A report suggesting possible inter-Korean cooperation in the chemistry, biotech, and nano-science fields was released Wednesday by a state-run think tank, claiming the gap in the depth of technology between the two countries in such areas is relatively minimal.
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A united Korea - combining Asia’s fourth biggest economy with one of its poorest - could surpass that of Germany or Japan in economic might in the next 30-40 years, US investment bank Goldman Sachs said Tuesday.
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South Korea will build a nursery at joint Kaesong industrial park to relieve female workers of their family worries, the Unification Ministry said on Tuesday.
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Former President Kim pays his respects to Roh and criticizes the retreat from democracy and worsening inter-Korean relations under President Lee.
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Letter to the Governement of the the Republic of Korea ROK.
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South and North Korea agreed Wednesday to run their cross-border cargo trains flexibly to improve efficiency.
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South Korea is to try to involve Pyongyang in a joint cooperation project with Moscow on the development of east Siberia, a special envoy for the South Korean president said on Wednesday.
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Tension was growing Friday as liberal parties opposed President-elect Lee Myung-bak’s plan to shut down the Unification Ministry, citing its role in enhancing ties between the two Koreas, separated since the 1950-53 Korean War.
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The first regular freight service for over half a century began Tuesday operating across the heavily fortified border between South and North Korea.
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A South Korean cargo train on Tuesday crossed the heavily fortified border dividing the two Koreas as the countries launched a regular inter-Korean train service for first time since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
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The article is an excerpt of a speech made by South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minster Song Min-soon at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin, Tuesday 10/9.
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It will be quite a long time before Pyongyang earns its stripes as a hip and happening city if it ever does. But, judging by the glimpses revealed during the three-day summit, it seems that not all is gray and grim in the North Korean capital.
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President Roh Moo-hyun watched the mass gymastics show Arirang along with Kim Yong-nam, chairman of the presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, at May Day Stadium in Pyongyang Wednesday night.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-il gave President Roh Moo-hyun four tons of pine mushrooms as a gift following the South Korean leader’s three-day summit trip to the communist North, presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-seon said Friday.
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President Roh Moo-hyun has returned home after a three-day visit to North Korea.
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South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun left Pyongyang on Thursday afternoon after winding up his three-day visit to North Korea with an inter-Korean joint declaration on peace and prosperity.
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The following is the full text of the eight-point agreement by the leaders of the two parts of Korea at the end of their summit.
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Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, and Pak Kwan O, chairman of the Pyongyang City People’s Committee, hosted a banquet at the Mokran House October 2, in honor of South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun and his party on a visit to Pyongyang.
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Kwon Ryang Suk, wife of south Korean President Roh Moo Hyun, and some suite members from the south side visited the Grand People’s Study House Tuesday.
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General Secretary Kim Jong Il on Tuesday greeted south Korean President Roh Moo Hyun on a visit to Pyongyang. South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun arrived in Pyongyang October 2. Hundreds of thousands of Pyongyangites welcomed Roh Moo Hyun along the route, waving bouquets and chanting slogan "National Reunification."
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South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and his inter-Korean summit entourage seem determined to watch North Korea’s controversial Arirang Festival featuring pro-communist propaganda slogans and a pro-unification mass-gymnastics performance, while visiting the North’s capital Pyongyang on Oct. 2-4 for the Second South-North Korea Summit, Seoul’s unification minister indicated Friday.
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South Korea will propose that a summit with North Korea be held on October 2-4 following a request from Pyongyang to postpone the meeting originally planned for the end of this month, South Korea’s YTN TV said on Saturday.
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President Roh Moo-hyun will travel to Pyongyang through a reconnected cross-border road later this month for a second inter-Korean summit, the Ministry of Unification said Tuesday.
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Le président sud-coréen Roh Moo- hyun a fait part de ses espoirs portant sur le prochain sommet inter-coréen qui pourra aider à normaliser les relations entre la Corée du Sud et la République populaire démocratique de Corée (RPDC), a déclaré mercredi le porte-parole de M. Roh, Cheon Ho-seon.
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Leaders of South and North Korea agreed to hold the second-ever inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang, the North’s capital, on Aug. 28-30, raising fresh hopes for denuclearization and permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula, Roh’s office Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday.
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President Roh Moo Hyun will visit Pyongyang from August 28 to 30 under an agreement between Kim Jong Il, chairman of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and Roh Moo Hyun, president of the Republic of Korea.
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Pianist Lee Hee-ah will hold a benefit concert for physically challenged North Koreans on Sept. 1.
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South and North Korean negotiators discussed ways of shipment of diesel oil to the North at the Northern border town of Gaeseong Friday.
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Ri In Mo, former war correspondent of the Korean People’s Army and unconverted long-term prisoner, passed away at 7 a.m. on Saturday at the age of 89.
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Ri In Mo, former unconverted prisonner in South Korea, died Saturday 16, 14 years after he was repatriated to the North. He spended 34 years in prison in South Korea for his refusal to abandon his communist ideology.
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There is no doubt inter-Korean relations have significantly improved since the two Koreas held their first-ever summit in the North’s capital Pyongyang seven years ago.
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The Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said at a ceremony near the Demilitarised Zone, that it was not simply a test run but a way of reconnecting the severed bloodline of the people.
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A pair of passenger trains have crossed the heavily fortified border between North and South Korea for the first time in more than 50 years.
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Despite world tensions over North Korea’s nuclear projects, unity-minded Koreans continue working to refashion ties between the two Koreas.
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South and North Korea yesterday agreed to conduct long-delayed test runs of cross-border railways next month, but failed to reach a final agreement on how to guarantee their safety operations.
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The fifth video meeting of separated families and relatives was held from March 27 through 29 under an agreement reached at the 20th North-South Ministerial Talks.
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Peaceful resolution of the North and South Korea situation will bring more American travelers to Korea, said Walter Keats, president of Asia Pacific Travel.
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Recently I had a very special experience at the March 12-17 Special Conference of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), held in Seoul and at North Korea’s Mt. Kumgang and Kaesung Industrial Complex.
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On March 3rd, during the “Korea is One” meeting in Brussels, Thae Yong Ho, counsellor of the DPRK Embassy in London presented the recent developments in his country. The nuclear issue, the relations with the United States, the division of the Korean peninsula were among the subjects analysed. Here is a part of his frankly speech.
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South and North Korea are to hold working-level talks Wednesday to discuss a safety guarantee for proposed test runs of the reconnected cross-border railways, the Unification Ministry said. Earlier this month, Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to hold a two-day dialogue in the North Korean border city of Kaesong to discuss relevant steps necessary to guarantee the safety of test runs of the railroad.
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The combined number of visitors to a North Korean industrial complex on the inter-Korean border has exceeded 100,000 over the past two years, the [South] Unification Ministry said Friday.
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Despite the heightened tension over North Korea’s missile and nuclear device tests, the number of cross-border visits increased 15.1 percent year-on-year in 2006, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said Thursday.
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As part of a New Year series, The Korea Times met Park Jae-kyu, the former unification minister who played a pivotal role in preparing for the historic inter-Korean summit in 2000, to ask for his opinion on major issues involving North Korea. _ED.
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The number of North Koreans working at a joint North-South industrial complex increased twofold from a year prior, and the value of goods produced there jumped threefold during the same period.
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Opinion poll shows more than half of university students say U.S. hard-line policy caused Korea’s nuclear test.
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Journalist associations from South and North Korea met for the first time in 61 years on Wednesday to discuss ways to promote inter-Korean exchanges and reconciliation.
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Bundang, South Korea, Oct. 22 - With news about the North Korean nuclear crisis flashing on the living room television, Kim Yoon-sup unleashed a verbal barrage of his own at the heavily armed Communist nation, some 60 miles north of this wealthy Seoul suburb.
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South Korea is struggling to digest contradicting reports on whether or when the United States will ease restrictions on a Macau bank, which is accused of having served as a base for North Korea’s alleged illicit financial activities.
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South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said Thursday that his government will continuously try to maintain "friendly" relations with North Korea to safeguard peace on the Korean Peninsula.
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Members of South Korea’s progressive Democratic Labor Party (DLP) arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday for talks expected to cover the rising tension over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
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North Korea plans to use a lightindustry university in its border town of Kaesong to train technicians for an inter- Korean industrial complex in the town, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper in Japan said Monday.
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The Bush administration and the so-called “great powers” are hypocritically trying to create panic over the announcement by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on Oct. 8 that it had successfully detonated a nuclear weapon. U.S. officials have declared it a “threat to international security.”
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The Sept. 14 meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and South Korean leader Roh Moo-hyun highlighted a growing divergence between the two allies over attitudes and strategies towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea) and its nuclear program. However, some progress was made on an issue important to the south Korean people - ending U.S. control over their military.
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The Ministry of Unification will begin providing financial support to South Korean humanitarian aid groups, which have sent, or have plans to send, flood relief materials for North Korean victims beginning early next month.
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[Interview] Top Chinese government think tank scholar outlines Seoul’s options
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People with a hunger for argument are getting a feast these days.
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South Korea will provide North Korea with 20 billion won ($20.6 million) worth of relief goods to help flood victims, a senior Unification Ministry official said on Friday.
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South Korea and North Korea have agreed to hold a joint pro-unification festival in North Korea in mid-August, South Korean promoters said Sunday.
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Kim Soon-kwon, president of the International Corn Foundation (ICF), vividly remembers the time when Kwon Ho-ung, now Pyongyang’s chief delegate to the inter-Korean ministerial talks, and Ra Un-sok, North Korea’s key official involved in inter-Korean businesses at Kaesong and Mt. Kumgang, used to follow him around through the North’s cornfields.
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Inter-Korean events will be held actively from June to August this year. What events will take place in these months?
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A placard displayed in the bar section of the Pyongyang Moran Bar in Taejon reads “Brothers! Nice to meet you,” on an image of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il hugging each other during the historical 2000 South-North Summit. /Korea Times Photo by Yoo Bo-reum
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The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea(DPRK) on Wednesday surprisingly declared the cancellation of test runs of trains across the border with South Korea.
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The resumption of the railroad link between North and South Korea is emblematic of warming North-South relations and a key to the geopolitics and geoeconomics of Northeast Asia and beyond.
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North and South Korean officials met again in the North’s border town of Kaesong Monday to finalize the details of the scheduled test-runs on the countries’ cross-border railways this week, the Unification Ministry said.
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Kang Kum Sil, Seoul mayoral candidate from the Uri Party of south Korea, formally proposed the issue of restoring the tradition of "Seoul-Pyongyang Football Matches" shortly ago.
