SEOUL, Sept. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea’s brutal killing of a South Korean official drifting near the maritime border is expected to throw the already-frayed inter-Korean relations into an abyss, possibly forcing the government to halt all envisioned reconciliation efforts amid public outrage, experts said Thursday. They, however, urged the government to take a [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea is working on a project to create virtual reality (VR) content to offer families, torn apart by the 1950-53 Korean War, virtual journeys back to their hometowns in North Korea, officials said Sunday. Commissioned by the unification ministry, the Korean Red Cross is carrying out the project [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Korea Bizwire) – North Korea on Saturday broadcast a series of mysterious numbers, presumed to be an encrypted message to its spies in the South, for the first time on YouTube. A video clip was posted on the state-run Radio Pyongyang’s YouTube account, in which a female announcer read what she described [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — About 60 percent of North Korea’s population are facing food insecurity as the global coronavirus pandemic appears to be taking a toll on the country’s food supplies, a U.S. Department of Agriculture report showed Thursday. According to the report by the department’s Economic Research Service, 59.8 percent of North [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — A South Korean civic group’s push to barter sugar for North Korean liquors and food products in what would be the first such exchange in a decade is raising both hopes for renewed cross-border engagement and concerns over risks of sanctions violations. Seoul’s unification ministry is weighing whether to [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Two in five defectors who returned to the North lived in South Korea for less than three years, a lawmaker said Saturday, urging authorities to pay greater attention to the management of former North Koreans here. Rep. Lee Sang-min of the ruling Democratic Party, citing data obtained from the [...]
SEOUL, July 31 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea’s shutdown of borders may help prevent the spread of the coronavirus but is likely to increase the mortality rates of those with chronic illnesses as the border closure could lead to shortages of medicines and other necessities, a professor said Friday. Lee Yo-han, a public health professor [...]
SEOUL, July 31 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea has intensified antivirus efforts in Pyongyang by installing more guard posts to restrict access to the capital city, state media reported Friday after leader Kim Jong-un sealed off a border town following the return of a defector from South Korea. North Korea declared a state of emergency [...]
SEOUL, July 10 (Korea Bizwire) — An association of South Korean firms involved in a long-suspended tour program to North Korea’s Mount Kumgang urged the government on Friday to push for legislation that would mandate financial compensation for losses from the suspension. The association, comprised of 49 companies who invested in the tour program, made [...]
SEOUL, July 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Two South Korean men who were once prisoners of war (POWs) taken to North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War on Tuesday won a landmark damage suit filed against North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-un for the forced labor they endured while in captivity there. The Seoul Central [...]