Singapore police said Friday they arrested two South Korean journalists while investigating a report of trespassing in the residence of the North Korean ambassador.

The statement posted on the police Facebook page said the two men represented the Korean Broadcasting System News but were not accredited as media personnel in Singapore. The broadcaster is more widely known as KBS.

Reacting to the arrest, South Korean presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom pleaded with South Korean journalists in Singapore to act with caution. He said the island state exercises “very strict government power” and that security has been further heightened ahead of the meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday.

“If a problem occurs, our government will put in our best diplomatic effort to resolve it, but there could be cases where that wouldn’t be enough,” Kim, the spokesman, said in a briefing.

The KBS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Singaporean police were still investigating two other South Koreans — a representative of the broadcaster and an interpreter-guide.

A criminal trespass conviction in Singapore carries up to three months’ imprisonment, a fine of up to $1,500, or both.

Police also said journalists who commit crimes in Singapore will not be accredited and thus will be unable to cover the Tuesday summit. </s> * Defectors hear stories of cash rewards for those who return

* Kim could be trying to show that life is tough in the South for defectors

* Some 25,000 North Koreans have fled for South Korea

* Kim's father had punished the families of defectors

SEOUL, Aug 19 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is taking a new approach to defectors who have fled his impoverished and repressive state, promising they will not be harmed if they come home, and even offering cash rewards, according to some in the exile community.

For some who return from South Korea there's even the chance of a stage-managed performance on state television, although what happens to them after their prime time appearances is not known in a state where 200,000 people are imprisoned in gulags and where punishment extends to three generations of a family.

One woman last year apologised at a televised press conference in Pyongyang for betraying her motherland and thanked Kim for bringing her under his "profound loving care" while another dubbed South Korea a "shitty world with no love".

That's in sharp contrast to the approach taken by Kim's father, who during nearly 20 years in power hid the issue and severely punished the families of those who defected, fearing they would undermine the state with their tales of the prosperous South.

North Korean security agents have been visiting families in the reclusive state for at least the past year, telling them it would be safe for their loved ones in the South to come back, several defectors in Seoul told Reuters.

Some said they had even heard of people posing as defectors trying to tempt North Koreans in the South this year with a promise of 50 million South Korean won ($45,000) and an opportunity to appear on television in Pyongyang if they returned.

"My mother said 'if you have money, come back. General Kim Jong-un will treat you well'," said one defector in her 30s who lives in Seoul, recounting a recent telephone conversation with her mother who called her from a North Korean town on the border with China.

"Other defectors are getting that kind of phone call," said the defector, surnamed Lee, who asked that her full name not be used because she feared reprisals against her family in the North.

It is impossible to verify how many of the 25,000 North Koreans who have defected to the South have returned. One high profile case this year involved a fisherman who stole a trawler and returned to the North for the fourth time.

Experts said Kim could be trying to show his people that instead of living happily in South Korea, defectors are miserable, have menial jobs and struggle to fit in - something defectors in Seoul say is not far from the truth.

While offering an olive branch to some defectors, Kim has also made it harder for North Koreans to escape by tightening security along the country's land border with China and defectors and their families still fill the country's prison camps, experts said.

While it's impossible to verify what happens to North Koreans who return, a diplomat in Pyongyang said a group of nine defectors who were sent home after being detained in Laos in May while trying to get to South Korea had not been harmed.

The United Nations had said it feared for the group, which included up to five minors and who like some defectors were trying to reach a South Korean embassy in Southeast Asia after having first travelled through China.

"They actually have been quite well treated since they have been back here," said the diplomat, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of working in Pyongyang. An Amnesty International official also said there had been no reports the nine had been harmed.

"When defectors come back they are not all trucked to prison. What can happen is they are put on TV ... for propaganda," said the diplomat.

Exactly why Kim has taken a different view of defectors is unclear.

Several defectors told Reuters they believed he was trying to put his own spin on the issue because of the growing influence of an increasingly vocal exile community in the South.

