North Korea warned rival South Korea and the rest of the world Friday not to expect any change after Kim Jong-il’s death, sending a clear message of continuity by also calling his son and heir ``Great Leader" for the first time.North Korea’s powerful National Defense Commission said that the country would never deal with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, a conservative who stopped a no-strings-attached aid policy toward the North in 2008, and that it would unite around new leader Kim Jong-un

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) -- In their first meeting since the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, the top South Korean and U.S. nuclear envoys agreed Wednesday to resume talks with the communist nation if the “right conditions” are created, according to a South Korean official.“First, (we) shared the opinion with the U.S. that it is important to stably manage security on the Korean Peninsula after the death of Chairman Kim Jong-il,” Lim Sung-nam, special representative for Korean Peninsula

North Korea is closing an inter-Korean factory park for two days to mark the funeral of its late leader Kim Jong-il, a Seoul official said Wednesday.The industrial complex in the North Korean border city of Kaesong will halt operations Wednesday and Thursday during the last days of the 13-day mourning period for Kim, who died from heart failure on Dec. 17, according to the North’s media.“I understand that (South Korean) firms operating there agreed with (North Korean authorities) to suspend work

DANDONG, China (AFP) ― Business was booming for flower sellers in the Chinese border city of Dandong on Wednesday as mourners gathered at the North Korean consulate to pay their respects to late leader Kim Jong-il.Scores of stoney-faced mourners clutched bunches of yellow and white flowers as they entered the consulate, where large flat-screen televisions had been put up to show Wednesday’s funeral.Another 100 people crammed into a North Korean restaurant across the street― which along with scor

The widows of former President Kim Dae-jung and former Hyundai Asan chairman Chung Mong-hun returned home on Tuesday after their high-profile trip to Pyongyang to express condolences over the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.In the morning, former First Lady Lee Hee-ho and Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun met the North’s titular head Kim Yong-nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly and expressed “deep condolences” over Kim’s demise, according to the North’

Activists helping refugees to flee North Korea fear that the death of leader Kim Jong-il will lead to a crackdown on people trying to escape repression and hunger in the communist state.The North is believed to have stepped up patrols along its border with China, as well as security checks in public places, in an attempt to prevent defections in the wake of Kim’s death on Dec. 17.“I can’t reach most of my contacts in the North. All of their mobile phones are switched off, probably to dodge heigh

Experts here have raised the possibility that North Korea may use the death of its leader Kim Jong-il as a pretext to delay next year’s planned declaration that it has entered the stage of becoming “a strong, prosperous nation.”Given its deepening economic woes coupled with international isolation over its controversial nuclear program, the communist state may find it difficult to plausibly claim it has reached that stage, they pointed out.The North was widely expected to make the declaration ar