North Korea appeared to be speeding up its construction of a light-water reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear complex, raising eyebrows in Seoul as fears rise over radioactive materials from Japan’s tsunami-stricken nuclear power plant.Satellite photos taken last month and broadcast by KBS-TV showed a new round structure being built in Yongbyon and foundation work underway next to it. A high-ranking So

North Korea, which claims to be in dire need of outside food aid to feed its starving people, has some 1 million tons of rice stockpiled at its military warehouses to prepare for potential war or for release on the 100th anniversary of its founder, a ruling party lawmaker here said Thursday. Pyongyang has stored about 300,000 tons for its regular forces and another 700,000 tons for reserve forces,

North Korea was to convene its rubber-stamp parliament Thursday amid keen interest on whether its ailing leader, Kim Jong-il, would promote his heir-apparent son to another top post.   The session comes amid lingering tensions on the Korean Peninsula over Pyongyang's two deadly attacks on the South last year, which killed a total of 50 South Koreans, mostly soldiers.   It also comes as former U.S.

North Korea remains adamant that it will never apologize for the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship last year, according to an academic who visited the communist nation this month.South Korea says the North must admit it torpedoed the Cheonan with the loss of 46 lives before dialogue can resume to ease months of tensions. “North Korea says it cannot apologize for what it has not done and thi

South Korean police said Wednesday that North Korea was behind the massive cyber attacks that severely slowed and disrupted dozens of South Korean government and business websites last month.The sites of about 30 key South Korean government agencies, including the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, and financial institutions came under a so-called distributed denial-of-service attack on March 4, w

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― The Obama administration said Tuesday it has not yet found enough evidence to relist North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism.“There’s a very specific procedure, though, to designating someone as a state sponsor of terror, with specific criteria that need to be met,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.“There’s a legal process to doing that. And I’m not aware t

North Korea has strengthened the intensity of its naval drills this year by deploying a new submarine, prompting South Korea’s military to raise its level of vigilance, a government source here said Wednesday.“North Korea is on naval maneuvers near its bases off the East Sea and Yellow Sea by mobilizing five to six submarines, including a new Sango class submarine,” the source said on the conditio

Four-month program to train 1,000 young people from N. KoreaSouth Korea will open a program aimed at training young North Korean defectors to be resourceful workers after the reunification of the two Koreas, a civic group here said Tuesday.The four-month program, funded by the government, will train 1,000 young North Koreans, who are either college seniors or graduates, on topics such as social in

Seoul, Washington reluctant to resume full-scale assistanceFacing ongoing international isolation and experiencing a wobbly power transfer from its ailing leader to his young son, North Korea is escalating efforts to secure food assistance for its starving people, philanthropic groups in and out of the country said Sunday. The communist North, which relies mostly on outside aid to feed its impover

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― A bipartisan group of congressmen will soon submit legislation to redesignate North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism for its torpedoing of a South Korean warship and shelling of a South Korean border island that killed 50 people last year, sources said Friday.“I understand Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has almost completed drafting the legislation, and she is likely to s

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― The U.S. has the capability to intercept ballistic missiles from North Korea, a senior U.S. official has said.Patrick O’Reilly, director of the Missile Defense Agency, made the remarks at a House Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday in response to a lawmaker who expressed “concerns about the ground-based midcourse defense system in Alaska and California,” citing “ba