The number of North Koreans who have resettled in the South fell 20.8 percent in the first half from a year ago as Pyongyang tightens border controls, the Unification Ministry said Wednesday. A total of 593 North Koreans arrived in Seoul between January and June, down from 749 of the same period last year, ministry data shows, noting around 80 percent of them are women. This brings the cumulative sum of the defectors here to 30,805. A man hangs a ribbon wishing for a reunification of the two Kor

North Korea has yet to master re-entry technology for its recently tested intercontinental ballistic missile, though it has been making “faster-than-expected” progress, Seoul’s spy agency said Tuesday. At a closed-door parliamentary briefing, the National Intelligence Service assessed the launch on July 4 as an “initial-level” flight test using a fixed launcher, instead of a road-mobile system set for actual deployment, lawmakers said. Although the North is progressing faster than expected, it i

South Korea and five Central Asian countries on Monday launched an office in Seoul to facilitate diplomatic, business and people-to-people cooperation through high-level dialogue, exchanges of working-level public officials and cultural festivals. The Korea-Central Asia Cooperation Forum Secretariat is the first joint permanent body between the countries and represents progress they have made since the forum was incepted 10 years ago as a high-level consultative mechanism. South Korea and the fi

Kenneth Bae, 49, was locked up in North Korea for the longest period as a US citizen until then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper came to his rescue in November 2014. His appalling two years in the oppressive, isolated state have come to the fore once again in the wake of the tragic death of Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old American student, shortly after his release from 17 months of detention. For Bae, Warmbier’s fate felt more brutal and unjust because unlike him, the youngster had

President Moon Jae-in’s vision to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula faces a murky outlook, as North Korea is accelerating its pursuit to become a nuclear state, bolstered by its recent test of an intercontinental ballistic missile. The liberal president unveiled a “comprehensive approach” to tackle the issues of denuclearization and a peace treaty in parallel during an address in Berlin on Thursday. He said he is ready to meet with the North Korean leader “at any time and any place” and “pla

TOKYO (AP) -- Despite North Korea's claim its intercontinental ballistic missile launch shows it can attack targets anywhere it wants, experts say it will probably be years before it could use such a weapon in a real-world scenario.  The test on Tuesday demonstrated the North is closer than ever before to reaching its final goal of developing a credible nuclear deterrent to what it sees as the hostile policy of its archenemies in Washington.   But even for an experienced superpower, getting an I

The founder of a major South Korean pizza franchise was arrested on Thursday over suspicions that he ripped off contractors and embezzled company funds.The Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant for Chung Woo-hyun, 69, former head of MP Group, whose reported mistreatment has aroused public uproar recently. He is accused of forcing franchisees of its Mr Pizza brand to buy the cheese from a food distributor run by his relative at higher costs than market prices. Chung is also suspec

BEIJING (AFP) -- Fears about the health of China's cancer-stricken Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo rose on Thursday as the hospital treating him said the liver function of the country's most prominent democracy advocate had deteriorated.Friends voiced concerns that Liu, 61, is now near death after it emerged last month that he had been transferred from prison to a hospital due to terminal liver cancer.Liu was sentenced to 11 years in prison in December 2009 for "subversion" after calling for democrati

BRUSSELS (AFP) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and top EU officials agreed Thursday to the broad outline of a landmark trade deal, presented as a direct challenge to the protectionism championed by US President Donald Trump.The breakthrough capped four years of talks and came on the eve of a G20 meeting in Germany at which Trump is expected to defend his "America First" stance on world trade."Today we agreed in principle on an Economic Partnership Agreement (with Japan), the impact of whic

WARSAW (AFP) -- US President Donald Trump warned that the future of the West was at risk and lashed out at Russia and North Korea on Thursday at the start of a high-stakes trip to Europe.On the eve of what is likely to be a prickly G20 summit, with Trump facing animosity from traditional US allies, he will use a landmark address in Warsaw to warn that a lack of collective resolve could doom an alliance that endured through the Cold War."The defence of the West ultimately rests not only on means

