North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament on Tuesday approved legislation to extend its compulsory education by one year to 12 years on Tuesday, the Korean Central News Agency reported. There was no announcement on agricultural reforms and other economic measures widely expected to top the agenda of the meeting.“The DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly unanimously endorsed a decree on universal 12-year compulsory education at the session,” the KCNA said, referring to the acronym of the country’s official

North Korean farmers who have long been required to turn most of their crops over to the state may instead be allowed to keep their surplus food to sell or barter in what could be the most significant economic change enacted by young leader Kim Jong Un since he came to power nine months ago. The proposed directive appears aimed at boosting productivity at collective farms that have struggled for d

North Korea will likely discuss economic reforms when its rubber-stamp parliament holds an irregular session this week, a foreign news report said Monday."Economic adjustment" will be discussed in the Sept. 25 meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly, but the session will not likely result in any major decisions, the foreign news wire said. Speculations have risen that the North will take legal st

Tension is escalating around the skirmish-prone western maritime border as Pyongyang vowed retaliation against South Korea’s firing of warning shots Friday at North Korean fishing vessels that violated the territorial waters. The communist regime Saturday accused the South of a “shooting rampage” against boats owned by another country. “What remains to be done now is a powerful strike of our front units which know no bounds,” Pyongyang’s official news agency said. On Friday around noon, South Ko

North Korea will send a delegation to this week’s annual security conference in China, organizers said Sunday, amid fresh tensions along the North’s disputed western sea border with South Korea.The Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue will bring together government officials, military officers, and experts from the United States, China, Japan, Russia, South and North Korea in the eastern Chinese port city of Dalian on Thursday and Friday, according to the University of California Institute on Glo

The U.N. nuclear watchdog adopted a resolution Friday denouncing North Korea for its continued nuclear activity.In the resolution approved at the annual general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, its member states urged North Korea "not to conduct any further nuclear test."The secretive communist nation has conducted two underground nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009.The

The South Korean navy fired warning shots Friday at half a dozen North Korean fishing vessels that crossed their disputed Yellow Sea border, the defense ministry said. The six North Korean boats swiftly returned to their side of the western sea boundary after the incident, a ministry spokesman told AFP. “Dozens of Vulcan machine gun rounds were fired into waters near North Korean fishing boats which violated the sea border,” the spokesman said.“The operation, involving two naval patrol ships, be

South Korea's Navy fired warning shots against North Korean boats operating south of the western sea border, military officials said, after raising the alert status in response to a number of ships violating the demarcation line over the past week.The North Korean boats retreated to north of the border upon the warning shots, officials said.The latest move comes as a growing number of North Korean

A South Korean rights activist who claims he was tortured while in the custody of Chinese security agents early this year has put off a plan to take his case to the United Nations, a coalition of civic groups representing the activist said Thursday. Activist Kim Young-hwan was released in July after 114 days in detention in China. Since his release, Kim has claimed in Seoul he was tortured by Chinese investigators with beatings and electric shocks. China flatly denied torturing Kim. Kim had said

Seoul is considering buying South Korean firms’ assets in the Geumgang tour zone in North Korea as part of its widening efforts to help local firms financially distressed by the suspension of inter-Korean trade and economic cooperation.The Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean issues, has recently conveyed its willingness to purchase South Korean firms’ assets in the North’s Mount Geumgang resort areas in a meeting of subcontractors for Hyundai Asan, the local partner firm for the now

A former South Korean government provided support to a secret network of civilians working to rescue South Korean prisoners of war (POWs) in North Korea, a journalist-turned-scholar here said Tuesday."I believe the network is still running," Melanie Kirkpatrick, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C., said in an interview.The former veteran journalist was introducing her new bo