SEOUL, October 16 -- North and South Korea held their first high-level military talks in seven years on Wednesday. The discussions took place in the border village of Panmunjom. Al Jazeera's Teresa Bo was granted a rare access to film inside the joint security area on the North Korean side of the border a few days before the meeting.
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PYONGYANG, October 14 -- State media shows Kim Jong-un, using a cane, visiting residential area and science institution after six-week absence. Kim Jong-un, North Korea's leader, has visited a housing development using a cane for support, according to state media reports. Tuesday's development ended a lengthy absence from public view that had prompted speculation over his health and grip on power in the secretive country. Several images on the front page of Tuesday's Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the ruling party, showed Kim smiling and gesturing, surrounded by aides and wearing his signature dark buttoned suit and appearing to be supporting himself with a black cane. Kim, 31, had not appeared in public since attending a concert with his wife on September 3, missing an important political anniversary on Friday as well as a recent session of the country's parliament. Reports from Pyongyang said, "The video had no date in it, so it's not clear exactly when this happened but it appeared on state television on early Tuesday morning." A story in the official KCNA news agency on two public appearances by Kim was dated Tuesday but did not specify on which day he made the visits. It also did not mention Kim's lengthy absence from public view. The KCNA story, which was typical of the state media's chronicling of Kim's activities, said he "gave field guidance" to the new Wisong Scientists Residential District and visited the newly built Natural Energy Institute of the State Academy of Sciences. Health claims denied North Korean officials had denied that Kim's public absence since early September was health-related. Officials in both the US and South Korea had said recently that there were no indications Kim was in political trouble. A source with access to the North's leadership told the Reuters news agency on Thursday that Kim was in firm control of the country but had hurt his leg taking part in a military drill. Kim, who has visibly gained weight since coming to power after his father died of a heart attack in 2011, had been seen walking with a limp since an event with officials in July. His prolonged absence from public view was not the first. In June 2012, six months after coming to power, state media failed to report on or photograph him for 23 days. He reappeared the next month, visiting a dolphinarium. PYONGYANG, October 9 -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is in firm control of his government but has hurt his leg, a source with access to the secretive North’s leadership said on Thursday, playing down speculation over the 31-year-old’s health and grip on power. North Korea’s state media, which usually chronicles Kim’s whereabouts in great detail, has not made any mention of his activities since he attended a concert with his wife on September 3. The source said that Kim hurt his leg while inspecting military exercises. “He ordered all the generals to take part in drills and he took part too. They were crawling and running and rolling around, and he pulled a tendon,” the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity. “He injured his ankle and knee around late August or early September while drilling because he is overweight. He limped around in the beginning but the injury worsened,” the source said. Kim, who has rapidly gained weight since coming to power after his father died of a heart attack in 2011, had been seen walking with a limp since an event with key officials in July, which would imply he may have aggravated an earlier injury. Kim needs about 100 days to recuperate, said the source, whose information could not be independently verified. “Kim Jong Un is in total control,” said the source, who has close ties to Pyongyang and Beijing. Friday is the 69th anniversary of the founding of North Korea’s Workers’ Party, an event Kim has marked in the past two years with a post-midnight visit to the Pyongyang mausoleum where the bodies of his father and grandfather are interred. If Kim does not turn up, it could fuel speculation over the state of his health and whether he may have been sidelined in a power struggle, experts said. “The longer he remains out of the public eye, the more uncertainty about him, and the status of his regime, will grow,” said Curtis Melvin, a researcher at the U.S.