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The construction of a South Korean "factory apartment" in North Korea is aimed at helping small South Korean companies maintain their local market share, the head of the South’s state-run industrial complex operator said Wednesday.
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A South Korean plans to fly from Pyongyang to Kwangju via Seoul next month, marking the sixth anniversary of the historic inter-Korean summit in June 2000, organizers in Seoul said on Tuesday.
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South Korea’s point man on North Korea on Monday called for efforts to reunify the Koreas, saying unification is not an option but a national task that must be achieved.
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South Korea will begin its shipment of 200,000 tons of fertilizer aid to North Korea on Monday, officials said Sunday.
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South Korea’s Unification Ministry on Sunday denounced U.S. President George W. Bush’s special envoy for human rights in North Korea, accusing him of intervening in Seoul’s internal affairs and harboring prejudiced and distorted views towards inter-Korean relations.
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The 18th north-south ministerial talks were held here from April 21 to 24.
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Jongchon Natural Graphite Mine was commissioned with due ceremony on April 27.
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A group of South Korean scientists visited North Korea on April 4 to attend an inter-Korean science meeting, the South’s science minister said.
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President Roh Moo-hyun Saturday asked South Korean businessmen to proactively participate in inter-Korean economic cooperation projects, saying that business has leeway to move even in cases of political deadlock.
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People stop amazed in front of the Brussels Stock Exchange, in the centre of the city. "Who are those people?" They carefully read the panels that are displayed on the steps. "Oh yes, Korea!"
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It’s not the first time for them to make it side-by-side, but this time they extended the remarkable move to the Winter Olympics where athletes from North and South Korea will march in the opening ceremony.
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Corée du Nord et du Sud défileront ensemble lors des cérémonies d’ouverture et de clôture des jeux Olympiques d’hiver de Turin, en Italie.
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The government is sending coal to North Korea’s border town of Kaesong to help residents beat the cold weather of the winter season.
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The Korea National Red Cross has selected 300 candidates for the online inter-Korean family reunions at Mount Kumgang from March 20-25th.
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On my recent trip to South Korea last November, I was struck by how much reunification was in the air. I first got this impression as I waited at customs at Incheon International Airport.
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The number of South Koreans visiting the North has risen for the ninth straight year.
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Since brief sessions in Beijing in November, the six party talks have been completely stalled and it is far from clear how, when and where they will resume. ? Is it simply matter of sequencing, who should do what first? Could and should Pyongyang be trusted with its pledge? Could or should the North Korean leadership trust the Bush administration?
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The volume of inter-Korean trade was found to have surpassed one-billion U.S. dollars last year for the first time ever.
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As part of a New Year series, The Korea Times met Park Jae-kyu, the former unification minister who played a pivotal role in preparing for the historic inter-Korean summit in 2000, to ask for his opinion on major issues, involving North Korea.
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A four-day inter-Korean ministerial-level meeting opens on Tuesday on the southern resort island of Cheju, as South Korea hopes to persuade the North to reaffirm unimplemented agreements reached during previous meetings.
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A South Korean tourist visiting North Korea has given birth to a baby girl in the socialist country, a spokesperson for the tour organizer said Tuesday.
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A Pyongyang-Nampho marathon for reunification took place on Nov. 24. It was participated in by marathon fans from the north and the south.
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A group of South Koreans left for the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on Wednesday to take part in a marathon event there this week.
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Following is a message by [South Korean] Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on the occasion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
(This article is published on this website as information.)
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The Unification Ministry plans to increase the inter-Korean cooperation fund by 110.3 percent to 2.63 trillion won ($2.19 billion) next year.
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Some four-hundred-40 South Koreans returned home Monday after a three-day reunion with their long-lost kin in North Korea.
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Sports delegates from North and South Korea agreed Tuesday to form a unified team for the 2006 Asian Games in Doha and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
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A delegation of Russian Railways participated in the 14th international coordination meeting devoted to Trans Siberian cargo transit held in Seoul on October 27-28, where participants discussed improving transportation technologies and developing the Trans Siberian infrastructure.
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The agreement between South and North Koreas to form a joint team for the 2006 Asian Games and the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics is a dramatic breakthrough in their histories of sports, as well as of diplomacy.
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An international solidarity meeting of Christians for supporting peace and reunification of the Korean Peninsula took place in Frankfurt from Oct. 19 to 22 under the sponsorship of the German Evangelical Church.
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South and North Korea reaffirmed Tuesday they will field a united team for the the 2006 Asian Games and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the South Korean delegation said in a joint press release.
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The Office of Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation opens Friday at the industrial complex in Kaesong. It marks the first-ever establishment of a permanent South Korean government branch in the North since the nation’s division in 1945.
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The 19th symposium on Yun I Sang music was held at the People’s Palace of Culture Thursday. Officials, artistes from North and South and family members of the musician attented to the event.
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North Korea allowed an unprecedented number of South Korean university students to visit its scenic mountain of Kumgang on Wednesday, a pro-reunification civic group said.
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- Vice Unification Minister Rhee Bong-jo
A top Unification Ministry official said Wednesday that it is time to look at ways of linking the Korean Peninsula to the continent by opening the era of the "Northern economy."
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Le parc industriel de Kaesong, en Corée du Nord, pourra accueillir environ 1 000 usines sud-coréennes d’ici trois ans. Déclaration faite par le ministre sud-coréen de la Réunification.
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After South Korean media complained about a segment in North Korea’s Arirang Festival performance, North Korea cut the offending part from the 80-minute performance, an official here said yesterday.
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Athletes from North and South Korea will jointly enter the opening and closing ceremonies in an Asian regional tournament.
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Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, said Monday he hopes to see a unified inter-Korean Olympic squad at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
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Telephone connection between South Korea and the inter-Korean industrial complex in Kaesong of the North is now in limbo due to deferred approval from the United States related to its export ban on strategic items.
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The body of an unconverted North Korean spy was repatriated to the North through the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom Sunday following an unprecedented decision by the South Korean government.
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North and South will inaugurate an inter-Korean joint venture textile company in Pyongyang Saturday, illustrating the widening cross-border economic cooperation.
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Some three-hundred South Korean civic group activists have arrived in Pyongyang for a friendly visit at the invitation of North Korea.
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Some 300 members from domestic NGOs on inter-Korean cooperation arrived Monday at North Korea’s Sunan Airport for a two-day tour of Pyongyang.
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North Korea has proposed that South Korea’s Lotte Tours Co. take charge of a tour to Kaesong, an ancient city close to the inter-Korean border, a senior official of the company said Tuesday.
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It was not a bumpy ride, but the painstaking process of security checks that bothered South Korean tourists on a tour to Kaesong, a major city in North Korea.
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A group of roughly 140 South Korean civilian delegates left Monday for the North Korean capital to see the communist state’s arts festival involving thousands of young gymnasts, dancers, and musicians.
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The 16th Asian Athletics Championships was closed with due ceremony at the Munhak Stadium in Inchon Sunday. The youth and student cooperation team from the north presented special cheering during the championships, drawing the attention of the spectators.
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South and North Korea will break ground Wednesday for a family reunion center at Mount Kumgang on the North’s east coast, officials here said Tuesday.
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The World Conference in Support of the Independent and Peaceful Reunification of Korea was opened here Saturday. Secretary General of the International Liaison Committee for Reunification and Peace in Korea (CILRECO) Guy Dupre delivered a keynote report at the conference.
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A 20-member delegation of the progressive Democratic Labor Party (DLP) leaves for Pyongyang today. They are scheduled to arrive in the North’s capital tomorrow via Beijing and stay there until Saturday.
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South and North Korea will select a few collective farms in the North for cooperation on agricultural management early next year, a Unification Ministry official said on Sunday.
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South Korea has agreed to provide farming technology and to set up joint agricultural projects with North Korea to ease chronic food shortages there that stem from the communist state’s beleaguered farm sector.
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Seven young women ― all ethnic Koreans from Yanbian, China ― recently created a Korean classical music group. The women are all alumni of the music college at Yanbian University and are attending graduate school at various universities in South Korea.
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On March 17, 2000, when Song Ho-kyung, the vice chairman of North Korea’s Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, met in Beijing with South Korea’s then-Minister of Culture and Tourism, Park Ji-won, he said, "I have come to prepare ‘a grave accident’ in the history of our division."
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Senior North Korean party-officials held an unprecedented meeting with South Korean parliamentarians on Tuesday but skirted talks on Pyongyang’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and international efforts to stop it.
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Grateful for just a video image of the faces of long-separated family members, 226 aging South and North Koreans were able yesterday to see their sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, and brothers and sisters for the first time in decades.
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There is little need for the United States to keep its soldiers in Korea if the South and the North reunify, according to a survey of foreign experts and overseas-based Korean scholars.
Conducted by The Korea Times on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Aug. 15 National Liberation Day, the survey showed a majority of 22 experts out of the total 34 canvassed said that the U.S. would not need to keep its soldiers here after reunification.
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It was a 3-0 win by the South, but it was not the score that counted on this special Sunday evening.
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South and North Korea have joined together to mark 60 years since their liberation from Japanese colonial rule.
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South and North Korean delegates celebrated the 60th anniversary of Liberation Day together in Seoul Monday, calling for unity and peace on the Korean Peninsula while stressing the need to ``fend off unjustified foreign intervention.’’
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A senior North Korean official visiting Seoul will likely deliver messages from his top leader, Kim Jong-il, on such key issues as the nuclear problem and inter-Korean summit, when he meets with South Korea’s President Roh Moo-hyun before returning home on Wednesday.
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Former President Kim Dae-jung officially accepted an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to visit Pyongyang.
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South Korea’s President Roh Moo-hyun called for unity Monday to end an era of division and open a new era of national integrity.
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The South Korean economy is expected to fare well in the next decade and if reunification with North Korea takes place the economy will be further boosted.
That was the view of a majority of panelists looking at Korea’s economic future.
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The South Korean economy is expected to fare well in the next decade and if reunification with North Korea takes place the economy will be further boosted.
That was the view of a majority of panelists looking at Korea’s economic future.
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Religious organizations will hold a variety of events for world peace in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule.
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Although it has been six decades since North and South Korea became divided, the traditional craftsmanship of both nations retains the essence of the Joseon era.
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The two Koreas will jointly celebrate the Aug. 15 Liberation Day in Seoul, the South Korean committee planning celebrations marking Korea’s independence from Japan announced yesterday.