MANCHESTER (AP) -- Manchester United is looking to sign striker Romelu Lukaku after the club agreed on a fee of 75 million pounds ($97 million) with Everton, a person familiar with the deal said on Thursday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of a transfer that is yet to be completed.  The 24-year-old Lukaku will have to finalize personal terms and undergo a medical examination before a transfer can be completed to United, where he would be linking with manager Jose Mo

WARSAW (AFP) -- US President Donald Trump said Thursday he was considering a "pretty severe" response to North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile test, even as China appealed for a scaling down of rhetoric.Tuesday's launch marked a milestone in Pyongyang's decades-long drive to threaten the US mainland with a nuclear strike, posing a thorny policy challenge for Trump, who is at loggerheads with Beijing over how to handle Kim Jong-Un's regime."I call on all nations to confront this global

Pyongyang warned it would be a "piece of cake" to destroy "gangster" South Korea, state media reported Thursday, as it raged against Seoul for a joint missile drill with the US following its landmark intercontinental ballistic missile test. The isolated, nuclear-armed North sent a chill through the international community Tuesday after its missile launch, a milestone in Pyongyang's decades-long drive for the capability to threaten the US mainland with a nuclear strike.US President Donald Trump h

BEIJING (AP) -- President Donald Trump's hopes for China's help with restraining North Korea appear to have gone nowhere, with the sides growing further apart as their approaches and concerns diverge.  China shows no sign of caving to US pressure to tighten the screws on Pyongyang, while the North's recent missile tests have done little to rattle Beijing, in contrast to the anxiety sparked in Washington. China's bottom line continues to hold fast: No to any measures that might topple Kim Jong Un

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Having lost patience with China, the Trump administration is studying new steps to starve North Korea of cash for its nuclear program, including an option that would infuriate Beijing: sanctions on Chinese companies that help keep the North's economy afloat. It's an approach that's paid off for the US in the past, especially with Iran, where American economic penalties helped drive Tehran to the nuclear negotiating table. Yet there are significant risks, too, including the pos

BEIJING (AP) -- China's trade with North Korea has risen despite Beijing's promise to enforce U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program, but Chinese purchases of most North Korean exports have fallen. Customs data show total Chinese-North Korean trade in the first five months of this year rose 15 percent from a year earlier. Exports of Chinese oil to the North rose, while China's purchases of iron ore increased. Trump wants Beijing to use its status as North Korea's only major ally and source of o

THE HAGUE (AFP) -- European and Japanese scientists Thursday proudly unveiled the BepiColombo spacecraft ahead of its seven-year journey to Mercury, one of the Solar System's most enigmatic planets.Due to be launched in 2018, BepiColombo will be the European Space Agency's first mission to the closest rock to the Sun.The mission has an unusual design, comprising a "stacked aircraft" carrying two orbiters -- one European, the other Japanese -- which will separate on arrival to go into different o

TOKYO (AP) -- Troops were working Thursday to rescue families left stranded by flooding in southern Japan. At least two people were found dead and more than a dozen missing  in flooding that wrecked homes, roads and rice terraces.  Heavy rain warnings were in effect for much of the southern main island of Kyushu after Typhoon Nanmadol swept across Japan earlier in the week. Authorities in Fukuoka, in Kyushu, said four people suffered slight injuries. Hideki Tanaka, a Fukuoka prefectural disaster

MANILA (AP) -- A strong, shallow earthquake shook the central Philippines on Thursday, injuring at least 10 people in a collapsed building, knocking out power in some areas and sending villagers fleeing from their homes, officials said. The US Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 6.5 and struck at a depth of 6.5 kilometers near Masarayao town in Leyte province. Shallow earthquakes generally cause more damage on the Earth's surface. A building collapsed in the agricultural town of

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- On the eve of his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump questioned the veracity of American intelligence about foreign meddling in the US election, arguing Thursday that Russia wasn't the only country that may have interfered. "Nobody really knows for sure," Trump said. Opening his second overseas trip as president, Trump also warned North Korea that he's considering "some pretty severe things" in response to the isolated nation's unpr