‘We’ll never know what Mum’s final hours were like’: Family seeks answers after hotel death

WASHINGTON — North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son-gyong plans to attend a high-level segment of the U.N. General Assembly set to begin in New York next week, a source at the international body said Thursday. Kim is scheduled to attend the General Assembly's high-level general debate, which is set to take place from Sept. 22 to Sept. 26, and on Sept. 28, according to the source. On the last day of the general debate, the vice minister plans to take the podium for a speech. He also attended last year's General Assembly, during which he reiterated that North Korea would never give up its nuclear program "under any circumstances." During his upcoming visit to New York, Kim is expected to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and officials from countries friendly to North Korea, such as Cuba and Venezuela. The vice minister's message during his planned attendance at the U.N. gathering is expected to be keenly watched by Washington as U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed his intention to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un later this year. Pyongyang had not sent a

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is expected to postpone the announcement of new tariffs over trading partners' alleged excess capacity in manufacturing sectors until after the planned summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping next week, a report said Thursday. Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported on the expected delay, noting that the reason for the delay is unclear, as Trump is expected to have a summit with Xi in Washington on Sept. 24, more than four months after their previous meeting in Beijing. Bloomberg previously reported that the Trump administration intended to issue a trade report on excess manufacturing capacity before next week's Trump-Xi summit, and that the report would recommend a 7.5 percent tariff on Chinese products. In March, the administration launched a trade investigation into South Korea, China, Japan and 13 other economies to uncover "unfair" trade practices related to "structural" excess capacity and production, a move that might result in tariffs. In the same month, it opened a separate investigation

WASHINGTON — China may not block the resumption of diplomacy between the United States and North Korea but is unlikely to play a "central" role in their reengagement, a former senior U.S. diplomat said Thursday, ahead of the upcoming summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Daniel Kritenbrink, who served as assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific Affairs from 2021-25, made the comment in response to written questions from Yonhap News Agency, noting that Beijing will be "suspicious" of any significant thaw in the Washington-Pyongyang relations. Trump and Xi are expected to have a summit in Washington, D.C., next Thursday, while Trump has expressed his intention to reengage with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un later this year. "I would not expect China to block U.S.-DPRK diplomacy, and it may take certain limited steps to support it," Kritenbrink, now a partner at The Asia Group, a strategic advisory firm, said. DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "But Beijing will also be suspicious of

Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, on Friday condemned a U.S.-led multinational maritime exercise as a "war game" and vowed to "intensify the nuclear war deterrence." She made the remarks in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), days after the multilateral naval exercise Pacific Vanguard, involving U.S. allies, including South Korea and Japan, wrapped up its 13-day run last week. "During the war rehearsal, various naval training for U.S.-centered anti-warship, anti-air and anti-submarine warfare was staged intensively for more than ten days," Kim said. "This was another threatening 'war game' invented by the U.S. for inter-camp confrontation in the region." "This is a part of the U.S. political and military design to prolong its hegemony by relying on the military strength of the exclusive camp in the Asia-Pacific region where there are many big powers regarded as its major rivals," she added. Kim also criticized the participation of South Korea and Japan, framing it as evidence of a "tripartite military cooperation system" aimed

The Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU) and its Tajikistani counterpart signed a memorandum of understanding on financial information exchanges to combat money laundering activities, the country's financial regulator said Friday. KoFIU and its Tajikistani counterpart, the Financial Monitoring Department under the National Bank of Tajikistan, agreed to bolster cooperation to counter money laundering activities, according to the Financial Services Commission (FSC). The bilateral cooperation will help detect and analyze suspicious capital flows, and support anti-money laundering efforts, the FSC said. KoFIU is under the FSC, which is tasked with countering money laundering, the financing of terrorism and other illegal financial activities.

North Korea's Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang-il has reaffirmed his country's nuclear program at a defense forum in China, calling it "self-defensive," Pyongyang's state media reported Friday. Kim made the remarks Thursday in his address at the 13th Beijing Xiangshan Forum, which was held in China from Tuesday to Thursday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. Kim criticized the United States' joint military exercises with its allies, claiming that the drills based on the assumption of nuclear weapons use were carried out publicly near the Korean Peninsula. Insisting that such drills justified North Korea's own nuclear program, he said the North will "ceaselessly expand and strengthen our self-defensive nuclear war deterrent," while describing the country's nuclear status as at "the point of no return." Kim also urged "enemy states" to abandon what he called their "unrealistic denuclearization delusion." On the sidelines of the forum, he met with his Chinese counterpart to discuss deepening "strategic communication" and expanding military cooperation and development, the KCNA reporte

Foreign Minister Cho Hyun has met with U.S. lawmakers in Washington and discussed bilateral relations and issues related to the Korean Peninsula and global security, the foreign ministry said Friday. Cho, who is in Washington for a three-day trip from Thursday, met separately with Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) on Thursday, according to the ministry. Cho told the lawmakers that the importance of close cooperation between Seoul and Washington has grown amid rapidly changing international circumstances, calling for active support from the U.S. Congress to ensure the swift implementation of the Joint Fact Sheet (JFS). The JFS, released in November following the summit between President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump, outlines a range of commitments by both sides, including Seoul's pledge to invest $350 billion in the United States in exchange for a reduced U.S. tariff rate, as well as cooperation in the nuclear sector and other security-related issues. Hagerty praised Seoul's efforts t

After a village voted to leave the UK over asylum seekers being housed nearby, it looks like Passport to Pimlico is getting a remake.

Unfortunately, it’s not all smiles for Secret Drinker as he heads to the coast for a pint and the sunset.

Kent County Council is being accused of “quietly reducing” a service to prevent young people from falling out of education or employment.

One of Kent’s best-known radio voices is taking on an 8km walk this evening in aid of a hospice charity, just five months after breaking her ankle.

A violent prisoner who once threw a kettle of boiling water at a guard has now admitted stabbing a fellow inmate in the head 10 times with a pen.