The head of a North Korean company responsible for attracting foreign capital on Tuesday proposed holding a meeting with a South Korean firm to resolve a row over assets at a scenic mountain resort in the North. Park Chol-su, head of Daepung International Investment Group, said he wants to meet with South Korea's Hyundai Asan to discuss how to handle its assets at the North's Mount Geumgang. Hy...

A U.N. nuclear watchdog claimed that North Korea may have used the black market to set up its uranium enrichment facilities that can be used to make nuclear weapons, media reports said Saturday. A confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency obtained by the Associated Press claimed that equipment for the uranium enrichment facility in Yongbyon, which was visited by a group of ex...

China has replaced its deputy negotiator to the stalled six-party talks on ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs, a diplomatic source in Seoul said Thursday. Yang Houlan, who has held the post since February 2009, was recently appointed as China’s ambassador to Nepal in a “regular” reshuffle, the source said on the condition of anonymity. “To my knowledge, Yang was moved to the new post...

South Korea will ask the United States, China and Japan to prevent their citizens from visiting a troubled mountain resort in North Korea, a Seoul official said Tuesday. The move comes as the isolated communist country is seeking to attract foreign tourists to Mount Kumgang as part of its attempts to revitalize the stalled resort. North Korea invited a group of foreign business executives and j...

An EU delegation will visit North Korea next month, a U.S.-funded radio station reported Tuesday, confirming the annual visit which had been cancelled last year after the North’s provocations on Seoul. The European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with the Korean Peninsula, led by Christian Ehler, is scheduled to visit the communist state on Oct. 19 for parliamentarian-level talks, Radio Fr...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il wrapped up his week-long trip to Russia and China, where he struggled to pave the way for resumption of the long-stalled regional nuclear disarmament talks and economic support. Kim returned home via train on Saturday, greeted by his youngest son and apparent successor Kim Jong-un, who had been waiting at the border railway station, Pyongyang’s official Korean Cen...

The United States' special representative for North Korea policy has proposed to Pyongyang that they resume their talks on recovering remains of American troops killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, according to a U.S. radio report Saturday. In a letter by Republican Party Senator Kelly Ayotte sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the senator referred to the recent written proposal to Nort...

BEIJING/CHANGCHUN/MANZHOULI, China (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il toured industrial facilities in northeastern China on Friday on his way back home from a trip to Russia, a source said. Kim visited the facilities in the Chinese city of Qiqihar, a hub of automobile industries, and Daqing, home to China's largest oilfield, the source said. In Daqing, he was observed on a tour of a ne...

BEIJING, Aug. 25 (Yonhap) -- The train carrying the North Korean leader was spotted at a Chinese railway station Thursday, an indication that Kim Jong-il plans to return from his trip to Russia via China. Sources said that the special train was seen stopping at the Manzhouli Railway Station in Inner Mongolia at around 6:14 p.m. before it headed east again. During the short stop, there were sever...

Despite North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s pledge this week to unconditionally return to the long-stalled nuclear disarmament talks, the communist state still has far to go before the deadlock is fully resolved, officials in Seoul and Washington said Thursday. On the last day of his week-long visit to Russia Wednesday, Kim held summit talks with President Dmitry Medvedev, promising to work on int...

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's reported promise to impose a moratorium on nuclear testing is "insufficient," as its uranium enrichment program remains a serious concern, the U.S. government said Wednesday. Washington's cautious stance came in response to a host of media reports that the North's leader said his communist regime is ready to suspend a nuclear test and...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il arrived in the eastern Siberian city of Ulan-Ude Tuesday ahead of his summit talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The meeting planned for Wednesday comes as North Korea is struggling to improve its faltering economy after years of international sanctions imposed over its two nuclear tests. The North has expressed its interest in rejoining long-stalled ta...

Workers sent by South Korea to Mount Geumgang Resort in North Korea have returned to the South, Seoul said Tuesday, a day after Pyongyang demanded they leave its territory. A total of 16 people, including two Chinese nationals, crossed the border back to South Korea around 11:30 a.m., leaving no more South Koreans at the resort, an unnamed official here said. Banning the removal of South Korean...