-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. Coup reports rubbished North Korean officials have denied that Kim’s public absence since early September is health-related and a US official following North Korea said this week there were no indications he was seriously ill or in political trouble. It remains unclear why a leg injury would keep Kim out of the public eye for so long, although this is not the first time he has been missing from public view. In June 2012, six months after coming to power, state media failed to report on or photograph him for 23 days. He re-surfaced the next month at a dolphinarium. Speculation that Kim’s unusually long absence from public view may be due to ill health was fuelled by a North Korean TV report late last month that said he was suffering from “discomfort”. Some Pyongyang watchers also suggest that Kim may have been sidelined in a power struggle, a scenario they say was reinforced by the unexpected visit on Saturday of a high-level delegation to the closing ceremony of the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea. Another interpretation of that visit holds that it was meant to convey stability in Pyongyang. The source with knowledge of Kim Jong Un’s health said rumours of a coup were “rubbish”. “It would have to be a very subtle coup indeed not to disrupt international travel plans,” said Andray Abrahamian of the Choson Exchange, a Singapore-based NGO running a programme for North Koreans in Southeast Asia. North Korea is a hereditary dictatorship centred on the ruling Kim family. Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, is known to have an official role within the ruling party. His brother, Kim Jong Chol, and his estranged half-brother are not in the public eye. Kim was absent from a September 25 meeting of the Supreme People’s Assembly, or parliament, the first he has not attended since coming to power three years ago. However, Kim’s name has not disappeared from state propaganda. Thursday’s edition of the Workers’ Party newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, carried three letters to Kim from overseas allies on its front page, and has reported on returning athletes from the Asian Games who thanked “the Marshal” for his support during the competition. Abrahamian said it was unlikely Kim had been usurped. “Kim Jong Un has always shared power with other key figures and even if the internal balance of power has shifted, it is unlikely that they would want to remove him, given his unmatchable symbolic value. Again, though, everyone is guessing,” he said. Source: Agencies PYONGYANG, October 8 -- A North Korean official has publicly acknowledged for the first time the existence of "reform through labour'' camps, after a highly critical UN report into the country's human rights record earlier this year, but dismissed the report's accusations. Choe Myong Nam, a North Korean foreign ministry official in charge of UN affairs and human rights issues, briefly discussed the camps with journalists at the UN on Tuesday. "Both in law and practice, we do have reform through labour detention camps - no, detention centres - where people are improved through their mentality and look on their wrongdoings," he said. But he also said his country has no prison camps and, in practice, "no prison, things like that." The UN report, released in February, was compiled from testimony from North Korean exiles and listed "extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence". Diplomats for the reclusive Communist state also told reporters that a top North Korean official had visited the headquarters of the European Union and expressed interest in beginning a dialogue on human rights. North Korea's deputy UN ambassador Ri Tong Il said the secretary of his country's ruling Workers' Party had visited the EU, and that "we are expecting end of this year to open political dialogue between the two sides". The North Korean officials took several questions but did not respond to one about the health of leader Kim Jong-un, who has made no public appearances since September 3, and missed a high-profile recent event he usually attends. In Brussels, an EU official confirmed a recent North Korea meeting with the EU's top human rights official, Stavros Lambrinidis, but said any dialogue currently planned was limited to rights issues. Source: Agencies SEOUL, October 7 -- North and South Korean naval patrol boats have briefly exchanged fire near their disputed maritime border, according to the South's defence ministry, which said the North's vessel had violated the boundary. The incident took place around 9:50am (00:50 GMT) on Tuesday near the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong, when the North Korean patrol boat crossed into the South's water, a ministry spokesman told AFP news agency. "Our side fired back when the North Korean patrol boat opened fire," he said. "There was no damage." The area has been the scene of clashes in the past that killed scores of sailors on both sides, with North Korean vessels frequently crossing the so-called Northern Limit Line. The de-facto maritime boundary is not recognised by Pyongyang, which argues it was unilaterally drawn by US-led United Nations forces after the 1950-53 Korean War. The Korean conflict ended in an armistice instead of a peace treaty, and technically the two Koreas are still at war. Both sides complain of frequent maritime incursions by the other and there were limited naval clashes in 1999, 2002 and 2009. In November 2010, North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong island, killing four South Koreans and briefly triggering concerns of a full-scale conflict. The latest exchange followed the shock visit to South Korea on Saturday by some of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's closest aides. It was led by Hwang Pyong-So, a newly elected vice chairman of the nuclear armed North's powerful National Defence Commission, who is widely seen as Kim Jong-Un's number