Summary of inter-Korean news this week

NK weekly-inter-Korean news

Summary of inter-Korean news this week

SEOUL, Sept. 20 (Yonhap) -- The following is a summary of inter-Korean news this week.

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Yoon says S. Korea can counter N. Korean nuclear threats without its own nukes

PRAGUE -- President Yoon Suk Yeol said Friday that South Korea is not considering developing its own nuclear weapons and instead is focusing on strengthening deterrence with the United States to counter North Korea's nuclear threat.

Yoon made the remark in an interview with the Czech newspaper Hospodarske Noviny during his trip to the Czech Republic, which came a week after North Korea unveiled its uranium enrichment facility for the first time.

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(LEAD) Unification minister urges N. Korea to immediately return detained S. Koreans home

SEOUL/WASHINGTON -- Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho on Friday called on North Korea to "immediately and unconditionally" send a detained South Korean missionary and five other nationals back home, condemning the North's yearslong arbitrary detention as grave human rights violations.

South Korea's top point man on North Korea issued a rare statement marking 4,000 days after missionary Kim Jung-wook was arrested in Pyongyang in 2013. He was sentenced to hard labor for life on charges of spying for South Korea's spy agency.

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N.K. trash balloon lands inside Seoul gov't complex

SEOUL -- A North Korean trash-carrying balloon landed inside the Seoul government complex for the second time Friday, authorities said.

The balloon was found in the parking lot in front of the main entrance, carrying mostly household garbage, including a green piece of plastic showing an address in Pyongyang.

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Yoon's office rejects ex-president's call for reconsidering unification policy

PRAGUE -- The presidential office on Thursday rejected former President Moon Jae-in's call for reviewing its approach to unification with North Korea, saying the previous government's dialogue-focused peace initiative is "unrealistic."

A senior presidential official who accompanied President Yoon Suk Yeol on a trip to the Czech Republic made the remark after Moon criticized the Yoon administration's hard-line policy on North Korea and called for efforts to ease inter-Korean tensions.

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(LEAD) Ex-President Moon calls for reviewing discourse on unification of two Koreas

SEOUL -- Former liberal President Moon Jae-in called for a "complete review" of South Korea's discourse on inter-Korean peace and unification Thursday, as North Korea newly defined inter-Korean relations as those between two states hostile to each other.

Moon made the point in his speech at a ceremony held in the southwestern city of Gwangju to mark the sixth anniversary of the Pyongyang Declaration announced by Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after summit talks in the North.

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N. Korea launches over 160 trash balloons Wednesday night: JCS

SEOUL -- North Korea launched more than 160 balloons carrying trash toward South Korea last night to drop dozens of garbage bundles across northwestern parts of the country, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Thursday.

The JCS said it discovered some 30 trash bundles in northern parts of Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds Seoul, and the capital area from the launches that began Wednesday evening and continued into the night.

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N. Korea launches more trash balloons toward S. Korea: JCS

SEOUL -- North Korea again launched balloons likely carrying trash toward South Korea on Wednesday, hours after it fired multiple ballistic missiles, the South's military said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the balloon launches, noting they could travel to the northern part of Gyeonggi Province that surrounds Seoul, and the capital area.

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