28 Feb 2005 DPRK Prime Minister Pak Pong Ju will visit China, possibly to discuss a new round of 6-way talks.

24 Feb 2005 Pyongyang rejects Japanese claims that DNA tests have proven the returned remains are not those of abducted Megumi, and refuses to discuss this with Tokyo.

24 Feb 2004 A US Senator introduces a resolution demanding Pyongyang to return the USS Pueblo spy ship that was seized by the DPRK 37 years ago.

10 Feb 2005 South Korean sources report that the 2006 US budget does not mention any ressources for the North Korean Human Rights Act.

9 Feb 2005 Japanese PM Koizumi says he is cautious about imposing economic sanctions on the DPRK, and wants to keep the window for dialogue open.

9 Feb 2005 In Tokyo Japan wins a qualifying match against the DPRK 2-1. Japanese fans booed loudly when the DPRK was introduced.

7 Feb 2005 The DPRK football team arrives in Japan to play a qualifying game for the 2006 World Cup. The atmosphere is hostile due to the unresolved abduction issue. The 150,000-strong pro-Pyongyang Korean community in Japan hopes the DPRK will win.

7 Feb 2005 South Korea sends 50,000 coal briquettes and 400 stoves to the North, after Pyongyang requested 20,000 tons of coal, but refused to accept them when Seoul wanted to deliver to the border town of Kaesong.

7 Feb 2005 The DPRK embassy in Prague demands the movie "Team America: World Police" to be banned because it harms the country's reputation.

4 Feb 2005 For the first time in a decade South Korea has not labeled the DPRK its "main enemy" in its latest Defense White Paper. The document did say it suspects the North of possessing nuclear weapons, and identified it as a "substantial military threat". Pyongyang reacts negatively and calls it a "despicable ploy" to undermine rapprochement. The document also mentions the US will send 690.000 troops in case of war in Korea.

2 Feb 2005 A bill supported by the ruling LDP in the Japanese parliament proposes Japan to be proactively involved in protecting and supporting DPRK refugees, by providing financial support to NGOs etc.

2 Feb 2005 Frustrated by the lack of progress on the abduction issue, the Japanese government is considering making banning DPRK ships from its ports by strict application of a law that would require all visiting ships to be covered by Protection and Indemnity Insurance, which most DPRK ships do not have. Sources say Pyongyang has already reacted by buying such insurance for its ferry ship the Mangyongbong-92.

31 Jan 2005 South Korean media report on a recent DPRK state radio broadcast, where Kim Jong Il said he would obey the will of his father, Kim Il Sung, the DPRK founder, ensuring that the Communist revolution would be continued by a grandson. Kim Jong Il has three known sons from two marriages. The younger sons, Jong Chol, 24, and Jong Un, 22, are believed to be candidates for succession. His eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, was detained three years ago traveling into Tokyo on a fake passport, and is believed to be out of favor.

31 Jan 2005 Tokyo is under mounting pressure to apply economic sanctions on the DPRK, after Pyongyang sent the "fake" remains of a deceased abducted Japanese citizen. The US advises to have more discussions with Washington first before applying sanctions. With Japanese-DPRK trade at a record low, sanctions would probably not have a big impact.

31 Jan 2005 Pyongyang makes available a 1095-page book on its legal code for sale in the South. It is seen as an attempt to inform the outside world of its latest changes and show that it is governed by the rule of law.

31 Jan 2005 The navies of South and North Korea are again accusing each other of intrusions across the NLL, for the first time after a wireless communication line was opened between them in June 2004.

31 Jan 2005 Charles Jenkins, US army deserter who spent 40 years in the DPRK says: "I've never met Kim Jong-il, but he is an evil man." "As far as Kim Jong-il's regime, could anybody say anything good about it other than a few stooges? It's a socialist country's system of exploiting and oppressing the people."

27 Jan 2005 DPRK radio says Kim Il Sung told his wife in 1943: "I would obey my father's instruction to struggle for Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule and establish the communist country ... if I fail, the tasks should be carried out by my son and grandson."

13 Jan 2005 The DPRK Red Cross sends a telephone message to the South to request 500,000 tons of fertilizer for this spring. Since 2000 Seoul has shipped 300,000 ton each year.

4 Jan 2005 South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young states in a radio interview: "The North's perception that we are trying to shake the Pyongyang regime by bringing defectors to Seoul is quite different from our policy. We disapprove of the mass defections. There will be no more large-scale arrivals of defectors in Seoul." 1,890 DPRK defectors reached Seoul in 2004: up by nearly 50% from 2003's 1,281. The Ministry announced it will tighten procedures for defectors, to weed out fake asylum seekers (mainly ethnic Koreans from China) as well as criminals. According to a survey, 11% of defectors arriving in the South had criminal records.

For the events of 2002 - Dec 2004 visit the Archive