Latest news with #UnificationMinistry
Korea Herald
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Lee Jae Myung appoints vice ministers for unification, interior, agriculture, ocean, disaster management
South Korea's presidential office on Friday announced a list of vice minister-level officials across several ministries. According to Presidential Spokesperson Kang Yu-jung, Kim Nam-jung, a veteran of inter-Korean affairs, was appointed vice minister of the Ministry of Unification. Kim previously served as the standing representative for inter-Korean talks and has worked at the ministry for over 30 years, earning the nickname 'the living history of the Unification Ministry.' At the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Kim Min-jae, currently an assistant vice minister, was promoted to vice minister. Kim Gwang-yong, the ministry's spokesperson, was tapped to head the National Disaster and Safety Management Agency, which plays a key role in crisis response and disaster preparedness. Kang Hyoung-seok, head of the Agricultural Innovation Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, was named its new vice minister. At the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Kim Sung-bum, director of the Marine Policy Bureau, was promoted to vice minister. The presidential office said the appointees were selected for their 'field expertise and institutional knowledge,' and emphasized the importance of leadership that can deliver 'stable and responsive governance' across sectors ranging from agriculture and marine policy to inter-Korean relations and public safety.
Korea Herald
5 days ago
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Anti-North Korea leaflet launches will end if Lee meets us, say abductee families
A South Korean civic group representing families of abductees held in North Korea said it would halt the distribution of anti-Pyongyang leaflets if President Lee Jae-myung takes steps to confirm the abductees' survival and meets with their families. Choi Sung-ryong, head of the Association of the Families of Those Abducted by North Korea, held a news conference on Monday in front of the government complex in Seoul, as the Lee administration cracks down on the sending of anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets across the inter-Korean border. Choi warned that the group would resume sending anti-North Korea leaflets — detailing information about South Koreans abducted after the 1950-53 Korean War — either by balloon or even using drones. The leaflets also include the phrase, "If only Kim Jong-un disappears, our abductees will return.' Choi called on President Lee to meet with the families of the abductees — including Kim Tae-ok, the mother of Lee Min-gyo, who was abducted by North Korea in August 1977, and Kim Sun-rye, the mother of Hong Geon-pyo, who was abducted in August 1978. Both abductees were students at the time. 'If President Lee Jae-myung meets with the two mothers of the students abducted to North Korea and offers them words of comfort, I will stop sending leaflets,' Choi said. 'And not just leaflets. I will also stop other acts of hostility toward North Korea. I ask once again.' The Association of the Families of Those Abducted by North Korea dispersed leaflets on April 27, as well as in May and on June 2, despite repeated requests from the Unification Ministry to exercise restraint. On June 9, the Unification Ministry publicly expressed regret over the group's launch of anti-North Korea leaflets and 'strongly urged' an end to such actions, signaling a shift in stance on the issue under President Lee Jae-myung's administration. Choi underscored that 'our request is simply to verify whether our loved ones are alive through inter-Korean dialogue — and yet the authorities treat us like criminals.' 'Dialogue between the two Koreas needs to happen first. And when it does, we're not even asking for their return right away — we're just saying, let's start by confirming whether they're alive,' Choi said. Choi challenged the rationale behind the Lee administration's decision to ban anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets, which had previously been deemed legal by the courts. 'I won both the first and second trials. The Constitutional Court ruled that this is a matter of freedom of expression. But such rulings have been completely ignored,' Choi told reporters. The Constitutional Court ruled the anti-leaflet law unconstitutional in September 2023, nullifying a provision in the Inter-Korean Relations Development Act that banned such activity. In March 2025, the Seoul High Court also rejected an injunction seeking to halt leaflet campaigns by North Korean activist groups, including one representing families of abductees. In response, the Unification Ministry in Seoul on Monday said the ministry will 'give full consideration to the voices of the families of abductees by North Korea.' 'The Unification Ministry will make its utmost efforts to create conditions for resolving the issue, including the resumption of inter-Korean dialogue,' Koo Byoung-sam, the ministry's spokesperson, said during a televised briefing Koo concurrently admitted that Seoul 'has not previously raised such a matter through the inter-Korean Red Cross channel,' referring to the main communication channel between the two Koreas for discussing humanitarian issues, including the reunions of separated families. However, Koo said the government's 'request to halt leaflet launches does not violate the Constitutional Court's decision, considering the management of the Korean Peninsula situation and the lives and safety of the people.' The South Korean government held an interagency meeting at 10 a.m. on Monday at the government complex in Seoul to discuss the establishment of a comprehensive, pan-government response regarding anti-North Korean leaflet distribution, including preventive measures and punitive measures as instructed by the President, according to the Unification Ministry. The meeting, presided over by Deputy Minister for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs at the Unification Ministry Kang Jong-suk, was attended by working-level officials from the Prime Minister's Office; the National Intelligence Service; the Ministry of the Interior and Safety; the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport; and the National Police Agency. The meeting was held at the order of Lee after an unidentified civic group launched anti-North Korea leaflets on Ganghwa Island early Saturday morning.
