SEOUL, Dec. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s defense minister warned on Monday that the security environment surrounding the Korean Peninsula was becoming increasingly volatile, pointing to deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia as a destabilizing force with global implications. Speaking at a forum on South Korea’s alliance with the United States, Defense Minister [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — The unification ministry said Friday it plans to integrate the main center and branch of Hanawon, the state facility for supporting North Korean defectors’ resettlement, next year amid a sharp decline in the number of such people coming to South Korea in recent years. Currently, the headquarters of Hanawon [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — A record share of North Korean defectors living in South Korea say they are satisfied with their lives, reflecting steady gains in employment and income that are narrowing long-standing economic gaps with the broader population, according to a government-affiliated survey released Tuesday. About 81 percent of respondents said they [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — A large majority of South Koreans believe that maintaining peaceful coexistence with North Korea is more important than achieving reunification, according to a government survey released Thursday. The Unification Ministry’s poll found that 79.4 percent of respondents agreed that “peaceful coexistence without war is more important than reunification,” reflecting [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s unification minister publicly criticized the United Nations Command (UNC) on Wednesday, revealing that it had recently barred a senior presidential security aide from entering the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), reviving long-standing tensions over the scope of the UNC’s authority. Speaking at a National Assembly hearing on legislation to expand [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea on Tuesday issued its first official response to last week’s U.S.–South Korea summit, denouncing the joint fact sheet and Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) statement as fresh evidence of what it called Washington and Seoul’s “hostile and confrontational intent.” In a lengthy commentary carried by the Korean Central News [...]
GYEONGJU, South Korea, Oct. 29 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean President Lee Jae Myung used a high-stakes summit in Gyeongju on Wednesday to push Washington toward a long-sought goal: the fuel needed to operate nuclear-powered submarines. Meeting U.S. President Donald Trump in the ancient capital, Lee argued that South Korea’s diesel-powered fleet no longer provides [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 26 (Korea Bizwire) – A clear majority of South Koreans continue to view unification with North Korea as a national goal, even as doubts persist about the prospects for renewed diplomacy with Pyongyang, according to a government-commissioned survey released Sunday. Nearly 69 percent of respondents said unification remains either “very necessary” or “quite necessary,” [...]
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – A leading Washington think tank has warned that South Korea’s reluctance to challenge China militarily or economically could complicate U.S. strategy in Asia, even as it praised Seoul’s technological prowess as vital to the allies’ shared interests in an era of intensifying competition with Beijing. In a report released Wednesday [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Fewer than half of South Koreans believe unification with the North is necessary, though support has edged higher compared with a year ago, a new survey shows. The 2025 Unification Awareness Survey, conducted by Seoul National University’s Institute for Peace and Unification Studies and Gallup Korea, found that 41.1 [...]