SEOUL, Feb. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korean defectors launched a preparatory committee Tuesday to establish the first-ever political party composed of defectors in South Korea, saying the envisioned party will work for democratization of their communist homeland and better protection of defectors’ rights. Around 200 North Korean defectors came together at the meeting in [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — The average monthly wage of North Korean defectors living in South Korea exceeded 2 million won (US$1,684) for the first time last year, the unification ministry said Tuesday. Defectors earned 2.04 million won (US$1,720) per month on average in 2019, compared with 1.89 million won in 2018, according to [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Thae Yong-ho, a high-profile North Korean defector, said Sunday he will run in April’s parliamentary elections under a different name, one that he has used in his passport and all other official documents to evade Pyongyang’s tracking since his 2016 defection. Thae, a former No. 2 diplomat at North [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — U.N. human rights experts urged North Korea on Thursday to send back 11 South Koreans abducted half a century ago in the latest diplomatic pressure on the communist country. Korean Air Lines flight YS-11, with 51 people on board, was hijacked by a North Korean spy on Dec. 11, [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — Nearly half of North Korean defectors had experience of engaging in private-sector economic activities back in the communist nation, a poll showed Thursday. According to the poll conducted by the Korean Association of North Korean Studies and Hyundai Research Institute on North Korean defectors, 48 percent said that they [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — About one in three South Korean students sees the Korean Peninsula as not peaceful, a government poll showed Tuesday, apparently reflecting chilled inter-Korean relations and stalemated denuclearization talks. According to the survey of 66,042 students at 598 elementary, middle and high schools across the country during the October-November period [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — A high-profile North Korean defector officially announced his bid to run in the April parliamentary elections Tuesday, vowing to work for inter-Korean unification if elected. Thae Yong-ho, a former senior North Korean diplomat, joined the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) and will run in a constituency in Seoul [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — North Koreans have been moving around in large groups without wearing masks in state-organized events despite the government’s campaign to prevent an outbreak of the new coronavirus, according to state media reports on Tuesday. The North’s main newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, carried photos of participants in a 250-mile journey [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea has strengthened the screening of entrants from foreign countries as part of stepped-up efforts to prevent an outbreak of the new type of coronavirus in the country, state media reported Monday. According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang has drawn up measures to put all [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — For elderly South Koreans with long-separated relatives in North Korea, a freeze in inter-Korean relations means the government can’t set up family reunions for them and that they should look for other ways if they want to see their loved ones one last time before they die. Hiring brokers [...]