Two women accused of the Cold War-style assassination of the half-brother of North Korea’s leader in Malaysia will go on trial in October, a judge said Friday. Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong are accused of rubbing highly toxic VX nerve agent in the face of Kim Jong-Nam as he waited to board … Read more
Two women accused of the Cold War-style assassination of the half-brother of North Korea’s leader in Malaysia are expected to plead not guilty to the murder in court Friday. Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong arrived at a heavily guarded court just outside the capital Kuala Lumpur, wearing bullet-proof vests, and were led … Read more
A crane moves a giant bucket brimming with 40 tonnes of molten steel towards a gangway in North Korea’s Chollima Steel Complex. Flames, smoke and a shower of sparks erupt as a worker thrusts his temperature gauge into the liquid, its tip glowing white-hot as he withdraws it. Ratcheted high up through a cavernous mill, … Read more
Panama announced Tuesday it has opened an embassy in China after cutting diplomatic ties with Taiwan in June. “The opening of the Republic of Panama’s embassy in the People’s Republic of China was done in accordance with the principles that frame the diplomatic relations between both countries,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. The … Read more
Washington’s ban on US citizens travelling to North Korea will have no effect on the country’s tourism industry and Pyongyang does not care about it “at all”, a senior development official insisted Tuesday. The measure is due to be enacted this week and once it goes into force US passports will no longer be valid … Read more
China on Monday defended its repatriation of North Koreans who have escaped across its border after a United Nations envoy voiced concern about increasing detentions and expulsions. Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, said last week he had shared his concerns with Chinese officials in recent months. But … Read more
The US is to ban its citizens from travelling to North Korea. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement that the ban would be published next week in the Federal Register, to come into effect 30 days later. US officials linked the move to the death of jailed American student Otto Warmbier. Once … Read more
The UN’s human rights envoy to North Korea on Friday urged China to stop repatriating escaped defectors to the North, where they face harsh punishment, torture or execution. Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, said he was “alarmed by a surge in detentions and forced repatriations of North … Read more
The United States will bar Americans from travelling to North Korea in the coming weeks, two travel agencies said Friday, a month after a US tourist, student Otto Warmbier, died following his imprisonment by Pyongyang. China-based Young Pioneer Tours, which had taken Warmbier to North Korea, and Koryo Tours said the ban will come into … Read more
Despite global sanctions over its weapons programmes, North Korea’s economy grew at the fastest pace in 17 years thanks to a jump in exports and increased production in mining and other industries, the South’s central bank said Friday. The Bank of Korea (BOK) said the North’s gross domestic product grew 3.9 percent last year — … Read more
South Korea urged the North on Friday to break its silence on an offer of military talks aimed at easing simmering tensions over the hermit state’s nuclear ambitions. Seoul had proposed to hold rare inter-Korea talks this week at the border truce village of Panmunjom to ease hostilities after a series of missile tests this … Read more
North Korea has not responded to South Korea’s offer to hold military talks Friday, Seoul said, dimming prospects of any ease in tensions after Pyongyang tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile. “There has been no response yet,” defence ministry spokesman Moon Sang-Gyun told journalists, adding that preparations were still underway in case the proposed meeting … Read more
North Korea’s tourism agency has launched a website offering holiday options ranging from surfing to rice planting, despite strong US warnings to avoid travel to a nation where several trips have ended in jail. Sixteen Americans have been detained in the past decade in North Korea, including 22-year-old student Otto Warmbier who was given a … Read more
South Korea is investigating the case of a North Korean defector who became a celebrity refugee in Seoul, but recently appeared on Pyongyang television to claim she had returned home from the “hell” of the capitalist South. Lim Ji-Hyun, a female defector in her 20s, arrived in Seoul in 2014 and soon became a public … Read more
South Korea is investigating the case of a North Korean defector who became a celebrity refugee in Seoul, but recently appeared on Pyongyang television to claim she had returned home from the “hell” of the capitalist South. Lim Ji-Hyun, a female defector in her 20s, arrived in Seoul in 2014 and soon became a public … Read more
South Korea on Monday offered to hold rare military talks with the North, aiming to ease tensions after Pyongyang tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile. The offer of talks, the first since South Korea elected dovish President Moon Jae-In, came as the Red Cross in Seoul proposed a separate meeting to discuss reunions of families … Read more
About 800 Ghanaian migrants living in Saudi Arabia illegally have turned themselves in at Ghana’s mission there to be deported. This follows a three-month amnesty granted illegal residents by the Saudi government to leave or be sanctioned. Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway explained in a Citi News interview that the Ghana government is subsidizing the cost … Read more
South Korea’s central bank on Thursday tweaked upwards its growth forecast for Asia’s fourth-largest economy this year, citing strong exports. Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol said the bank was forecasting a 2.8 percent rise in gross domestic growth (GDP), 0.2 percentage points higher than an earlier projection made in April. It was the second … Read more
The number of North Koreans escaping to the South declined sharply in the first half of this year as Pyongyang strengthened controls on its border with China, officials said Wednesday. The DMZ dividing the Korean peninsula is one of the most heavily fortified places in the world, and almost all defectors to the South go … Read more
Teenage male model Han Hyun-Min’s long legs and powerful strut have made him a rising star on South Korean catwalks, but his agent knew there would be a problem in the ethnically homogenous country: he is half black. Han, 16, has a Nigerian father in a society where racial discrimination is widespread and people of … Read more