Summary of inter-Korean news this week

NK weekly-inter-Korean news

Summary of inter-Korean news this week

SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Yonhap) -- The following is a summary of inter-Korean news this week.

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S. Korea slaps first sanctions on N. Korea over crypto theft, cyberattacks

SEOUL -- South Korea on Friday announced its first independent sanctions on North Korea in response to Pyongyang's cryptocurrency theft and other illicit cyber activities.

South Korea has decided to impose its own sanctions on four North Korean tech experts and seven organizations under the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), the country's military intelligence agency, involved in cryptocurrency heists and cyberattacks in the past, according to Seoul's foreign ministry.

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S. Korean ministry vows all policy means to resolve separated families issue

SEOUL -- South Korea plans to mobilize all available policy means to resolve the issue of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, prioritizing identifying whether their relatives in North Korea are alive, Seoul's unification ministry said Tuesday.

Under the 2023-25 plan to deal with the long-pending issue, the ministry said it plans to focus on resuming exchanges of war-torn families and addressing issues stemming from the inter-Korean division, such as prisoners of war and South Koreans detained in the North.

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Apparent N.K. weather balloon enters S. Korean airspace earlier this week: Seoul's military

SEOUL -- A suspected North Korean weather balloon entered South Korea's airspace earlier this week, prompting Seoul's military to strengthen its monitoring activities, according to a Seoul official Monday.

The balloon measuring around 2 meters in length was spotted flying over the South Korean territory on Sunday afternoon and appears to have left the South hours later, the official said on condition of anonymity.

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NIS forms interagency team to probe suspected anti-communist law violations

SEOUL -- The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said Monday it has formed a joint team with the prosecution and police to investigate suspected anti-communist law violation cases until the end of the year.

The spy agency plans to operate the interagency team to look into suspected violations of the National Security Act until Dec. 31, before it is to hand over the right to investigate espionage cases linked to North Korea to the police from 2024 under a law revision passed in 2020.

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