North Korea is stepping up efforts to hold back the coronavirus, but the isolated regime will see its people vaccinated in early 2022 at the earliest, market data firm Fitch Solutions said in its latest report on global vaccine distribution. The report categorized countries in the Asia-Pacific regi

South Korea scrambled fighter jets Tuesday to warn Chinese and Russian warplanes that had entered its air defense zone. But the warplanes did not fly into South Korea’s territorial airspace. The Air Defense Identification Zone, which surrounds the territorial airspace of each country, is reco

Former US officials familiar with inter-Korean affairs said Monday that the incoming US administration is not likely to fight hard with South Korea on its ban that criminalizes sending propaganda leaflets into North Korea. A week ago, the parliament passed a bill making cross-border leafleting a fe

North Korea is exploiting the inter-Korean resort town on the east coast near Kumgangsan to pull more concessions from South Korea, and will step up pressure to gain more compromises in the weeks to come, experts told The Korea Herald. The North said Sunday it will expand the South Korean-built tou

North Korea said Sunday that it will expand the inter-Korean resort town on the east coast near Kumgangsan in its own way, in a move seen as trying to rally its people ahead of the January party congress. The regime is expected to unveil a new economic initiative there. In January this year, Pyo

The UN General Assembly on Wednesday strongly condemned North Korea’s “systematic, widespread and gross violations” of human rights in a resolution. The North slammed it as being politicized. In the resolution adopted by consensus, the assembly expressed concern over the “ab

High school dropouts will no longer be exempt from mandatory active duty from next year, South Korea’s Military Manpower Administration said Wednesday. All able-bodied men here aged between 18 and 30 must serve active duty for 18 to 21 months. Currently, those who do not graduate from high sc

US congressmen expressed deep concern over South Korea’s contentious legislation that criminalizes sending propaganda leaflets, along with food and medicine, into North Korea across the inter-Korean border. Defectors have long flown the leaflets in balloons or in bottles across the sea border

US aerospace manufacturer Bell Textron claimed Wednesday its attack helicopter model would be a highly reliable option for South Korea’s military, which is seeking to create an aviation regiment next year. South Korea’s military is divided on whether to deploy local or foreign atta

The United States will seriously consider helping North Korea contain the spread of the coronavirus if it requests such assistance, Robert O’Brien, US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, said Monday. “They (North Korea) have been reticent to ask for outside help fo