The South Korean and U.S. defense authorities agree that the chances of another North Korean nuclear test are "very high," a senior military official said Friday."The assessment of South Korea and the U.S. is that chances are very high that North Korea will carry out a nuclear experiment," South Korea's deputy minister of defense, Lim Kwan-bin, told reporters after two days of meetings here with h

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un observed a combined arms exercise to mark the 80th anniversary of the Korean People's Army (KPA), a media report said Saturday.The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) picked up in Seoul said without specifying the date of the exercise that Kim, who has been made the supreme commander of the KPA, "guided" the military maneuver. The anniversary of the North Korean armed

WASHINGTON ― Senior South Korean and U.S. military officials began a meeting here Thursday to coordinate their response to recent North Korean provocations and to discuss alliance issues.The Pentagon said it opened the inaugural session of the Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue, which the defense chiefs of the two countries agreed to at a Security Consultative Meeting last year.“Discussions will include North Korean provocations and coordinated responses as well as a broader range of Allianc

Military exports could violate UNSC resolution against arms transactions with PyongyangA Chinese firm reportedly sold eight military vehicles to North Korea last May in an apparent violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution banning arms transactions with the impoverished state.Citing an announcement by Kanwa Information Center, a private military research institute based in Canada, Japan’s Kyodo News reported Friday that the firm under the Chinese People’s Liberation Army sold the vehicles.

South Korea has asked the U.N. Security Council to add more than 10 North Korean entities to its sanctions list, a senior government official said.The move comes after the 15-member Security Council on April 16 condemned Pyongyang’s recent rocket launch, expanded the list of North Korean organizations subject to asset freezes and identified more proliferation-sensitive technology to be banned from transfer in and out of the reclusive state.The Seoul official said the U.S., Japan and EU also have

The new intercontinental ballistic missiles displayed in a military parade in North Korea were mock-ups and the presentation was "a nice dog and pony show," according to two German experts on North Korean missiles.The North showed off the missiles on transporter-erector-launchers during the parade to mark the centennial of the April 15 birth of the country's late founder Kim Il-sung, the grandfath

Chinese President Hu Jintao met with a top North Korean envoy in a reaffirmation of traditional ties following Chinese pique over Pyongyang's recent attempted rocket launch.State broadcaster CCTV made no mention of the failed April 13 launch in its report on Hu's meeting Monday with Workers' Party international relations chief Kim Yong Il at the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing.Hu

BEIJING (AFP) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday told a visiting North Korean official that the two countries should work towards "peace and stability" after a missile launch by Pyongyang, state media said.Speaking in a meeting with Kim Yong-il, a top official of North Korea's ruling Korean Workers' Party, Hu called for greater cooperation with its traditional ally, the state-run Xinhua news

North Korea’s military on Monday threatened to take “special actions soon” against the Seoul government and conservative media in response of President Lee Myung-bak’s criticism of the communist regime.The North’s “special action operation unit” said it will take only “three to four minutes” to launch the attacks through “unprecedented means and methods of their own style.”The threat came after Lee on Friday called on the North to conduct land reform to improve the livelihoods of North Korean pe