North Korea's growing dependence on China, reflected by the launch of new joint economic zones along their border, drives discord among parties seeking to curb North Korea's nuclear weapons drive, experts here said Friday. Jonathan Pollack, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, pointed out that China is taking advantage of the flexible implementation of the U.N. Security Council resolu...

South Korea has deployed precision-guided land missiles capable of hitting North Korea's capital of Pyongyang, a military source said Friday. The forward deployment of the surface-to-surface missiles, known as the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), came as tensions rekindled after North Korea vowed a retaliation against the South's military over its use of head-shot photos of Pyongyang's top...

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) -- U.S. congressmen are rolling up their sleeves to block the Obama administration from resuming food aid to North Korea, arguing it will only help the communist regime bolster its nuclear and other weapons capabilities. "(On Wednesday night) Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, offered an amendment to the Agriculture appropriatio...

Nine North Koreans who crossed the tense western sea border on a small engineless vessel over the weekend for apparent defection are being questioned by South Korean officials, the Seoul government said Wednesday. The nine people, including family members, arrived on a frontline South Korean island around 6 a.m. Saturday, and are seeking asylum in the wealthier South, a government source said on...

WASHINGTON, (Yonhap) -- The United States is prepared to talk with North Korea, but a basic principle is to avoid the "mistakes" made in previous negotiations with the communist nation, an outgoing top State Department official said. In an interview published Tuesday, Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg told Foreign Policy, a U.S.-based magazine, that Washington has no surprising new polic...

SHANGHAI (AFP) -- North Korea's carrier said Tuesday it would offer twice-weekly flights between Shanghai and Pyongyang starting next month, in a sign the secretive state is looking to attract more Chinese tourists. Shanghai joins Beijing and Shenyang in the northeast as the third city in China to have regular flights to North Korea, the state-owned Air Koryo said in a statement to AFP. The Sha...

North Korea has leased a pier on its port located near China and Russia to Switzerland, a source said Tuesday, citing an unidentified Chinese government official. North Korea has already leased two other piers on Rajin port to China and Russia, and various consultations are also under way for three other piers, according to the source who has knowledge on the North Korean economy. The port, loc...

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) -- The United States has "concerns" that a North Korean ship recently intercepted by a U.S. destroyer might have been carrying contraband weapons in breach of U.N. Security Council resolutions, the State Department said Monday. "There was a vessel that was suspected of carrying materials prohibited by the United Nations Security Council resolutions," spokesman Mark Ton...

The United States recently intercepted a North Korean ship suspected of carrying military-related contraband, causing the vessel to eventually sail back home, a U.S. official said Monday. The remarks by Gary Samore, special assistant to U.S. President Barack Obama, came after local media reported that the North Koreans turned back after apparently sensing their cargo would be inspected if they s...

A North Korean vessel suspected of carrying banned items recently sailed back home from international waters after fearing it would be searched if it docked at a foreign port, sources said Sunday. It was not clear where the ship was headed or what it was carrying, but the vessel returned home at the end of last month after drifting in international waters near Southeast Asia, the government sour...

South Korea’s ruling camp will cooperate for the parliamentary endorsement this month of a bill designed to help improve North Korea’s dismal of human rights conditions, officials from the government and the ruling party said Friday. “We agreed that the National Assembly of South Korea should no longer sit idly by on the problem of human rights infringements in North Korea,” Rep. Lee Ju-young, t...