(ATTN: ADDS more info throughout, photo) SEOUL, April 24 (Yonhap) -- A senior North Korean official, who served as Pyongyang's chief interlocutor in talks with the United States, has been replaced as head of a key espionage agency handling inter-Korean affairs, a lawmaker said Wednesday. Kim Yong-chol, chief of the United Front Department, was recently replaced by Jang Kum-chol, Rep. Lee Hye-hoon of the Bareunmirae Party, who leads the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee, said, citing a source from Seoul's spy agency. Jang, who is barely known to the outside world, is reportedly in his late 50s and has a career of working for civilian exchanges between the two Koreas. Kim was the North's top negotiator in denuclearization talks with the United States. His U.S. counterpart was Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. It was unclear if his replacement as chief of the espionage agency affected his status as chief negotiator in talks with the U.S. Nuclear negotiations betwee

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(ATTN: MODIFIES slug, headline; UPDATES with more info in paras 7-8, 19-24) By Song Sang-ho VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, April 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is set to hold his first summit with President Vladimir Putin in Russia's Far East city of Vladivostok on Thursday, with a peaceful resolution of Pyongyang's nuclear quandary expected to top the agenda. The much anticipated summit will be a key test of Kim's diplomatic outreach aimed at breaking a logjam in a denuclearization parley with the United States, easing sanctions pressure and catalyzing his lackluster drive for economic development. Kim and Putin are expected to meet in the afternoon at Far Eastern Federal University on Russky Island in the Pacific port city, where their national flags are hoisted, security heightened and the adjacent Ajax Bay closed to fend off any suspicious approaches. Flanked by top party, military and state officials, Kim arrived by train in Vladivostok on Wednesday afternoon fo

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(ATTN: UPDATES with new info) By Song Sang-ho VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, April 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un began his first summit with President Vladimir Putin in Russia's Far East city of Vladivostok on Thursday, with a peaceful resolution of Pyongyang's nuclear quandary expected to top the agenda. The much anticipated summit is seen as a key test of Kim's diplomatic outreach aimed at breaking a logjam in a denuclearization parley with the United States, easing sanctions pressure and catalyzing his lackluster drive for economic development. Kim and Putin met at Far Eastern Federal University on Russky Island in the Pacific port city, where their national flags are hoisted, security heightened and the adjacent Ajax Bay closed to fend off any suspicious approaches. In his opening remarks, Kim said that the summit with Putin will be "meaningful" for joint efforts to address Korean Peninsula issues. "Now, world attention is focused on Korean Peninsula issues,"

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(ATTN: UPDATES with new info in paras 14, 17) By Song Sang-ho VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, April 24 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived in Russia's Far Eastern city of Vladivostok on Wednesday for his first summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid stalled nuclear talks with the United States. After its wee-hour departure from an undisclosed North Korean station and a stopover in the Russian border city of Khasan, Kim's special train pulled into the Pacific port city where Russian police have kept tight security for his first visit to the country since he took power in late 2011. Disembarking from the train, Kim, wearing a black coat, flashed a broad smile to a throng of Russian officials and people welcoming his arrival. After an honor guard inspection, he was whisked away in his signature black Mercedez-Benz sedan in front of the station. At Khasan, Kim voiced hope for "useful talks" with Putin about regional stability, slated for Thursday, while extend

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By Kim Eun-jung SEOUL, April 24 (Yonhap) -- LG Electronics Inc. plans to relocate its Korean smartphone production line to Vietnam in a bid to cut costs for its money-losing mobile business, industry sources said Wednesday. The South Korean tech firm will phase out its Pyeongtaek factory, south of Seoul, by the end of this year, getting ready to shift the production line to Hai Phong, a northern Vietnamese city where other LG affiliates operate factories. "As LG Electronics has continued to lose money from its smartphone business, it decided to move its Korean plant to Vietnam to reduce manufacturing costs," an industry source familiar with the issue said. LG Electronics currently manufactures smartphones in South Korea, Vietnam, Brazil and China, with its local factory mainly producing premium devices. LG has struggled in the smartphone market for years as it has been sandwiched between Samsung Electronics and Apple in the high-end market and Chinese manufacturers in