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159 Companies Show Interest in Opening Shop in NK Town
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North and South Korea held matches in the Asian regional football tournament on Thursday. Stadium spectators, almost all of which were South Korean, provided an amazing bipartisan atmosphere in the stadium by chanting "Jokuk Tongil," a call for the unification of Korea.
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For the first time in 12 years, the South Korean national team will play their Northern counterparts in the East Asian Football Championship tournament tonight.
While a friendly atmosphere is expected on the stands of Chonju World Cup Stadium, the match will be nothing more or less than a football match to the players and coaching staff of both teams.
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South and North Korea agreed to formally open rail and road links around late October, government sources here said Sunday.
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"The Simpsons" is an icon of the American middle-class. However, only a few people know that the long-running U.S. animated-cartoon series is partly made in Seoul.
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The marine affairs authorities of South and North Korea agreed to set up a joint fishery zone on the North Korean waters in the West Sea, which will be later extended to the East Sea in the future.
The agreement is part of the six-point results obtained from the three-day working-level consultations on marine cooperation, which ended on Wednesday. South Korean officials commuted from Seoul to the meeting venue in the North by bus each day.
South and North Korea also agreed to join hands in (...)
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The militaries of the both sides of Korea agreed Wednesday to resume stalled work to dismantle propaganda facilities along their land border next week, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said.
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A meeting of Korean writers was held in Pyongyang on July 20, to implement the June 15 joint declaration. The meeting that brought together writers in the north and from the south and overseas was the first of its kind in the history of national division.
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South and North Korea have agreed to play a football match as part of joint Liberation Day celebrations in Seoul next month, the government said Monday.
Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jung-eun proposed the match on behalf of the South Korean government during a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in the North’s port city of Wonsan on Sunday, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hong-jae said.
"North Korean leader Kim Jong-il agreed and said he would send a team," the spokesman told (...)
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By Kim Sung-jin
An agreement reached early Tuesday at the end of inter-Korean economic talks is expected to breathe new life into bilateral trade that has been conducted in a limited way, analysts said.
Issued after overnight marathon negotiations, the 12-point accord calls for increased exchanges of raw materials and mineral resources, among other things.
So far, inter-Korean trade has mostly involved North Korea’s exports of agricultural produce, seafood products and goods made by South (...)
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Following is the gist of a 12-point joint press statement released Thursday by South and North Korea after Cabinet-level talks.
South and North Korea agreed:
1. to send a government delegation to a joint event marking the Aug. 15 Liberation Day in the South and to hold working-level talks on this issue in the North Korean border city of Kaesong in July.
2. to take substantial measures, in accordance with how the atmosphere is prepared, to peacefully resolve the nuclear issue through (...)
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South and North Korea agreed Thursday to take "substantial steps" to resolve the dispute over Pyongyang’s nuclear arms program peacefully through dialogue. In a 12-point joint statement summing up the three-day talks, the two sides also agreed to restore various channels of dialogue.
"South and North Korea agreed to take substantial steps to peacefully resolve the nuclear issue through means of dialogue," South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said in a news conference. Chung (...)
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Foreign Minster Ban Ki-moon and other ranking South Korean officials expressed strong regret Tuesday over the remarks by senior U.S. officials which continued to label North Korea one of the world’s "outposts of tyranny.".
In a speech at a forum arranged by the Washington-based Hudson Institute on Monday, U.S. Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky repeated Washington’s definition of North Korea as one of the four "outposts of tyranny," along with Myanmar, Zimbabwe and Cuba. U.S. (...)
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"Four, three, two, one, unity!" On June 18 evening, 1.000 people made a Marathon of 6.15 km symbolizing the June 15, 2000 inter-Korean declaration.
Among the participants, were members of Youth and Labor unions, including railways, Seoul subway, medical, bank and insurance trade-unionists. Families and children also participated to this joyful event.
From 4 until 77, all the people are considering this event as a symbol of the wish to achieve the peaceful reunification of the Korean (...)
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-il said on Friday his country is willing to rejoin the six-party talks in July, if the U.S. "recognizes and respects" his country, a South Korean envoy said after talks with Kim in Pyongyang.
Unification Minister Chung Dong-young also quoted the North’s leader as saying that his country is still committed to a 1992 accord to keep the Korean Peninsula nuclear free, and that the North has neither given up nor rejected the nuclear talks.
"Kim said the six-party (...)
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The delegation of South authorities headed by unification minister Chung Dong-young visited on June 16 several places in Pyongyang.
The visit has begin on the Pyongyang Metro and the Mansudae Art Studio.
Then, the delegation visited the Tokhung-ri Tomb and the Kangso Three Tombs, relics of the Koguryo Dynasty, which are registered as the world heritage of culture.
(Naenara, June 17, (...)
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The delegation of authorities of the south side led by Minister of Unification Jong Tong Yong, marking the fifth anniversary of the June 15 joint declaration, visited the Tokhung-ri Tomb and the Kangso Three Tombs, relics of the Koguryo Dynasty, recorded as the world heritage of culture.
Earlier, the delegation visited the Pyongyang Metro and the Mansudae Art Studio.
Volleyball and sports amusement games for the June 15 Prize were held at the Ryugyong Jong Ju Yong Gymnasium on the bank (...)
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A meeting for national reunification was held at the April 25 House of Culture on June 15, Pyongyang, to mark the fifth anniversary of the June 15 joint declaration.
Present there were Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, representatives of different circles of the North and South and overseas who are attending the grand festival for national reunification including Kim Ki Nam, vice-chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the (...)
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About 700 representatives from the two sides of Korea kicked off a four-day joint gala on Tuesday to celebrate the fifth anniversary of their first-ever summit, which led to various cross-border economic and cultural exchanges.
They had a grand opening ceremony at Kim Il-sung Stadium, packed with a crowd of more than 100,000 despite rain and windy weather, followed by a dinner party hosted by North Korean Premier Pak Bong-ju at the Mansudae Arts Theater. The stadium was surrounded by (...)
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North Korea is eager to keep its joint tourism project with South Korea on track, and is willing to offer various business concessions to its partners in the South.
With the fifth anniversary of the first summit between the leaders of the divided nation on June 15, 2000, just around the corner, a large-scale construction project is underway at the foot of this scenic mountain on the North’s eastern coast to build attractions for South Korean tourists.
North Korea plans to open a branch of (...)
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South Korean travelers will soon be able to travel by car to a resort town in Mt. Kumgang in North Korea. They will also be able to camp out and cook on the beach.
Kim Yoon-kyu, vice-chairman of Hyundai Asan, operator of the trip to North Korea’s scenic mountain, announced the plan during a media briefing held on the mountain, marking the one millionth South Korean visitor to Mt. Kumgang, on Wednesday.
The group has decided to develop a resort town on the 1-kilometer-long beach from (...)
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The number of South Korean tourists who visited Mt. Kumgang in North Korea has surpassed the 1 million milestone, about six and a half years after the tour programs began.
By Na Jeong-ju Hyundai Asan, which operates the tour programs, said a total of 443,345 South Koreans have visited the area via overland routes since September 2003, bringing the total number of tourists from the South to 1 million, the company said.
"This is a very emotional and meaningful moment," said Kwon (...)
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Miss Cho Myung-ae (23), the first North Korean dancer to appear in a South Korean TV commercial, is enjoying stardom through a fan site established in Daum’s online Caf (cafe.daum.net/cma1004).
On May 18 when it was made public that Cho starred in Samsung Electronic’s Anycall TV commercial, more than 20,000 netizens visited the Caf. With over 4,000 newly registering for only two days to view the materials posted on the Caf, the entire Caf members totaled 16,000 in the morning of May 19. (...)
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Pak Gil-yon, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations, delivers a lecture at the University of Toronto in Canada.
By Moon Hae-won
Less two weeks ahead of the fifth anniversary of the historic summit between the leaders of North and South Korea, a high-profile North Korean diplomat stressed the need for the two sides to work out details for North leader Kim Jong-ll’s return visit to South.
"Timing and modality are important. It is a matter to be decided in a context of a summit," Pak (...)
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TV commercials for Samsung’s "Anycall" cell phone featuring North Korean dancer Cho Myong-ae and South Korea’s Lee Hyo-lee will hit the airways from June 11.
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Foreign buyers will be allowed to inspect an inter-Korean industrial complex in the North Korean town of Kaesong, the Unification Ministry announced Friday, predicting a boost in exports for the fledgling project.
North Korea agreed on Tuesday to let international investors tour Kaesong facilities after a request by Seoul, Vice Unification Minister Rhee Bong-jo told reporters. "The North’s decision to permit visits to Kaesong will be helpful in securing foreign markets and attracting (...)
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Hundreds of university students from South and North Korea will convene at the North’s Mount Geumgang Monday to mark the fifth anniversary of the inter-Korean summit.
Over the next two days, five-hundred-50 students, including four-hundred-50 South Koreans, will hold events to mark the signing of the June 15 joint declaration. They will also hold debates on various issues, including Japan’s distortions of history.
In a separate event, Christians from North and South Korea will also convene (...)
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North Korea has sent three cargo vessels to South Korea for the first time in two decades to ship fertilizer aid back.
The ship, Mount Paektu - named after Korea’s highest peak - crossed the inter-Korean maritime border with 44 North Korean crew members aboard. It was expected to return to the North on Wednesday, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
"I have led some 10,000 ships in the past 30 years, but this is the first time I led a North Korean ship, so I was very nervous," (...)
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South and North Korea have agreed to hold minister-level talks in Seoul from June 21 through 24.
The two parts of Korea on Thursday agreed on the South’s provision of 200,000 tons of fertilizer to the North beginning May 21.
The two sides also agreed to send Cabinet members to attend a joint ceremony in Pyongyang to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the historic joint declaration made at the end of the inter-Korean summit talks on June 15, 2000.
Vice Unification Minister Rhee Bong-jo (...)
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More than 30 pro-reunification patriotic organizations in the North, the South and overseas made a common statement. They said their opposition to a war and called for peace and withdrawal of the U.S. forces on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Kwangju Popular Uprising.
The U.S. forces have ruthlessly trampled down upon the Korean nation’s sovereignty and vital rights, keeping south Korea under their occupation for 60 years, the statement noted, and continued:
"It is the (...)
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Une danseuse nord-coréenne, Cho Myong Ae, doit apparaître au côté d’une chanteuse sud-coréenne pour les besoins d’un spot publicitaire vantant les qualités de téléphones portables Samsung.
