NEWS BRIEF

[Anchor Lead]

In a meeting with the government central anti-disease headquarters Thursday, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun called for stern punishment for all illegal transactions of face masks, which are increasingly in high demand amid the novel coronavirus outbreak. He also proposed measures to help stabilize the distribution of the protective gear, such as introducing a system to report mask hoarders, selling masks through state-run homeshopping channels and the release of state reserves.
North Korea says it will not send its Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son-gyong to a security conference in Munich, which is scheduled to take place on next Friday. It is known that the decision is related to travel restrictions the North has imposed to protect itself from the new coronavirus that is spreading in neighboring China.
The new head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says that the U.S. has not given up on denuclearization negotiations with North Korea. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi made the remarks in a lecture at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Wednesday, following a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo.
South Korea's current account surplus fell to a seven-year low last year due to a slump in global trade and the chip market. According to data from the Bank of Korea on Thursday, the nation's current account surplus came to less than 60 billion U.S. dollars, which is the lowest since 2012 when it marked 48.79 billion dollars.