Seoul: North Korea sent one of its top military officials to Beijing on Wednesday as a "special envoy" of its leader Kim Jong-un, state news agency KCNA reported. There were few details of Choe Ryong-hae's visit, which came amid strained relations between China and North Korea after Beijing backed UN sanctions on Pyongyang for its February nuclear test.
Choe is the most senior North Korean official to visit Beijing since Kim's uncle Jang Song-thaek made the trip in August 2012.
Jang had been seeking a visit to China for Kim Jong-un and to bolster Chinese investment in the impoverished and isolated North. Choe is part of a powerful circle around the North's young leader that is headed by Jang. He is a long-time political administrator and was surprisingly made a vice marshal in the army last year despite having no military background.
China, the North's only major diplomatic ally, publicly condemned the nuclear test and Bank of China recently said it had ceased dealings with the North Korean Foreign Trade Bank, an institution that has been identified as a conduit for Pyongyang's weapons programme....
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08:59 AM, May 22, 2013
Seoul: North Korea fired two short-range missiles on Monday, making six launches in three days, and it condemned South Korea for criticising what it said were its legitimate military drills. South Korea's Defense Ministry said North Korea had fired one missile on Monday morning and a second one in the afternoon. Both were fired into the sea off North Korea's east coast, a ministry official said. The launches come hard...
03:17 PM, May 20, 2013
Seoul: North Korea fired three short-range missiles from its east coast on Saturday, South Korea's Defence Ministry said, but the purpose of the launches was unknown. Launches by the North of short-term missiles are not uncommon, but the ministry would not speculate whether these latest launches were part of a test or training exercise. "North Korea fired short-range guided missiles twice in the morning and once in the afternoon off...
01:59 PM, May 18, 2013
United Nations: A combination of increasingly tough financial sanctions, an arms embargo and other international restrictions on trade with North Korea have not stopped Pyongyang's illicit nuclear arms program but appear to have significantly delayed it, according to a confidential report by a UN panel of experts seen by Reuters on Tuesday. "While the imposition of sanctions has not halted the development of nuclear and ballistic missile programs, it has...
05:06 AM, May 15, 2013
Singapore: India and China will order 100 new naval ships and submarines each by 2032 due to changing global security environment and increasing reliance on the sea for trade in the strategic region, according to a US-based naval consultancy. The new orders would include nuclear and conventional submarines and new aircraft carriers, a balanced mix of destroyers, frigates, smaller units, amphibious and logistics vessels, Coast Guard and maritime patrol forces,...
03:02 PM, May 13, 2013
Mumbai: State Bank of India on Friday said it has entered into a partnership with the Industrial Bank of Korea to help the Korean small businesses doing business here in the country. The agreement will help about 480 Korean small and medium enterprises operating in the country, SBI said in a statement issued in Mumbai. In the absence of a branch of the Korean bank in the country, "this agreement...
03:45 AM, May 11, 2013
Seoul: When romantic actress Lee Si-young swapped her glamorous roles in South Korean dramas for boxing gloves in a bid to win an Olympic medal, her victories triggered a storm of protest that has marred her unexpected success in the ring. The 31-year-old, better known for her roles in TV shows such as "Wild Romance" and "Boys Before Flowers", had tears of joy in her eyes when she defeated 19-year-old...
03:40 PM, May 10, 2013
Washington: Emphasising that North Korea has to pay for its recent provocative behaviour, US President Barack Obama and his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-Hye have said that engagement process would be initiated if Pyongyang gives up its nuclear ambitions. "The key is that we will be prepared for a deterrence; that we will respond to aggression; that we will not reward provocative actions; but that we will maintain an openness...
11:50 AM, May 08, 2013
Seoul: North Korea sentenced an American citizen to 15 years of hard labor on Thursday for crimes against the state, prompting a US call for his amnesty in hopes of avoiding him becoming a bargaining chip between the two countries. Kenneth Bae, 44, was born in South Korea but is a naturalized US citizen and studied psychology for two years at the University of Oregon. His sentencing comes after two...
