SEOUL, March 9 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea has placed around 10,000 people under quarantine over coronavirus concerns and released about 40 percent of them as they showed no symptoms, according to state media reports. North Korea has not reported an outbreak of COVID-19, which emerged in neighboring China in late December, but it has [...]
WASHINGTON, March 6 (Korea Bizwire) — Two U.S. senators have introduced a bill aimed at helping Korean Americans reunite with family members in North Korea. Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK) on Thursday introduced the bipartisan Korean War Divided Families Reunification Act, which directs the U.S. secretary of state to prioritize arranging reunions [...]
SEOUL, March 5 (Korea Bizwire) — The United Nations Command (UNC) has said it stands ready to approve requests for entry into the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas in order to support aid provision, diplomatic meetings and other inter-Korean projects despite coronavirus concerns. “Things are quieter since #NorthKorea closed its borders due to #COVID19, [...]
SEOUL, March 4 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea has allowed female workers to stay home if they have no other family members to take care of children after nurseries were closed and the opening of schools was postponed due to coronavirus concerns, state media reported Wednesday. Last week, the North said that it extended the [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — About one out of five North Korean defectors experienced discrimination in South Korea last year mostly due to “cultural” differences, a survey showed Wednesday. According to the survey conducted by the Hana Foundation, a state-run agency that helps resettlement of North Korean defectors, 17.2 percent of 3,000 defectors polled [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — Nuclear talks between the United States and North Korea remain in limbo a year after their no-deal summit in Hanoi, with their engagement hamstrung by mutual distrust, domestic politics and, most recently, Pyongyang’s focus on fending off an epidemic. The second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North [...]
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, [...]