ROME (Reuters) - North Korea informed Italy last year that the daughter of its acting ambassador had asked to return home after her father left his post in Rome, the Italian foreign ministry said on Wednesday.North Korean diplomat Jo Song Gil and his wife went missing in November, and a South Korean newspaper has reported that they have applied for asylum in an unspecified Western country.Thae Yong Ho, a former deputy North Korean ambassador to Britain who defected to South Korea in 2016, said o

One of 20 undeclared ballistic missile operating bases in North Korea serves as a missile headquarters, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published on Monday.“The Sino-ri missile operating base and the Nodong missiles deployed at this location fit into North Korea’s presumed nuclear military strategy by providing an operational-level nuclear or conventional first strike capability,” the report said. (Yonhap)The discovery of an undeclared missile h

SEOUL -- North Korea on Sunday condemned the US administration for stepping up sanctions and pressure on the nuclear-armed country, warning of a return to “exchanges of fire” and that disarming Pyongyang could be blocked forever. The North’s stinging response came after the United States said on Monday it had introduced sanctions on three North Korean officials, including a top aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, for alleged human rights abuses.  North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (left) and U

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump said on Monday he expected to move ahead with raising tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports to 25 percent from the current 10 percent and repeated his threat to slap tariffs on all remaining imports from China.In an interview with the Wall Street Journal four days ahead of his high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Argentina, Trump said it was “highly unlikely” he would accept China’s request to hold off on the increase, whi

A year of warming relations between North and South Korea has raised the prospects of closer ties, if not some form of unification for the still-warring neighbors far in the future. But it might not be obvious in a typical South Korean classroom.“I really don’t know anything,” 17-year-old student Roh Ha-na said. “It’s like only twice a year that the school teaches about unification and national security, and about North Korean life... but I just let most of it go in one ear and out the other.”Th

BERLIN - Germany has earmarked 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to support a consortium looking to produce electric car battery cells and plans to fund a research facility to develop next-generation solid-state batteries, three sources told Reuters.The measures, expected to be announced next week, are designed to reduce the dependence of German carmakers on Asianelectric vehicle (EV) battery suppliers and protect German jobs at risk from the shift away from combustion engines.Berlin's push to shap

South Korea is in the grip of a ‘spycam’ epidemic, with covert footage of sex, nudity and urination posted online in what amounts to a “social death penalty” for thousands of women forced to live with a pornographic shadow. The footage may be taken surreptitiously by boyfriends or captured on covert devices as small as car keys. Daily camera checks are now part of life for cleaners in many public toilets. The spy camera phenomenon has reached such epidemic proportions in tech-savvy South Korea,

Satellite imagery shows North Korea is poised to stage another military parade amid new worries that diplomatic efforts on denuclearization are stalling, though analysts say it is unclear whether it will showcase any of the country’s largest ballistic missiles.Pyongyang is preparing to host a number of major events on Sunday for the 70th anniversary of the country’s founding, including a military parade, possible visits by foreign delegations, and -- for the first time in five years -- a massive

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- US President Donald Trump called off a visit to North Korea by Secretary of State MikePompeo after the latter received a belligerent letter from a senior North Korean official just hours after the trip was announced last week, the Washington Post reported on Monday.The Post quoted two unnamed senior US administration officials as saying the letter came on Friday from Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party Central Committee, who led previous ro

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -- Pope Francis, facing sexual abuse crises in several countries, wrote an unprecedented letter to all Catholics on Monday, asking each one of them to help root out “this culture of death” and vowing there would be no more cover ups. In a highly personal letter addressed to “the people of God,” Church language for all members, the pope appeared to be launching an appeal for all Catholics to face the crisis together and not let it tear the Church apart. The Catholic Church

JAKARTA (Reuters) -- A team of Indonesian officials visited North Korea this week to extend an invitation from President Joko Widodo to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to attend the Asian Games opening ceremony in Jakarta in August, Indonesia’s National Police said.Coordinating Human Development and Cultural Affairs Minister Puan Maharani was accompanied by several other Indonesian government and police representatives on the visit to Pyongyang, according to a news release issued by the National

HELSINKI (Reuters) -- Standing side by side with Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump refused on Monday to blame the Russian leader for meddling in the 2016 US election, casting doubt on the findings of his own intelligence agencies and sparking a storm of criticism at home.On a day when he faced pressure from critics, allied countries and even his own staff to take a tough line, Trump spoke not a single disparaging word in public about Moscow on any of the issues that have brought relation

LONDON -- Serena Williams demonstrated that having a baby had not robbed her of any of her phenomenal tennis skills when she became the first mother in 38 years to reach the Wimbledon final, with a 6-2 6-4 demolition of Germany’s Julia Goerges on Thursday. Goerges had come into her first Grand Slam semi-final having belted more winners (199), more aces (44) and more unreturned serves (113) than anyone else in the women’s draw but those statistics counted for little when she came up against an op

A joint military exercise between the United States and South Korea scrapped after President Donald Trump griped about "tremendously expensive" military drills would have cost around $14 million, US officials told Reuters on Friday.The Pentagon announced last month that it was indefinitely suspending the Freedom Guardian military exercise in support of the Singapore summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.Trump repeatedly touted the cost savings that would come with his decision

SOFIA - China remains open for trade with foreign partners and can only benefit from an economically strong Europe, its premier said on Saturday as he pressed for expanded ties with the continent's eastern wing while waging a tariff war with Washington.Li Keqiang told a summit with central and eastern European leaders that China would continue opening its markets and implementing other reforms that had fuelled its economy, providing opportunities for EU members and aspirants in the bloc's poorer