07:42 AM, May 03, 2013
The story of South Korean rap sensation Psy's ascent to global stardom with his megahit 'Gangnam Style' has now been immortalised in full color and with appropriate dramatic flourishes in a comic book. "Fame:Psy", which went on sale in the United States and South Korea on Wednesday, focuses mainly on what went into making 'Gangnam Style', which catapulted the sunglassed singer with the garish jackets to global fame and became...
10:31 AM, May 01, 2013
Chicago: A 2-year-old girl born without a windpipe now has a new one grown from her own stem cells, the youngest patient in the world to benefit from the experimental treatment. Hannah Warren has been unable to breathe, eat, drink or swallow on her own since she was born in South Korea in 2010. Until the operation at a central Illinois hospital, she had spent her entire life in a...
02:26 AM, May 01, 2013
Seoul: Park Hee-sung, a 78-year-old North Korean former agent who has been held in the enemy South for close to half a century, remains staunchly loyal to his homeland, the ruling Kim family and its Juche ideology of economic self-reliance. A trim, neat man, Park is one of around two dozen North Korean operatives trapped in exile in affluent South Korea. He lives in a charity house in central Seoul...
07:03 AM, Apr 30, 2013
Pyongyang: The heart of this city, once famous for its Dickensian darkness, now pulsates with neon. Glossy construction downtown has altered the Pyongyang skyline. Inside supermarkets where shopgirls wear French designer labels, people with money can buy Italian wine, Swiss chocolates, kiwifruit imported from New Zealand and fresh-baked croissants. They can get facials, lie in tanning booths, play a round of mini golf or sip cappuccinos and cocktails while listening...
09:03 AM, Apr 29, 2013
Pyongyang: North Korea announced on Saturday that an American detained for nearly six months is being tried in the Supreme Court on charges of plotting to overthrow the government, a crime that could draw the death penalty if he is convicted. The case involving Kenneth Bae, who has been in North Korean custody since early November 2012, further complicates already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington following weeks of heightened...
07:40 AM, Apr 28, 2013
South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co has been forced to apologise for an advertisement that sought to promote the zero carbon emissions of one of its cars by featuring a man failing to commit suicide using a hose attached to the exhaust. The ad debacle is the latest to hit the carmaker, the world's fifth largest by sales when combined with its Kia Motors affiliate, after it exaggerated fuel performance...
10:39 AM, Apr 27, 2013
Seoul: South Korean rapper Psy, whose latest video 'Gentleman' tracked global megahit 'Gangnam Style' by going viral on the Internet, has been knocked from the top of the music charts in his native country by a 63-year-old easy listening pop singer. 'Gangnam Style', which holds the YouTube record for most views with more than 1.5 billion, catapulted the sunglassed Korean with the garish jackets to world stardom and made him...
11:09 AM, Apr 26, 2013
Seoul: North Korea has moved two short-range missile launchers to its east coast, apparently indicating it is pushing ahead with preparations for a test launch, a South Korean news agency reported on Sunday. South Korea and its allies have been expecting some sort of North Korean missile launch during weeks of heightened hostility on the Korean peninsula. An unidentified South Korean military source told the South's Yonhap news agency that...
01:40 PM, Apr 21, 2013
London: Korean pop star Psy's latest single 'Gentleman' has made him a global star, but in his native South Korea the video has been banned by the officials. The Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), a major broadcaster in the country, has reportedly banned the new music video as the rapper is shown abusing public property, reports contactmusic.com. KBS said that the scene doesn't meet its standards as a public broadcaster. It...
10:19 AM, Apr 19, 2013
New Delhi: South Korean rapper Psy's new video, 'Gentleman' has crossed the 100 million views mark. The singer is chasing the success of his own megahit 'Gangnam Style'. 'Gangnam Style', which holds the YouTube record for most views ever with more than 1.5 billion, made the corpulent Korean a global star and one of the best-known faces to come out of the growing K-pop music scene. The 35-year-old's new single...
12:41 PM, Apr 17, 2013
New Delhi: A US military helicopter crashed near the North Korean border during a joint military exercise with South Korea on Tuesday. All twelve service personnel on board the helicopter have reportedly survived the crash. The cause of the crash is still unknown. Meanwhile, North Korea has condemned the joint exercises as a rehearsal for invasion and made a series of dire threats of military retaliation. There are 28,500 US...
12:01 PM, Apr 16, 2013
