The two Koreas discussed detailed measures to cease cross-border hostilities and establish a joint fishing zone during military talks on Thursday to pave the way for next week’s inter-Korean summit. 　The working-level meeting kicked off at 10 a.m. at the North Korean building Tongilgak inside the cross-border village of Panmunjom. The South Korean military said the meeting was requested by North Korea through a letter.　Army Col. Cho Young-keun, who deals with North Korea policy at the Ministry o

Controversy continues to mount over the government’s proposed budget for the implementation of April’s inter-Korean summit agreement, with opposition lawmakers accusing the government of scaling down figures to avoid public criticism. 　Submitted to the National Assembly on Wednesday, the budget proposal estimates about 470 billion won ($417 million) would be needed next year to implement the Panmunjom Declaration agreed upon by President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.　But the m

With South Korean President Moon Jae-in planning to visit North Korea for his third meeting with the country’s leader Kim Jong-un, the prospect of another summit between North Korea and the US has emerged.White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that talks are underway with North Korea over setting up a second summit meeting between President Donald Trump and Kim. In a “warm, very positive letter” sent to Trump in recent days, Kim requested a follow-up to the Singapore summ

　The escalating political tit-for-tat over the need for parliamentary approval of the April inter-Korean summit agreement has come to a halt, with the rival parties agreeing Monday to shelve the discussion until after the inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang next week. 　The ruling Democratic Party of Korea and opposition parties agreed Monday to suspend the debate over whether lawmakers should endorse the Panmunjom Declaration until after the inter-Korean summit from Sept. 18-20.　Seeking to make a b

North Korea on Sunday celebrated the 70th anniversary of its founding with a massive military parade in Pyongyang, but the event was largely understated with the absence of intercontinental ballistic missiles and a speech by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. 　The military parade held in Pyongyang involved tanks, artilleries and goose-stepping troops walking past Kim and his foreign delegates, but ICBMs were not displayed during the two-hour event that ended in the morning. 　Kim observed the event

A South Korean Special Forces unit dispatched to the United Arab Emirates has become a “trip wire” in the ongoing Yemeni civil war, an opposition lawmaker said, calling for the unit’s immediate withdrawal from the region. In an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Thursday, Rep. Kim Jong-dae of the minor Justice Party said that the 150-member Akh Unit could automatically be drawn into the UAE’s fight against rebel forces in Yemen.The UAE has joined Saudi Arabia-led military campaigns against Hou

  North Korea’s state-run media on Thursday released footage of its leader Kim Jong-un’s meeting with South Korean envoys, offering a glimpse of the event to the reclusive regime’s residents. As part of the first segment of its regular afternoon broadcast, Korean Central Television aired an 8-minute clip of Kim greeting National Security Office chief Chung Eui-young and other delegate members. The broadcast began with the arrival of a South Korean plane carrying the five-member delegation at an

Despite the two Koreas’ efforts to declare an official end to the Korean War within the year, it is unlikely to be achieved without significant measure for denuclearization by North Korea, analysts said. A day after a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the South’s National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong said Thursday that both parties had reiterated their pledge to adopt the end-of the-war declaration as a trust-building measure to ease decades-old animosity. Kim reassured the S

Two Egyptian asylum seekers on a hunger strike to demand refugee status were sent to a hospital Wednesday after losing consciousness. According to the civic activist group Friends of Asia, Anas El Aasal and Mona Mohammed were receiving medical treatment after being transported to a local hospital. Anas had been on a hunger strike for 19 days and Mona for six days. The two asylum seekers were on a hunger strike in the scorching heat in front of a police station in Hyoja-dong, near the Blue House.

