South Korea did not violate international sanctions by repairing and remodeling the recently launched inter-Korean liaison office in North Korea, a Unification Ministry official said Thursday.Around 10 billion won ($8.8 million) from the Seoul government’s South-North cooperation fund was used in repairing and remodeling buildings and facilities for the liaison office that opened in the border town of Kaesong last month to bolster cross-border communication, according to an earlier report from t

The Seoul government is working to earn visitation rights for South Korean businessmen who operated factories at the now-shuttered industrial park in North Korea, an official at the Ministry of Unification said Wednesday, and the trip could come as early as next week.The government is negotiating with the North on the businessmen’s visit to the border town of Kaesong to inspect their properties, Unification Ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun told a press briefing.  Kaesong Industrial Complex (Yonh

North Korea’s state media on Tuesday reported on the inter-Korean talks on forestry cooperation, held a day earlier, without mentioning the outcome. The divided Koreas held the meeting on Monday at the recently launched joint liaison office in the North’s border town Kaesong. They agreed to work together to combat pine-tree pests between now and March, with the South providing the necessary chemicals, and to modernize a number of North Korean tree nurseries within this year.“Inter-Korean talks f

South and North Korea held talks on Monday to discuss cross-border forestry cooperation and reforestation of North Korea’s woodlands.The meeting kicked off at around 10 a.m. at the recently established joint liaison office in the North’s border town of Kaesong. Park Chong-ho, deputy minister of the Korea Forest Service, led the three-member South Korean delegation while North Korea also sent a three-member team led by Kim Song-jun, a senior official of the North‘s ministry of environmental prote

The two Koreas are likely to start a joint inspection of cross-border railways as early as this week, government officials said Sunday, in an effort to implement the agreement reached between their leaders in April. The two Koreas agreed to revive on-site surveys of the Gyeongui railway, which runs along the peninsula’s west coast, in late October and the Donghae railway along its east coast in November, at high-level talks last week held in the truce village of Panmunjom.  A section of Gyeongui

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent remarks, indicating that he hopes to meet with his North Korean counterpart “in the next week and a half or so,” without revealing details, is fueling speculation about the details of this potential meeting. “We’re working on finding dates and times and places that will work for each of the two leaders,” Pompeo told the Voice of America on Friday. “I’m very hopeful we’ll have senior leader meetings here in the next week and a half or so between myself a

Every autumn, a chunk of the population rushes to the mountains to enjoy the breathtaking hues of the fall foliage, but a number of environmentally unfriendly habits that they bring along have been polluting South Korea’s ancient slopes for more than a decade. In recent years, eating meals packed in plastic containers and drinking bottles of rice wine at the summit has become a ritual for the hikers of South Korea. Hikers climb Seoraksan or Mount Seorak in Yangyang in South Korea`s northeastern

South Korea’s unification minister is mulling a meeting with a North Korean defector group, a ministry official said Wednesday. The move is being seen as an effort to quell criticism over the minister’s decision to block a journalist who defected from the North from covering a high-level inter-Korean meeting held Monday.  South Korea's Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon(Yonhap)“A review (for the meeting) is under way among relevant offices,” ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun told a regular pres

The two Koreas have agreed to break ground for the modernization of cross-border railways and roads in late November or early December, said a statement released by South Korea’s Unification Ministry on Monday. The statement came as a result of high-level talks held Monday to discuss the implementation of the agreement reached at last month’s inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang. South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon met with Ri Son-gwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunif

The divided Koreas will hold high-level talks on Monday to discuss the implementation of the summit agreement their leaders reached last month in Pyongyang, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said Sunday. South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon will lead a five-member delegation assembled for the talks scheduled to take place on the southern side of the truce village of Panmunjom, according to the ministry. Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung, Vice Land and Transport Minister Ki

Philip Morris Korea Inc. said Thursday that it will begin selling its tobacco sticks, called Heets, produced at its factory in South Korea later this month.To this point, Philip Morris Korea imported Heets for sale in South Korea. Heets (Yonhap)Philip Morris Korea has expanded its production facility in Yangsan, the first facility in Asia to manufacture heated tobacco units for its tobacco heating device IQOS. Yangsan is a city located about 420 kilometers southeast of Seoul.The share of Heets,

The crisp cool breeze of fall brings out the colors of nature. Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, is famous for the demilitarized zone that bisects the Korean Peninsula, and heavy snow in the winter, but at a slightly warmer time of the year, beds of cosmos fill the tension-filled border lands. (Photographed by Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald)Through joint effort of Cheorwon County and its residents, the Cheorwon Cosmos 10-ri Road was born three years ago, on a strip of land that used to serve as an old

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited the mausoleum of his father, Kim Jong-il, and grandfather Kim Il-sung on the occasion of the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the country’s ruling party, the North’s state media said Thursday.Kim visited the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang and extended “deep respect and the best wishes” to the statues of the two former leaders of the communist regime, according to the Korean Central News Agency.  North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and ranking offic

Personnel from the US and international organizations are among the most likely candidates for carrying out the inspection of a North Korean nuclear site proposed by Kim Jong-un during his meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, experts say. In May, the communist nation blew up underground tunnels in Punggye-ri, its main nuclear test site, where its sixth and largest test -- which it claimed involved the successful detonation of a hydrogen bomb -- was conducted last September. It invited

South Korea‘s point man on inter-Korean affairs will visit the US next month to explain the current administration’s policy on North Korea and ease widespread skepticism over North Korea’s commitment to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon plans to meet senior US officials and scholars during his visit to Washington set for Nov. 13-17, Yonhap News Agency reported Tuesday, citing an unnamed ministry official. Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon (Yonhap)The o

South Korea has proposed holding a cross-border parliamentary meeting in November in Pyongyang and follow-up gathering next year in Seoul.The proposal was made by South Korean lawmakers who were part of the 160-member delegation that visited Pyongyang last week for the joint celebration of the 11th anniversary of the 2007 inter-Korean summit.Earlier this year, National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang had proposed to the North’s Supreme People’s Assembly that the two parliaments hold a joint meeti

A new observatory deck in the Demilitarized Zone that bisects the two Koreas will open to the public later this month, the city of Paju said Sunday.Dora Observatory, situated in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, will be officially relocated to a spot 170 meters northeast of its previous location. New Dora Observatory in Paju, Gyeonggi Province (Yonhap)The relocation process started in late 2016 with an investment of 1 billion won ($884,000). The new venue will be nearly double the size of the former obse

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui will hold rare trilateral consultations with her Chinese and Russian counterparts in Moscow on Tuesday, in what is viewed as an effort to reaffirm their shared stance on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.According to Russia’s Tass news agency, Choe and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov will hold a bilateral meeting Monday, which will be closely followed by a trilateral consultation involving the two and China’s Vice Minister

A group of South Korean government officials, politicians and civic and religious leaders headed to North Korea on Thursday to participate in an event marking the 11th anniversary of the 2007 inter-Korean summit between President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.A delegation of 160 people led by Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon and ruling Democratic Party of Korea leader Lee Hae-chan arrived in Pyongyang at 9:58 a.m. via the western air route for a three-day trip to Pyongyang

China sold about 2,700 tons of refined oil to North Korea in August, triple the amount it exported to the neighboring country in July, Voice of America said Wednesday, citing the UN Security Council’s North Korea sanctions committee. The report highlighted the abrupt surge in oil shipments, saying that the volume is believed to be the largest amount tracked since October 2017, when the committee started recording such trade.According to VOA, the total volume of refined oil exported to North Kore