SEOUL, May 31 (Korea Bizwire) — A group of nongovernmental organizations in South Korea and abroad condemned North Korea on Tuesday for its “systematic abduction, denial of repatriation and subsequent enforced disappearance of persons from other countries.” During a press conference, joined by several foreign ambassadors in Seoul as well as a representative from a [...]
SEOUL, May 31 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea is in urgent need of food imports or assistance as many of its people continue to suffer from food shortages and malnutrition, with the gap estimated at 860,000 tons, data from the U.S. intelligence community showed Tuesday. The country’s food gap is equivalent to around two to [...]
SEOUL, May 30 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s defense ministry has distributed troop education materials that refer to North Korea’s military and its regime as “our enemy,” officials said Monday, in a reflection of the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol administration’s tough security stance. The preceding liberal Moon Jae-in administration avoided using the expression amid its push [...]
SEOUL, May 28 (Korea Bizwire) — The office of President Yoon Suk-yeol is considering disclosing as much information as possible about a South Korean fisheries official killed by North Korea’s military near the western sea border in 2020, informed officials said Friday. The presidential National Security Office (NSO) is determined to disclose the preceding Moon [...]
SEOUL, May 24 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea’s state-controlled media carried reports Tuesday questioning the usefulness of COVID-19 vaccines, as the secretive nation has claimed progress in efforts to control the virus outbreak. The North’s latest stance may suggest a dimmer prospect of accepting the international community’s existing offers of vaccine aid, including Washington’s stated [...]
SEOUL, May 20 (Korea Bizwire) — More than seven out of 10 South Koreans are in favor of giving medical assistance to North Korea struggling with a massive COVID-19 outbreak, a poll showed Friday. In a nationwide poll of 1,000 people aged 18 or above conducted by Gallup Korea from Tuesday to Thursday, 72 percent [...]
SEOUL, May 15 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea on Sunday reported 15 additional deaths from an ongoing “epidemic” and 296,180 more people with fever symptoms nationwide, three days after it announced a COVID-19 outbreak. The new cases, which occurred between Friday evening and 6 p.m. Saturday, raised the total number of deaths to 42 and [...]
SEOUL, May 14 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea on Saturday reported 21 additional COVID-19 deaths, with more than 174,400 people nationwide feverish, as its leader Kim Jong-un stated that his country is faced with “great turmoil” due to the spread of the virus. Pyongyang’s state media released the updated tally compiled the previous day, after [...]
SEOUL, May 14 (Korea Bizwire) — President Yoon Suk-yeol on Friday offered to send COVID-19 vaccines to North Korea, his spokesperson said, a day after Pyongyang acknowleged an outbreak for the first time since the pandemic began. After claiming for over two years that it was coronavirus-free, the North reported its first case of COVID-19 [...]
SEOUL, May 12 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea on Thursday announced its first case of the omicron variant of COVID-19 and declared the implementation of the “maximum emergency” virus control system, putting an end to its coronavirus-free claim. The North held a politburo meeting in Pyongyang, with leader Kim Jong-un in attendance, to discuss the [...]