With Chinese leader Xi Jinping skipping North Korea’s 70th anniversary celebrations, attention is now on what to expect at the reclusive country’s major national event. According to Chinese and North Korean state-run media, Li Zhanshu, a member of China’s seven-person Communist Party leadership, will travel to Pyongyang as Xi’s envoy Saturday, a day before North Korea commemorates the 70th anniversary of the state’s founding on Sunday. Xi had been expected to attend the celebrations, in what wou

When the Korean national soccer team won the gold medal at the Asian Games on Sunday, English Premier League star Son Hong-min, along with 20 of his teammates, received exemptions from mandatory military service. 　The hard-won victory over archrival Japan would typically have been a sweet moment for South Korea, but there was bitter sentiment this time that was openly expressed. The resentment stems from exemptions from military service granted to the soccer players for “raising national prestig

Since its establishment in 1950, the Defense Security Command had exercised enormous power over military affairs. At the heart of this lay its authority to monitor military personnel, keep their records and report them to their superiors. Sometimes it was involved in one-on-one briefings to presidents. 　But such authority will mostly be banned under regulations governing the newly minted Defense Security Support Command. The new unit was officially launched Saturday to replace the scandal-ridden

With the South Korean government accelerating its efforts to reduce tension and build trust with North Korea, the military is seeking to stop referencing North Korea as its official enemy in a defense paper to be published this year. 　Citing unidentified multiple government sources, Yonhap News Agency reported Wednesday that the 2018 defense white paper would no longer describe North Korea as a main enemy in a bid to fulfill its pledge to stop hostile acts against North Korea. 　The Ministry of N

With the two Koreas seeking to establish an inter-Korean liaison office at the Kaesong industrial park in North Korea, the construction project appears to demonstrate underlying differences between Seoul and Washington over their dealings with North Korea. 　South Korea has said that the construction project does not clash with a series of sanctions imposed on North Korea. The Moon Jae-in administration asserted that the measure could foster cross-border exchanges and build mutual trust for the d

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un conducted inspections of a massive tourism construction site on the country’s east coast, describing it as the epitome of standing up to international sanctions, the North’s state media said Friday.According to the Korean Central News Agency, Kim provided field guidance to the Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist area and reiterated his pledge to complete the tourism project by Oct 10, 2019. He was accompanied by his wife Ri Sol-ju.While praising the project for completin

 After the Korean War ended with an armistice agreement in 1953, two Koreas declared a 4-kilometer-wide Demilitarized Zone along the demarcation line that separated them, to prevent accidental skirmishes. Since the DMZ has been off-limits for more than 60 years, the area has become home to many endangered species, including red-crowned cranes. The border town of Cheorwon in Gangwon Province opened the DMZ Peace Park, an ecotourism park in the southern part of the heavily-fortified region, in 201

South Korea is in discussion with the US about repatriating the remains of its soldiers killed during the Korean War, a Defense Ministry official said Wednesday, as the US has informed the government that the bodies are stored at a US government agency in Hawaii.The official said the Ministry of National Defense was recently notified by the US government that it has about 35 sets of war remains identified as that of South Korean soldiers. The Defense Ministry will send a forensic team to Hawaii

 With speculation rising over US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s trip to North Korea, expectation has been heightened that the visit would provide a breakthrough for stalled denuclearization talks. Officials and analysts here have suggested that Pompeo would make his fourth visit to Pyongyang as early as this month. The speculation has been fueled by reports that US and North Korean delegates met at the border village of Panmunjom last weekend. The development came amid reports North Korea migh

 　The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles featuring inter-Korean relations to mark the paper’s 65th anniversary that falls on Aug. 15. Following is the last installment. -- Ed 　SEJONG -- With the two Koreas working to reduce cross-border tensions and enhance ties through socio-economic exchanges, the prospect of reunification is being debated anew in the South.　During the Cold War, the reunification narrative was mostly about achieving a crushing victory over North Korea. The concept

　If US officials were to enter North Korea to recover the remains of American soldiers from the Korean War, equipment and payment incurred in the process should be exempt from the UN sanctions imposed on North Korea, a senior US official has said. 　In an interview with Radio Free Asia, Kelly McKeague, director of the US Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), said Washington needs to seek exemption from UN sanctions if payment and equipment are to be sent to North Korea for recovery operations