SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — The demotion of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s powerful sister at an ongoing party congress is raising questions over whether it signals any change in her status in the top echelons of power. During the sixth-day session of the party’s eighth congress in Pyongyang on Sunday, Kim Yo-jong, the [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s remarks on South Korea during a key party meeting appear to have passed the ball into Seoul’s court by attaching challenging conditions that portend cloudy prospects for any change in the currently chilled cross-border relations, experts said Saturday. During the fourth-day session at the [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea has held a rare meeting of the Supreme People’s Assembly to adopt an anti-smoking law, state media reported Thursday, amid questions whether leader Kim Jong-un, known as a heavy smoker, would kick the habit. The plenary meeting of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA), held [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — A rare and swift apology from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un over the killing of a South Korean official shows he wants to prevent already frayed inter-Korean relations from further worsening, experts said Friday. South Korea needs to take the North’s conciliatory gesture as a chance to explore ways [...]
SEOUL, June 24 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea’s decision to hold off on military action plans against South Korea appears aimed at “taking a breather” to avoid provocations that may further strain its economy, experts said Wednesday. Earlier in the day, the official Korean Central News Agency reported that leader Kim Jong-un presided over a [...]
SEOUL, June 15 (Korea Bizwire) — After threatening military action, North Korea may open fire to shoot down giant balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets flying from South Korea, but major provocations are unlikely, such as the 2010 artillery attack on a border island, experts said Monday. South Korea has been on high alert after Kim Yo-jong, [...]
SEOUL, May 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Unsubstantiated rumors and speculative media reports about North Korea could cause mutual distrust between the two Koreas and create an “impasse” in inter-Korean relations, an expert said Monday. Kim Dong-yeop, a research professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, also called for more efforts to create “high-quality” [...]
SEOUL, May 2 (Korea Bizwire) — A broadly-smiling Kim Jong-un appeared in public for the first time in 20 days, looking well without any signs of an illness, despite a wave of speculation that he might be gravely sick or even dead. Kim’s reappearance underlined the difficulty in figuring out affairs in the communist nation, [...]
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 [...]