Cho, 23 ans, membre de la prestigieuse Mansudae Art Troupe, devrait danser avec Lee Hyo-lee, la chanteuse la plus en vogue du moment en Corée du Sud, dans la publicité pour les mobiles Anycall, a fait savoir l’agence publicitaire Cheil Communications mercredi dans un communiqué. Le spot a été tourné à (...)
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A 2005 solidarity meeting of representatives of North and South Korean peasants for implementing the June 15 joint declaration was held at Mt. Kumgang resort on Friday.
The meeting was attended by members of the Agricultural Workers’ of the North side and members of the delegation of the peasants’ headquarters of the South side. The both delegations said that the greatest wish of the Korean nation is the reunification of the country. National independence is a lifeline and a shortcut to (...)
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Leaders of South Korea’s Democratic Labor Party (DLP) and North Korea’s Korean Social Democratic Party (KSDP) will meet in Pyongyang in July, DLP officials said Friday.
By Seo Dong-shin
It will mark the first official inter-Korean meeting of political parties since the nation’s division, if realized.
The two parties held two rounds of a working-level meeting at a hotel on Mt. Kumgang in the North on April 26-28, Lee Jung-mi, a member of the DLP central committee and head the party’s (...)
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KT, South Korea’s leading fixed-line telecom operator, will develop sophisticated software via an outsourcing contract with a Northern program maker.
KT announced yesterday that the North’s Samcholli General Corp. agreed to complete a pair of smart telecom software until the end of November for 164,000 euro. The two programs are seamless voice recognition software and a control system of intelligence network, which can be run under the Internet environment.
"This is not a symbolic move (...)
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A South Korean ship left for North Korea Saturday with US 713,000 worth of equipment and supplies aimed at helping the North contain a bird flu outbreak.
The ship left South Korea’s western port of Incheon and was due to arrive in the North’s western port of Nampo a day later, said officials at South Korea’s Unification Ministry.
The items range from diagnosis kits, antiseptics, disinfectant sprayers to antiseptic-spraying vehicles, they said. The shipment was made at the request of North (...)
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North Korea on Friday thanked South Korea for its offer to help contain an outbreak of bird flu at three chicken farms in Pyongyang and requested that Seoul provide equipment and medical supplies, the Unification Ministry said.
South Korea’s National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service received a telephone call from its Northern counterpart, responding 10 days after Seoul first offered assistance.
"North Korea expressed appreciation and said it hoped the South will provide the (...)
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A dozen trucks from the South crossed the border at Panmunjom to provide vinyl for agriculture to the North.
62 civil groups from the South organized a fund-raising campaign to by vinyl for the North side, for rice planting. They crossed the border at Panmunjom with a dozen trucks on March 25th morning.
The cold weather in the North during the spring and the lack of chemical fertilizer didn’t allow a early farming. But the vinyl will give opportunity to the farmers of the North to (...)
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South Korea will import 40 tons of North Korean chicken this week. The shipment, which may be sold to domestic consumers by next month, represents South Korea’s first approved import of poultry or meat products from the North.
South Korea expected to import 50 tons of chicken every week, or 2,000 tons by the end of the year.
The import of chicken was authorized after South Korean Quarantine and Health inspectors conducted official on-site examinations of North Korean chicken farms and (...)
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"The mural paintings in Koguryo-period tombs are the best oriental paintings," wrote painter and art historian Kim Yong-jun at the beginning of the "The Outline of Joseon Arts." Mr. Kim wrote that if he looked at a Koguryo mural, it is so mystic and powerful that it felt like he was standing in front of a waterfall, not a painting.
Indeed, he wasn’t exaggerating. The powerful panorama of the murals is as grand as a waterfall. In June 2004, a team from the JoongAng Ilbo visited the tombs (...)
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In the lobby of the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, the names of "the greatest musicians in history," selected by teachers at the performing arts center, adorn the walls. Among the 44 names are those of 20th century composers George Gershwin, Bela Bartok, Igor Stravinsky and Isang Yun (1917-95), a Korean-born German musician.
Mr. Yun was highly regarded as a composer in Europe but was not recognized much in his home country. Instead, his life related to Korea was marked by abduction, (...)
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A South Korean pharmaceutical trade group said Saturday it will establish an office in an industrial complex in North Korea to promote the inter-Korean exchange of pharmaceutical products.
The Korea Pharmaceutical Traders Association decided at its annual assembly on Friday to set up the office in the North Korean city of Kaesong to increase the exchange of pharmaceuticals between the two Koreas and stimulate inter-Korean economic cooperation.
"It is a private level exchange center, (...)
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As the famous saying goes, when spoken and written word are lost the country is lost, and when spoken and written word are gained the country is restored. In the same way, the country is divided if the language grows different, and if the language is unified so is the nation.
Scholars from North and South Korea are going to produce a dictionary of the Korean language together, and the news could not be any more welcome. There has been much work towards reunification, but it is really (...)
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South Korean filmmaker Kim Dong-won was awarded the Freedom of Expression Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival for this exceptionally moving film.
By Ilene Solomon
Repatriation follows the lives of 12 North Korean spies who were caught in South Korea during the 1960’s, incarcerated for decades, and finally permitted to return to their homes after the North-South Summit of June 2000.
Brutally tortured in South Korean prisons for up to 45 years, they are referred to as the "unconverted," (...)
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Giving fertilizer aid to North Korea is a separate issue from the six-party talks on nuclear disarmament, said Chung Dong-young, the [South] unification minister, yesterday. Pyongyang had requested 500,000 tons of fertilizer earlier this month.
At the committee on unification, foreign affairs and trade, Mr. Chung said North and South Korea needed to negotiate and fertilizer aid would be discussed during bilateral talks.
He noted that the government could not make a decision on its own as (...)
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A movie that takes a comic look at the two Koreas will become the first South Korean film to be partially shot in the North.
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The sculptress Yun Ryong Suk (72) of the Song-hwa Art Institute was awarded the title of Merited Sculptress. Many people know this veteran sculptress, but few know the shadow in her inner thought.
The Korean war broke out in the 1950s by the aggressive moves of the US imperialists separated Ryong Suk from her mother, brothers and sisters.
Under the care of the Republic, she entered the Pyongyang University of Fine Arts and studied art on a scholarship from the state. Although she got (...)
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South Korea has been agonizing over a recent request from North Korea for an "unusually" large volume of fertilizer aid, officials in Seoul said Sunday.
According to the Korean National Red Cross (KNRC), the North’s Red Cross sent a telephone message on Jan. 13 asking for 500,000 tons of fertilizer for this spring. It marks a large increase from the 300,000 tons that Seoul has shipped to the North every year - 200,000 tons in the spring and the remaining 100,000 tons in the autumn - since (...)
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For the first time in a decade, South Korea has stopped labeling North Korea its "main enemy" but its latest Defense White Paper Friday said it suspects the reclusive state of possessing nuclear weapons.
"The existing expression of ’the main enemy North Korea’ has been replaced by an explanation of the North’s specific military threat, such as its conventional weapons, weapons of mass destruction, and its forward deployment of military power," the Defense Ministry said in briefing notes to (...)
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Kyonggi Province plans to invite a North Korean delegation to a large-scale international peace festival to be held in August at Dorasan Station, which is the last train stop outside of the Demilitarized Zone.
Governor Sohn Hak-kyu has revealed the plan to host the festivity in celebration of the 60th anniversary of liberation from Japanese colonial rule and "Visit Kyonggi Korea 2005."
In an interview with the Asahi Shimbun, Sohn said inter-Korean music and film festivals would take place (...)
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North Korea’s national soccer team is to be sponsored by the Korea Soccer Research Institute, which will provide uniforms and other gear according to Hu Seung-pyo, the institute’s head.
The North’s national squad’s sponsorship contract with the Fila company expired in 2002.
Mr. Hu said the equipment would be made by Adidas’ South Korean branch and would include soccer shoes, bags and training shoes worth 100 million won ($ 97,000). North Korea’s squad is expected to wear the new uniforms (...)
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Unification Minister Chung outlines South Korea’s peace strategy in Berlin, Jan.28 Unification Minister Chung Dong Young, on visit to Germany, declared a plan to offer "comprehensive and concrete aid" to North Korea - massive economic aid - from the moment it begins the process of giving up its nuclear program.
This is quite different from the U.S. position, which states that security guarantees and improvements in relations would be possible only after the North Koreans declared they are (...)
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The ruling Uri Party on Tuesday vowed to pursue an inter-Korean meeting at party or parliamentary level to support the six-way talks for resolving North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
The meeting also aims to come up with possible measures for agricultural cooperation to address food shortages in the communist country, party officials said.
Reps. Song Young-gil, vice director of a fund for inter-Korean economic and cultural cooperation, and Lew Seon-ho will take charge of the efforts to (...)
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Kim Hye-kyung, chairwoman of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), on Thursday criticized Washington’s policy toward Pyongyang, vowing her party will work toward improving inter-Korean relations by boosting party-level exchanges and supporting a possible South-North summit.
"The DLP is currently working on a plan to send delegations to the North and also pushing for active party-level exchanges with the North’s Korea Socialist Democratic Party (KSDP)," Kim told a news conference held at the (...)
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Two major domestic television networks are negotiating with North Korea to cooperate on the production of programs, rekindling exchange efforts in the broadcasting sector that stalled from late last year.
A team from the MBC network will leave for Beijing today to meet with North Korean officials to discuss joint programs, including the popular entertainment show "Exclamation Mark! (Nukkimpyo!)"
On Tuesday, KBS sent representatives to the North Korean city of Kaesong near the truce (...)
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One month after opening a new factory in North Korea, Kang Man-soo, the head of a South Korean kitchenware manufacturing company, says he is confident of the success of his venture in the communist country.
"I think I’ve made the right decision," Kang said of the 6 billion won (US$5.7 million) factory that began operations at an industrial complex in the North’s border city of Kaesong on Dec. 15. "The North Koreans are very cooperative, and I’ve no big problems there."
Kang’s Living Art was (...)
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Seoul prison (Sodaemun prison during Japanese military rule) in South Korea was made a kind of museum. The map of reunified Korea painted on the wall of a cell attracts the attention of visitors.
The map was drawn by Ri Kong Sun, an unconverted prisoner who served 33-year term in prison. He was born into a tenant farmer’s family in Sosan City, South Chungchong Province, on December 3, 1934. He led a dog’s life under Japanese rule before the country’s liberation on August 15, 1945. He joined (...)