two. The visit resulted in an agreement to resume a high-level dialogue that had been suspended for seven months as military tensions on the divided peninsula soared. The news also comes as speculations of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's health mount, with him being absent from the public for more than a month. Source: Agencies SEOUL, October 4 -- Three senior North Korean officials have arrived in South Korea on an unusual visit to attend the Asian Games closing ceremony in what could potentially bring a breakthrough in tense ties between the rival Koreas. Three senior North Korean officials have arrived in South Korea on an unusual visit to attend the Asian Games closing ceremony in what could potentially bring a breakthrough in tense ties between the rival Koreas. The visit comes amid speculation that the country's leader Kim Jong-un, who has not been seen in public since September 3, may be in poor health. But North Korea's ambassador to the UN in Geneva denied the claims, calling the reports "fabricated rumours". Hwang Pyong So headed the delegation, which arrived at Incheon airport in full military uniform on Saturday. Choe Ryong Hae and Kim Yang Gon, senior aides to Kim, travelled with him. "With these senior figures [visiting], you have to fill in the blanks," Alex Jensen, a journalist and analyst on Korean affairs. "You see two people who have held number two in the country. It's as big as it gets without having Kim Jong-un here." Reuters news agency reported they were scheduled to meet South Korean government officials including Seoul's Unification Minister and also the top national security advisor, and that they appeared upbeat before the meetings. Source: Agencies SEOUL, October 2 -- Kim Yo Jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has assumed state duties while her brother is undergoing medical treatment. "Some say Hwang Byong So, director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army, may have assumed new No. 2 status, but given what has been confirmed this time, we can say Hwang is just a shadow, and Kim Yo Jong is the second-in-command of North Korea," The Diplomat quoted Kim Heung Gwang, the head of North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity (NKIS), group of North Korean residents in South Korea promoting democratization for North Korea, as saying on Wednesday. According to the report, Kim Jong Un is currently undergoing medical treatment at Bonghwa Clinic in North Korea's capital Pyongyang. An unnamed source told NKIS that the decision to provide the head of state with an extended medical help was taken at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea on September 6. It was also agreed that all North Korean senior officials would comply with Kim Jong Un's previous orders, that the party should be "on wartime-like alert" and that Kim Yo Jong should take on responsibility for the governmental matters in Kim Jong Un's absence. The exact nature of the North Korean leader's health problems remain unknown. Kim Yo Jong is the daughter of the former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Officially mentioned for the first time on March 9, she was later identified as a senior official in the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. Source: Agencies PYONGYANG, September 28 -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's failure to appear in public for almost THREE weeks has renewed rumours of his rapidly-deteriorating health. The secretive leader, aged 31, is due to make an appearance during a special session of the country's rubber-stamp parliament today. Governments and leaders around the world are expected to be watching closely to see if Mr Jong-un takes part in the Parliament session – and if he does, whether it reveals any clues to his rumoured condition. The stability of the North Korean regime and health of its leader is of particular interest to the country's closet neighbours, South Korea. Professor at Tokyo's Waseda University, Toshimitsu Shigemura explained: "There have been lots of reports that Kim is not in good health, supported by video footage of him walking with a noticeable limp at an event in July and again earlier this month. "It was clear that he could not walk fast or in a straight line. "Another reason why Kim may be reluctant to appear in public is the ongoing power struggle inside the North Korean military, which means that the situation in Pyongyang is still unstable. "Or, there is the possibility that there has been some sort of accident" The latest images released by North Korean state-controlled media suggest that Mr Jong-Un's has piled on weight since coming power after the death of his father – the supreme leader Kim Jong-il – in December 2011. Experts have attributed his substantial weight-gain to the stress of his new position combined with the mysterious North Korean leader's love of fine dining – including an affinity for cheese, that some link to his time studying in Switzerland. Many believe the sudden death of his father Kim Jong-il was linked to high blood pressure and diabetes – fuelled by similar expensive dining habits and an outspoken love of French cuisine. Kim Jong-un has not been seen in public since attending a concert on September 3 with his wife, 24-year-old Ri Sol-ju. Source: Agencies TOKYO, September 