Summary of external news of North Korea this week

NK weekly-external news

Summary of external news of North Korea this week

SEOUL, Dec. 9 (Yonhap) -- The following is a summary of external news of North Korea this week.

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U.S. envoy for N. Korea holds rare talks with Chinese counterpart over recent provocations

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim held talks this week with his Chinese counterpart to discuss North Korea's increasingly provocative behavior, the state department said Thursday.

The rare meeting was held virtually on Wednesday, according to department spokesperson Ned Price.

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Russia continues to look to N. Korea for weapons for use in Ukraine: State Dept.

WASHINGTON -- Russia continues to look to North Korea and Iran for weapons to be used in its illegal war against Ukraine, a state department spokesperson said Wednesday.

Ned Price also called North Korea the most serious threat in the Indo-Pacific, partly citing its recent series of ballistic missile launches.

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Former N. Korean diplomat working at S. Korea's state-run think tank: lawmaker

SEOUL -- Jo Song-gil, a former North Korean acting ambassador to Italy, works as a researcher at a state-run think tank in South Korea, having defected here a few years ago, according to a ruling party lawmaker.

Jo recently assumed a post at the Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS) operated by the South's National Intelligence Service, Rep. Tae Yong-ho of the ruling People Power Party told Yonhap News Agency earlier this week.

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S. Korea, U.S. hold consultations on N.K. policy, human rights

SEOUL -- Working-level diplomats of South Korea and the United States held back-to-back face-to-face consultations on North Korea in Washington, D.C., Seoul's foreign ministry said Tuesday.

Chun Young-hee, head of the ministry's Korean Peninsula Peace Regime Bureau, met with Jung Pak, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, on Monday, and exchanged views on the human rights problem in the North and other pending issues.

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U.N. agency head says N. Korea's human rights situation in 'black box'

SEOUL -- The head of the U.N. human rights agency's office in Seoul on Tuesday voiced concerns that North Korea has become a "black box" in terms of human rights situations, as it is hard to know what's happening from the outside following its COVID-19 border controls.

Speaking at a seminar on the North's rights records, James Heenan, representative of the U.N. Human Rights Office in Seoul, called for more actions to improve the North's dismal rights situation.

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