Articles by Choi Si-young
Choi Si-young
siyoungchoi@heraldcorp.com-
North Korea not answering call on military hotline
The military hotline between South and North Korea has remained cut since early June when the North severed all official communication channels between the two countries in protest over launches of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets by defector groups in Seoul. According to the Ministry of National Defense on Tuesday, the North has not been answering a routine daily call from the South, despite its latest suspension of further military action against Seoul. “As far as we know, communic
North Korea July 7, 2020
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[News Focus] S. Korea renews push to engage NK amid doubts
With a top US envoy for North Korea due in Seoul this week, South Korea is making a renewed push to restart the “peninsula peace process,” but prospects are dim with an apparently unwilling North Korea, experts said Monday. Pyongyang said Saturday it would no longer deal with Washington, which it said saw engagement as a tool to power through its political crisis, in a statement by Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui. The message poured cold water on expectations in the South that
North Korea July 6, 2020
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Moon names spy chief as top security adviser
President Moon Jae-in on Friday replaced his top foreign policy and national security officials, naming Suh Hoon director of the National Security Office, top security adviser to the president. Suh, incumbent spy chief, is a longtime veteran on North Korea policy who helped to orchestrate the three inter-Korean summits in 2018. Park Jie-won, a former special envoy to North Korea who met both Kim Jong-un and his late father Kim Jong-il, was named to head the spy agency. The four-term lawmake
Politics July 3, 2020
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S. Korea, Washington mull canceling joint military drills: sources
South Korea and the United States are considering calling off their joint military exercises in August, held twice annually in March and August, due to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, a local report said Friday citing Seoul officials. The two sides were reportedly mulling three options: canceling the drills, scaling them back or forging ahead. The officials said the government at the moment was taking preparations on the assumption that the Combined Forces Command between Seoul and Was
Defense July 3, 2020
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Bolton says Trump could meet Kim to win reelection
US President Donald Trump could push to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for the third time in October to bolster his November reelection, said former national security adviser John Bolton. “If the president felt he was in deep, deep trouble, another meeting with his friend Kim Jong-un might look like something that could turn things upside down again,” Bolton told a video press conference hosted by New York foreign journalists Thursday. But he was doubtful whether the North wo
North Korea July 3, 2020
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Trump-Kim summit unlikely before US election: experts
The leaders of the US and North Korea are unlikely to push for their third summit before November, experts said Thursday, as domestic priorities override foreign policy concerns in the lead-up to the US presidential election in November. President Moon Jae-in floated the idea of a potential Donald Trump-Kim Jong-un meet at a videoconference with EU leaders Tuesday, saying they should try dialogue one more time to revive the stalled denuclearization process. The nuclear talks are stalled over
North Korea July 2, 2020
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US commander reaffirms smooth handover of wartime role
The United States remains dedicated to a successful handover of the wartime operational control to South Korea, said Gen. Robert Abrams, who holds dual roles of commander of the US military here and the Combined Forces Command between Seoul and Washington. “The United States is firmly committed to the successful execution of this alliance plan that will ultimately result in a Republic of Korea four-star leading the Combined Forces Command,” the four-star general said at a defense fo
Defense July 1, 2020
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Number of NK refugees in Q2 hits all-time low
A total of 12 North Korean refugees arrived here between April and June this year, the lowest figure since 2003 when Seoul’s Unification Ministry started compiling the data, it said Wednesday. The figure is down 96 percent from the same period last year, when 320 defectors fled the communist regime. The downward trend was a continuation from the previous quarter -- from January to March -- when 135 North Koreans arrived here, compared to 229 in the same period last year. The coronavirus
North Korea July 1, 2020
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Conscientious objectors file for alternative service
South Korea’s military on Tuesday opened applications for alternative military service to conscientious objectors. The move is in line with the Constitutional Court’s landmark ruling in June 2018 that objectors be given noncombat ways to fulfill their mandatory national service. Applicants who pass a series of fitness tests organized by the Defense Ministry and other expert groups will start their active duty as early as October as workers in correctional centers carrying out day-t
Defense June 30, 2020
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Trump-Kim summit unlikely before US election: US official
A third US-North Korea summit is unlikely before the US presidential election in November, but the door is open to diplomacy, US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said Monday. “I think it’s probably unlikely between now and the US election,” Biegun told a forum hosted by the Washington-based think tank German Marshall Fund when asked about a potential summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The US point man on North Korea, however, sa
North Korea June 30, 2020
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S. Korea readies wartime command takeover
South Korea’s Defense Ministry convened the first of this year’s two meetings on preparations for the transfer of its wartime operational control from the United States, scheduled to be completed by 2022, the ministry said Monday. “The transfer of the wartime operational control will bolster our defense readiness,” Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo said, urging the military to be fully prepared for a successful handover. The meeting, attended by the defense minister, th
Defense June 29, 2020
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North rallies people behind leader Kim amid lingering tensions
North Korea on Monday called on its people to rally behind leader Kim Jong-un amid lingering tensions on the peninsula, marking the fourth anniversary of Kim’s rise to chairman of the State Affairs Commission, the highest leadership institution there. The post was established in 2016 as part of branding the communist regime as a legitimate member of the international community. As chairman, Kim undertook a series of diplomatic breakthroughs including the historic first Washington-Pyongyan
North Korea June 29, 2020
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Tokyo objects to expanded G-7 summit including Seoul: report
The Japanese government has raised objections to the US proposal to invite South Korea to an expanded Group of 7 summit in September, Japan’s Kyodo News reported Sunday, citing diplomatic sources from Washington and Tokyo. In a message relayed to Washington upon its announcement to have Seoul at the table for the first time, along with three other countries, Japan said South Korea prioritizes inter-Korean reconciliation and leans on China, so the engagement would be inconsistent with
Foreign Affairs June 28, 2020
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Defectors’ cash aid to family cut off amid tightened security
North Korea has recently stepped up monitoring of its citizens whose family members have defected to the South, a local news outlet reported Sunday. Defectors here have been sending cash to and corresponding with their family left behind in the North via Chinese brokers, but that has stopped after Pyongyang delegated the job of monitoring defector families to a central party organ in charge of state security, from provincial branches, the report said. The latest inter-Korean crisis over the
North Korea June 28, 2020
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S. Korea, US say effort to disarm NK goes on
On Thursday, defense chiefs of South Korea and the US, Jeong Kyeong-doo and Mark Esper, respectively, vowed to bolster “diplomatic efforts for the complete denuclearization” of North Korea, in a joint statement to mark the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War. Pyongyang should deliver on its promises to denuclearize and stop waging hostilities against Seoul, as agreed at the 2018 Washington-Pyongyang summit and worded in the 2018 inter-Korean military
Defense June 25, 2020
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