Author: Reporter

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un dismissed the U.S.’s intent to resume diplomacy on North Korea’s denuclearization, as she urged Washington to accept her country as a nuclear weapons state and find a new approach to restart talks. Kim Yo Jong’s statement suggested North Korea would only return to talks if the U.S. rewards it for a partial surrender of its nuclear capability. Some experts say U.S. President Donald Trump could still pursue talks with North Korea to make a diplomatic achievement. Trump has recently bragged of his personal ties with Kim Jong Un and...

No more elephant and monkey acts. No more death-defying motorbike stunts. No more singing or acting on stage. Several hundred spectators still clapped constantly when acrobats with Dongchoon Circus Troupe 동춘서커스단, South Korea’s last and 100-year-old circus, twirled on a long suspended fabric, juggled clubs on a large, rotating wheel, and rode a unicycle on a tightrope under the big top. “As I recall the hardship that I’ve gone through, I think I’ve done something significant,” Park Sae-hwan, the head of the circus, said in an interview. “But I also feel a heavy responsibility because if Dongchoon stops, our...

Prisoners of war held for decades after the fighting stopped. Civilian abductees. Defectors. Separated families. They are Koreans who symbolize the decades of division and bitter animosities between North and South Korea, which have been split by a heavily fortified border since the the 1950-53 Korean War. Koreans are not allowed to exchange visits, phone calls, or letters with their loved ones on the other side. July 27 is the 72nd anniversary of the 1953 armistice agreement, which ensured “a complete cessation of hostilities” to the Korean War. Interviews were conducted with Koreans whose pain and sorrow likely will...