(AP)-- North Korea on Wednesday signaled that it remains open to suspending uranium enrichment in exchange for U.S. food aid, a deal that appeared imminent last month before the death of leader Kim Jong-il.The North's statement, attributed to an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman in Pyongyang,

North Korea said Wednesday it did not ask the U.S. for food aid before the death of Kim Jong-il, accusing Washington of “politicizing” food issues.“Enemy forces are spreading false gossip as if we had asked for food (from the U.S.),” North Korea’s foreign ministry spokesperson said.According to Pyongyang, the food aid issue was raised in early 2011, as the two sides were discussing an undelivered 330,000 tons of food aid of 500,000 tons the U.S. had promised in 2008. Pyongyang said Washington of

The number of North Korean defectors who have entered South Korea has surpassed the 23,000 mark as of the end of 2011, the Unification Ministry said Wednesday.Last year, 2,737 North Koreans entered the South, a 15 percent increase from a year earlier, the ministry said. Seventy percent of them were female.The annual number of North Koreans choosing to live in the South has continually increased from 947 in 1998 to more than 2,000 in 2006. The figure peaked in 2009 with 2,927 but inched down slig

BEIJING (AFP) -- China began preparing for a power transition in North Korea several years before Kim Jong-il’s death and will do its utmost to consolidate his inexperienced son’s hold on power, analysts say.North Korea’s closest ally has long sought to bolster its unpredictable, nuclear-armed neighbor, and is particularly keen to avoid instability on its borders as it prepares for its own transition of power this year and its economy loses steam.Analysts said the speed with which Beijing recogn

Activist says food aid to Pyongyang almost never reaches N. Korean residentsRobert Park, a Korean-American human rights activist and missionary imprisoned by Pyongyang from late 2009 to early 2010, said the South Korean government should provide diplomatic protection to North Korean refugees who have defected to China.“These refugees are citizens of Korea and if they’re sent back to North Korea, they are going to be tortured and executed,” Park told The Korea Herald on the phone.He declined to m

North Korean state TV mentioned the late mother of new leader Kim Jong-un for the first time since he was publicly designated successor to Kim Jong-il in September 2010.Korea Central TV on Sunday aired a documentary film about the young Kim, and his mother Ko Yong-hui was mentioned when the narrator underscored his loyalty to his late father.“The Vice Chairman (Kim Jong-un) said he had once waited with his mother all night for the General (Kim Jong-il) to come home from a faraway field inspectio

China sent North Korea’s new special economic zone laws back to the drawing board for measures deemed insufficiently business-friendly, sources said Wednesday.According to reports, Chinese authorities have rejected the new laws Pyongyang drew up in relation to two special economic zones ― Hwanggumpyong and Wihwa islands, that sit in the Yalu River along the border with China.The special economic zones, based on similar projects in China, are designed as a means to breathe some life back into Nor

SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korea imported six times more mobile phones in 2010 than in 2009, a media report said Wednesday, indicating growing mobile penetration in the reclusive country.North Korea bought 430,000 mobile phones from China in 2010, up from 68,000 phones the previous year, accor

North Korean troops have pledged their allegiance to their new leader Kim Jong-un in the latest public display of military support to his dynastic power succession.Kim has risen to the post of the supreme commander of the country’s 1.1 million-strong military soon after the sudden death of his father, former leader Kim Jong-il, as he consolidates his power.Soldiers of the army, navy and air force solemnly swore to faithfully follow the leadership of Kim Jong-un in a rally on Monday at the Kumsus

Children of the current and former North Korean power elite have secured key posts in the communist state’s military and party as part of the power succession to young leader Kim Jong-un, a source close to Pyongyang said Tuesday.“The children of high-ranking party or military officials are mostly in their 40s to 50s. They have received a variety of perks by obtaining important posts and promotions because of their parents,” said the source, who requested anonymity.“The children prefer the diplom

South Korea’s top policymaker on North Korea cautioned Monday against exaggerating China’s role in inter-Korean affairs, saying the two Koreas are the “principal players” in their dealings with each other.Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik, who served as Seoul’s ambassador to Beijing before taking office in September, acknowledged that China has considerable influence over inter-Korean relations, but urged Koreans to take matters into their own hands.As North Korea’s last remaining major ally, China

North Korea’s economic conditions have worsened over recent years partly due to strained inter-Korean relations that resulted in less trade and aid from the South, a report showed Monday.When the North’s economic conditions are scaled against a benchmark 100 in 1995, they worsened to 86.5 in 2009, according to the report by the Sejong Institute, a private think tank. The report was commissioned by Statistics Korea, the South’s statistics agency. The index is based on 10 major economic factors in