WASHINGTON -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter will likely visit North Korea next month to broker rapprochement in U.S. relations with the reclusive communist state, which have chilled over the North's nuclear and missile programs and other provocations, a diplomatic source here said Wednesday.   "It is highly likely that ex-President Carter will travel to North Korea in about a month as the

North Korea warned Wednesday it is ready to launch fire over a plan by South Korean activists later this week to send anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border from a western border island.Speaking to a reporter of the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), an unidentified North Korean commander denounced such psychological warfare against his communist regime as "an act of war," warning that

North Korea’s trade with South Korea was at about half the value of its trade with China in 2010, as the divided Koreas’ political relations worsened.The two Koreas exchanged $1.91 billion worth of goods last year, up 14 percent from 2009, the Korea International Trade Association said Wednesday.However, trade between the North and China jumped 32 percent on-year to slightly over $3.46 billion, in

WASHINGTON ― The war in Libya will hinder international efforts toward North Korea’s nuclear dismantlement as North Koreans reflect on Moammar Gadhafi’s decision years ago to abandon his nuclear weapons, a scholar said Tuesday.“The latest developments in Libya will have a strong effect on North Korea,” Ruediger Frank, a professor at the University of Vienna, Austria, said in a contribution to the

South Korea said it agreed Tuesday to hold talks with North Korea on a potential volcano on the communist state’s border with China, proposing a meeting of experts next week amid growing speculation that the sides are seeking ways to re-establish contact.The proposal, made by the head of South Korea’s national weather agency and delivered through the liaison officials of the countries, calls for a

A senior presidential aide to President Lee Myung-bak pressed North Korea on Tuesday to make a “heartfelt apology” for its two deadly military attacks last year, renewing Seoul’s demand for a prerequisite for resumption of any inter-Korean exchanges. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula plummeted to their lowest level in years in 2010 following the North’s deadly sinking of a South Korean warship and

North Korea has once again accused U.S. troops of trespassing into the Demilitarized Zone, saying that South Korea would take the responsibility for all the results from the “provocations” including “human damage.”The communist state’s military has sent a notice containing such a threat to the South, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency on Sunday.In the notice, the North cl

   North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has sent a verbal message to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of a noted South Korean industrialist who pioneered cross-border economic projects, the North's media said Saturday.    Chung Ju-yung, the then chairman of Hyundai Group, initiated a series of major economic projects in North Korea starting in 1998, including a sightseeing tour to scenic M

North Korea said Friday it will convene its rubber-stamp parliament next month, amid growing speculation that its leader-in-waiting Kim Jong-un may be well on his path to consolidating his power base.The communist state's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a two-paragraph report that the Supreme People's Assembly will convene on April 7 for its fourth session since being elected.Th

Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan rejected North Korea’s recent suggestion that it is willing to unconditionally return to the nuclear negotiating table, saying Pyongyang should first demonstrate its denuclearization commitment through action.North Korea’s foreign ministry said Tuesday after talks with Russia’s chief nuclear envoy that it is ready to rejoin the stalled six-party talks without any pre

South Korea said Thursday it will delay the repatriation of 27 North Koreans who had been set to cross the Yellow Sea border later in the day without four others who have defected here, citing a malfunction in the fishing boatthat was to carry them back home.The Unification Ministry said in a message to reporters that the South Korean Red Cross notified its North Korean counterpart of the delay th

South Korea temporarily suspended the return of 27 of the 31 North Koreans who accidentally strayed here on a boat last month until winds calm to allow their safe voyage back home, the Unification Ministry here said Wednesday. North Korea on Tuesday asked the South to repatriate the 27 people via sea, softening its previous stance not to accept anyone unless Seoul also returned four of its nationa