Asia, North Korea | featured news

North Korea's heir apparent Kim Jong Un has swiftly risen to power since being made a four-star general a year ago, but he is even more of an enigma than his late father was during 17 years of absolute power....

Mr. Kim had been grooming his third son, Kim Jong-un, believed to be in his late 20s, to be his successor, as his country struggled to fight widespread food shortages and international sanctions imposed for its nuclear weapons development.

North Korea threatened to engulf South Korea’s presidential palace in a “sea of fire” if the south fires even one bullet or shell toward its territorial waters. The Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army issued the threat today after the South Korean military conducted a drill in disputed waters in the Yellow Sea yesterday, the anniversary of a deadly artillery exchange between the two nations.

South Korea's president called Monday for cooperation with rival North Korea and pledged limited humanitarian support for suffering North Koreans as the two nations try to set aside animosity and pursue dialogue....

Officials say the exchange took place shortly in an area of ocean that was the scene of November's lethal exchange between the two sides -- when North Korean shelling killed four people on Yeonpyeong Island.

North Korea said Monday it has agreed to hold more talks with the United States as Pyongyang renewed its commitment to resuming the long-stalled talks on ending its nuclear weapons programs.

Top nuclear envoys from North and South Korea emerged smiling from a face-to-face meeting Friday, saying they were ready to work together to resume stalled disarmament talks....

The founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program claims that in the late 1990s North Korean officials paid kickbacks to senior Pakistani military figures in exchange for critical weapons technology.

The European Union said Monday it will restart food aid to North Korea after the country's repressive communist regime agreed to an unprecedented monitoring system as it suffers through its worst food crisis in years.

The South Korean military fired at a civilian plane near the Yellow Sea border with North Korea, mistaking it for one of the North's military planes, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Saturday, citing a military source.