The hunger and economic hardships driven by COVID-19 are forcing North Koreans to resort to extreme means of survival, such as cannibalism, recent defectors were quoted as telling South Korean authorities. This is one of the first accounts of the level of hunger in North Korea since COVID-19, given by North Korean family who came to South Korea by boat early last month. The family consisting of a mother and two brothers, their wives and young children were found by South Korean authorities cross

South Korea’s main opposition party voted down bills seeking the National Assembly’s consent in issuing arrest warrants for two lawmakers accused in an intraparty bribery scandal. At the plenary session on Monday, the arrest warrant bills for both lawmakers -- Reps. Lee Sung-man and Youn Kwan-suk -- failed to pass the Assembly, whose majority is controlled by the Democratic Party of Korea. Lee and Youn gave up their Democratic Party membership last month after they were accused of ha

The Democratic Party of Korea escalated its campaign against Japan on Monday, accusing President Yoon Suk Yeol of being weak on Tokyo and its plan to gradually release treated wastewater from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant. Ahead of the plenary session of the National Assembly, Democratic Party lawmakers issued a joint statement vowing to stop Japan from discharging the wastewater into the sea altogether. “Our party will do everything in our power to block Japan from dumping i

South Korean main opposition Democratic Party of Korea leader Rep. Lee Jae-myung has stoked rebuke for backing Chinese ambassador Xing Haiming’s criticism of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s foreign policy last week. At a dinner event with Xing at the ambassador’s residence on Thursday, Lee suggested that the relationship between South Korea and China has soured since Yoon administration came into office. “The latest developments in international politics and econom

The South Korean National Assembly on Thursday agreed to launch a special committee and hold hearings on the safety inspection of wastewater from the now-defunct Fukushima nuclear power plant. The special committee will be headed by lawmakers from the Democratic Party of Korea, after a bill on its formation is passed at the plenary session next week. Japan will “communicate closely” with Seoul and “strive to provide the Korean people with sincere explanations based on scientifi

Authorities in Vladivostok, a port city in the far eastern region of Russia, have launched an investigation into the disappearance of two North Koreans, Russian news outlets reported Tuesday. The missing North Koreans are believed to be wife and son of an official working at the North Korean consulate general there, according to the Arguments & Facts weekly owned by the Government of Moscow. The two -- 43-year-old Kim Kum-sun and 15-year-old Park Kwon-ju -- were last seen leaving the North K

South Korea’s central election body is resisting mounting calls to face investigation even as the allegations of nepotistic hiring practices and negligent cyber security continue to grow. The ruling People Power Party convened an emergency meeting of its leaders on Sunday and slammed the National Election Commission for rejecting the state inspectors’ request to look into the ongoing allegations. At Sunday’s meeting, the ruling party chief Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon said the election co

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is unstable and intimidated by deepening trilateral security ties between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, a South Korean National Intelligence Service analysis found. The NIS attributed Kim’s feelings of anxiety and terror to Yoon push to beef up the alliance with key security partners, the US and Japan, according to sources with knowledge of the analysis. The NIS has intelligence from multiple sources that the three count

[코리아헤럴드=김아린 기자] 김정은 북한 국무위원장이 윤석열 정부의 한미일 안보 협력 강화 움직임에 불안을 겪고 있는 것으로 전해졌다. 2일 코리아헤럴드 취재를 종합하면, 국가정보원은 한미일 대북 공조 강화로 인해 북한 내부 불안이 커지고 있으며 이런 상황이 김 위원장의 건강에도 영향을 미치고 있다는 복수의 첩보를 입수했다. 그 동안 싸늘했던 일본과의 관계가 복원되고, 한미일 3국간 공조가 본격화 되자 김 위원장이 위기감을 느끼고 있는 것으로 국정원은 보고 있다. 국정원은 한미일 관계 발전에 더해 정찰위성 발사 실패가 김 위원장의 정서 불안을 가중시켜, “모험적 군사 행동”과 “공포 통치”를 부추길 수 있다고 판단하고 있다. 국정원은 손상된 체면 회복을 위해 김 위원장이 위성의 2차 발사를 성공시키는데에 총력을 기울일 것으로 전망하고 있다. 위성 재발사 외에도 단거리 탄도미사일, SLBM 및 고체 ICBM 발사와 사이버 공격 등 다방면에서

