North Korea has given approval to a Chinese tourism company to do business at Mount Geumgang resort, news reports said on Tuesday.The Unification Ministry is trying to verify the reports, the ministry’s deputy spokesperson Park Soo-jin told The Korea Herald.It would be the first foreign company permitted by Pyongyang to run the resort tour business since South Korea’s Hyundai Asan suspended it in 2008.The company had had exclusive rights to run tours until they were revoked in April, but its bus

BEIJING (Yonhap News) ― A senior North Korean diplomat handling U.S. affairs arrived in Beijing Tuesday, spurring speculation over a possible meeting with Washington’s special envoy for Pyongyang.Ri Gun, director general for North American affairs at North Korea’s foreign ministry, was seen heading to Pyongyang’s embassy in Beijing after arriving at an airport in the Chinese capital.His visit comes during a lull in nuclear talks with Pyongyang.Since July, South Korea and the U.S. have each held

North Korea has introduced a Western coffee shop in Pyongyang, a source said Tuesday, the latest case of embracing foreign cuisine in a country grappling with chronic food shortages.The North has been struggling to keep outside influences from seeping into the isolated country out of fear that they could eventually pose a threat to leader Kim Jong-il’s autocratic rule.The North has routinely called on its 24 million people to guard against Western influences, describing them as part of psycholog

North Korea has allowed a Chinese company to do business at its scenic mountain resort, a source said Tuesday, in an apparent attempt to revitalize the resort at the center of a dispute with South Korea.The company plans to organize a cruise tour to Mount Kumgang on the North's east coast for Chines

Prospects are dim for South Korea and the United States to hold a new round of bilateral meetings with North Korea, though diplomatic efforts are under way to organize fresh talks, a senior government official said Sunday.Since earlier this year, Seoul and Washington have held two rounds of one-on-one negotiations with North Korea to get the communist nation to take concrete steps to demonstrate its commitment to denuclearization before restarting the broader six-party nuclear talks.The media ha

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has ordered that the country’s people call foreign foods, such as hamburgers and waffles, by the names used in the countries of origin, rather than coining new Korean terms for them, a source said Sunday.Under the instruction, North Koreans will no longer refer to a hamburger using the Korean term meaning “double bread with minced meat” and a waffle as “roasted bread cake,” the source said. Kim issued the instruction during a visit to street stands selling such fo

South’s military to set up seasonal decorations for first time since 2004North Korea is once again threatening South over plans to light Christmas decorations on the border.On Sunday, North Korea said that lighting of Christmas decorations at Aegibong in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province could result in an “unpredictable situation.”Aegibong is located about 3 kilometers from North Korean lines, and Pyongyang has long criticized the Christmas lights at the location as being part of Seoul’s psychological w

A North Korean propaganda media outlet warned South Korea on Sunday of an "unpredictable situation" if Seoul lights up a giant Christmas tree-shaped tower near their tense border.It had been an annual tradition for South Korea to light up the Christmas tree on top of a hill called Aegibong near the

North Korea’s adoption of a new rule on natural disasters last month indicates that experts’ warnings of volcanic eruptions of Mount Baekdu have spread widely throughout the country, the South Korean government said Wednesday. Pyongyang’s new law stipulates principles for observing and forecasting natural disasters, particularly earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, in addition to how to minimize damage and undertake rescue activities, the Korean Central News Agency reported last month, without gi

U.S. special envoys dealing with North Korea and Myanmar policy arrived in South Korea Wednesday for separate visits to discuss the next steps in dealing with the traditionally repressive regimes, officials here said.Glyn Davies, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, arrived in Seoul as part of his first East Asia tour since being appointed in October.During his five-day stay in South Korea, Davies is scheduled to meet Thursday with Lim Sung-nam, Seoul’s chief envoy to the stal

North Korea applied for just two international patents from the World Intellectual Property Organization this year, the Washington-based Radio Free Asia reported on Wednesday.The WIPO said that the North applied in April for a patent on cast-iron welding rods. But it did not disclose what the other was for.The reclusive state made three applications for international patents in 2007, seven in 2008 and four last year. It did not apply in 2009.Experts said that the low number of applications indic

SEOUL, Dec. 7 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's adoption of a new rule on natural disasters last month indicates that experts' warnings of volcanic eruptions of Mount Paekdu has spread widely throughout the country, the South Korean government said Wednesday. Pyongyang's new law stipulates principles for ob

South Korean company heads who run factories with North Korean workers in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex will gather to boost their business morale, sources said.The association of CEOs of South Korean small- and medium-sized enterprises in Gaeseong will hold a general meeting on Wednesday at 5 p.m. at a training and education center in the complex. It is the first time for the group to hold a regular meeting in North Korea since it was established under the Gaeseong Industrial Complex Act in J