26 -- The Pyongyang television has shown North Korean leader Kim Jong-un limping, the Japanese news agency Radio-Press, that analyzes mass media programs in North Korea, reported on Friday. In the July video footage, released late on Thursday, the speaker said “the marshal, despite health problems, continues, like the flame flow, keeping the path of leading the nation,” the report said. This summer, the Pyongyang television has at least twice shown the young leader, in his early 30s, walking with a limp. However, this is the first open mentioning of Kim Jong-un’s possible health problems. Health rumors swirl around Kim Jong-un as he has failed to appear in public since September 3. The North Korean leader, named the world's 46th most powerful person by Forbes Magazine last year, was also absent from a major political meeting in Pyongyang, the session of the Supreme People’s Assembly, on Thursday. Since he took power in December 2011, Kim Jong-un has participated in all the four sessions of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the unicameral legislature of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Source: Agencies SEOUL, September 17 -- South Korean border guards arrested an American man who they believe was attempting to swim across a river to rival North Korea, a South Korean defense official said Wednesday. The man was apprehended Tuesday night while lying on a bank of the Han River in a restricted military area near the border, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to office policy. The man told investigators that he tried to go to North Korea to meet leader Kim Jong Un, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unidentified government source. It said the man, aged around 29, is a computer repairman from Texas who came to South Korea 10 days ago. South Korea's Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence Service said they couldn't confirm the report. Americans are occasionally arrested after entering North Korea illegally from China, but a U.S. citizen trying to get in from South Korea is unusual. In the 1960s, several U.S. soldiers walked into North Korea while on a patrol near the mine-strewn Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ. Those army deserters later appeared in North Korean propaganda films and taught English there. In 1996, American Evan C. Hunziker entered North Korea by swimming across the Yalu River that marks the Chinese border. Hunziker, who apparently made the swim on a drunken dare, was accused of spying and detained for three months. Hunziker, 26 at the time, was eventually freed after negotiations involving a special U.S. envoy. The North Koreans wanted to slap Hunziker with a $100,000 criminal fine but eventually agreed on a $5,000 payment to settle a bill for a hotel where he was detained. He killed himself about one month after his release. About 27,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea to avoid poverty and political suppression since the end of the Korean War. Some South Koreans have attempted to defect to the impoverished, authoritarian North, but such cases are rare. Last year, South Korean soldiers shot and killed a man with a South Korean passport who officials said ignored warnings while swimming across the Imjin River toward North Korea. Some Americans recently detained in North Korea include missionaries aiming to spread the gospel or draw attention to human rights abuses. On Christmas Day in 2009, Korean-American missionary Robert Park defiantly walked into North Korea from China calling for the dismantling of the North's prison camps. Park, who was deported from North Korea in February 2010, said he was tortured by interrogators. North Korea is currently holding three Americans. The country's Supreme Court sentenced one of them, Matthew Miller, on Sunday to six years of hard labor after finding him guilty of illegally entering the country to commit espionage. North Korea says Miller tore up his tourist visa upon arrival at Pyongyang's airport in April. The Korean Peninsula remains technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea to deter potential aggression from North Korea. Source: Agencies SEOUL, September 15 -- A South Korean fisherman has found a suspected North Korean drone near a frontline island south of the rivals' disputed sea border, military officials said. The wreckage, without a wing, engine or camera, was recovered when it got caught in his net off Baengnyeong island, a South Korean defence ministry spokesman said. "Its shape and colour were similar to those of the unmanned aerial vehicles discovered earlier," he said. In March and April, South Korea retrieved crashed drones equipped with cameras in three different places, including Baengnyeong island and the northern border city of Paju. Military officials said their memory chips contained pictures of border areas and the capital Seoul, including the presidential palace. After a joint investigation with US experts, Seoul claimed to have secured "smoking gun" proof that the three recovered drones were flown from North Korea and had been pre-programmed to fly over South Korean military installations. North Korea angrily denied any involvement and accused the South of "fabricating" the evidence. Source: Agencies PYONGYANG, September 14, -- North Korea has sentenced