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The government eased regulations determining visitors to North Korea’s Mt. Kumgang, enabling criminal suspects to attend the tour programs, the Ministry of Unification said Friday.
"After consultations with relevant ministries, we decided to relax the regulations," Vice Unification Minister Rhee Bong-jo said at a news conference. "Those who are under investigation or are involved in cases pending in courts will be able to join one-day or two-day tour programs to Mt. Kumgang." The new (...)
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South Korean labor organizations will send donations to North Korea to help develop Mount Paekdu, the highest mountain on the Korean Peninsula, officials said Thursday.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, the nation’s two labor union umbrella organizations, said they will donate paving materials, valued at 700 million won (US$675,000), to the construction of a new access road to the mountain.
Mount Paekdu, meaning "head of white stone," (...)
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The South Korean delegation to the ongoing 13th annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF) here has called for countries to welcome the participation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the forum’s future meetings.
"I firmly believe that the participation of the DPRK in the APPF, and ultimately becoming a member thereof, would be an extremely significant step towards the peaceful resolution of the DPRK’s nuclear issue," Kwon Young Ghil from the South (...)
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South Korea’s humanitarian aid to North Korea reached US$256 million last year, the largest figure in a decade, Seoul officials said Tuesday.
The increased aid is mainly due to an outpouring of donations from local citizens following a devastating blast at a train station in Ryongchon, a town near the border with China, in April last year, they said. (Yonhap, January 11, (...)
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The state-run Korea Container Terminal Authority said Monday it plans to make inroads into the development of Nampo port in North Korea.
"We concluded a memorandum of understanding to make a joint venture for such a purpose with Kookyang Shipping Co and Dongnam Shipping Co," the authority said in a statement. Kookyang operates container ships that ply between South Korea’s Incheon port and Nampo.
"As North Korea is aggressively attracting our investment in the Nampo port development, the (...)
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North Korea’s top-quality mineral water, reportedly favored by its leader Kim Jong-il, will hit the South Korean market in the middle of this month, its importer said Monday.
The Shinmyung International Co., a trader based in Seoul, said that 15 tons of the bottled waters, the first shipment from the North’s scenic Mt. Myohyang, arrived at Inchon Port last Friday and currently are undergoing customs clearance.
It is the second time for the South to import mineral water from the North, (...)
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The major papers of Rodong Sinmun, Josoninmingun and Chongnyonjonwi in Pyongyang released a joint New Year editorial on Saturday, elaborating on the main tasks in politics, economy, diplomacy and reunification, citing agricultureas the main task in the new year.
"The master key to the successful solution of all the issues ineconomic construction and the improvement of the people’s living standard lies in decisively increasing agricultural production," the editorial said, adding, (...)
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The papers in Pyongyang on January 1 carried a joint editorial released by Rodong Sinmun, Josoninmingun and Chongnyonjonwi on the occasion of the New Year 2005. Excerpts and titles are selected by Korea is one.
Last year 2004 was a year of worthwhile struggle in which a revolutionary offensive was conducted on the three fronts - politics and ideology, anti-imperialism and military affairs and economy and science - to make a breakthrough toward fresh success in the efforts to build a great (...)
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The pro-reunification news website Tongil News selects 10 important news in 2004. (extracts)
1. Struggle for National Security Law abolition
During the second half of 2004, many citizens went on fight against the National Security Law. This anti-human rights and anti-reunification law is imposed since 56 years. Hundreds of citizens launched intensive struggle for the abolition of the law, including tonsures, candlelight vigil of 1,300 people and hunger strike of more than 600 people.
2. (...)
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South and North Korea agreed to set up cross-border telephone lines to the Kaesong Industrial Complex, situated just north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
KT, South Korea’s largest fixed-line carrier, on Thursday said it had reached an agreement on the telephone lines, which will be the first private telecom gateway through the DMZ in half a century. "With the conclusion of the long-standing telephone-line deal, the biggest stumbling block for the Kaesong project was cleared away. We (...)
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A South Korean , who was serving as head of the inspection section under the 6th ordnance battalion of the U.S. 8th Army Command in South Korea, defected to the northern half of Korea shortly ago.
Kim Ki Ho was born in Kumi City, North Kyongsang Province, on Aug. 10, 1945.
Unable to put up any longer with the disgraceful South Korean society, disillusioned with it where nation’s dignity, sovereignty and human rights are violated at the hand of the U.S., and tolerate the U.S. war moves (...)
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The inter-Korean cooperation, vigorously promoted after the publication of the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration, has been disturbed by the United States in recent months.
A progress in the economic cooperation has been made in various fields - relinking of railway lines and roads along the eastern and western coasts nearly sixty years after their severance, activated tourism on Mt. Kumgang and start of the Kaesong Industrial Zone (KIZ) construction.
But the U.S. is obstructing the KIZ (...)
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A South Korean semiconductor parts maker on Tuesday began operations at a pilot South Korean industrial park in North Korea, government and company officials said.
SJ Tech became the second South Korean firm to operate in the pilot zone of the complex being built by South Korea in the North’s border city of Kaesong, a few kilometers from the tense inter-Korean border.
(Yonhap, December 28, 2004)
Related News:
First model factory starts to operate in Kaesong Industrial (...)
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The Korean nation has conducted many-sided activities to pave the way for independent reunification through national cooperation this year.
Pro-reunification functions and various channels of dialogue and contact including the 13th and 14th ministerial talks took place successfully between the North and the South.
There were the 8th and 9th meetings of the North-South Committee for the Promotion of Economic Cooperation and panel meetings and working-level contacts. They dealt with such (...)
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The first model factory started its operation on December 15 in the first-phase development district of the Kaesong Industrial Zone.
The factory was completed in a one million phyong (one phyong equals to about 36 square feet) area. With a floor space of more than 1,000 phyong, the factory will produce more than 20 kinds of kitchen utensils through the cooperation of Koreans in the North and the South.
The 4.5 billion won ($3.8 million) two-story factory, completed on December 2, was built (...)
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South Korea said Thursday it will send 100,000 tons of corn to North Korea starting late this month as part of donations pledged through the World Food Program (WFP).
The state-owned Agricultural and Fishery Marketing Corp. plans to buy corn from China and ship it directly to the North from a Chinese port, a Unification Ministry official explained.
(Korea Times, December 23, (...)
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South Korea is seeking to issue postal stamps jointly with North Korea next year in an effort to promote inter-Korean conciliation, the postal service agency said Thursday.
Korea Post said it has submitted the plan to the Unification Ministry and the National Intelligence Service for cooperation. The Unification Ministry may contact North Korea early next year to clear the way for the issuance after holding discussions with related South Korean officials over technological problems, the (...)
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Made-in-Kaesong products go on sale in S. Korea
Unification Minister Chung Dong-young will visit North Korea on Wednesday to mark the first production of goods by a South Korean company in the pilot zone of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, just beyond the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone.
It is the first time for Chung to visit North Korea since he joined the Cabinet in June this year.
"We got the notification from the North this morning inviting a group of 400 South Koreans to the (...)
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South and North Korea reached an agreement on the supply of electric power to the Kaesong Industrial Complex, according to the Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) on Friday.
Under the agreement, the South will transfer electric power to the communist North from late next month, marking the first time since the Korean War broke out in 1950.
KEPCO is required to provide 15,000 kilowatts of electricity through above-ground power lines to the complex’s pilot zone, sized at 28,000 pyong (92,400 (...)
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South Korea has opened a 4.2-kilometer road from an observatory in Kosong, Kangwon Province, to the southern limit line of the heavily-fortified Demilitarized Zone Wednesday, the Construction and Transportation Ministry said.
Seoul had hoped to open the East Coast Road, which is linked to Mt. Kumgang in North Korea, together with the Pyongyang government. But the North has not replied to any of the South’s requests for a joint event, officials at the Unification Ministry said.
"The North (...)
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South Korea plans to spend 4 billion won ($3.4 million) over the next three months to resume an inter-Korean tourism program for middle and high school students who want to visit North Korea’s Mt. Kumgang during their winter vacation.
The Unification Ministry in Seoul announced the plan during a news conference on Wednesday with its vice minister Rhee Bong-jo planning to attend the sixth anniversary of Hyundai Asan’s tourism project at the scenic resort on Friday. The parliament’s approval (...)
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Seven Korean-American organizations and 250 individuals put a full page ad on New York Times (October 25, 2004) in connection with U.S. forein policy on Korean peninsula saying "many Koreans believe that U.S. foreign policy dealing with the Korean peninsula in the past three years is flawed. It is flawed in that it is devoid of consistency, lacks relevant historical perspective, is insensitive to cultural nuances, and is based on an arrogant stance, best described as ’Mighty is Right’" (...)
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South Korea plans to open its first liaison office in North Korea next year, a South Korean official told Reuters on Wednesday - an unprecedented move that would station officials in what is still technically an enemy state.
Park Yang-soo, president of the state-run Korea Resources Corporation, said he would visit Pyongyang next month to discuss the plan and ways to cooperate with the North, which has big mineral deposits yet lacks cash and technology to exploit them.
"To cooperate on (...)
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About 1,000 pro-Seoul and pro-Pyongyang residents in Japan are scheduled to hold a joint ceremony calling for unification near the border with North Korea next week, organizers said Wednesday.
The one-day event, slated for Tuesday at Imjingak, a unification pavilion about 54 kilometers northwest of Seoul, is aimed at addressing inter-Korean conflict and creating conditions for unification of the divided countries. (Yonhap, November (...)
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"Normalization of relations between the DPRK and the USA and the adoption of a non-aggression pact will provide a solid foundation for ending the Armistice and replacing it with a Peace Treaty."
The ecumenical “Korean Peninsula - A Flashpoint in North East Asia” consultation concluded on Oct. 21 with a call to “normalize relations between the DPRK (North Korea) and the USA” as a means to “diffusing tension in the region.”
The four-day consultation, which (...)
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Citizen reporter Kim Bia recounts her emotional visit to Mt. Geumgang and crossing of DMZ.
Extracts:
I spent a dream-like two days and one night in the Geumgang Mountains. I had finally set foot in North Korea one year after the opening of overland bus routes for tourists going to the mountains. That place which seemed so far was so near. That far place was in the heart, not the land.
At 6 a.m., our family, which obtained tourism permits at the Geumgangsan Condo in Goseong, got on the bus (...)
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Rep. Chun Jung-bae, floor leader of the ruling Uri Party, called for a second inter-Korean summit Tuesday as part of efforts to resolve the dispute over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs.
