Source : Xinhua
SEOUL, MARCH 20 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's computer networks of the main broadcasters and banks were completely paralyzed, media reported Wednesday.
The police said it seemed like to be a cyber attack, the Yonhap News Agency reported.
The computer networks of KBS, MBC and YTN, and those of two banks, Shinhan Bank and Nonghyup were totally stopped at about 2 p. m. local time, according to reports.
The police have yet said the exact reason of the paralysis
Source : RIA Novosti
MOSCOW, March 8 (RIA Novosti) - North Korea is annulling non-aggression deals with South Korea, the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement, according to the state Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Thursday outlining new sanctions against North Korea in the wake of its recent nuclear test. Large-scale South Korean-US military exercises Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, held in March, are believed to be the direct motive for the statement.
The Committee, which plays the role of the North's state agency for relations with the South, also said a joint statement on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula would no longer be in effect, and added that the hotline between the North and the South would be cut off.
The fourth set of UN sanctions is aimed at curbing the activities of North Korean banks suspected of funneling money to the communist regime's nuclear and missile programs.
The resolution includes measures to step up the scrutiny of suspicious North Korean sea and air cargo shipments and expands previous restrictions to encompass three North Korean officials and two entities in the country's weapons industry.
The resolution also condemns the latest North Korean nuclear test "in the strongest terms" for its disregard of previous UN resolutions, bans further ballistic missile launches, nuclear tests "or any other provocation," and demands that North Korea return to the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Russia, which currently holds the UN Security Council’s presidency, issued a statement on Thursday expressing hope that Pyongyang would take the new sanctions seriously and halt further nuclear and ballistic missile development.
North Korea warned Thursday it could launch a preemptive nuclear strike against potential aggressors as the UN Security Council prepared to impose a new set of sanctions on the “rogue” nuclear state. The United States responded by saying it is "fully capable of defending against any North Korean ballistic missile attack."
Earlier in the week, Pyongyang announced that it would annul the 1953 armistice that ended the three-year-long war over the Korean Peninsula in anticipation of the UN vote and the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises involving South Korea and the United States near North Korea's borders.
North Korea conducted a third nuclear test in defiance of UN resolutions and appeals from its neighbors on February 12. The secretive regime previously conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.
Source : Islamic Invitation Turkey
North Korea is preparing for a large-scale military drill in an apparent show of force against ongoing joint South Korea-US exercises, the South’s defense ministry said Monday.
The army, navy and air force drill is planned as a follow-up to the North’s nuclear test last month and a successful long-range rocket launch in December, ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok told reporters, AFP reported.
“We are seeing more evidence of the North’s preparations for a conventional military drill to be staged on a far bigger scale than before, following the missile and nuclear tests,” Kim said.
Large numbers of US and South Korean troops are currently holding an annual joint air, ground and naval field training exercise, which North Korea has denounced as a provocative rehearsal for invasion.
A separate, largely computer-simulated joint exercise involving 3,500 US soldiers and 10,000 South Korean troops is to be held from March 11-21.
Rodong Sinmun, the North’s official party newspaper, slammed the drills on Monday, and said its nuclear weapons were “steel fists of justice” to protect against perceived threats from Seoul.
The North’s nuclear test last month was its third and most powerful to date.
Source : RIA Novosti
MOSCOW, February 12 (RIA Novosti) -An earthquake shook North Korea on Tuesday, prompting reports of a possible nuclear test, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said on Tuesday.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry estimates the power of the presumed blast at 10 Kiloton,
Seismic activity has been detected in North Korea with a 5.0-magnitude earthquake at 11:58 a.m Korean time (02:58 GMT) on Tuesday. The tremor might indicate a nuclear test as earthquakes are rare in North Korea.
The quake’s epicenter was only one km deep, and was close to the North's known nuclear test site.
Yonhap quoted the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) as saying that the seismic event in North Korea showed “clear explosion-like characteristics.”
"The event shows clear explosion-like characteristics and its location is roughly congruent with the 2006 and 2009 DPRK (North Korea) nuclear tests," CTBTO Executive Secretary Tibor Toth said in a statement.
North Korea gave the United States and China an advance notice of conducting a nuclear test the day before, Yonhap said.
The U.N. Security Council will convene for an emergency meeting at 14:00 GMT.
North Korea vowed on January 23 to strengthen its military capabilities and step up its controversial nuclear program. The announcement came as a response to the UN Security Council’s new sanctions on the country over the December rocket launch.
The article was posted at 08:08 and updated on 8:29 to recast and add information in para 6, 8 background in para 9
Source : Xinhua
SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- South Korea is set to launch its Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSVL-1), also known as Naro, at 4 p. m. local time from the Naro Space Center, located 480 kilometers south of Seoul, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology told a press briefing Wednesday.
The rocket, with a Russian-built first stage and a South Korean- developed second stage, failed in its first two launch attempts in 2009 and 2010, and the most recent launch attempt has been delayed since last October because of technical reasons.
Source : Xinhua
SEOUL, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his successor Park Geun-hye met Tuesday with Myanmar's opposition leader and parliamentarian Aung San Suu Kyi, their aides said.
Su Kyi arrived in Seoul a day ago for a five-day trip, during which she is scheduled to receive the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights and attend the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics World Winter Games in PyeongChang.
"Economic development and democratization should go hand in hand," Lee told the pro-democracy icon in their meeting focused on economic and educational exchanges between the two countries, according to his spokesman Lee Mi-yon.
Park, who replaces Lee next month, also met with Su Kyi and voiced hope the two countries will make joint efforts for greater freedom and peace in the region, according to her aides.
The Nobel Peace laureate and leader of the National League for Democracy was released from house arrest in 2010 and became a parliamentarian in the by-election in April 2012.