World English News » North Korea

North Korea criticized for human rights record by UN

admin — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 04:34:51 +0000

A United Nations report urges North Korea to make improvements to its human rights record.

In a Mail & Guardian article, “The report noted that almost nine million people in North Korea were suffering from food shortages, with the World Food Programme (WFP) able to reach fewer than two million of the hungry population due to a shortfall in international aid as countries cut funding in response to Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests.”

full story–>

N. Korea agrees to talks with South

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:34:48 +0000

[The Korea Herald]– North Korea agreed Tuesday to South Korea’s proposal for talks later this week on preventing floods of cross-border rivers and resuming reunions of separated families, government officials in Seoul said, Yonhap News reported.

The North’s latest reconciliatory gesture comes just one day after it abruptly test-fired five short-range missiles in the East Sea.

full story–>

N. Korea received US$2.3 billion through past nuke agreements: lawmaker

admin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:29:20 +0000

[Yonhap News]– North Korea has received some 2.7 trillion won (US$2.29 billion) from South Korea and international partners since 1994 in return for false promises to scrap its nuclear program, according to a lawmaker on Monday.

For the Geneva Framework Agreement reached in 1994, the North received $1.98 billion worth of support from South Korea, the U.S., Japan and the European Union, which was mostly used in building light-water reactors, Rep. Kwon Young-se of the ruling Grand National Party said, citing a report submitted by the foreign ministry.

full story–>

Shih Tung Ngiam

License

China’s premier meets with DPRK top legislator, says bilateral ties enhanced

admin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:26:23 +0000

[Xinhua]– Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met here Monday with Kim Yong Nam, top legislator of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and both sides stressed the need to further strengthen cooperation between the two countries.

Wen, who arrived here Sunday for a three-day visit, said good-neighborliness and generation-after-generation friendship between the two countries serve the fundamental interests of the two peoples.

full story–>

sage@newsmth.org

License

Russian gas project suspended over Korean peninsula tension

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:44:01 +0000

[RIA Novosti]– A project to pump Russian gas to South Korea through a North Korean pipeline has been suspended due to the deterioration in inter-Korean relations, the South Korean Yonhap news agency said on Tuesday.

Choo Kang-soo, head of South Korea’s state-run energy company Kogas, said Seoul would not build the pipeline through North Korea until Pyongyang officially asked the South to do so.

full story–>

S Korea President Lee Myung-Bak offers North ‘grand bargain’

admin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:40:32 +0000

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak has offered North Korea a “grand bargain” to give up its nuclear program in return for aid and security guarantees, warning Pyongyang the proposal may be its last chance.

The conservative leader, speaking in New York ahead of a United Nations summit, criticized the approach of past six-nation talks on North Korea as doing little but rewarding the communist state’s bad behavior.

“We must have a comprehensive and integrated approach to fundamentally resolve the North Korea nuclear issue,” Lee said at the Council on Foreign Relations.

full story–>

Pyongyang says uranium program near completion

admin — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 04:14:22 +0000

North Korea announced yesterday that its process of enriching uranium is nearly complete, giving it a new way to make nuclear bombs as the US and regional powers discuss how to bring Pyongyang back to disarmament talks.

The move raises concerns that North Korea may soon produce uranium-based bombs in addition to those made from plutonium.

The US, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea had been trying for years to persuade North Korea to dismantle its plutonium-based nuclear program, which experts say has yielded enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen bombs, in exchange for much-needed aid.

full story–>

Seb az86556

License

NKorean envoys meet SKorean President Lee

admin — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 04:04:27 +0000

Senior North Korean envoys on Sunday met South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak for the first time since he took office 18 months ago, raising hopes of an end to high tensions on the peninsula.

A presidential official confirmed the meeting at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, which began at 9:00am (0001 GMT) and lasted about 30 minutes.

full story–>

N. Korea urges Japan to drop ‘hostile’ policy, sanctions after election

admin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:35:10 +0000

North Korea wants the next Japanese administration after the upcoming general election to drop Tokyo’s ”hostile” policy toward Pyongyang through the lifting of sanctions and other ice-thawing measures, a North Korean official in charge of Japanese affairs said Wednesday.
In an interview with Kyodo News in Pyongyang, Ro Jong Su, a director-level researcher at the Foreign Ministry, dismissed the claim in some circles in the United States that Japan and South Korea could go nuclear unless the international community stops Pyongyang’s nuclear development, calling such a claim ”outrageous” and ”far from the reality.”

full story–>