North Korea

North and South Korea hold first talks in two years

Seoul: Government delegates from North and South Korea held a marathon session of preparatory talks on Sunday at a "truce village" on their heavily armed border aimed at setting ground rules for a higher-level discussion on easing animosity and restoring stalled rapprochement projects.

The meeting at Panmunjom, where the armistice agreement ending fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War was signed, was the first of its kind on the Korean Peninsula in more than two years.



Success will be judged on whether the delegates can pave the way for a meeting between the ministers of each country's department for cross-border affairs. Such ministerial talks haven't happened since 2007. South Korea has proposed they take place Wednesday in Seoul....more    

Barack Obama welcomes Xi for talks on cyber security

Rancho Mirage: President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) have opened two days of meetings with a handshake at a California retreat. Obama is welcoming Xi to a sprawling desert estate for talks on high-stakes issues, including cybersecurity and North Korea's nuclear threats. It's the first meeting between the two leaders since Xi took office in March. Obama and Xi, in suit coats and white shirts but...  

North, South Korea move to end rupture in ties

Seoul: North and South Korea announced on Thursday they were planning to hold talks for the first time since February 2011, signalling attempts to repair ties that have been ruptured for months. For months earlier this year, North Korea unleashed an almost daily stream of threats against the South and its ally, the United States, vowing to attack them with nuclear weapons. Tension on the Korean peninsula was at the...  

'China tried to convince N Korea to give up nuclear tests'

Beijing: China told an envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that Pyongyang should stop conducting nuclear and missile tests, but the North showed little sign of heeding the request, said a source with knowledge of the talks held late last month. Kim dispatched Choe Ryong-hae, vice chairman of the country's top military body, to explain North Korea's recent actions but he got a lukewarm reception from his Chinese hosts,...  

North Korea sends top official to China

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...  

North Korea fires sixth missile in three days

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...  

North Korea fires three short-range missiles

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...  

Financial sanctions delay North Korea's atom bomb work: UN

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...  

North Korea has to pay a price for provocations: Obama

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...  

US seeks N Korean amnesty for American jailed for 15 years

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...  

Trapped in S Korea, veteran spies still believe in North

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...  

Pyongyang glitters, but rest of North Korea still dark

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...  

North Korea charges US man in plot to overthrow regime

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...  

North Korea moves two more missile launchers: Report

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...  

US military helicopter crashes near South Korea

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...  

NKorea documentary was worth risking lives for: BBC

London: Striking a defiant tone, the BBC has defended its decision to send an undercover team with a group of London School of Economics students on a trip to secretive North Korea, saying that it was worth risking their lives. The BBC has faced calls to pull Panorama special by John Sweeney who smuggled himself into North Korea alongside his wife and a cameraman by attaching them to a group...  

After weeks of NKorean fury, calm on key holiday

Pyongyang: North Koreans celebrated the birthday of their first leader Monday by dancing in plazas and snacking on peanuts, with little hint of the fiery bombast that has kept the international community fearful that a missile launch may be imminent. Pyongyang fired off a rocket ahead of the last anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birth - the centennial - but this time the day was simply the start of a...  

North Korea may launch medium-range missile test

Seoul: North Korea may test a new missile to mark the birth anniversary celebrations of state founder Kim il Sung on Monday. The isolated and impoverished state celebrates the former leader's birth anniversary on Monday amidst growing tensions in the east, after weeks of war threats from Pyongyang. Speculation has mounted of an impending medium-range missile test launch in North Korea after reports in South Korea and the United States...  

Kerry says United States ready to 'reach out' to North Korea

Tokyo: US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday stressed the United States is willing to engage with North Korea as long as it takes steps to give up nuclear weapons. He also vowed Washington would protect its Asian allies against any provocative acts by the North, but said it wants a peaceful solution to rising tensions in the region. "We are prepared to reach out but we need (the)...  

LSE attacks BBC over covert North Korea trip

London: A leading British university criticised the BBC on Sunday for arranging an academic trip to North Korea to make an undercover documentary, saying it had put students who were unaware of the plans in danger. The London School of Economics (LSE) said three BBC journalists - including the respected reporter John Sweeney - joined a student society trip at the end of March, posing as tourists to make a...