Washington: US President Donald Trump confirmed Wednesday that his CIA chief has held secret talks with North Korea’s leader in Pyongyang, as the South said it was exploring paths to a peace deal with the nuclear-armed North. Seoul’s push for discussions on formally declaring an end to inter-Korean hostilities was the latest in a series…

PYEONGYANG: A South Korean envoy told North Korean President Kim Jong Un to end his smoking habit, reported Sky News. Chung Eui-yong, the director of the South Korean National Security Council, advised Kim Jong Un to stop smoking during a conversation. “How about stopping smoking?” he asked him. “It’s bad for your health.” Ri Sol-ju, Kim…

A South Korean court jailed former President Park Geun-hye for 24 years on Friday over a scandal that exposed webs of corruption between political leaders and the country’s conglomerates. Park became South Korea’s first democratically elected leader to be forced from office last year when the Constitutional Court ordered her out over a scandal that…

SEOUL: The Korea politics professor who became a viral sensation after his children interrupted a BBC interview says he has been pulled over by police for selfies and photographed buying milk in the year since the broadcast. Robert Kelly of Pusan National University was commenting on the downfall of impeached president Park Geun-hye when his…

LONDON: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his late father Kim Jong Il used fraudulently obtained Brazilian passports to apply for visas to visit Western countries in the 1990s, five senior Western European security sources told Reuters. While North Korea’s ruling family is known to have used travel documents obtained under false pretences, there…

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump rolled out sanctions against North Korea-linked shipping assets Friday, hailing the package as the “heaviest sanctions ever” levied on the Pyongyang regime. Trump used a speech to conservatives just outside Washington to step up his campaign of “maximum pressure” designed to force North Korea to roll back its weapons programs….

PYEONGCHANG: Pakistani athletes are representing the country in events of Winter Olympics 2018 which are underway in South Korea. According to reports, Muhammad Karim finished at the 72nd spot in the giant slalom event after completing the course in 54.04 second and bagged 225.85 points. He finished ahead of Puerto Rico and North Korea. It…

Supporters waved the Pakistani flag as athlete Syed Haman Shah competed in the ongoing Winter Olympics in South Korea. Skiers Mohammad Karim and Syed Haman Shah along with two officials – Col (R) Mohammad Wali (coach) and Air Commodore (R) Mohammad Sohail (manager) are currently representing Pakistan in the ongoing Winter Games in South Korea.

PYEONGCHANG: Sixteen people were hurt when high winds caused chaos at Gangneung Olympic Park, a major venue of the Pyeongchang Winter Games, organisers said on Thursday. Thirteen staff and three spectators were slightly injured as signs, tents and equipment were blown around at the Park on Wednesday. The plaza, which houses four ice sports arenas,…

PYEONGCHANG: Shaun White pulled off a spectacular final run of the day to win the Pyeongchang snowboard halfpipe title on Wednesday, claiming his third Olympic gold and the 100th Winter Games title for the United States. The 31-year-old scored a brilliant 97.75 points to snatch the title from Japan’s Ayumu Hirano, who was leading on…

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pledged efforts to continue the reconciliatory mood with South Korea as he welcomed back a high-ranking North Korean delegation from their trip to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea, the North’s state-run news agency said Tuesday, Yonhap reported. “It is important to continue making good results by further…

PYEONGCHANG: American teenage sensation Chloe Kim romped to Olympic snowboarding gold in the women’s halfpipe Tuesday before bursting into tears as the enormity of her achievement sunk in. The 17-year-old, who has melted the hearts of home fans in Pyeongchang thanks to her ever-ready smile and Korean heritage, justified her status as the hot favourite…

SEOUL/PYEONGCHANG: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited South Korean President Moon Jae-in for talks in Pyongyang, South Korean officials said on Saturday, setting the stage for the first meeting of Korean leaders in more than 10 years. Any meeting would represent a diplomatic coup for Moon, who swept to power last year on a…

PYEONGCHANG: The two Koreas marched together and South Korea’s president shared a historic handshake with Kim Jong Un’s sister as the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics opened in a spirit of intense rapprochement on Friday. At a glittering but sub-zero ceremony, South and North Korea brought the crowd to its feet as they entered behind the blue-and-white…

LAUSANNE: Dozens of Russian athletes banned from the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics withdrew on Friday their last-minute appeal to a Swiss court aimed at allowing them to compete in the Games. Earlier, 47 Russians implicated in doping lost a final appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which sought to overturn the International Olympic Committee’s…

PYEONGCHANG: The Pyeongchang Winter Olympics opening ceremony got under way in freezing temperatures and a spirit of rapprochement on Friday after the arrival of the highest level North Korean delegation ever seen in the South. Fireworks lit up the sky over the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium, where North Korea’s all-female cheering squad were among the crowd,…

PYEONGCHANG: Pakistan’s four-member national ski squad has reached Seoul, South Korea to participate in Winter Olympics 2018. “Skiers Mohammad Karim and Syed Haman Shah along with two officials – Col (R) Mohammad Wali (coach) and Air Commodore (R) Mohammad Sohail (manager) have reached South Korea to chip in the Winter Olympics,” Obaid-ur-Rehman Abbasi, the spokesman…

DUBAI – Iran has summoned South Korea’s ambassador over media reports that Iranians at the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Winter Games would not receive the latest Samsung mobile phone given as a gift to most other athletes.  The reports said 4,000 of the latest $1,100 Samsung smartphones were being given to athletes attending the Winter Games,…

NEWS DESK: North Korea plans to send its leader Kim Jong-un’s sister to South Korea as part of a delegation to the Winter Olympics, officials in Seoul say, reported The Independent with additional input by Associated Press. Pyongyang notified Seoul that Kim Yo-jong, an increasingly prominent figure in the country’s leadership herself, will accompany Kim…

SEOUL: A group of 280 North Koreans arrived in South Korea on Wednesday, one of the largest peacetime crossings of the inter-Korean border, to spur on athletes from the two Koreas at the Winter Olympics starting Friday, reported Reuters. The delegation, made up mostly of a 229-member cheer squad, reached a border checkpoint by bus…

SEOUL: South Korea’s intelligence agency told lawmakers North Korean hackers could have been behind the $530 million theft of virtual coins from a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange last month, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. The people, who had knowledge of parliament’s intelligence committee proceedings, told Reuters the National Intelligence Service did not…