By Peter Hirschberg and Sangwon Yoon - Feb 2, 2012 South Korea’s chief nuclear envoy is “optimistic” that inducements offered by the U.S. and his country will persuade North Korea’s new leader, Kim Jong Un, to resume talks aimed at ending the regime’s atomic program. “The prospects of the normalization of the relationship between Pyongyang and the international community, [...]
By Sangwon Yoon - Jan 30, 2012 South Korea’s embattled ruling Grand National Party softened its stance toward North Korea in a new policy platform that seeks to appeal to voters ahead of this year’s parliamentary and presidential elections. President Lee Myung Bak’s party today passed a manifesto pledging to restructure social welfare and boost employment, spokesman Hwang Young Chul said [...]
By Sangwon Yoon - Jan 30, 2012 South Korean prosecutors raided the foreign ministry following allegations that a senior diplomat played a key role in a stock manipulation scam involving a diamond mining project in West Africa, Yonhap News reported. Investigators seized computer hard drives and documents from the office of Kim Eun Seok, the former ambassador for [...]
By Sangwon Yoon - Jan 17, 2012 North Korea’s trade expanded more than 20 percent in 2010 to $6.1 billion on growing business with China even as the economy shrank for a second year, South Korea’s national statistics office said. Trade volume increased 22.3 percent in 2010 after a 10.5 percent decline in 2009, Statistics Korea said in its annual [...]
By Sangwon Yoon - Jan 13, 2012 North Korea test-fired short-range missiles off its eastern coast two days ago, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said. Three recently developed KN-02 missiles, which have a range of about 120 kilometers (75 miles), were fired on Jan. 11, said a ministry official who declined to be named, citing military policy. Japan’s Sankei newspaper [...]
By Sangwon Yoon - Jan 9, 2012 North Korea held a military rally to demonstrate allegiance to new leader Kim Jong Un and announced a prisoner pardon to commemorate the birthdays of his father and grandfather, the country’s first two dictators. Navy, army and air force service members yesterday gathered at a memorial plaza in the capital of [...]