North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and China’s President Xi Jinping reached a consensus on “important issues,” and agreed to build on their countries’ friendly relations “whatever the international situation,” North Korean state media reported.Xi left the North Korean capital Pyongyang on Friday after a two-day visit, the first by a Chinese leader in 14 years. State-run news agency KCNA issued a report on Saturday of the results of the visit. China is North Korea

North Korea June 23, 2019

A decade after leaving her family behind to flee North Korea, the defector was overwhelmed with excitement when she spoke to her 22-year-old son on the phone for the first time in May after he too escaped into China.While speaking to him again on the phone days later, however, she listened in horror as the safe house where her son and four other North Korean escapees were hiding was raided by Chinese authorities.“I heard voices, someone saying ‘shut up’ in Chinese,” said

National June 18, 2019

Hungary, BUDAPEST (Reuters) -- The South Korean government expects to begin returning to Seoul the remains of some of the victims who died when a tourist boat sank last week in Budapest, an official said on Tuesday, as conditions for exploring the wreckage improved. Twenty-eight people are presumed to have died when The Mermaid, a pleasure boat carrying 33 South Korean tourists and two Hungarian crew, capsized and sank after being hit by a cruise liner in Budapest last Wednesday. Seven Koreans s

Foreign Affairs June 4, 2019

North Korea executed its nuclear envoy to the United States as part of a purge of officials who steered negotiations for a failed summit between leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump, a South Korean newspaper said on Friday.Kim Hyok-chol was executed at Mirim Airport in Pyongyang, along with four Foreign Ministry executives, in March after they were all charged with spying for the United States, the Chosun Ilbo reported, citing an unidentified North Korean source."He was accused

North Korea May 31, 2019

WASHINGTON -- US authorities have arrested a former US Marine who is a member of a group that allegedly raided the North Korean embassy in Madrid in February and stole electronics, two sources familiar with the arrest said on Friday.Christopher Ahn was arrested on Thursday and appeared on Friday in federal court in Los Angeles, according to a law enforcement official and a source close to the group.In a related development, armed US federal agents on Thursday raided the apartment of Adrian Hong,

North Korea April 20, 2019

US Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not reach an agreement at the end of twodays of meetings on Thursday but had constructive discussions on denuclearisation of the North and its economy, the White House said.(Yonhap)"No agreement was reached at this time, but their respective teams look forward to meeting in the future," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement. (Reuters)

North Korea Feb. 28, 2019

Cars stopped and tourists gawked at what appeared to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un wanderingthe streets of Hanoi.Days before the second summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Vietnam's capital, a Kim impersonator appeared on Friday at the Metropole Hotel, a back-up location for the meeting.Howard X, an Australian, has been cashing in his resemblance to North Korea's leader, especially with the haircut, as he engages with the outside world. US President Donald Trump impersonator Ru

World News Feb. 22, 2019

Fast-growing Vietnamese budgetairline VietJet Aviation JSC is expected to sign amajor jet deal with Boeing Co on the sidelines of nextweek's Trump-Kim summit, according to sources familiar with the matter.US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will hold their second summit in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi on Feb 27-28.Holding a signing ceremony during Trump's visit would help emphasize strengthening economic and military ties between the United States and Vietnam. Boeing

World Business Feb. 22, 2019

ROME (Reuters) - North Korea informed Italy last year that the daughter of its acting ambassador had asked to return home after her father left his post in Rome, the Italian foreign ministry said on Wednesday.North Korean diplomat Jo Song Gil and his wife went missing in November, and a South Korean newspaper has reported that they have applied for asylum in an unspecified Western country.Thae Yong Ho, a former deputy North Korean ambassador to Britain who defected to South Korea in 2016, said o

North Korea Feb. 21, 2019

One of 20 undeclared ballistic missile operating bases in North Korea serves as a missile headquarters, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published on Monday.“The Sino-ri missile operating base and the Nodong missiles deployed at this location fit into North Korea’s presumed nuclear military strategy by providing an operational-level nuclear or conventional first strike capability,” the report said. (Yonhap)The discovery of an undeclared missile h

North Korea Jan. 22, 2019

SEOUL -- North Korea on Sunday condemned the US administration for stepping up sanctions and pressure on the nuclear-armed country, warning of a return to “exchanges of fire” and that disarming Pyongyang could be blocked forever. The North’s stinging response came after the United States said on Monday it had introduced sanctions on three North Korean officials, including a top aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, for alleged human rights abuses.  North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (left) and U

North Korea Dec. 16, 2018

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump said on Monday he expected to move ahead with raising tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports to 25 percent from the current 10 percent and repeated his threat to slap tariffs on all remaining imports from China.In an interview with the Wall Street Journal four days ahead of his high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Argentina, Trump said it was “highly unlikely” he would accept China’s request to hold off on the increase, whi

World Business Nov. 27, 2018

A year of warming relations between North and South Korea has raised the prospects of closer ties, if not some form of unification for the still-warring neighbors far in the future. But it might not be obvious in a typical South Korean classroom.“I really don’t know anything,” 17-year-old student Roh Ha-na said. “It’s like only twice a year that the school teaches about unification and national security, and about North Korean life... but I just let most of it go in one ear and out the other.”Th

North Korea Nov. 22, 2018

BERLIN - Germany has earmarked 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to support a consortium looking to produce electric car battery cells and plans to fund a research facility to develop next-generation solid-state batteries, three sources told Reuters.The measures, expected to be announced next week, are designed to reduce the dependence of German carmakers on Asianelectric vehicle (EV) battery suppliers and protect German jobs at risk from the shift away from combustion engines.Berlin's push to shap

World Business Nov. 9, 2018

South Korea is in the grip of a ‘spycam’ epidemic, with covert footage of sex, nudity and urination posted online in what amounts to a “social death penalty” for thousands of women forced to live with a pornographic shadow. The footage may be taken surreptitiously by boyfriends or captured on covert devices as small as car keys. Daily camera checks are now part of life for cleaners in many public toilets. The spy camera phenomenon has reached such epidemic proportions in tech-savvy South Korea,

Social Affairs Oct. 28, 2018