one of three detained Americans to six years of hard labour, a statement carried by state media said. In the statement issued following a trial on Sunday, Pyongyang said Matthew Miller committed "hostile acts" as a tourist in the isolated country. Miller, 26, of Bakersfield, California, is said to have torn up his visa at Pyongyang's airport and demanded asylum. In an earlier interview with AP, Miller and the other men called for Washington to send a high-ranking US representative to make a direct appeal for their freedom. The US has repeatedly offered to send its envoy for North Korean human rights issues, Robert King, to Pyongyang to seek a pardon for Miller and other US detainees, but without success. His planned visits were cancelled twice. On Friday, Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel, the senior US diplomat for East Asia, accused North Korea of using US citizens as human "pawns". "This is the way that they play," he told Reuters news agency. "They use human beings, and in this case American citizens, as pawns. And we find that both objectionable and distressing." North Korea, which is under heavy UN sanctions related to its nuclear and missile programme, is widely believed to be using the detained US citizens to extract a high-profile visit from Washington, with whom it has no formal diplomatic relations. Other Americans held In the past, former US Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter had visited North Korea to secure the release of detained Americans. North Korea has yet to announce a trial date for fellow US citizen Jeffrey Fowle, 56, from Miamisburg, Ohio, who was arrested in May this year for leaving a bible under the toilet of a sailor's club in the eastern port city of Chongjin. A third American, Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae, is serving out a 15-year sentence for alleged "hostile acts". State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf declined to detail US efforts to secure the release of the three men, but said the offer to send King still stood. But an unnamed US official has told Reuters that as long as North Korea imposes "unacceptable conditions", it is not possible for Washington to send a special emissary to Pyongyang. Source: Agencies PYONGYANG, September 14 -- Matthew Miller was detained in Pyongyang after reportedly tearing up his visa at the airport and demanding asylum. A 26-year old American has gone on trial in North Korea months after he was detained for violating his tourist status when he entered the country. Matthew Miller, one of the three US citizens detained in the communist state, went on trial on Sunday morning, according to a report from the AP news agency, which has an office in Pyongyang. More details of the trial were not immediately available, and the specific charges were not announced before the trial. Miller, 26, of Bakersfield, California, is believed to have torn up his visa at Pyongyang's airport and demanded asylum. In an earlier interview with AP, Miller and the other men called for Washington to send a high-ranking US representative to make a direct appeal for their freedom. The US has repeatedly offered to send its envoy for North Korean human rights issues, Robert King, to Pyongyang to seek a pardon for Miller and other US detainees, but without success. His planned visits were cancelled twice. On Friday, Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel, the senior US diplomat for East Asia, accused North Korea of using US citizens as human "pawns." "This is the way that they play," he told the Reuters news agency. "They use human beings, and in this case Americans citizens, as pawns. And we find that both objectionable and distressing." North Korea, which is under heavy UN sanctions related to its nuclear and missile programme, is widely believed to be using the detained US citizens to extract a high-profile visit from Washington, with whom it has no formal diplomatic relations. Other Americans held In the past, former US Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter have visited North Korea to secure the release of detained Americans. A trial is also expected soon for Jeffrey Fowle, 56, who entered the North as a tourist but was arrested in May for leaving a Bible at a provincial club. A third American, Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae, is serving out a 15-year sentence for alleged "hostile acts." State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf declined to detail US efforts to secure the release of the three men, but said the offer to send King still stood. But an unnamed US official also told Reuters that as long as North Korea imposes "unacceptable conditions", it is not possible for Washington to send a special emissary to Pyongyang. Source: Agencies SEOUL, September 12 -- South Korean defector handed back at Panmunjom along the DMZ. The North Korean government repatriated a South Korean national Thursday who had illegally defected to the North via a third country. Identified as Kim Sang Geun in a Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) report released on September 5, the 52-year old man entered North Korea through a third unnamed country in order to escape the hardships of living in South Korea. “He frankly admitted his illegal entry into the DPRK and requested it to let him