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Prepare for both provocation and dialogue On Wednesday, North Korea all but nullified the 2018 military agreement with the South as part of its series of phased threats. After suddenly demolishing the inter-Korean liaison office in Gaeseong, Tuesday, the (North) Korean People's Army said that it would dispatch troops to the Mount Geumgang and Gaeseong areas, and reinstall sentry posts and restar..

Japan should not cover up wartime forced labor Japan has again raised the ire of South Koreans over its attempt to cover up wartime forced labor. This attempt comes less than a year after Tokyo imposed trade restrictions last July in retaliation to a ruling by Seoul's top court that ordered Japanese firms to pay compensation to surviving Korean victims of such forced labor. At the center of the ..

North Korea blew up the inter-Korean liaison office in Gaeseong, Tuesday afternoon, following through on an earlier threat to do so. The Ministry of Unification confirmed that the North had blown up the office at 2:49 p.m. following reports of an explosion and smoke from the Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC). The office, set up in September 2018, was one outcome of the Panmunjeom Declaration ann..

'Privileged military service' doubt must be investigated thoroughly A conscript in an Air Force unit in western Seoul is suspected of receiving preferential treatment thanks to what appears to be his father's influence. A man who identified himself as an Air Force noncommissioned officer raised the allegations in an online petition he posted on Cheong Wa Dae's website Thursday. The various privi..

New National Assembly gets off to rocky start The ruling and opposition parties have proved again how difficult it is to overcome their partisanship and form a consensus. This explains why the newly elected National Assembly has got off to a rocky start since it was inaugurated May 30. Partisanship was evident on the first day of the Assembly's plenary session June 5 when lawmakers of the main o..

Radical policy changes needed to put brakes on symptoms of slump The country's current account swung to a big deficit in April from a surplus in March due largely to a sharp decline in exports caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The country posted a $3.12 billion current account deficit in April, compared with a $5.96 billion surplus in March. The shortfall was the biggest since January 2011 whe..

North Korea will take its next step against South Korea, for what it claims to be Seoul's betrayal and crimes against the communist state, it said Saturday, adding that its army has been entrusted to plan and take any necessary action. "I feel it is high time to surely break with the South Korean authorities. We will soon take a next action," Kim Yo-jong, first vice department director of the Ce..

Fears growing over mass infections in Seoul The country's internationally recognized efforts against the coronavirus pandemic may be going up in smoke as the number of new COVID-19 infections is again rising. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 50 new cases Wednesday, raising the country's total to 11,902. We have to express concern about the resurgent coronaviru..

North Korea should stop ramping up tensions and return to dialogue North Korea is drumming up its hostile rhetoric toward South Korea. Quashing any remnants of the peaceful mood created by the historic 2018 Panmunjeom Declaration issued by President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the North announced Tuesday that it was cutting off all communication channels with the South. The ..

NK's offensives should not lead to provocative action North Korea's recent verbal offensives unleashed on both South Korea and the United States are a regrettable reminder that the historic 2018 North Korea-U.S. summit in Singapore did not achieve much in the way of specifics for N.K.'s denuclearization and Korean peace. On the second anniversary of the summit between U.S. President Trump and No..