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Park-N Korea

Yonhap News AgencyMay 22, 2013 06:30

SEOUL, May 22 (Yonhap) -- President Park Geun-hye urged North Korea Wednesday to immediately halt provocations and work with South Korea for peace on their divided peninsula, saying Pyongyang should never expect to gain concessions with bad behavior. "North Korea is continuing threats of provocations while rejecting our proposals for dialogue and launching guided missiles," Park said, dressed in a khaki helicopter jacket, during a ceremony marking the deployment of South Korea's first indigenously developed military helicopter "Surion."

basketball-Koreas

Yonhap News AgencyMay 22, 2013 05:30

SEOUL, May 22 (Yonhap) -- The top South Korean men's professional basketball league said Wednesday it hopes to set up an inter-Korean basketball tournament this summer. The Korean Basketball League (KBL) said it has received permission from the Ministry of Unification, which handles inter-Korean affairs, to contact North Korean basketball officials about organizing an All-Korean event. KBL officials said the tournament, if materialized, will take place in August at a yet-to-be-determined venue in South Korea.

businessmen-NK visit

Yonhap News AgencyMay 22, 2013 04:46

SEOUL, May 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korea won't allow its businessmen to visit their plants in North Korea until their safe passage across the border is guaranteed by Pyongyang through formal channels, a Seoul government official said Wednesday. The two Koreas currently have no direct channel of dialogue after Pyongyang cut off all phone links with Seoul in disputes over a joint industrial complex in the North's border city of Kaesong.

NK-military chief

Yonhap News AgencyMay 22, 2013 02:45

SEOUL, May 22 (Yonhap) -- Former North Korean armed forces minister Kim Kyok-sik has been posted as chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army (KPA), a media report monitored in Seoul said Wednesday. The appointment was confirmed by the Korean Central Television station, which said Kim was one of the dignitaries present at the airport for Choe Ryong-hae's visit to China as the special envoy of the North Korean leader. The report only gave Kim's title and did not say when he was appointed.

Park-N Korea

Yonhap News AgencyMay 22, 2013 02:45

SEOUL, May 22 (Yonhap) -- President Park Geun-hye urged North Korea Wednesday to immediately halt provocations and work with South Korea for peace on their divided peninsula, saying Pyongyang should never expect to gain concessions with bad behavior. "While rejecting our proposals for dialogue, North Korea is continuing threats of provocations while launching guided missiles," Park said, dressed in a khaki military jacket, during a ceremony marking the deployment of South Korea's first indigenously developed military helicopter "Surion."

Koreas-humanitarian aid

Yonhap News AgencyMay 21, 2013 22:30

SEOUL, May 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will seek to rebuild trust with North Korea by offering humanitarian aid to Pyongyang if inter-Korean dialogue is reopened, a top security official said, despite months of high tensions triggered by the North's nuclear test. Ju Chul-ki, the senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs and national security, told senior diplomats on Tuesday that Seoul is willing to "present several proposals to North Korea if (inter-Korean) dialogue resumes."

(News Focus) NK aid-suspension

Yonhap News AgencyMay 21, 2013 22:30

By Lee Joon-sung SEOUL, May 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's private aid to North Korea has effectively been frozen in the face of heightened inter-Korean tensions that are undermining the foundation of local help organizations and hurting mutual trust building efforts, sources said Wednesday.

U.S. envoy on N. Korean human rights cancels visit to S. Korea, Japan

Kyodo News InternationalMay 21, 2013 10:01

U.S. special envoy on North Korean human rights issues Robert King has canceled his visit to South Korea and Japan that was planned to commence last weekend, a State Department spokesman said Monday. Patrick Ventrell told a press briefing that King "regretfully had to cancel his planned travel and speaking engagements to Seoul and Tokyo," adding it was a "logistical matter having to do with flights."

S Korea-Kaesong talks

Yonhap News AgencyMay 21, 2013 07:15

SEOUL, May 21 (Yonhap) -- South Korea urged North Korea Tuesday to accept working-level talks that could help normalize operations of a suspended inter-Korean industrial complex in Kaesong and alleviate local companies that are suffering due to the suspension. The Kaesong Industrial Complex has been shut down since early April when Pyongyang withdrew all of its workers from the 123 South Korean companies there, citing the South's provocations against the communist country.

Park-mission chiefs-peace visions

Yonhap News AgencyMay 21, 2013 04:45

SEOUL, May 21 (Yonhap) -- President Park Geun-hye told South Korea's diplomatic mission chiefs Tuesday to work hard to help the international community speak with one voice to tell North Korea the communist nation cannot rebuild its broken economy while pursuing nuclear ambitions. Park also told the mission chiefs to try to win international support for her visions for promoting peace on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia, known as the "Korean Peninsula trust process" and the "Northeast Asian peace and cooperation initiative," respectively.