The building, previously known as the Unification Pavilion, was renamed Panmun Hall sometime in 2024, ministry spokesman Koo Byongsam said at a news conference Monday in Seoul. A sign bearing the former name was taken down in January 2024 and replaced with the new one about seven months later, he said.

Eight decades after the partition of the Korean peninsula, the Catholic Church in South Korea remains one of the few actors that, with perseverance and faith, keeps alive the hope for reconciliation between the two Koreas.

North Korea's second naval destroyer was damaged in its failed launch to the water this week, state media reported Thursday, in an embarrassment for leader Kim Jong Un as he pushes to modernize his naval forces.

World War II changed the world forever. In 1945, the scars of the war were as fresh as many combat wounds. People feared another war and the United Nations was founded to prevent disputes. It included 57 nations that promised to stop Red China and the USSR from spreading communism.