’s permanent representative to the U.N. Noel Nelson Messone.“It’s very important that Korea has given to the U.N. system one of its brightest, most valuable sons,” the Gabonese ambassador said in an interview with The Korea Herald as he was visiting Se

North Korea has agreed to hold talks with the South on Wednesday to settle a dispute over South Korean-owned buildings in a tourist resort in the isolated state, officials said.Korea is thus to send a team of government officials and business representatitives to the corresponding resort, according to the Unification Ministry spokesperson Chun Hae-sung.Monday, just two days before the date Pyongya

Officials clap during the ground-breaking ceremony for Hanawon, a new settlement training facility for North Korean defectors, in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, Thursday. (Yonhap News)A new resettlement facility for North Korean defectors will open late next year, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said Thursday, as ground was broken for the additional building to accommodate and train thousands of North K

The European Union will send 50 personnel fluent in Korean to North Korea soon to tighten the monitoring of the donated food there, a U.S.-funded radio station reported Wednesday. The plan comes as the EU announced earlier this week it will send food aid worth 10 million euros, or $14.5 million, to North Korea to feed the starving people. The first batch of food will be distributed in four of Nort