A group of South Korean historians and cultural artifact experts traveled to North Korea on Monday to conduct a joint safety survey of the site of an ancient royal palace in the communist state, officials said. The visit was to follow up on a meeting held in North Korea on Oct. 28 between historians of the two Koreas in which they reached a consensus for a quick resumption of a long-stalled inter-Korean project to excavate the site.The two Koreas launched the project to uncover the remains of Ma

North Korea's government-run Web site began linking posts critical of South Korea to popular social networking sites (SNS) to allow netizens to more easily spread its message online, in its latest effort to step up cyber propaganda. The official Web site of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunificati

An international consortium once tasked with building two power-generating nuclear reactors in North Korea will soon demand that the communist country provide US$1.89 billion in compensation for the project's failure, a Seoul official said Monday.The demand comes after North Korea filed its own comp

Group of retired world leaders to send staff to Seoul on MondayA high-ranking North Korean official asked a group of retired world leaders to deliver to Seoul his government’s intention to hold an inter-Korean summit in January.The Elders, which includes former Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan and former-U.S. President Jimmy Carter, will send working-level staff to Seoul Monday to convey Pyongyang’s message and then to North Korea.The delegation will meet with South Korean offi

Hundreds of North Korean nuclear and missile experts have been collaborating with their Iranian counterparts in more than 10 locations across the Islamic state, a diplomatic source said Sunday.The revelation lends credence to long-held suspicions that North Korea was helping Iran with a secret nuclear and missile program.It also represents a new security challenge to the international community as it seeks to curb the nuclear ambitions of Pyongyang and Tehran, and thwart trading of nuclear and m

   North Korean leader Kim Jong-il inspected a fish farm and related facilities to give on-site guidance to workers, a media report said Friday.   The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim toured the gravity-fed river fish farm and hatchery, and expressed sa

   North Korea's official news media confirmed Friday that the communist country has resumed joint efforts to recover the remains of U.S. soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War.   The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) citing a spokesman for the country's armed forces said Nort

A South Korean civilian relief group with ties to the Unification Church said Friday that it plans to send 300 tons of flour to North Korea early next week.   The Ambassadors for Peace said the flour will be sent to a children's home in a town in North Pyeongan Province near the border wit

The former top U.S. official on North Korea policy on Thursday didn't rule out the possibility that Pyongyang could conduct its third nuclear test.In an interview with Kyodo News Agency, Stephen Bosworth, who resigned as the U.S. point man on North Korea last month, said it was "very difficult" to p

North Korea’s flag carrier has canceled an air route to Kuwait, Airline Route blog says, in what could be Pyongyang’s latest attempt to prevent the news of popular uprisings in the Arab world from reaching the isolated country.The move came less than six months after Air Koryo started a weekly direct flight service between Pyongyang and Kuwait City, Airline Route said Monday on its Web site, citing the carrier’s planned winter operation.In late May, Air Koryo announced the service on its Faceboo

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) -- When U.S. President Barack Obama holds bilateral summits with his Russian, Chinese and Japanese counterparts in Hawaii later this week, North Korea will be high on agenda, White House officials said Wednesday.Obama is scheduled to meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Saturday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.“We‘ll, of course, address with the Russians a

North Korea is becoming stricter on foreigners’ travel in the country, apparently sensitive to the impact of outside news on the recent death of Libya’s longtime dictator, a U.S.-funded radio station said Tuesday. Not wanting outsiders to bring in recent news on Libya, the North Korean regime is asking foreign officials and businessmen not to leave Pyongyang without approval, Radio Free Asia reported, quoting people in Pyongyang. Former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was killed by revolutionary f

Another North Korean man defected to South Korea on Oct. 30, using a makeshift raft to cross the tense western maritime border, government sources said Tuesday.A naval patrol ship spotted him some 13 kilometers away from Yeonpyeong Island at around 3:10 a.m. ― about 10 minutes before they found a group of 21 North Koreans on a wooden boat some 41 kilometers west of Daecheong Island.The two cases are the latest in a series of defections by those who have risked their lives to escape poverty and s