The South Korean defense minister said Thursday that the military was conducting a salvage operation for a segment of a North Korean space launch vehicle believed to be from the second stage of propulsion, and was tracing remaining debris from the projectile a day after the launch ended in failure. Speaking before the National Assembly’s national defense committee, Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup said it is looking into the possibility of retrieving the reconnaissance satellite that North Ko

North Korea's satellite launch failure on Wednesday was likely to have happened because of an unexpected technical error, rather than leader Kim Jong-un’s impatience to improve surveillance capabilities, according to defector-turned-Assemblyman Rep. Tae Yong-ho. Tae, who was a senior diplomat for North Korea before defecting to Seoul in 2016, said in a press release that the spy satellite’s attempted launch was a key military milestone that has been a long time in the making. Fo

South Korea’s intelligence authorities suspect North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is suffering from insomnia, and drinking and smoking heavily. Rep. Yoo Sang-bum, the executive secretary for the Parliamentary Intelligence Committee, told reporters Wednesday that the National Intelligence Service believes Kim “may be experiencing a serious sleep disorder and engaging in excessive alcohol and tobacco consumption.” He said the spy service found North Korean authorities were “ho

A South Korean team of experts said Wednesday they will be conducting an additional review after a visit to the now-defunct Fukushima nuclear power plant that was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami, leading to three nuclear reactor meltdowns, in 2011. Speaking at a briefing, Yoo Guk-hee, the government nuclear safety commission’s chairperson who is leading the review efforts, said his team will be acquiring extra data to look into facilities that treat the radioactive wastewater, dilut

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday met with leaders of five Pacific island countries in the first such summit hosted in Seoul by the South Korean president to discuss ways to boost regional security and partnership in resource development. The Sunday leg of the Korea-Pacific Islands Summit was attended by President Taneti Maamau of Kiribati, Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni of Tonga, Prime Minister Kausea Natano of Tuvalu, Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau of Vanuatu and Prime Minister James Marape o

South Korea will soon begin requiring its public servants to disclose any ownership of digital assets in the same way they do traditional financial assets. The National Assembly convened a plenary session Thursday and passed an amendment to the laws on public service ethics to include cryptocurrencies in their financial disclosures. Under the public service ethics laws, lawmakers and high-ranking public servants such as Cabinet members must regularly disclose their assets and investments. The am

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s eldest child might not be a son after all. In patriarchal North Korea, the eldest son -- whose existence remains a mystery -- would naturally be the heir to the North Korean leadership. Kim’s only publicly seen child to date is Ju-ae, a girl who is believed to be around 10 to 12 years of age. Joao Micaelo, Kim’s friend from his school days in Switzerland, told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday that he has not heard the North Korean leader speak abou

The Yoon Suk Yeol administration and the ruling People Power Party are mulling steps to restrict groups with a criminal background from staging protests, in an apparent aim at a labor union at the center of a spiraling North Korea spying scandal. At a policy meeting Wednesday, Cabinet officials and party leaders agreed to push an amendment to existing laws to curb criminally involved groups’ abilities to hold assemblies and demonstrations. The latest move follows the indictment of several

Political bigwigs on Tuesday flocked to Bongha, a neighborhood in South Gyeongsang Province some 290 kilometers south of Seoul, to honor the late President Roh Moo-hyun who took his own life 14 years ago today. President Yoon Suk Yeol sent flowers, his office said, and the previous President Moon Jae-in attended the memorial ceremony held in Bongha -- Roh’s hometown where he returned after the end of his presidential tenure in 2008. Leaders of both the ruling People Power Party and the Dem

The ruling People Power Party said Monday it may consider taking legislative action against the country’s main umbrella labor union, with four of its leaders recently indicted for alleged anti-government activities in collusion with North Korea. In the indictment released Friday, Seoul prosecutors said four of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions members holding leadership positions communicated with North Korean authorities on at least 90 different occasions in the planning and execut

North Korean brothers who brought their family members out of the country earlier this month are late millennials, part of the tech-savvy younger generation of North Korea who have increased access to external information. Sources with knowledge of the latest defections told The Korea Herald on Sunday that it was the two brothers in their early 30s who had made the decision to leave North Korea with their family. The sources said that the brothers told Seoul officials here in a screening intervi