Cho Myung-chul, the new chief of the Education Center for Unification, the highest government post to be taken by a North Korean defector, talks in a recent interview with The Korea Herald. (Ahn Hoon/The Korea Herald)Defector-turned-official vows to emphasize the positive side of unificationRegardless of the amount of effort South Korea makes to engage its northern rival in talks and reconciliatio

The new chief of the conservative ruling party said Tuesday his party would seek to ratify the free trade deal with Washington and pass the North Korean human rights law next month regardless of opposition from rival parties. Hong Joon-pyo, who was elected the new chairman of the Grand National Party, presided over his first Supreme Council meeting Tuesday, vowing to achieve harmony between differ

Members of the Grand National Party’s new leadership, including chairman Hong Joon-pyo (second from left, front row), visit the national cemetery in Seoul on Tuesday, a day after the party convention. (Yonhap News)The recent election of Hong Joon-pyo, a non-mainstream lawmaker close to President Lee Myung-bak’s in-house rival, as the new ruling party leader may make Lee an early lame duck, politic

A base for South Korean aid workers and troops in Afghanistan was attacked by rockets again over the weekend, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday in the 11th such report in this year alone. Two rounds of rocket-propelled grenades landed on the ground near the provincial reconstruction team camp in Charika, a city in the northern Afghan province of Parwan, at around 9:08 p.m. Saturday (local time)

A Korea-U.S. team will announce this week an interim report on the results of a ground-pollution probe into an American army base here, where U.S. veterans claim their unit buried tons of toxic chemical in 1978.The joint team said it will unveil the probe results during a Status of Forces Agreement environment committee session on this coming Wednesday or Thursday. The team has been conducting inv

Media office may lead to increased U.S.-North Korea exchangesThe Associated Press said it signed an agreement with Pyongyang on Thursday to become the first Western media to open a permanent news bureau in the reclusive state, a move that may lead to increased Washington-North Korea exchanges. The memorandum of understanding agreed by the AP and the North’s official Korean Central News Agency “wou

The two Koreas held a rare meeting over a stalled joint tourism project at the North’s mountain resort, but little was discussed due to North Korean officials’ careless attitude, Seoul officials said Wednesday.Twelve government officials and company representatives from Seoul returned to the South Korean side, crossing the heavily fortified border Wednesday afternoon after holding brief talks with

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is expected to visit Russia this week for a summit with President Dmitry Medvedev, Japanese news media reported Tuesday, drawing attention to the much-veiled meeting. The two former ally states are putting final touches to the summit slated for Friday in Vladivostok, Tokyo’s Mainichi Shimbun said, quoting multiple intelligence sources in Moscow.Kyodo news service sa

Red Cross officials of the two Koreas are expected to meet for the first time in nearly four months at an international meeting in China in July, a Seoul official said Tuesday. The two Koreas, who have not been talking since their last round of Red Cross talks in March, will send delegations to the “East Asian regional Red Cross leadership meeting” which will be held in China’s Ordos City from Jul

A senior South Korean official said Monday his government could temporarily put sensitive issues behind it once the stalled dialogue with North Korea resumes, hinting at growing flexibility to tackle the current stalemate. Since the latest attacks last year, Seoul has suspended aid and dialogue, with firm determination not to do the North any favors until it admits responsibility for the deaths of

North Korea may have developed a “super-EMP” weapon capable of emitting more gamma radiation than a 25-megaton nuclear weapon, a former CIA nuclear weapons analyst was quoted as saying by a U.S.-funded radio station Friday. Peter Vincent Pry told the Voice of America that a group of Russian nuclear weapons scientists approached him in 2004 to warn the U.S. that the technology to make the electroma

Through the late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung’s reconciliatory ideals, Seoul and Washington should work together on achieving a reunified, peaceful Korean Peninsula, U.S. Ambassador Kathleen Stephens said during a recent Memorial Day ceremony. Stephens published on her weblog the speech she gave at a national park in Jindo on June 6 Memorial Day. “On this Memorial Day … we honor the memory

South Korea said Thursday it is working on establishing a state-run open source-based center to consolidate scattered information on its reclusive northern rival. The purported center, which will be fully open to government officials as well as the general public here, will gather and organize information that has already been made public by the media and international agencies, an official at the

Meth floods Yanji, Jilin province fueled by border transients: NewsweekWhile cautious not to make the case official for the sake of ties with its longstanding ally, China is becoming impatient with the increasing amount of illegal drugs flowing in from North Korea, according to a U.S. weekly magazine. Over the past decade, methamphetamine ― also known as crystal meth or ice because of its flaky cr

South Korea is likely to discuss with companies this week how to deal with North Korea’s request that Seoul promptly deal with the issue of disposing its assets in the North’s scenic mountain resort. The two Koreas had launched a joint tour project at the North’s Mount Geumgang in 1998 as a symbol of reconciliation. The tours, which had been one of impoverished Pyongyang’s main sources of income,

South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan will make a congratulatory speech on the reelection of Ban Ki-moon as the U.N. secretary-general in New York on Tuesday, after which he will hold talks with U.S. officials over North Korea’s nuclear standoff, the Seoul government said. Kim left for New York on Monday, four days ahead of his scheduled meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,

South Korea hailed the reelection of Ban Ki-moon as the U.N. Secretary-General over the weekend, as the Security Council cleared the South Korean diplomat of his last barricade in heading the international body for another five years. Following the council’s approval, the 192-member General Assembly will hold a definitive vote this week. The 67-year-old diplomat is certain to win a second term as

South Korea is easing its previous stance that it will not resume any kind of dialogue with North Korea until Pyongyang apologizes for last year’s deadly attacks, Seoul officials said Sunday. The two Koreas, still technically at war, have had their frostiest ties in decades since the North conducted two naval attacks that killed 50 South Koreans.Since the last attack in November, Seoul has suspend

Pyongyang has been upping threats in response to the South Korean government’s move to enact laws aimed at improving human rights conditions in the North. On its website, operated for propaganda purposes, the reclusive Pyongyang regime warned “sure and clear punishment” should Seoul enact the controversial set of laws. South Korea’s right-wing Lee Myung-bak administration and the ruling party have

Nine North Koreans who crossed the tense western sea border on a small engineless vessel over the weekend for apparent defection are being questioned by South Korean officials, the Seoul government said Wednesday. The nine people, including family members, arrived on a frontline South Korean island around 6 a.m. Saturday, and are seeking asylum in the wealthier South, a government source said on c