Tag: NKorea

N. Korea says will ignore US contact unless Washington drops ‘hostile policy’: Yonhap

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea said Thursday it will ignore attempts by the US to contact it, the South’s Yonhap news agency reported, hours before President Joe Biden’s top envoys were to hold talks in Seoul. “No US-DPRK contact nor dialogue can take place until the US withdraws its hostile DPRK policy,” Yonhap cited senior North Korean minister Choe Son Hui as saying in a statement carried by state media. “Therefore, we will […]

Pompeo plays down North Korea ICBM risk

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday played down North Korea’s parading of a massive new long-range missile, saying that agreements reached by President Donald Trump had succeeded in reducing risks. At a military parade Saturday in Pyongyang, leader Kim Jong Un viewed an intercontinental ballistic missile that analysts say is the largest road-mobile, liquid-fueled missile anywhere in the world. But Pompeo, who arranged Trump’s landmark summit with Kim […]

N. Korea’s Kim orders thousands to help typhoon recovery

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered 12,000 elite members of his ruling party based in Pyongyang to help with recovery efforts in two rural provinces lashed by a powerful typhoon, state media reported Sunday. Typhoon Maysak brought days of heavy downpours to the country’s east coast earlier this week even as the North was still reeling from earlier flooding and typhoon damage, and another storm is forecast to […]

Typhoon Maysak lashes South Korea

BUSAN, South Korea (AFP) — At least one person was killed and more than 2,000 people evacuated to temporary shelters in South Korea as a powerful typhoon churned across the peninsula, authorities said Thursday. Typhoon Maysak — named after the Cambodian word for a type of tree — made landfall early Thursday in Busan on the southern coast, knocking down traffic lights and trees and flooding streets. A woman was killed after a strong gust […]

Two Koreas on high alert as typhoon approaches peninsula

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Flights were grounded in South Korea and storm warnings issued on both sides of the Korean peninsula as a typhoon forecast to be one of the most powerful in years made its approach Wednesday. More than 300 domestic departures were cancelled as Typhoon Maysak churned across waters south of the resort island of Jeju packing gusts of up to 162 kilometres per hour (101 miles per hour). South Korean Prime […]

US warns NKorea still pressing ballistic missile development

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US government warned Tuesday that North Korea continues to acquire materials and equipment for its ballistic missile program, despite claims in Washington that Pyongyang has pulled back on its nuclear ambitions. In a joint global “advisory” the Treasury, Commerce and State Departments detailed North Korea’s ongoing efforts to obtain everything from forestry trucks for missile launchers to common metals and materials that can be used in rockets, warning sellers […]

Pompeo hopeful for ‘senior’ talks soon with North Korea

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo voiced hope Wednesday of holding high-level talks soon with North Korea and did not rule out a summit, a break with recent pessimistic signs from both countries. Pompeo, without elaborating, said there was “more discussion than is publicly noticed” with North Korea. “I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to have a senior discussion before too long and hopefully advance the ball,” Pompeo said at […]

Kim hails NKorea’s ‘shining success’ against COVID-19: KCNA

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has praised what he described as his country’s “shining success” in holding off the new coronavirus, according to state-run KCNA news agency Friday. The head of the hermetic totalitarian state spoke at a Worker’s Party politburo meeting on Thursday discussing the impact of the virus, six months after North Korea closed borders and put thousands in to isolation. KCNA reported that after reviewing efforts, Kim […]

N. Korea says millions of leaflets readied against South

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea said on Monday it has readied thousands of balloons and millions of leaflets in preparation for “retaliatory punishment” against South Korea. The detail, in a state media report, came a day after the North said it was preparing to begin an anti-South leaflet campaign following a series of vitriolic condemnations of Seoul because of anti-North leaflets floated over the border. Defectors in the South send such leaflets which […]

EU warns N.Korea against further ‘provocative’ acts

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — The EU on Tuesday warned North Korea against taking further “provocative and damaging steps” after Pyongyang blew up a liaison office near its border with South Korea. The demolition came after days of increasingly virulent rhetoric from the North condemning the South over activists sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets over the border. “The European Union strongly regrets the recent actions by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” an EU spokesperson said in a […]

N. Korea warns US to stay out of inter-Korean affairs

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea rebuked Washington on Thursday for criticizing its decision to cut communication links with Seoul, warning it to stay out of inter-Korean affairs if it wanted to ensure a smooth presidential election. In a statement carried by the KCNA news agency, a senior North Korean foreign ministry official slammed the “double-dealing attitudes” of the US as “disgusting”. Washington should “hold its tongue and mind its internal affairs first”, said […]

UN says both Koreas broke armistice in DMZ shooting

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — An exchange of gunfire between North and South Korean forces in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the peninsula was a violation of the armistice agreement, the United Nations Command (UNC) said Tuesday. The two sides remain technically at war, since fighting in the Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953 that was never replaced with a peace treaty. North Korean gunfire hit a Southern guard post on May 3, prompting […]