NAMPO, North Korea ― North Korea is reporting a serious drought that could worsen already critical food shortages, but help is unlikely to come from the United States and South Korea following Pyongyang’s widely criticized rocket launch.North Korea has had little rain since April 27, with the country’s western coastal areas particularly hard hit, according to a government weather agency in Pyongyang. The dry spell threatened to damage crops, officials said, as the country enters a critical plant

North Korea and the United States are walking a tightrope on signaling willingness to defuse tension diplomatically following Pyongyang’s firing of a long-range rocket last month.U.S. officials said Wednesday that Washington will consider offering food aid to Pyongyang if the destitute country changes course and makes no additional provocations. While portraying its nuclear program as a “self-defense” measure, the North said Tuesday it has no plan for an atomic test for now and remains open to d

Pyongyang denies any plan for nuclear testNew satellite imagery suggests that North Korea has upgraded its old rocket launch site in the northeastern town of Musudan, U.S. experts said Tuesday.After analyzing an April 29 aerial image, the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said the communist regime has renovated a launch pad for larger, higher-capacity missiles at the place where it fired its first two long-range rockets in 2006 and 2009.The photo shows the initial stages of constr

President Lee Myung-bak said Wednesday North Korea’s human rights record is an issue as important as its nuclear or missile programs, and should be dealt with more urgently than other matters.Lee made the remark during a meeting with a group of U.S. lawmakers, including Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), the chairwoman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, presidential spokeswoman Lee Mi-yon said. “The issue of North Korea’s nuclear test or a missile launch is of the same weight of signific

Expert says leadership changes in S. Korea, U.S., Russia may not cause big policy changeThe ouster of high-flying politician Bo Xilai from China’s Communist Party leadership in March is expected to readjust the direction of its North Korea policy, possibly toward restraining provocative behavior and encouraging openness, a renowned U.S. expert said.Gordon Flake, executive director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, said that after the downfall of Bo representing the “old-school, react

Chief nuclear envoys from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan on Monday called on North Korea not to “miscalculate,” warning of a united response to any further provocations.“We’re united in our resolve to respond, not just the three allies but China and Russia as well, if there are an additional provocations,” Glyn Davies, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, told reporters after a meeting in Seoul with Lim Sung-nam of South Korea and Shinsuke Sugiyama of Japan. “We hope that North K