PALM BEACH, Fla. -- President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the United States is engaged in direct talks at “extremely high levels” with North Korea to try to set up a summit between him and its leader, Kim Jong-un.Trump made the comment as he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe opened two days of talks at the president’s Mar-a-Lago retreat in Palm Beach, Florida, meetings that are to include a round of golf.Trump said he believed there was a lot of good will in the diplomatic push, but also s

South Korean football coach Shin Tae-yong lamented his side's 2-1 defeat to Northern Ireland in international friendly on Saturday, saying their failure to convert chances prompted the result. Shin's side scored first at Windsor Park in Belfast, with Kwon Chang-hoon's goal coming just seven minutes after the kick off, but Kim Min-jae's own goal in the 20th and Paul Smyth's winner in the 86th brought South Korea down.This was South Korea's first defeat this year after collecting two wins and one

LONDON -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his late father Kim Jong Il used fraudulently obtained Brazilian passports to apply for visas to visit Western countries in the 1990s, five senior Western European security sources told Reuters. While North Korea’s ruling family is known to have used travel documents obtained under false pretences, there are few specific examples. The photocopies of the Brazilian passports seen by Reuters have not been published before. “They used these Brazilian pas

The United States said on Friday it was imposing its largest package of sanctions to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear missile program, and President Donald Trump warned of a “phase two” that could be “very, very unfortunate for the world” if the steps did not work.  US President Donald Trump (Yonhap)In addressing the Trump administration’s biggest national security challenge, the US Treasury sanctioned one person, 27 companies and 28 ships, according to a statement on the US Treasury

PYEONGCHANG -- A senior American member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) called on Sunday for North and South Korea's joint women's ice hockey team to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.Angela Ruggiero, a four-times ice hockey world champion and Olympic gold medallist, told Reuters she would ask others to nominate the team, which included 12 players from North Korea which is still technically at war with the South.It was the first time an inter-Korean team had competed at an Olym

North Korea has cancelled a joint cultural performance with South Korea scheduled for Feb. 4 blaming South Korean media for encouraging “insulting” public sentiment regarding the North, South Korea’s unification ministry said on Monday. (Yonhap)Seoul said North Korea’s decision to cancel the joint performance was “very regrettable” and stressed Pyongyang should uphold all agreements made between North and South Korea.(Reuters)

GENEVA (Reuters) -- North Korea said Tuesday it had a “powerful and reliable” nuclear deterrent to thwart any attack, and accused the United States of deploying military assets nearby it under the pretext of ensuring security at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.“This is a dangerous act of throwing a wet blanket over the current positive atmosphere of inter-Korean relations ... which could drive again into an extreme phase of confrontation,” Han Tae Song, North Korea‘s ambassador to the United Nat

VANCOUVER -- A summit on curbing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions will focus in part on how to ensure countries fully implement all the sanctions imposed on the reclusive state, a Canadian government source said on Monday. Senior officials from 20 nations will gather in Vancouver on Tuesday for the full-day meeting, which is designed to increase diplomatic and financial pressure on Pyongyang to scrap its nuclear programs. Canada and the United States are co-hosts. The United Nations Security Coun

BRUSSELS -- European Union officials have proposed removing eight jurisdictions from the blacklist of tax havens the bloc adopted in December, in what critics may see as a blow to its campaign against tax avoidance. EU states decided last month to draw up the list in a bid to discourage the most aggressive tax dodging practices. But eight of the 17 jurisdictions currently listed are set to be quickly removed from the list after they offered to change their tax rules, according to EU documents se

The chief US negotiator for North Korea said on Friday the United States should engage indirect diplomacy with Pyongyang alongside sanctions imposed over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered on Tuesday to begin direct talks with North Korea without pre-conditions, but the White House later said no negotiations could be held untilNorth Korea improved its behaviour."We should exercise direct diplomacy as well as sanctions. That is our policy, whi