bring his family in the south so that he might live with them in the DPRK. But an institution concerned of the DPRK persuaded him and decided to send him back to the south,” The KCNA article said. After confirming Kim’s identity the South Korean authorities agreed to schedule the hand off at Panmunjom, in the demilitarized zone at 11am Thursday. A similar scenario in October 2013 saw the repatriation of six South Korean nationals, who according to South Korean media, had also defected believing life in North Korea would be better. However, the group was arrested and forced to spend between 14 and 45 months in concentration camps. The treatment of the South Korean nationals contrasts with that of the three American citizens currently detained by North Korea. This includes Matthew Miller, who was arrested after attempting to gain asylum in the DPRK. Miller is set to face trial in North Korea on Sunday. “The North Koreans know that the South Korean government couldn’t possibly ransom one individual South Korean without stirring a domestic nest of worms; it’s a totally different political dynamic. Ergo, they don’t regard South Korean prisoners as bargaining chips.” Christopher Green, editor at Seoul based Daily NK told NK News. After a health inspection and interrogation on the details of his departure by the South Korean government, it is likely that Kim will be tried for violating the National Security Law. If found guilty the penalty could be up 10 years in prison. The six South Koreans repatriated in 2013 were also arrested on the spot and indicted. Source: PYONGYANG, September 7 -- North Korea is to put a detained US citizen on trial on September 14, state media has said, less than a week after Matthew Miller made a highly unusual televised plea for help from Washington. Miller, one of three Americans being held in North Korea, was arrested in April after Pyongyang said he ripped up his visa on arrival at immigration and demanded asylum. "The Supreme Court of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) decided to hold on September 14 a court trial on American Matthew Todd Miller, now in custody according to the indictment of a relevant institution," the official news agency KCNA said. North Korea said in June it would put Miller and another detained US citizen, Jeffrey Fowle, on trial on unspecified charges related to "perpetrating hostile acts". On September 1, Miller - along with Fowle and the third US citizen being held in North Korea, Kenneth Bae - pleaded for their freedom in an interview with CNN. They urged Washington to send an envoy to the isolated state to negotiate their release. "My situation is very urgent," Miller said during the interview. "I think this interview is my final chance to push the American government into helping me," he added. US officials vowed after the interviews were aired that they would "leave no stone unturned" in their efforts to free the three men. But State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki refused to outline US efforts publicly, saying Washington did not want to jeopardise any diplomacy. She would not discuss whether Washington was prepared to send a high-level envoy to Pyongyang as it has in past cases, when former president Bill Clinton and ex-governor Bill Richardson successfully won the release of detained Americans. "We continue to work actively to secure these three US citizens' release," she said. The State Department said there was no update to Psaki's earlier remarks after the North's announcement Sunday. 'Freedom' of religion Fowle entered the North on April 29 and was detained after reportedly leaving a Bible at a hotel. Bae was arrested in November 2012 and later sentenced to 15 years of hard labour on charges of seeking to topple the North Korean government. Washington has no diplomatic ties with North Korea, and the Swedish embassy acts as a go-between in such consular cases. Swedish officials last visited Bae on August 11, and saw Fowle and Miller in late June. The trial date for Miller, 26, has been set as the North launches a diplomatic offensive by sending senior diplomats on rare trips to Europe - and, possibly, to the US. Kang Sok-Ju, secretary of the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party, arrive ond Saturday for a European tour, including Germany and Italy. Foreign Minister Ri Su-Yong reportedly plans to visit New York to attend the UN General Assembly later this month, in the first visit to the US by anyone in the role of North Korea's top diplomat in 15 years. As part of the renewed diplomatic campaign, Pyongyang will use the US detainees as a bargaining chip to force Washington to the negotiating table, said Kim Yong-Hyun, professor of North Korean Studies in Dongguk University. "The North is hoping that the US will send a senior-level envoy [to the North] and hoping in this process to improve ties with Washington and make progress in nuclear negotiations," Kim said. A number of foreigners have been detained in the North for years, many for alleged involvement in religious activities. Although religious freedom is enshrined in the North's constitution, it does not exist in practice and religious activity is severely restricted to officially-recognised groups linked to the government. Source: Agencies |
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