In a speech to the National Assembly, Chun also expressed his intention to visit Pyongyang to seek a breakthrough in the stalled government-level talks, including the summit, between the two Koreas.
"I ask for President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-il, to have talks for the future (...)
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One promise of a unified Korea is the reconstruction of a North-South road network that will link the lower half of the Korean Peninsula to Russia and to Europe beyond. It would be a long trip, but Koreans might someday be able to drive from Busan to London.
Historians and engineers foresee the reopening of main roads that will link Seoul with Pyeongyang. Moreover, old rail links are soon to be revived between Seoul and Sinuiju in North Korea, along with a road between Yangyang in the (...)
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South Koreans will be entitled to own properties at the North’s Mt. Kumgang as Pyongyang has approved new real estate regulations for the resort area.
The Seoul government welcomed North Korea’s approval of insurance policies for firms operating at an industrial complex in Kaesong and new real estate regulations for the Mt. Kumgang tourism resort on the North’s east coast. The two decisions were endorsed by the North’s rubber-stamp legislature late last month, North Korea’s state-run news (...)
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Facing a battery of South Korean television cameras, a United States Army officer on Thursday praised the new railroad and four-lane highway that unrolled behind him, passing through breaks in the barbed wire to cross the demilitarized zone into North Korea.
Nearby, his commanding officer, Maj. Gen. Thomas P. Kane of the Air Force, briefed reporters on the 10-fold jump in north-south road traffic since work began last summer on South Korea’s first industrial park in North Korea, in Kaesong, (...)
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South Korea may join forces with the communist North as guests of honor at the world’s largest book fair next year in this western German city, organizers said.
"We want to make our position clear here: we want North Korea to participate at the Guest of Honor of events at the 2005 Frankfurt Book Fair," the general director of the Korean Organizing Committee for the event, Chi Woo Hwang, told reporters.
"We expect North Korea to take part in at least three to four projects, but we cannot (...)
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The South Korean Ministry of Unification said yesterday that Woori Bank had won the rights to set up a bank branch in the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea.
Woori was selected over six other banks bidding to serve the economic cooperation project between North and South Korea. According to a Woori Bank official, the branch office in North Korea will probably open in November. He said the office size and number of employees have not yet been decided.
It will provide banking services (...)
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The South Korean government on Thursday allowed four more companies to do business at the inter-Korean special economic zone in Kaesong, North Korea, which is scheduled to launch in November.
The newly approved companies include SJ Tech, a plastic manufacturer; Hosan Ace, a machinery maker; Shinwon, an apparel firm; and Living Art, a kitchenware maker.
The selected firms have reportedly deleted restricted goods from their lists of equipment, or replaced them with suitable items to be taken (...)
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South Korean technicians will stay in North Korea beginning this week to help build modern railway stations on the northern side of the heavily fortified inter-Korean border, South Korean officials said Sunday.
The unspecified number of technicians, who will stay during the week and return to the South on weekends, will be in charge of providing technical assistance in the building and repairing of railway stations in the North. South Korea will finance the cross-border project by (...)
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A North-South academic conference to commemorate the addition of Koguryo tombs and murals as a United Nations World Heritage Site will be held at Mount Geumgang in North Korea today and tomorrow.
This is the first such meeting of the two Koreas on the ancient kingdom, which occupied much of present-day North Korea and parts of Manchuria. The meeting is sponsored by the North-South Historians’ Council with assistance by the JoongAng Ilbo and the North-South Academic Exchange Council.
The (...)
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The South Korean Unification Ministry said yesterday that shuttle bus services from Seoul to Kaesong in North Korea will begin later this month.
The service is for the benefit of businessmen, workers and officials at the industrial complex to be established there.
On Sept. 20, Hyundai Asan will begin test operations of the bus service five days a week, with two round trips per day. Hyundai was awarded the contract for the service yesterday, the ministry said. Buses will leave from (...)
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Dr. Kim Myong Chol predicts rising risks of nuclear exchange with the United States if John Kerry takes over as new President. He sees military tensions sharpening in the first six months of the next year, noting that the first year of a Kerry administration will be little different from that of the Clinton administration.
Interview with SK Monthly "Wolgan Mal"
He bases his prediction on two things: One is the Democratic candidate’s call for CVID, and the other is growing voices within (...)
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Forget the idea that North Korea is a hermit dictatorship, ruled by a mysterious and invisible throwback to Stalinism, who wants nothing to do with other nations, is driving his people into famine and economic collapse and plans to blow up his neighbors even if that means his own destruction.
That’s the old North Korea of a few years ago, or at least a caricature of it. And it formed the basis for the Bush administration’s plan for dealing with the very real threat of North Korea’s nuclear (...)
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The DPRK won four silver medals and one bronze medal at the 28th Olympic Games in Athens. Meanwhile, the South Korean athletes got a total of 30 medals (9 gold, 12 silver and 9 bronze medals). North and South Korean athletes marched together at the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
During the Olympic games, North and South Korean athletes exchanged, sometimes having joint practice and so on.
Mun Jae Dok, president of the Olympic Committee of the DPRK, and Ri Dong Ho, head of the North (...)
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The Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK promulgated ordinance No. 33 "On Adopting Regulation on Real Estate in Kaesong Industrial Zone" dated July 29, 2004.
The regulation on real estate in Kaesong Industrial Zone requires the Cabinet of the DPRK and institutions concerned to take technical measures to implement the regulation. The regulation has 4 chapters and 58 articles.
Its aim is to establish a strict order in real estate acquisition and deal in the zone and help (...)
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The DPRK government will fulfill its responsibility and mission for global independence and the strengthening and development of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), said the head of the DPRK delegation in his speech at the 14th Non-Aligned Foreign Ministers’ Conference in Durban, South Africa, on August 19.
The DPRK government considers it an avowed principle of its foreign policy to consistently maintain the fundamental principle and idea of the NAM. Norms and order governing international (...)
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The number of South Korean tourists visiting a scenic northern mountain is on the rise, according to a tour operator.
Tours to Mount Kumgang, a scenic resort on North Korea’s east coast, drew about 32,000 people in July, the largest monthly figure since they began in 1998. The tours are almost completely booked for September and October, said Hyundai Asan, the South Korean operator, reflecting South Koreans’ newfound interest in the scenic mountain resort.
The cross-border tour, launched (...)
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A 2004 anti-war rally for peace and independent reunification was reportedly held in Seoul on the evening of August 14 under the sponsorship of the Reunification Solidarity for the Implementation of the June 15 South-North Joint Declaration and the Peace on the Korean Peninsula. It was attended by over 8,000 persons including workers, farmers, students and citizens.
Its participants chanted slogans "Let’s go to the reunified country" and "Let’s break the chain of the S. Korea-U.S. alliance (...)
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The World Culture Open, an international cultural performance competition, will be co-hosted by North and South Korea for the first time this year.
A total of 354 teams from 70 countries that have prepared performances for the event are slated to compete in this year’s World Culture Open 2004, the event’s organizing committee said yesterday. These teams will perform various types of works created by their own countries’ citizens, such as dances and martial art exhibitions. The events (...)
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At the height of the Cold War in the early 1960s, four young U.S. soldiers disappeared from their units in South Korea and crossed the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) into North Korea. Two of the men later died of natural causes in the North. A third - 64-year-old Charles Jenkins - was allowed to leave Pyongyang last month to be reunited with his Japanese wife, an abductee who was released to her homeland two years earlier.
The ailing Jenkins now may face U.S. court martial for (...)
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Hyundai Group announced yesterday that it would invest 6.7 trillion won ($5.8 billion) by 2010. "Now that management is stable, we will activate investment and put efforts into new business models that can fuel growth," group chief executive officer Hyun Jeong-eun said. Ms. Hyun proclaimed the group’s vision at the Federation of Korean Industries headquarters in Seoul. About 500 employees and presidents of Hyundai’s affiliates attended the event.
"We aim to become one of the top 10 business (...)
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South, North Korean medalists together: South Korea’s Jin Jong-oh, left, and North Korea’s Kim Jong-su hold up their silver and bronze medals after they placed second and third respectively in the men’s 50-meters air pistol event Tuesday at the Athens Olympics.
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The first DMZ Peace Marathon Race will be held on Sept. 19 at the Kosok Tourist Complex in Chorwon-gun, Kangwon Province.
The race, co-organized by the Hankook Ilbo, its sister paper The Korea Times, and the Taebongje Athletics Committee, is divided into three categories - a half-marathon course, 10 kilometers and 5 kilometers. The event is sponsored by the Seoul Broadcasting System, and supported by Glami and Kiturami Boiler.
The race will take place at a regular marathon course that was (...)
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The two Koreas’ agreement to end their propaganda war along the border has fallen short, as the two sides failed to meet the deadline to remove the material.
During military talks in June, the two Koreas reached a rare agreement to reduce tensions, including a promise to end propaganda efforts along the heavily guarded Demilitarized Zone. The two sides had agreed to end all such efforts by Aug. 15, Liberation Day. "North Korea did not finish the second stage of work to remove (...)
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For South and North Korea the Athens Olympics have already been a success with the joint march during the opening ceremony as athletes and officials from either side of the demilitarized zone walked hand in hand, showing the world that peace may have a chance.
The lasting impression will be the hundreds of smiling faces beaming behind the Korean peninsula flag, decades of ideology and rivalry pushed aside for at least a few hours.
That goodwill also spilled over into the competition arena (...)
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For Koreans the Athens Summer Olympics are providing something more than just sports competition, as the event is offering a variety of opportunities for South and North Korea to extend their cooperation and exchange in sports.
Lee Yun-taek, president of the Korean Olympic Committee, and Shin Bak-je, manager of the South Korean Olympic team, visited the North Korean office at the Olympic Athletes’ Village and had a meeting with their counterparts Moon Jae-deok and Ri Dong-ho on Wednesday. (...)
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The moment has finally arrived. For the next two weeks millions of people will spend hours in front of the television watching the late-night action as the Athens Olympics unfold.
There will be shouts and sighs, and even tears of joy or regret. But why so the Olympics hold such a special place among Koreans? What is the exuberance that seemingly is drawn out of nowhere? Is it all coming from the Olympians and their competitions?
In the modern era, the Olympics have become something beyond (...)
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A former basketball player was selected as the flag bear for North Korea for the joint march at Friday’s opening ceremony of the Athens Olympic Games.
During the two Koreas’ official meeting on Monday the North said they had designated Kim Sung-ho, 50, to carry the unification flag during the opening gala at the Main Olympic Stadium, the manager of the South Korean Olympic team Shin Bak-je said yesterday. The meeting was held in the North’s office in the Olympic Village from 8 p.m.
