“North Korea now has the goal of developing the nuclear weapons by itself and also pursues other conflicting goals like improving the economy and foreign relations,” MOU spokesperson Lee Duk-haeng told media at a regular news briefing. [...] Cheong added that the members of the organization have been key figures in negotiations with the South, U.S. Diplomacy, and public diplomacy.

In February, the United Nations released a remarkably comprehensive report on North Korea's human rights abuses. The report interviewed 320 people, including a number of survivors from the notorious secret political system, and concluded that the country was committing human rights violations “without any parallel in the contemporary world.”

Jang Song Taek, the brother-in-law of late Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il, the uncle of current leader Kim Jong Un, and an urbane politician who was thought to have been the second most powerful man in North Korea, has been reportedly executed for planning a coup. Jang "is a traitor to the nation for all ages," according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the country's main news agency, which released the news on the morning of Friday Dec. 13 Korea time.