Jiyeon Lee

Jiyeon Lee covers South Korea for GlobalPost. She has worked as a journalist in Seoul since 2003 for the foreign media, covering issues from information and technology to North Korea. As a native...

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Jiyeon Lee's Notebook:

November 3, 2009 09:52 ET

N.Korea says it produced more arms-grade plutonium

North Korea said it has reprocessed spent fuel rods at its Yongbyon nuclear plant and has produced more arms-grade plutonium from the material, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.

The announcement was made through the North's state-run news agency which said the country had successfully concluded the reprocessing of 8,000 spent fuel rods at the end of August, according to Yonhap. The reprocessing of the fuel rods would give North Korea more material to build atomic arms.

The move came while relations between the North and South were seemingly improving with increased dialogue between the two countries, and strong signs sent from Pyongyang to the U.S. and the rest of the international community that it is willing to return to the six-party talks.

September 27, 2009 08:14 ET

Separated families reunite with tears in North Korea

Families separated by the Korean War more than half a decade ago embraced again through tears on Saturday at a tourist site in North Korea.

It was the first time they had seen their siblings and children since a heavily fortified border was put up between the two Koreas during the Cold War.

Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to resume family reunions after suspending the event for two years due to escalating political tension after South Korea's conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office.

Roughly 100 people from each side participated in the group reunion, but there are still thousands of people waiting for their turn, hoping to get a chance to see their siblings and children before time runs out. Most separated family members are in their 70s and 80s, and aging quickly.

Since the first reunion, which was implemented after the historic 2000 summit meeting between South Korea's late president Kim Dae-jung and North Korea's Kim Jong-il, approximately 16,000 people have participated in the family reunions.

September 3, 2009 17:42 ET

North Korea in final stages of uranium enrichment

North Korea announced it is in the final stages of successfully enriching uranium, material that can be used to create nuclear weapons, and that it is in the process of weaponizing plutonium extracted from spent fuel rods, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.

Pyongyang said it is not opposed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a statement made through the North's state-run KCNA, which cited a letter to the head of the United Nations Security Council, according to Yonhap.

"We are opposed to the six-party talks that infringes our autonomy and rights for peaceful development, and we have never denied the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the world," KCNA announced.

The statement came as a surprise, since North Korea over the past weeks has shown a reconciliatory attitude by freeing two American hostages as well as South Koreans who were also being held in the country in a separate incident.

 

August 18, 2009 06:17 ET

S Korea's former prez Kim Dae-jung dies

South Korea's former president Kim Dae-jung, who was the first South Korean leader to shake hands with the North's leader Kim Jong-il, died Tuesday at 85 from heart failure. 

Kim, unlike his predecessors, embraced the North and propelled an engagement policy towards the North that would later become known as the Sunshine policy. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 after holding a historic summit with his North Korean counterpart. 

In his earlier years, the former president was a fervent fighter against the military dictatorship in the country. He survived assassination attempts, and was the leading figure in the opposition party until he took office in 1998. 

Kim was recently hospitalized from pneumonia with the local media and public closely monitoring his condition.

The country is in a state of mourning with broadcasters running special reports and programs dedicated to the loss of its former leader.

Kim is the second ex-president South Koreans lost this year, after former leader Roh Moo-hyun committed suicide in May.

 

August 4, 2009 18:14 ET | Updated: August 4, 2009 18:15 ET

North Korea pardons American journalists

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il pardoned two American journalists, who had been held in the country since March, during a surprise meeting with former U.S. President Bill Clinton, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported, citing Pyongyang's KCNA.

Euna Lee and Laura Ling had been detained while filming along the Chinese and North Korean border and were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in June for trespassing and committing "grave crimes." 

KCNA reported that the former president offered his sincere apology for the act of the two reporters and asked that the issue be dealt with on a humanitarian basis, according to Yonhap.

The former president left Pyongyang after staying less than a day in the country, Yonhap reported, but no further details have emerged on how and when the two U.S. reporters will be released.