Kim, (...)
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The Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland denounced the scheme of the South Korean military to erect a "monument to war" lauding the landing operation of the U.S. imperialist aggression forces at Inchon during the Korean war.
This plan to erect the monument on Wolmi Island, Inchon, is to justify and praise the U.S. imperialists’ brigandish war of aggression over 50 years ago and it is another anti-national criminal act of inciting confrontation, (...)
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South Korea and the United States recently opened discussions on Seoul’s plans to send key facilities and materials for an industrial complex being built in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, according to sources on Friday.
The working-level bilateral talks, which have been underway in Seoul and Washington since last month, focused on a number of key facilities South Korean firms can take to the communist country to run their factories, the officials said.
The industrial complex is (...)
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Song Du-yul, a Korean-German professor who was recently freed from jail after being given a suspended prison term for violating the National Security Laws, on Thursday departed for Germany.
The 59-year-old sociology professor at Munster University boarded a Lufthansa aircraft for Frankfurt. He was accompanied by his wife and lawyer Kim Hyung-tae, who had helped Song with a legal battle at a district court and an appellate court in Seoul. Before Song’s departure, some supporters gathered (...)
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The Ministry of Unification of South Korea posted on its Internet homepage a sheer lie.
It claimed that nuclear scientist of the north Kim Kwang Bin, after turning his coat and running away from the North, testified to the fact that the North developed nukes by use of highly enriched uranium in top secrecy and hid in other places researchers of the existing institute no. 19, nuclear fuel rods and other major facilities while freezing the facilities in Nyongbyon in 1994.
Kim Kwang Bin whom (...)
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The Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea analyses the recent allurement and abduction of many northerners abroad to South Korea.
Recently the South Korean authorities, at the U.S. instigation and under its command, took away hundreds of northerners, mainly women and children, to South Korea in groups after alluring them to Vietnam. As a matter of fact, most of the northerners whom they described as "defectors from the north" are those who fell victim to the (...)
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The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland Thursday issued a statement denouncing the South Korean authorities for their anti-national act of taking a group of "defectors from the north" to South Korea.
The statement said:
The south Korean authorities committed such anti-national act as taking a group of "defectors from the north" to South Korea on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was organized and premeditated allurement, abduction and terrorism committed by the south Korean (...)
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The South Korean government said Wednesday that it is moving to revise existing import regulations to allow chicken and duck meat to be brought in from North Korea.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said it is putting the final touches to revisions to sanitation rules to permit the imports. The exact date for starting to allow the imports has not been set since various political factors need to be considered, but there is a possibility it could start next year.
(Yonhap, July (...)
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On July 27, 1953, the U.S. signed the Korean Armistice Agreement with North Korea and China. South Korea refused to sign the agreement as it was opposed to the cessation of hostilities short of a collapse of the Pyongyang regime. Yet, Seoul was not prepared to continue the war by itself and the Agreement effectively put an end to the warfare that inflicted immeasurable human and material damages on both sides.
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The prosecution has tentatively decided not to impose travel restrictions on Korean-German professor Song Du-yul, who was released from jail last week after a Seoul appellate court sentenced him to a suspended term.
"We have not sought to impose a travel ban on Song yet, and it is unlikely we will prevent him from leaving the country," a prosecution official said.
On Wednesday Song was acquitted of key charges of violating the National Security Law and sentenced to three years in prison (...)
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South Korea’s navy intentionally concealed radio messages it had received from North Korea before firing warning shots at the North’s ship on July 14 out of concerns it might be ordered not to do so, the nation’s military chief said.
Despite the fresh revelation, however, those involved in the misreporting scandal will likely be given mere "verbal warnings" as previously instructed by President Roh Moo-hyun last week, according to officials on Sunday.
While attending a National Assembly (...)
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A solidarity meeting with the Korean people took place in front of the Monument to the Three Charters for National Reunification on July 21.
Alejandro Cao De Benos, chairman of the Korean Friendship Association denounced the Bush administration for increasing its pressure upon the DPRK under the pretext of the nuclear issue, bolstering the combat capability of its forces in south Korea and staging ceaseless large scale war exercises and thereby leading the situation on the Korean peninsula (...)
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The International March for Korea’s Peace and Reunification which started in Pyongyang continued in Kaesong Thursday.
Alejandro Cao de Benos, chairman of the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) who is heading the group, said that it is the unanimous desire of not only the Korean people but the world’s progressives to get the U.S. forces withdrawn from South Korea and reunify Korea independently and peacefully. He called upon the members of the group to dynamically advance toward Korea’s (...)
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A North Korean novelist has been named winner of the 19th Manhae Prize for Literature for the first time since the division of the Korean peninsula over half a century ago.
Hong Sok-jung, 63, was chosen for his novel titled "Hwangjini" [[Hwang Jin-i, a talented kisaeng, or female entertainer, from the middle of the Choson period (1392-1910), was born in Kaesong, North Korea. Hwang was not only beautiful but also gifted in writing, singing, and dancing, making every man of her time lovesick. (...)
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A group of participants in an international march for Korean peace and reunification led by Alejandro Cao de Benos, chairman of the Association for Friendship with the Korean People, arrived in Pyongyang today.
The group made up of members of the association having its branches in at least 60 countries will march from Pyongyang to Panmunjom. It was greeted at the airport by Hong Son Ok, vice-chairperson of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries who is (...)
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Pyongyang Liquor is soon to be sold in the U.S. Pak Il U, 55, a Korean resident in the U.S who is manager of the Dong Woo U.S.A. INC., had an interview with KCNA when he was visiting Pyongyang.
"The publication of the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration gave him a great delight. A way has been paved for the Korean nation to reunify the country by itself.
"I have thought that when all the Koreans in the North, South and overseas are united with a strong sense of patriotism and try to let (...)
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A pro-reunification meeting of educational workers in the North and the South of Korea was held at Mt. Kumgang resort Monday to implement the June 15 joint declaration.
Amid the playing of the song "Glad to See You" the members of the delegations of the north and the south entered the meeting place hands in hands, chanting slogans for reunification such as "National Reunification" and "We Are One." A large Korean peninsula flag was hoisted.
Yun Jong Gon, chairman of the General (...)
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Chong Wa Dae [Blue House, presidential palace] strongly warned the military on Tuesday for failing to properly report last week’s shooting incident involving a North Korean patrol boat in the West Sea, according to officials.
A joint investigation team consisting of nine officials from relevant authorities is interrogating Lt. Gen. Park Seung-chun at the Joint Chiefs of Staff on charges of leaking related secret to some daily newspapers.
Upset by the military’s attitude, the presidential (...)
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The Navy Command of the Korean People’s Army Friday published a communique as regards the south Korean army’s evermore undisguised moves for military provocations in the West Sea of Korea and intensified propaganda against the north.
As already known, the south Korean army announced that a patrol boat of the north side "infiltrated" into the "northern limit line" 0.7 mile at around 5 p.m. Wednesday and combat warships of the south side fired warning shots in the air to check its intrusion (...)
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Participants of the ’DMZ Forum International Conference’ adopted Friday the ’2004 DMZ declaration’ in a bid to register the demilitarized zone on UNESCO’s list of world heritages and to preserve the wildlife sanctuary within the zone as a symbol of natural conservation and world peace.
http://www.dmzforum.org/conference.html
The declaration states that North and South Korea should join hands to place the DMZ on the UNESCO list, analyze the ecological habitat of the environment through (...)
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South Korea’s navy fired warning shots at a suspected North Korean patrol boat on Wednesday, even though it received the North’s radio messages that it was chasing a Chinese fishing boat, according to the Defense Ministry on Friday.
The ministry had initially claimed a South Korean navy ship fired two warning shots to repel a North Korean patrol boat as it had violated the western sea border after ignoring the South’s repeated warning messages. "It is not true that North Korea didn’t (...)
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A report compiled by the Bank of Korea says the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea is expected to produce 24 trillion won in added value annually once its completed in 2012.
According to the central bank’s report, the South-North joint industrial complex would create 100 thousand jobs in the South and 730 thousand jobs in the North by the year 2012.
In addition, the central bank said South Korean small- and medium-sized business firms that would move into the complex would rake in (...)
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Seoul’s education office will send 284 tons of paper to North Korea next week to be made into school textbooks for children there, officials said Friday.
Officials from the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said it has collected 1.5 billion won (US$1.3 million) from 1,200 schools in Seoul for the paper donation. (Yonhap, July 9)
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The Seoul government will send 100,000 tons of rice from its ports to North Korea by the end of this month.
The shipment is part of 400,000 tons the government promised Pyongyang in the annual rice assistance earlier this year. The remaining 300,000 tons will be purchased from overseas and shipped to the North directly starting at the end of August.
Last year, the government purchased the entire shipment of 400,000 tons of rice from the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF) (...)
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Mount Kumgang Hotel, a reborn 22-year-old inn, is fruit of the union of Northern labor and Southern capital and technology, said Hyundai Asan Co., Hyundai Group’s North Korean business unit that has developed the complex.
"The tourism project on Mount Kumgang is not simply a leisure business but a platform for increased economic exchanges and trust between the two Koreas," Hyundai Asan President Kim Yoon-gyu said during the hotel’s opening ceremony.
About 300 North Koreans began their (...)
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George W. Bush was awarded the presidency of the U.S. and assumed the office in 2001. As a world affairs novice, he was encircled by a group of neo-con fanatics and executed a foreign policy based on self-righteousness, arrogance, unilateralism and preemptive attacks.
by Lee Hwal-Woong Three years later, the U.S. is no longer a safe and pleasant place to live and the world peace is utterly disturbed with incessant threats of terror and war.
Afghans and Iraqis suffered most. (...)
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A ceremony for the completion of the site for a model factory in the Kaesong Industrial Zone was held on the occasion of the 1st anniversary of the ground-breaking ceremony of the zone.
Present at the ceremony were Choe Yong Gon, vice-minister of Construction and chairman of the north side to the North-South Committee for the Promotion of Economic Cooperation and from the south side were Jo Kon Sik, vice- minister of Unification, Kim Kwang Rim, vice-minister of Finance and Economy who is (...)
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Chun Jung-bae, floor leader of the governing Uri Party, proposed yesterday that the governing and opposition party leaders jointly visit North Korea for various exchanges, including the opening of inter-Korean parliamentary talks.
