SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea has lifted a face mask mandate and eased antivirus curbs as the communist state moves toward normalcy after declaring victory in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, state media reported Saturday. Earlier this week, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared victory in his country’s emergency campaign against [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has declared victory in his country’s emergency campaign against COVID-19, state media reported Thursday, three months after the nation reported its first COVID-19 outbreak. Kim made the announcement during a national meeting on anti-epidemic measures he presided over the previous day in Pyongyang, according [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea appears to be turning to a tried-and-true deterrence playbook marked by its arms buildup, a threat of “unsparing” punishment and scaled-up military drills as it faces evolving North Korean security challenges, analysts said Wednesday. That playbook revolves around three Cs: military capabilities, communication to a recalcitrant North [...]
SEOUL, July 31 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea had no additional suspected COVID-19 cases for the second consecutive day, according to its state media Sunday, as the country is redoubling efforts to “completely end” its virus crisis. “No new fever cases were reported” over a 24-hour period until 6 p.m. the previous day, the official [...]
SEOUL, July 26 (Korea Bizwire) — Interest in beauty is high even in North Korea, where books dealing with a variety of topics including makeup tips and how to get or stay in shape are enjoying popularity. Tokyo-based pro-North Korean newspaper Chosun Sinbo recently reported that a string of new books for women have been [...]
SEOUL, July 21 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea and the United States are expected to revive a comprehensive combined military exercise abolished in 2018, Seoul officials said Thursday, amid the allies’ efforts to reinforce deterrence against North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats. The exercise set for Aug. 22-Sept. 1 is likely to combine the [...]
PAJU/SEOUL, July 19 (Korea Bizwire) — About four years ago, the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom was brimming with renewed hopes for peace, as a rare summit between the two Koreas took place there, diluting its image of cross-border tension, albeit temporarily. But such hopes appeared to be fading amid COVID-19 and uncertainties in inter-Korean [...]
SEOUL, July 14 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea has formally recognized the independence of two pro-Russian separatist “people’s republics” in eastern Ukraine, becoming the world’s third nation to do so, according to the North’s state media Thursday. The North’s Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui sent letters to her counterparts in the Donetsk People’s Republic and the [...]
SEOUL, July 7 (Korea Bizwire) — More than 40 percent of North Koreans are undernourished, a U.N. report showed Thursday amid concerns of food security in the impoverished country. According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022 report co-published by U.N. agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization, the U.N. [...]
SEOUL, June 29 (Korea Bizwire) — The outgoing U.N. special rapporteur on North Korea’s human rights situation made clear Wednesday that North Korea is responsible for the killing of a South Korean fisheries official in 2020 and stressed that the bereaved family has the right to know details of how the death occurred. “I have [...]