NHK
13-06-2025
- Politics
- NHK
North Korea holds launch ceremony for restored destroyer, state TV reports
North Korea's state-run media has reported that a launch ceremony was held on Thursday for a restored destroyer. The vessel had tipped onto its side and partially submerged following a failed launch last month. Korean Central Television reported that the ceremony took place at the Rajin Dockyard in the country's northeast following the completion of repairs. After the May 21 accident, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered that the destroyer be repaired before the ruling party central committee's plenary meeting scheduled for late June. Kim, who attended the event, revealed that the new destroyer is a Choe Hyon-class vessel -- the 5,000-ton warship that North Korea launched in April. He said, "Soon, enemies will experience themselves how provocative and unpleasant it is to sit and watch the ships of an adversary run rampant on the fringes of sovereign waters." Kim also revealed that his country will build two new destroyers of the same or even larger class every year, expressing his intention to boost naval capabilities, including securing strategic abilities in the Pacific. South Korea's Unification Ministry noted that no external defects were confirmed on the newly launched destroyer but said it is necessary to carefully monitor whether the vessel functions properly.
The Sun
12-06-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Noise detente on Korean peninsula as eerie broadcasts end
SEOUL: North Korea appears to have stopped broadcasting strange and unsettling noises along the border, Seoul's military said Thursday, a day after South Korea ceased blaring its own loudspeaker propaganda northwards. The North has been broadcasting a horror movie-esque soundtrack into border areas since last year, as part of an escalating propaganda war between the arch foes. But South Korea's new President Lee Jae-myung, who took office last week after his predecessor was impeached over an abortive martial law declaration, ordered the military to stop blasting K-pop and news reports into the North in a bid to 'restore trust'. 'Today, there was no region where North Korea's noise broadcasts to the South were heard,' Seoul's military said in a statement Thursday. 'The military is closely monitoring related trends in North Korea.' Relations between the two Koreas have been at one of their lowest points in years, with Seoul taking a hard line towards Pyongyang, which has drawn ever closer to Moscow in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But South Korea's new president has vowed to improve relations with the North and reduce tensions on the peninsula, halting the loudspeaker broadcasts Seoul had begun last year in response to a barrage of trash-filled balloons flown southward by Pyongyang. The North claimed the balloons -- which contained toilet paper and other garbage -- were retaliation for similar missives floated northwards by activists in the South, carrying anti-Kim Jong Un propaganda. North Korea resumed its own propaganda broadcasts soon after, sending strange and eerie noises -- such as chilling music and what sounds like bombs exploding -- into the South, prompting complaints from border residents. On Ganghwa island, which is close to the North, the strange noises were last heard Wednesday at around 6:00 pm (0900 GMT), its county councillor Park Heung-yeol told AFP. 'And from 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm yesterday, the North broadcast its propaganda music, instead of the strange noise,' he added. 'I slept so well last night. I had not been able to do that for so long,' another Ganghwa resident An Mi-hee told AFP. 'Cost of their blood' South Korea's Unification Ministry, which oversees contact with the North, said Pyongyang's apparent move to end the noise broadcasts 'helped relieve the suffering of residents in (South Korea's) border areas'. It 'has become a meaningful opportunity to ease inter-Korean military tensions and restore mutual trust,' a ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity. Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, told AFP that the moves were 'an encouraging development.' 'North Korea's halt of its noise broadcasts sends a positive signal to the South,' he said. 'Given the current approach of the new government, a fragile but meaningful peace is likely to hold -- at least for now. There is reason to hope for an improvement in inter-Korean relations,' Lim added. South Korea's Lee has promised a more dovish approach towards Pyongyang, compared with his predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol. On the campaign trail, Lee accused Yoon of deliberately provoking the North to justify his martial law bid in December -- prompting backlash from conservatives. The nuclear-armed North has recently bolstered military ties with Russia, sending at least 14,000 troops to support Moscow's war in Ukraine. On Thursday, North Korean state media quoted leader Kim as saying that ties between the North and Russia have developed into an 'indestructible, genuine' relationship. In a congratulatory message to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the occasion of Russia Day, Kim said the allies' improved ties were 'thanks to... the cost of their blood in the just sacred war to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia.' The two Koreas technically remain at war because the 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Korea Herald
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Korean border goes quiet, Trump overture — Is new breeze blowing?
