DANDONG, China (AFP) ― Business was booming for flower sellers in the Chinese border city of Dandong on Wednesday as mourners gathered at the North Korean consulate to pay their respects to late leader Kim Jong-il. Scores of stoney-faced mourners clutched bunches of yellow and white flowers as they entered the consulate, where large flat-screen televisions had been put up to show Wednesday’s fun...

The widows of former President Kim Dae-jung and former Hyundai Asan chairman Chung Mong-hun returned home on Tuesday after their high-profile trip to Pyongyang to express condolences over the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. In the morning, former First Lady Lee Hee-ho and Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun met the North’s titular head Kim Yong-nam, president of the Presidium of th...

Activists helping refugees to flee North Korea fear that the death of leader Kim Jong-il will lead to a crackdown on people trying to escape repression and hunger in the communist state. The North is believed to have stepped up patrols along its border with China, as well as security checks in public places, in an attempt to prevent defections in the wake of Kim’s death on Dec. 17. “I can’t rea...

Experts here have raised the possibility that North Korea may use the death of its leader Kim Jong-il as a pretext to delay next year’s planned declaration that it has entered the stage of becoming “a strong, prosperous nation.” Given its deepening economic woes coupled with international isolation over its controversial nuclear program, the communist state may find it difficult to plausibly cla...

Senior North Korean official greets former S. Korean first lady Former South Korean first lady Lee Hee-ho and Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun crossed the heavily fortified border into North Korea on Monday to pay respects to the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Lee’s husband Kim Dae-jung held the first inter-Korean summit with the late North Korean leader in 2000. The two delegatio...

BUDAPEST -- Kim Pyong-il, North Korea's ambassador to Poland and half brother of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, appears to be staying in Warsaw, a South Korean official said Monday. "We haven't yet confirmed whether Kim Pyong-il has left Poland or not," an official at the South Korean embassy in Poland said. "There's no evidence that he has left the country." Kim Jong-il died of a heart ...

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) -- The late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had been groomed from as early as 1974 to take over the helm of the communist nation from his father, a newly-disclosed diplomatic document showed Sunday. It showed that Kim, who died on Dec. 17, had prepared for two decades to become the North’s leader, unlike his third son Jong-un, who became the crown prince just a few years...

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- North Korea's state media on Monday called Kim Jong Il's heir the head of the ruling Workers' Party Central Committee, a job that gives Kim Jong Un power over one of the country's highest decision-making bodies more than a week after his father's death. The reference in a commentary by the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper came as a former South Korean first lad...

Activists in South Korea on Saturday sent winter socks carried by gas-filled balloons across the border to the impoverished North, where they can easily be exchanged for food. One pair of socks is thought to fetch about 10 kilograms of corn ― enough to sustain a person for a month in the hungry communist state. About 800 pairs of socks were launched by four large balloons across the border from...