"Let us jointly visit North Korea in the near future, and meet with the responsible authorities on ways to encourage exchanges," said Mr. Chun as he spoke on behalf of the Uri Party at the National Assembly yesterday. "Party leaders should work, in a bipartisan (...)
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The north-south military working talks were held in Phaju of south Korea on June 29 and 30.
The talks concerned "the prevention of accidental conflicts in the West Sea, stop to the propaganda in areas along the Military Demarcation Line and the removal of propaganda means". Present there were the military working delegation of the north side led by Senior Colonel Yu Yong Chol of the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces and the military working delegation of the south side led by Col. Mun (...)
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A meeting of peasants of the north and the south was held at Mt. Kumgang resort on June 27.
there were the members of the delegation of the Union of Agricultural Workers of Korea led by Chairman of its Central Committee Sung Sang Sop and the members of the delegation of the south Korean Peasants Solidarity led by Permanent Representative Jong Jae Don.
Women and peasant representatives of the north and the south entered the venue of the meeting holding a large Korean peninsula flag and (...)
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Four years after the Sydney Olympic Games, South Korean and North Korean athletes will again jointly enter the stadium at the opening ceremony of the Athens Games.
Yesterday, at a Beijing meeting, Olympic officials from both countries agreed on the joint entrance to the Summer Games.
Both teams will enter the stadium under the name "Korea." The anthem played will be the folk song "Arirang"; the flag will depict the peninsula in blue on white. The flag bearers, whose names will be (...)
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More than 1,300 participants from South and North Korea attended to a civic festival celebrating the fourth anniversary of the first inter-Korean summit. The are resolved to make 2005 the "first year of reunification."
On the opening day of The "Fourth Joint Sports and Culture Festival" kicked off at the Munhak World Cup Stadium in Incheon, west of Seoul, with 103 North Korean delegates attending. The North Koreans, who came here on 14 via an direct inter-Korean air route, will return home (...)
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Hundreds of South Korean tourists made an experimental one-day trip Tuesday to Mount Kumgang, North Korea’s scenic resort on the east coast, Hyundai Asan officials said.
The single-day trip is designed to lure more tourists since Hyundai Asan, an affiliate of South Korea’s conglomerate Hyundai Group, offers only a three-day trip package to the North’s mountain.
(Yonhap, June (...)
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Inter-Korean military working talks were held in Kaesong from June 10 to 12.
Present there were the north side’s delegation led by Senior Colonel Yu Yong Chol and the south side’s delegation led by Colonel Mun Song Muk.
The head of the north side said that the adoption of the "agreement on preventing accidental conflicts in the West Sea and halting the propaganda in the areas along the Military Demarcation Line and removing its means" helps remove the root cause of confrontation.
It (...)
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A South Korean documentary about the lives of North Korean spies who were captured in the South won an award at the Sundance Film Festival in the United States.
The 2003 film "Songhwan" (Repatriation) received the Freedom of Expression Award at the festival, held from Jan. 16 to 25 in Park City, Utah.
The documentary depicts North Korean spies who were jailed in the South but refused to disavow their political beliefs. They were finally returned to their homeland.
Director Kim Dong-won (...)
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The 9th meeting of the North-South Committees for the Promotion of Economic Cooperation was held in Pyongyang between June 2 and 5.
Both sides discussed the issues of boosting inter-Korean economic cooperation in line with the spirit of the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration.
The meeting adopted an agreement signed by the heads of both sides:
Following is the full text of the agreement:
1. The north and south shall ensure that the construction of an experimental district in the (...)
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The second round of the north-south general-level military talks was held at Mt. Solak Resort of the south side on June 3 and 4.
Present there were the north side’s delegation led by Major General of the Korean People’s Army An Ik San and the south side’s delegation with Pak Jong Hwa, commodore of the Defence Ministry as chief delegate.
An agreement on the prevention of accidental conflicts in the West Sea, the suspension of propaganda in the areas along the Military Demarcation Line (...)
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The KOTRA-North Korea Team published a "Guidebook for North Korean Products" (in Korean only) to help South Korean enterprises that are interested in a North Korean business cooperation.
As the first South Korean published book just for introducing North Korean products, this explanatory book includes the purchase situation and relative laws on the North Korean primary items, as well as, another 195 items which need the delivery permission from the South Korean Ministry of Unification. (...)
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Simultaneous masses of Buddhists of the north and the south for greeting Buddha’s Day and praying for the reunification of the country were held at temples across the DPRK on May 26. Present there were office-bearers of the Korean Buddhist Federation, chief priests, monks and believers from temples.
Rites were followed by speeches. Then words of greetings from the chairman of the South Korean Council of Buddhist Orders were conveyed and a joint prayer was read out. The speakers called (...)
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Delegates of Trade Unions from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and South Korea celebrated the May Day on Saturday at the Rungna Islet in Pyongyang and promised to contribute to the reunification of the Korean peninsula.
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More than 60 North Korean spies returned to their homeland in September 2000. They had spent nearly 30 years in a South Korean prison because they refused to disavow their political beliefs. A local documentary looks at their lives and their long and difficult journey home, not only from a political perspective but also from a humanitarian point of view.
The Local documentary "Songhwan (Repatriation)," which will open on March 19, revolves around two North Korean spies, Cho Chang-son and (...)
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Interview with director Kim Dong Won
"Songhwan (Repatriation)," a Korean documentary about the lives of North Korean infiltrators captured in the South during the early sixties, won the Freedom of Expression Award at the this year’s Sundance Film Festival, held January 16 to 25 in Park City, Utah, USA.
Twelve years in the making, it is the story of how the North Korean operatives were returned to the North in September 2000, after almost 30 years in prison. The film will be released in (...)
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On Thursday 24 July our group awaits departure in unicoulered blue. Our blue T-shirts "Korea-is-one" draw the curiosity of Korean passers-by. On this prime day, René Lefort, Frenchman and our eldest participant, sets the tone. "On est prêt à faire face à l’ennemi", meaning "we are ready to face the enemy", he says with a beaming face. In the coaches we practise the slogans we will shout at the demarcation-line : "Migun nagara", which means "Yankee go home" and "Chosonun hanada", meaning : (...)
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Worship services at Bong-Soo Church, Chil-Gol Church and Nang-Rang House Church in Pyong-Yang, North Korea were just like any other services that one might encounter at most Korean-speaking congregations, whether it is in South Korea or in the United States. Members of the General Board of Global Ministries delegation, worshiping as visitors at Nang-Rang House Church, felt moved when two elderly women got up and sang for the delegation a special hymn, “I was a wandering sheep.” (...)
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Those who betrayed the country and fled to South Korea should return to the fold of the nation and to the road of reunification, though belatedly, said Yu Thae Jun, former instructor of the Hamhung Coal Shop of the South Hamgyong Provincial Coal Management Bureau, at a press conference held in Pyongyang.
He came back to the DPRK via a third country shortly ago from South Korea to which he was tricked by the South Korean "Intelligence Service" into going.
As his case shows, the DPRK gives an (...)
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National Reunification Prize Awarded
Marking a further step forward reconciliation of the north and south, 63 unconverted long-term prisoners were repatriated to their homeland Sept. 2 under an agreement reached and signed in June by General Secretary Kim Jong Il and President Kim Dae Jung.
Most of them in their late 60s and 70s, some in wheelchairs and on stretchers, the former prisoners crossed the border in the morning, passing through the truce village of Panmunjom in the (...)
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Before finally returning home Saturday, 73-year-old North Korean Choi Ha-jong, convicted for spying in South Korea, summed up the last half of his life: "One night (in Seoul) cost me 36 years behind bars."
Choi was one of 63 North Koreans - some in wheelchairs and stretchers - who crossed the North-South border with smiles and tears of joy after being held for decades as South Korean prisoners from the 1950-53 Korean War.
The former inmates - convicted of charges such as spying or (...)
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The South and North Korea agreed to restore the damaged section of the Kyongui Railroad Line linking Seoul and Shinuiju, a North Korean city bordering China, for inter-Korean railroad operation in the two Koreas’ high-level officials talks held Sunday through Monday in Seoul. The basic agreement for the coveted project was reached earlier between President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during the first-ever summit in Pyongyang last June.
The railroad project is considered (...)
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When Kim Dong Ki (now 68) was 30, he was sent to South Korea on a spy mission. He was captured and spent 33 years in a South Korean prison. Kim is one of 50 or so the long-term-unconverted prisoners to be repatriated in a few weeks.
Kim has been a resident of the Unification House on Kwangju since his release from prison. He has written a book on his years in South Korea. His book is titled - "Birds Leave Behind Feathers at Each Resting Place (Morning Dew)". This 240+ page book describes (...)
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South Korea and North Korea have agreed to re-establish a rail link that has been broken for half a century. The inter-Korean rail link, while symbolic, also lays the groundwork for overland transportation links from East Asia to Europe via Russia and China. While this promises economic growth and integration in the region, it may also spur increased competition between Russia and China, as they vie for a greater share of the Eurasian shipping.
South and North Korea agreed to re-connect a (...)
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Moon Myong Ja, a journalist with Washington-based U.S.-Asian News Agency, conducted on June 30 an exclusive interview with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. The South Korean newspaper "Daehan Mail" carried an article based on that interview in its July 12, 2000 issue.
By Moon Myong Ja Excerpts of this article follow: The current inter-Korean summit was held amid a fever of enthusiasm of the entire Korean people. How do you assess its success?
I would say its primary significance (...)
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True to the noble will of all the fellow countrymen for the peaceful reunification of the country, Chairman Kim Jong Il of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and President Kim Dae Jung of the Republic of Korea had a historic meeting and summit talks in Pyongyang from June 13 to 15, 2000.
The heads of the north and the south, considering that the current meeting and summit talks, the first of its kind since the division of the country, are events of (...)
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South Korea stopped US President Bill Clinton from launching an air strike against North Korea’s nuclear facilities in June 1994, according to the South Korean president at the time, Kim Young-Sam.
In an interview with the independent Hankyoreh Daily, Kim said a last-minute phone conversation with Clinton saved the Korean peninsula from an imminent war, at the height of an international crisis over North Korea’s nuclear programme.
At that time, the situation was really dangerous, Kim told (...)
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A meeting of students in the north and the south of Korea for implementing the June 15 joint declaration and realizing national cooperation for peace against war was held at Mt. Kumgang resort on July 17 and 18.
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Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jung-eun said Sunday she has agreed with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to develop Mt. Paekdu at the border of North Korea and China and the North Korean city of Kaesong as tourist venues for South Koreans.
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