The move also comes as pressure over human rights is mounting on Pyongyang with the recent appointment of members to a U.N. commission that will spend a year investigating possible crimes against humanity in North Korea.

Defectors will testify at unprecedented public hearings in Seoul this week as part of that investigation.

Better communications have also opened the way for regular contact between defectors and their families in North Korea - allowing stories of life outside one of the world's most isolated countries to seep back.

For example, defector groups in Seoul estimate that 3,000 phone calls are made each day to the North, routed through Chinese mobile networks along the 1,400 km (870 mile) long land border that China shares with North Korea.

An estimated 70 percent of defectors in South Korea also send cash back to family via Chinese brokers along the border, according to a South Korean research institute.

While the younger Kim - who took power following the death of his father Kim Jong-il in late 2011 - has promised no retribution for returning defectors, he has tightened security at the Tumen and Yalu Rivers along the border with China, experts said.

Last year, the number of defectors entering South Korea fell 44 percent to 1,509 from 2,706 in 2011, South Korean government data shows. In 2010, 2,402 defectors arrived and 2,900 in 2009.

During the first quarter of this year, the monthly average of new defectors was down 15 percent from the previous year.

"Rumours that the regime will annihilate three generations (of one family) or that border guards will shoot to kill if anyone is caught crossing the river have swirled around a lot," said Cho Jung-hyun, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, who regularly interviews defectors.

"On the other hand, under what's called "benevolent politics", the regime keeps sending out a message of embracing those who left in tough times without punishment."

Cho said recent arrivals had told him North Korean authorities were more thoroughly examining lists of missing persons to work out which families to put pressure on. Usually when someone defects, their families in North Korea report them as dead or missing.

Pyongyang has held at least six press events since last year with returning defectors that have been broadcast on North Korean state television. The most recent was in June.

All have had the air of choreography familiar to North Korea watchers.

The well-dressed returnees usually sing a song pledging loyalty to Kim and stand up to shout: 'Great Marshal Kim Jong-un, thank you so much!' while pumping the air with their fists.

In one press conference last November, Kim Kwang-hyok called South Korea a "shitty world with no love".

Pak Jong-suk said living in South Korea made her feel like a "miserable slave". Pak was given a new house in Pyongyang, state media said.

South Korea's government has noticed Kim's apparent change of heart and one government official who follows the issue said returning defectors were being used for domestic consumption.

"By airing these press conferences in prime time, North Korea is using defectors for internal propaganda," the official said.

It was unclear how many had gone back under Kim's rule, the official said. He also had no information on purported defectors trying to entice North Koreans to return with promises of cash.

Pressure to return appears to be exerted in other ways, too.

Just over a year ago, one North Korean defector in Seoul, a former state-sanctioned pop singer, began getting mysterious telephone calls in the middle of the night.

The calls lasted for months, with the caller usually saying nothing. He suspected it was North Korean security agents.

"I had nothing to say. It was too terrifying," the defector said. At around the same time, a North Korean security agent visited his parents saying he should return home.

His parents also attended a public lecture in which authorities promised no punishment if defectors went back.

Defectors in Seoul said Pyongyang's new approach tapped into their longing for family as well as the difficulty of adjusting to life in South Korea, a country whose per capita income is around 45 times that of the North.

New defectors get interrogated by the intelligence services to weed out spies before going to a settlement centre south of Seoul for 12 weeks of training and counselling to help them get to grips with South Korea's hyper-competitive high-tech society.

They get subsidies for housing and study, as well as job skills training. But many end up doing jobs shunned by ordinary South Koreans.

Around 20 percent of defectors are unemployed, six to seven times higher than the average for South Koreans, the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights said early this year.

Kim Seung-chul, a defector who runs a Seoul radio station that broadcasts news into North Korea, said every defector sympathised with those who returned.

"Defectors all watch these press conferences. We know it's better to live here but the loneliness and hardship makes us feel like wanting to go back," said Kim, 52.

The former North Korean singer, who left his parents and siblings back in the North, said he believed returnees got a house and a job, but were put under watch.

