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SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea is facing a food shortage of around 860,000 tonnes this year, the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation forecast, warning the country could experience a “harsh lean period” as early as next month. The impoverished country, which is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, has long struggled to feed itself, suffering chronic food shortages. Last year, the coronavirus pandemic and a […]
by Claire LEE SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un replaced several senior officials after a “grave incident” in the country’s efforts to defend itself against the coronavirus pandemic, state media reported Wednesday. Pyongyang closed its borders in January last year to defend itself against the pandemic that first emerged in neighbouring China and has gone on to sweep the world. It has not publicly confirmed any cases of the disease […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean state television has aired a citizen’s comment about Kim Jong Un’s “emaciated” condition, a highly unusual broadcast in a country where public discussion of the leader’s health and personal life has always been off-limits. Analysts say the remarks showed authorities were seeking to use the change to Kim’s weight to reinforce loyalty to the regime in desparate times. The impoverished, nuclear-armed country is more isolated than ever behind […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — The US special representative for North Korea on Monday offered to meet with Pyongyang “anywhere, anytime, without preconditions”, with no public contact so far between the Biden administration and the nuclear-armed nation. Sung Kim’s remarks came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last week gave his first reaction to Washington’s recent review of its approach to his isolated country, saying Pyongyang must prepare for both “dialogue and confrontation”. The […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Kim Jong Un has admitted that North Korea’s food situation is “tense”, state media reported Wednesday, sounding the alarm in a country that suffered a devastating famine in the 1990s in which hundreds of thousands died. The impoverished country, which is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, has long struggled to feed itself, suffering chronic food shortages. And last year the coronavirus […]
by Sunghee Hwang SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Nuclear-armed North Korea is advancing on the front lines of cyberwarfare, analysts say, stealing billions of dollars and presenting a clearer and more present danger than its banned weapons programmes. Pyongyang is under multiple international sanctions over its atomic bomb and ballistic missile programmes, which have seen rapid progress under North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. But while the world’s diplomatic focus has been on its nuclear […]
by Shaun TANDON LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday asked North Korea to embrace diplomacy as he briefed allies on a new US strategy that stresses low-key progress rather than Donald Trump’s pageantry. In London for the first in-person Group of Seven meetings in two years, Blinken consulted his counterparts from Japan and South Korea on President Joe Biden’s fresh approach which has already been denounced by Pyongyang. “I […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in urged Joe Biden to open up talks with North Korea on its nuclear weapons and build on the ground-breaking talks his predecessor Donald Trump held with Pyongyang. In an interview with the New York Times published Wednesday, Moon suggested the US president needed to engage directly with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and not consign denuclearization talks to lower-level officials haggling over preliminary details. Moon […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Top security officials of the United States, Japan and South Korea will meet Friday to discuss next steps on North Korea as President Joe Biden completes a policy review. Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, will huddle with his counterparts from South Korea and Japan, Suh Hoon and Shigeru Kitamura, at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Sullivan will share “where we are in terms of our review,” State […]
by By Becca Milfeld with Kang Jin-kyu in Seoul Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Joe Biden warned North Korea Thursday that the United States will “respond accordingly” if it escalates its weapons testing, after Pyongyang fired two suspected ballistic missiles into the sea in its first substantive provocation of the new US administration. The nuclear-armed North has a long history of using weapons tests to ramp up tensions, […]
by Sunghee Hwang SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s influential sister slammed the US and South Korea on Tuesday, state media reported, as the new US secretaries of state and defence began a visit to Tokyo and Seoul. The US and South began joint military exercises last week and Pyongyang’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried a statement from Kim Yo Jong offering “a word of advice to the new administration […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean hackers tried to break into the computer systems of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in a search for information on a coronavirus vaccine and treatment technology, South Korea’s spy agency said Tuesday, according to reports. The impoverished, nuclear-armed North has been under self-imposed isolation since closing its borders in January last year to try to protect itself from the virus that first emerged in neighbouring China and has gone […]
