Pyongyang proposes Red Cross talks over repatriationSouth Korea on Monday rejected North Korea’s demand to meet with the four boat passengers wishing to defect, escalating tensions as the communist state appears determined to have all 31 on board repatriated.In a message to the South, the North Korean Red Cross proposed that working-level officials meet Wednesday at their border village to determi

North Korea has deployed tanks and other weapons around its leader Kim Jong-il’s residences in Pyongyang to fortify them against a possible revolt spurred by the ongoing antigovernment protests in the Middle East, a Seoul source said Sunday.During a closed-door meeting with lawmakers Friday, a senior official of the National Intelligence Service confirmed reports of such activity, according to a l

North Korea refused to receive its 27 nationals South Korea planned to return on Friday after they strayed into southern waters on a fishing boat, the South's unification ministry said.The North Koreans, part of the boat's 31-member crew, waited for hours near the border village of Panmunjom for an approval from their government to go home."A North Korean liaison officer at Panmunjom called at abo

North Korea did not respond on Friday to the proposal to send back 27 of the 31 North Koreans whose fishing boat strayed across the western inter-Korean sea border on Feb. 5.Despite Pyongyang’s repeated calls to send all of its nationals back, Seoul has decided to return only 27. The South says that it cannot repatriate the four who wish to stay here, based on “international humanitarian principle

   North Korea has recently asked a visiting Western diplomat for rice assistance, a South Korean government source said Wednesday.   The diplomat, from one of the European Union member countries, visited the communist nation in mid-February and was surprised when North Korean officials requested food aid, the source said.   "I did not hear of anyone who had died of starvation," the diplomat, howe

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― The international community should not expect North Korea to collapse soon through popular uprisings but instead seek an incremental approach to build trust with the nuclear-armed communist state, an expert said Sunday.Andray Abrahamian, a freelance writer on Korea issues who teaches at Social Science College of the University of Ulsan, South Korea, dismissed chances of

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― South Korea cannot agree to resume six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear programs unless the illicit nature of Pyongyang’s uranium enrichment is clearly defined first, a senior official said Friday.“We have to get the (U.N.) Security Council to define the nature of this matter and take corresponding steps,” the official told South Korean reporters in Washington. “The

The 31 North Koreans who arrived in South Korea by boat earlier this month will be sent home sometime this week, a Seoul official said Sunday.“As far as I know, the joint interrogation (by relevant authorities) is in the final phase,” the official said. “And since no one expressed a wish to defect, we will repatriate all 31 of them as early as this week through Panmunjeom (the border village).” On

   SEOUL (AP) _ North Korea says it will fire at South Korea if it continues allowing activists to launch propaganda leaflets toward the North.   The North's official Korean Central News Agency says the country's military conveyed the warning to South Korea's military Sunday.   The warning comes one day before South Korea kicks off annual military drills with the United States. The North says the

   North Korea held a meeting of young leaders Saturday, urging them to play a bigger role in building a "great, prosperous and powerful country" by next year, the country's  media said.    The North's communist regime has set 2012, the centennial of the birth of its late founder and president, Kim Il-sung, as the deadline for achieving the goal.    Although such gatherings with young people are c

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Severe food shortages are forcing some North Koreans to forage for wild grasses and herbs and causing alarming malnutrition among children, U.S.-based aid groups who recently visited the reclusive country reported Wednesday.Heavy rains and flooding in summer reduced vegetable crops by more than 50 percent in some areas, and a bitter winter has frozen up to 50 percent of wheat and