Summary of inter-Korean news this week

NK weekly-inter-Korean news

Summary of inter-Korean news this week

SEOUL, Dec. 29 (Yonhap) -- The following is a summary of inter-Korean news this week.

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S. Korea should be ready against possible N.K. interference in general elections: PPP floor leader

SEOUL -- South Korea should maintain a firm readiness posture against North Korea's possible attempts to influence April's general elections, the ruling party's floor leader said Friday, after the spy agency said it sees a high possibility of Pyongyang doing so.

The National Intelligence Service said Thursday the North could conduct military provocations or stage a cyberattack, citing its track record of carrying out such acts ahead of South Korea's elections and Pyongyang's reinstatement of key figures involved in high-profile provocations against Seoul.

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NIS sees high chance of N. Korea's provocations ahead of S. Korea's April elections

SEOUL -- South Korea's spy agency said Thursday there is a high possibility that North Korea could carry out military provocations early next year ahead of major elections in South Korea and the United States.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) made the assessment, citing North Korea's track record of staging provocations before South Korea's general elections and Pyongyang's reinstatement of key figures involved in high-profile provocations against Seoul.

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S. Korea imposes sanctions on 8 N.K. individuals for illicit arms trade, cyberactivities

SEOUL -- South Korea imposed independent sanctions Wednesday on eight North Korean individuals, including the chief of the North's spy agency, for their involvement in arms trade and cyberactivities banned under international sanctions.

The latest imposition of sanctions came in response to the North's test-firing of a Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile on Dec. 18 in violation of U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, the foreign ministry said.

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S. Korea to push for DNA tests on descendants of separated families

SEOUL -- The unification ministry said Tuesday it will push to conduct DNA tests on descendants of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War in a bid to use their gene information for potential family reunions with their relatives in North Korea.

The move comes as more aging separated family members in South Korea have died without having a chance to meet with their long-lost relatives in North Korea amid strained inter-Korean ties.

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S. Korea calls N. Korea followers 'internal threat' in military educational material

SEOUL -- The defense ministry has described followers of North Korea's ideology and system in South Korea as an "internal threat" in its latest basic educational material for soldiers, in a departure from the previous liberal government that did not outline such threats.

The conservative Yoon Suk Yeol government has taken a hard-line stance on North Korea amid its evolving nuclear and missile threats, compared with the preceding Moon Jae-in government that sought for reconciliation and cooperation with North Korea.

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