"If they are caught with a small problem while being monitored, then it will be all over," he said. ($1 = 1,112.2750 Korean won) (Additional reporting by Se Young Lee in Seoul and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Dean Yates and David Chance) </s> South Korea vowed yesterday to move quickly on plans to provide US$8 million worth of humanitarian aid to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea while it also considers sending food to the country that says it’s suffering its worst drought in decades.

Lee Sang-min, spokesman of Seoul’s Unification Ministry, said the government will discuss its plans with the World Food Program and the United Nations Children’s Fund, through which the aid would be provided, so it reaches DPRK children and pregnant women quickly.

South Korea is also trying to build public and political support for providing food aid to the DPRK, either directly or through an international organization.

DPRK’s state media said last week that the country was suffering its worst drought in more than a century amid reported food shortages.

“The government will first discuss with international organizations over the provision of aid and take measures so that the support arrives (in the DPRK) quickly,” Lee said. “On the matter of direct aid, we will consider the matter.”

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has expressed hopes that aid will help revive diplomacy and engagement with Pyongyang, which tapered off following a high-stakes nuclear summit between DPRK leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump in February that broke down over mismatched demands in sanctions relief and disarmament.

But Moon’s government has yet to decide on concrete plans amid growing public frustration over DPRK, which resumed short-range missile tests recently.

DPRK’s official Korean Central News Agency said last Wednesday that an average of 54.4 millimeters of rain fell from January to early May in 2019, which represented the lowest level since 1982. </s> This looks set to include six P-8A Poseidon maritime reconnaissance aircraft and 64 Patriot anti-ballistic missile weapons, the Pentagon said today. The Boeing-made Poseidon aircraft, which are used for hunting submarines and conducting maritime reconnaissance, are worth up to $2.1 (£1.60) billion, the Pentagon's Defence Security Cooperation Agency said. It comes amid mounting concern North Korea is not going to live up to its promise to US president Donald Trump to work towards denuclearisation. Japan is also worried about the rogue state, led by erratic despot Kim Jong-un.

Military officials revealed yesterday that the US and Japan had successfully tested Japan's upgraded missile defence system off the coast of Hawaii. The Far East nation reportedly made the decision to expand its ballistic missile defence capabilities, in response to what it considers to ongoing fears about North Korean rockets. A spokesperson for its defence ministry said: “We cannot avert our eyes from the harsh fact that several hundred ballistic missiles whose range covers our country still exist in reality.” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said on Monday that the US president is open to another meeting to discuss denuclearisation - following on from their landmark June summit - with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

This is despite national security adviser John Bolton's assertion that the US is still waiting for Pyongyang to take steps towards putting a stop to its nuclear threat. Mr Trump announced this week that he still thought North Korea had taken some steps, and that he would “most likely” meet again with the dictator. South Korea, which is a key US ally in the region, is still taking precautions. Its procurement agency Defense Acquisition Program Administration said in June that it had decided to buy the P-8 Poseidon aircraft.

The Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency this week said that the planned sales will help South Korea improve its missile defense capability and support US national security objectives by enhancing Seoul's naval capabilities. That was two months after the North Korean leader and South Korea's president Moon Jaein held their own historic meeting. They met at the line that separates the divided Koreas. Kim then stepped over the raised Military Demarcation Line, entering territory controlled by the South for the very first time. After posing for the cameras, he grasped Mr Moon's hand and they briefly crossed into the northern side. They then signed the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification on the Korean Peninsula. The document committed the two countries to a nuclear-free peninsula and talks to bring a formal end to the Korean War. </s> The US Justice Department has taken possession of North Korea's second-largest freighter, seized in Indonesia last year for allegedly shipping coal in violation of UN sanctions, ratcheting up tensions between the two countries.The DoJ has asked a federal judge to transfer ownership of the 17,000-ton Wise Honest - North Korea's second-largest bulk cargo ship - to the US through civil forfeiture, a controversial legal process that allows authorities to take possession of vehicles and other property involved in felonies like drug smuggling.This process has never been used to seize a North Korean ship for sanctions violations, but because the DPRK used American banks to finance the ship's upkeep, the US is entitled to take it, according to the complaint, which charges the vessel itself with crimes including money laundering.Accusing the Korea Songi Shipping Company of "concealing the origin of their ship" to sell coal in violation of UN sanctions, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman alleged the Wise Honest was also used to "import heavy machinery to North Korea, helping expand North Korea's capabilities and continuing the cycle of sanctions evasion."Korea Songi, reportedly a subsidiary of a company controlled by the North Korean military, is additionally charged with breaking American law by using three different US banks to pay for the ship's upkeep to the tune of $750,000.Indonesian authorities detained the ship en route to American Samoa after receiving a photograph that appeared to show the vessel being loaded with coal. The captain was charged with improper documentation, a violation of Indonesian maritime law, and convicted. The US seized the ship under warrant in July, but it is only now being towed to American Samoa, according to the Justice Department.In recent days, North Korea has test-fired long-range multiple rocket launchers and what is believed to be short-range missiles. But Justice Department officials insist the decision to take possession of the Wise Honest is unrelated to the drills. The latest launches were conducted on Thursday. The South Korean president alleged that they came in response to stalled nuclear talks with Washington.Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met in Hanoi, Vietnam in hopes of another breakthrough in denuclearization. The summit failed, however, with North Korea pinning the blame on Washington. </s> Donald Trump has announced his is selling Japan and South Korea a “substantially increased” amount of US military equipment, as the President and his allies look for ways to counter the threat from North Korea.

Amid mounting tension over North Korea aggressiveness, and the US’s bellicose rhetoric and sabre-rattling, Mr Trump said he was ready to increase the amount of military hardware in the region - presumably as a bid to deter Pyongyang.

“I am allowing Japan and South Korea to buy a substantially increased amount of highly sophisticated military equipment from the United States,” Mr Trump said on Twitter.

We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.

Mr Trump’s comment came after the US and its allies scrambled to decide how to respond to recent actions from North Korea.

The East Asian nation has tested up to six missiles in recent months and over the weekend it apparently detonated a thermonuclear device, many more times powerful than the bomb the US dropped on Japan seven decades ago. It has fired missiles over the Japanese mainland, and threatened to fire such devices close to the US territory of Guam.

As Mr Trump made his announcement, a senior North Korean diplomat said his country was ready to send “more gift packages” to the US.

Han Tae Song, ambassador of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the UN in Geneva, was addressing the UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament two days after his country detonated its sixth nuclear test explosion.

“I am proud of saying that just two days ago on the 3rd of September, DPRK successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test for intercontinental ballistic rocket under its plan for building a strategic nuclear force,” he said, according to Reuters.

He added: “The recent self-defence measures by my country, DPRK, are a ‘gift package’ addressed to none other than the US.

“The US will receive more gift packages from my country as long as its relies on reckless provocations and futile attempts to put pressure on the DPRK”.

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US disarmament ambassador Robert Wood said North Korea had defied the international community once again.

“We look forward to working with our partners in the (Security) Council with regard to a new resolution that will put some of the strongest sanctions possible on the DPRK,” he told the conference, according to the news agency.

“Advances in the regime's nuclear and missile programame are a threat to us all…now is the time to say tests, threats and destabilising actions will no longer be tolerated. It can no longer be business as usual with this regime.”

The White House said on Monday that Mr Trump had agreed “in principle” to scrap a warhead weight limit on South Korea’s missiles in the wake of the North’s latest test. The United States accused North Korea’s trading partners of aiding its nuclear ambitions and said Pyongyang was “begging for war”. </s> The Ministry of Unification announced Sunday that it would pay up to 1 billion won ($860,000) -- eclipsing the previous maximum of 250 million won.

A bill outlining the changes is set to be submitted and would offer substantial financial rewards for those able to provide intelligence and knowledge, which could enhance South Korea's security, according to the ministry.

The bill will be considered in the National Assembly between February 28 and March 9, a Unification Ministry official said.