Silence fell on the inter-Korean border for the first time in about a year, as North Korea abruptly halted its propaganda and noise broadcasts on Thursday — a day after Seoul preemptively paused its own loudspeaker broadcasts along the frontier. While it remains uncertain whether Pyongyang's pause will endure or signals a turning point, the mutual silence has raised cautious hopes at a time when inter-Korean relations are at their lowest ebb. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed Thursday that 'there has been no noise since the last anti-South Korea broadcast was heard late last night on the western front." The South Korean military, however, said it 'is closely monitoring North Korea's movements' to see whether the halt to anti-South Korean propaganda broadcasts will continue. The liberal Lee Jae-myung administration took the proactive step of fully pausing loudspeaker broadcasts along the inter-Korean border as of 2 p.m. Wednesday. The presidential office explained that the move aimed at 'restoring confidence in inter-Korean relations and establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula.' The previous conservative Yoon Suk Yeol administration resumed propaganda broadcasts along the inter-Korean border in June 2024, for the first time in around six years, in response to North Korea's consecutive launches of trash-filled balloons. North Korea had responded to anti-South Korea broadcasts since July last year, transmitting sounds such as screeching metal, ghostly wails and animal noises, which had tormented residents in border areas for nearly a year. 'As North Korea responded to our government's pause of loudspeaker broadcasts toward the North, the suffering of residents in border areas has been alleviated,' a senior Unification Ministry official said on condition of anonymity on Thursday during a closed-door briefing. 'It is assessed that this has served as a meaningful opportunity to ease military tensions between the two Koreas and restore mutual confidence," the official added. The measure followed the Unification Ministry's public call on Monday for civic groups to stop sending anti-North Korea leaflets across the inter-Korean border, marking a shift from the previous policy under the Yoon administration. However, the Unification Ministry official confirmed that 'there are no official communication channels between South and North Korea.' North Korea has refused to answer regularly scheduled military-to-military calls from South Korea since April 7, 2023. The two Koreas are supposed to hold calls twice a day —in the morning and afternoon — via liaison and military hotlines. Pyongyang did not respond to Seoul's call through the liaison hotline Thursday morning, the official added. Inter-Korean relations have entered a prolonged downward spiral, including North Korea's designation of South Korea as an "enemy" state in its constitution. However, the inauguration of President Lee Jae-myung — who has vowed to restore inter-Korean communications and reduce tensions — along with the return of Trump, has raised hopes of a new diplomatic thaw on the Korean Peninsula. Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokesperson, said Wednesday that Trump "remains receptive to correspondence with Kim Jong-un, and he'd like to see the progress that was made at that summit in Singapore, which I know you covered in 2018 during his first term." The White House's response came after NK News, a Seoul-based media outlet specializing in North Korea issues, reported Wednesday that North Korean diplomats in New York had refused to accept a letter from Trump to Kim on multiple occasions, citing an unnamed informed source. Trump and Kim held three in-person summits between 2018 and 2019 and exchanged at least 27 personal letters, according to publicly disclosed records, as key means to build rapport between the two leaders. Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University's Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said North Korea's refusal to receive Trump's letter — if the media report is true — can be seen as Kim telling Trump to first take action. 'It is a message of pressure that preemptive measures — such as a substantive change to the US' hostile policy toward North Korea — must be taken in order to restore leader-to-leader relations and exchanges of personal letters, as in the past,' Lim said. Lim also noted that growing alignment between North Korea and Russia, and internal circumstances in North Korea — such as Kim's goal to inspire anti-South and anti-American sentiment for the regime's stability — could be reasons for its apparently cold response to Trump's letter. 'However, it is difficult to conclude that North Korea's position is fixed and unchanging in the mid-to-long term,' Lim added, pointing to various factors, including developments in the war in Ukraine and consequent changes in US–Russia relations.