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SEOUL, April 25 (Yonhap) -- President Moon Jae-in will meet with a top aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Seoul on Thursday, coinciding with Putin's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, is scheduled to pay a courtesy call on Moon in the afternoon, according to Cheong Wa Dae. It would be their first meeting since September 2017, when they sat down together in Seoul two days ahead of Moon's talks with Putin in the far eastern Russian port city of Vladivostok. Patrushev is visiting here for a security consultation with Chung Eui-yong, director of Cheong Wa Dae's National Security Office. The two sides are expected to exchange views on the summit between Putin and Kim to take place in Vladivostok the same day. Apparently on the agenda as well is Putin's possible trip to South Korea to reciprocate Moon's state visit to Russia last year. Moon, meanwhile, plans to present th

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(ATTN: ADDS more info in paras 3-5) By Song Sang-ho VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, April 24 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is set to arrive in Russia's Far Eastern city of Vladivostok on Wednesday for his first summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid stalled nuclear talks with the United States. After its wee-hour departure from an undisclosed North Korean station and a stopover in the Russian border city of Khasan, Kim's special train will pull into the Pacific port city where Russian police have kept tight security for his first visit to the country since he took power in late 2011. At Khasan, Kim in a black coat was greeted by senior Russian officials, such as Alexander Kozlov, minister for the development of the Russian Far East, and Oleg Kozhemyako, governor of Primorsky Krai. "(My) visit to Russia this time will not be the last one. This will only be a first move (in the development of bilateral relations)," Kim told Kozlov according to a press re

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By Song Sang-ho VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, April 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is set to hold his first summit with President Vladimir Putin in Russia's Far East city of Vladivostok on Thursday, with a peaceful resolution of Pyongyang's nuclear quandary expected to top the agenda. The much anticipated summit will be a key test of Kim's diplomatic outreach aimed at breaking a logjam in a denuclearization parley with the United States, easing sanctions pressure and catalyzing his lackluster drive for economic development. Kim and Putin are expected to meet in the afternoon at Far Eastern Federal University on Russky Island in the Pacific port city, where their national flags are hoisted, security heightened and the adjacent Ajax Bay closed to fend off any suspicious approaches. Flanked by top party, military and state officials, Kim arrived by train in Vladivostok on Wednesday afternoon for his first foreign trip since the collapse of his second summit with U.S. P

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By Koh Byung-joon SEOUL, April 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea blasted South Korea on Thursday for conducting joint air force exercises with the United States, calling the maneuvers an act of "perfidy" endangering inter-Korean relations, even though the drills were scaled back from previous years. In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency, the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country also urged Seoul to "behave with discretion," while warning that there could be a "response from our army." It marked the first time that the North lashed out at South Korea in a statement by the committee handling inter-Korean affairs since early last year when the two Koreas resumed talks and exchanges after years of frozen relations. "The acts of perfidy... have greatly disappointed us, as they, far from trying to keep to preserve the valuable spark of peace, reconciliation and cooperation, have gone against the trend toward the reconciliation on the peninsul

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WASHINGTON, April 24 (Yonhap) -- The United States said Wednesday that it remains ready to have "constructive" talks with North Korea, a response to reports of a personnel shuffle involving the regime's top nuclear negotiator. A spokesperson for the State Department said the U.S. is aware of the reports, but did not address questions about how the move will affect nuclear disarmament talks between Washington and Pyongyang. "As we have said before, we remain ready to engage in constructive negotiations," the spokesperson told Yonhap. Kim Yong-chol, director of the North's United Front Department, has been replaced by a little known man called Jang Kum-chol, a South Korean lawmaker said earlier Wednesday, citing Seoul's spy agency. Kim was Pyongyang's chief negotiator ahead of two summits between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in June and February. The second summit in Vietnam ended without a deal due to differences over the scope of Nor

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