SEOUL, May 1 (Korea Bizwire) — A North Korea defector elected as a lawmaker in South Korea claimed Friday that he is “99 percent” sure that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un died after surgery amid speculation over his health. Unconfirmed reports about Kim’s ill health have mounted since he has not appeared in public for [...]
SEOUL, April 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has been seen exerting increasing clout in Pyongyang as of late, raising the possibility of her succeeding her brother amid speculation that he may be ill, a legislative think tank assessed Wednesday. In an analysis report of the [...]
SEOUL, April 26 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea’s state media reported on leader Kim Jong-un expressing his “appreciation” for people working to build facilities in a northern border town Sunday but continued to stay silent about his public activities for two weeks amid growing rumors about his health. “Comrade Kim Jong-un sent appreciation to workers [...]
SEOUL, April 23 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea on Thursday designated a rail construction project along the east coast as an inter-Korean cooperative business as part of efforts to kick-start a long-suspended move to reconnect railways across the border with North Korea. A civilian-government committee on inter-Korean exchanges made the decision for the construction of [...]
SEOUL, April 19 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will resume an independent project of excavating remains of soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) this week, the defense ministry said Sunday, as Pyongyang remains unresponsive to calls to work together as agreed. Under the bilateral military accord signed on Sept. [...]
SEOUL, April 18 (Korea Bizwire) — Tens of thousands of South Koreans have signed a petition calling for the mandatory construction of residential flats for North Korean defectors in the ritzy district of Gangnam, southern Seoul, following a high-profile defector’s election in the constituency. In apparent derision of the Gangnam residents who elected Tae Ku-min [...]
SEOUL, April 16 (Korea Bizwire) – A high-profile North Korean defector won a constituency seat in this week’s general elections, becoming the first person hailing from the communist nation to be chosen directly by South Korean voters as their representative. Thae Yong-ho, a former No. 2 diplomat at North Korea’s Embassy in London, was elected to the [...]
SEOUL, April 11 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea has been silent on a much-anticipated meeting of the country’s rubber-stamp parliament a day after it was supposed to take place, spawning speculation the session might have been canceled or delayed amid its nationwide fight against the novel coronavirus. The Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) was to meet [...]
SEOUL, April 10 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea’s economy has become increasingly marketized in the past two decades with the emergence of local markets and a newly affluent class of traders, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a recent working paper. The OECD also said in the paper, titled “North Korea: The [...]
SEOUL, March 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Colleges in North Korea are providing online programs for students amid an extended vacation, as the country is making all efforts to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, state media showed Monday. North Korea has not officially confirmed any coronavirus infections, but it has reportedly extended the winter [...]