The move comes at a time of simmering tension over South Korea's controversial THAAD missile system, which came a step closer to reality last week. The THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, is designed to shoot down short, medium and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, such as those North Korea claims to own. South Korea reached an agreement with Lotte international over an approved land swap last week, according to an official with the country's defense ministry. The deal between international conglomerate Lotte and the South Korean government will allow the THAAD system to be deployed on the military's preferred site. The US and the South Korea are planning to deploy the system by the end of this year During his recent trip to South Korea, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis said his country was determined to defend South Korea against the "evolving North Korean threat." But speaking at a news conference last week, China's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang said it would "severely disrupt regional strategic balance." "The Chinese side has stressed repeatedly that we understand the legitimate concerns of relevant parties in safeguarding their security, however one country's security cannot be pursued at the expense of (anothers)," he said. Both North Korea and China have repeatedly stated they are strongly against the deployment of THAAD. On February 3, North Korea accused the US and South Korea of pushing the Korean peninsula to the "brink of nuclear war" with the deployment. In a statement, the rogue state alleged the THAAD system was part of an offensive strategy "for a preemptive attack on the North." But Mattis said Pyongyang's aggressive behavior is why THAAD was necessary. Meanwhile China has consistently opposed the missile system's deployment, saying it could jeopardize their "legitimate national security interests," according to Foreign Minister Wang Yi. John Delury, associate professor of international studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, previously told CNN that Beijing was doing "everything in its power to prevent the deployment of the defense system." </s> A view of the entrance of the North Korean embassy in Singapore May 24, 2018. Picture taken May 24, 2018.

SINGAPORE - Two South Korean men from the Korean Broadcasting System News (KBS) have been arrested for trespassing into the residence of the Ambassador of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

According to a statement on Friday (June 8), police said they received a report on Thursday (June 7) afternoon at about 3.50pm about the case. Two men, aged 42 and 45, were subsequently arrested.

Police said two other men, a 31-year-old South Korean KBS representative, and another 29-year-old South Korean man, who was the guide and interpreter for the group, are also under investigation.

It added that the three men who were representing the Korean Broadcasting System News are not accredited media personnel in Singapore.

Police investigations are ongoing. Anyone convicted of criminal trespass may be punished with imprisonment of up to three months, or a fine of up to $1,500, or both.

In its statement, the police warned that members of the media who commit any offence in Singapore will also not be accredited and will thus not be able to cover the US-North Korea summit taking place next Tuesday (June 12). </s> March 22 (UPI) -- Former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has been issued an arrest warrant after being charged with multiple counts of corruption.

The arrest warrant is the fourth of its kind to be issued to a former South Korean leader, local news service CBS No Cut News reported Thursday.

Lee, 76, faces a dozen charges, including accepting more than $10 million in bribes from Seoul's national intelligence service and powerful corporations, according to Yonhap.

The decision came late Thursday at 11:06 p.m. from Park Beom-seok, a judge with Seoul Central District Court.

Park said the arrest warrant is justified on account of the "seriousness of the crime" and "in the context in which it was investigated."

Lee has also been charged with embezzling more than $32 million that was then allocated to the "DAS" slush fund, according to No Cut News.

South Korean prosecutors submitted a 80,000-page document of evidence and argued in favor of detaining Lee in a 1,000-page statement.

Prosecutors say Lee is the ultimate proprietor of the DAS fund.

For the bribes he received he should receive at least a 11-year prison sentence, prosecutors argued.

Lee defended his legacy as president and former mayor of Seoul on Thursday in a Facebook post, local newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun reported Thursday.

"I tried to pursue clean politics by isolating the wrong practices of the past," Lee said, adding his administration, which came to power the same year as the 2008 global financial crisis, implemented policies that prevented economic recession in South Korea.

Lee said he has "had a hard time" in the past 10 months, and added his family is "suffering" in the wake of the investigations into his case.

The former South Korean leader said "everything is my fault" in the handwritten social media post published on Thursday.
South Korea announces it will be raising its US$217,000 cash reward for classified information from North Korea by defectors to $860,000.