North Korea said Tuesday that it would release an unspecified number of prisoners in February to mark the birthdays of the two dictators who ruled the reclusive nation for a total of more than 60 years.
Representatives of South Korea, Japan and the United States will meet "in the near future" to discuss North Korea, a U.S. State Department official told reporters Friday in Tokyo at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
South Korea is "open to dialogue" with the new North Korean leadership, despite harsh recent comments from Pyongyang, Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan said Thursday.
A top U.S. diplomat will arrive in Beijing on Tuesday at the start of a tour around Northeast Asia, which is still adapting to the change of leadership in North Korea following the death of Kim Jong Il last month.
North Korea is urging its people to show allegiance to the death for new leader Kim Jong Un.
Kim Jong Un has assumed "the supreme commandership" of the North Korean army, state media reported Saturday.
A top U.S. diplomat will travel to three nations around North Korea early next year in the first such talks since longtime leader Kim Jong Il's death, the State Department announced Thursday.
As North Korea mourns the death of its "Dear Leader," CNN's Anna Coren looks at how the state controls its people.
Two departed leaders, two very different legacies. CNN's Jim Clancy contrasts the lives of Vaclav Havel and Kim Jong Il.
North Korea continued to mourn its late leader Saturday while calling his successor son the "supreme commander," as the country faces a transition of power following Kim Jong Il's death one week ago.
A father-son succession occurred once in North Korea, so why not again? CNN's Paula Hancocks reports.
North Korea will admit delegations from the South that wish to visit Pyongyang to express their condolences following the death of the leader Kim Jong Il, according to a statement posted on a government website run by the North.
While North Korea's recently departed leader Kim Jong Il will probably be most remembered for his pompadour, jumpsuits and relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons, the world must never forget the legacy of anguish and terror he left for millions of his people.
How worried should the world be about North Korea? CNN's Chris Lawrence evaluates the regime's nuclear capability.
Kim Jong Il's passing closes a sad and tragic chapter for the people of North Korea. His 17-year reign will be remembered as a dark period in their history characterized by great suffering and steady and dangerous provocations to the outside world.
CNN's Christiane Amanpour discusses the future for North Korea amid leadership transition.
The leadership of North Korea appeared to pass to a third generation of the Kim family Monday after the weekend death of Kim Jong Il, who ruled the reclusive Stalinist state since 1994.
CNN's Barbara Starr interviews the Joint Chiefs chairman who says he is worried about the transition in North Korea.
CNN's Alina Cho gives rare glimpse inside one of the most secretive societies in the world.
North Korea's government was famously accused in 2002 by U.S. President George W. Bush of helping terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction, along with fellow "axis of evil" countries, Iran and Iraq.
Is North Korea a bigger threat after Kim Jong Il's death? CNN's Chris Lawrence reports.
Investors have been paying a lot of attention to one continent lately and giving the other six (well, I guess there's little that could happen in Antarctica to roil the markets ... penguins tend to be fiscally responsible) short shrift.
Kim Jong Il, the absolute dictator of North Korea, made a very rare trip outside the protection of his own borders this past August, albeit on a heavily armored private train. The reason for the trip was a meeting with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev to talk about forming deeper trade and labor alliances between the two countries. This would all seem quite normal and boring if it weren't for the fact that a) nothing is ever normal when it comes to North Korea and, b) Vice happened to also be in the Amur region at the exact same time as Kim Jong Il. But we were there to track down a different kind of North Korean in Siberia: slaves.
Jim Clancy interviews a key North Korean lawmaker on prospects for reviving talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons.
One day after South Korea staged exercises near Yeonpyeong Island marking the anniversary of North Korea's deadly shelling, the North's military threatened "a sea of fire" upon the South's presidential office, the South's Yonhap News Agency reported Thursday.
The sense of security that South Koreans had enjoyed for almost 60 years was shattered one year ago, when the North launched an attack on the civilian island of Yeonpyeong, killing two marines and two civilians.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev pledged to cooperate on a gas pipeline project that will run between the two nations through North Korea, according to Seoul's presidential office.
The pace of North Korea's planned regime change from Kim Jong Il to his twenty-something son appears to have slowed at the moment, two senior U.S. military officials said Thursday.
A senior State Department official is tempering expectations on how quickly North Korea could respond to just-concluded discussions with the United States in Geneva, Switzerland.
An interagency team of U.S. officials, led by Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, will meet with a North Korean delegation next week in Geneva, Switzerland, the State Department said Thursday, as the Americans prepare to restart talks with the reclusive nation.
France is to open an office in North Korea in the coming days to build cultural ties and help with aid efforts, the French Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
China is calling Monday for the resumption of six party talks on North Korea's nuclear disarmament two days before planned inter-Korean talks. "We are happy to see that there have been some new, positive interactions between the parties concerned surrounding the restart of the six party talks," Foreign minister Yang Jiechi told a seminar in Beijing. "The parties must seize these opportunities."
British tour company Lupine Travel embarks on a Journey through North Korea to take part in an amateur golf tournament.
A four-year-old boy looks straight into the camera. His eyes are dull, his tiny legs crossed underneath him. Choi is an orphan, severely malnourished and too weak to stand.
The World Food Program releases startling video of severely malnourished children in North Korea.
A four-year-old boy looks straight into the camera. His eyes are dull, his tiny legs crossed underneath him. Choi is an orphan and severely malnourished and is too weak to stand.
A visit to North Korea and China planned by Iran's parliament speaker was postponed Saturday, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani will visit North Korea on Sunday on a three-day trip, Iran's parliament news service said.
North Korea has reiterated its willingness to resume six-party talks without preconditions, Chinese state media reported.
North Korea is ready to return to nuclear talks without preconditions after a two-hour meeting Wednesday between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, a Russian official said.
The last South Korean employees left Mount Kumgang resort in North Korea Tuesday morning as the struggle over the scenic mountain facility continued.
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il arrived in Russia on Saturday to meet with President Dmitry Medvedev, authorities said.
The United States has pledged $900,000 of emergency aid to North Korea after devastating floods hit the reclusive state this month.
South Korea fired back at North Korea on Wednesday after it said three shots from the North hit waters close to the maritime border.
Tropical Storm Muifa killed at least 10 people and damaged an estimated 2,400 acres of of farmland when it made landfall in North Korea, state-run news agency KCNA reported Tuesday.
North Korea reiterated its call Monday for a resumption of six-party talks without preconditions, its state-run news agency reported from Pyongyang.
The U.S. State Department described its first direct talks on nuclear issues with North Korea in three years as "constructive and businesslike," expressing hopes that they would lead to greater stability and continued discussions.
A top North Korean diplomat will visit New York this week for "exploratory" talks on ways to resume stalled de-nuclearization negotiations, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday.
North Korea has returned the body of a South Korean man after it washed up on its southwestern coast, according to South Korea's Red Cross.
North Korea has agreed to hold property talks with South Korea, after it earlier threatened to seize all assets at a scenic mountain resort.
A purported 1998 letter from a North Korean military official suggests that North Korea obtained nuclear technology not just through a renegade Pakistani nuclear expert, but also by paying bribes to top Pakistani generals.
A rare inter-Korean meeting ended prematurely Wednesday with no progress.
CNN's Paula Hancocks follows a North Korean defector as he struggles to assimilate into a world he never knew.
North Korea test-fired a short-range missile off its western coast in the middle of last week, according to Yonhap News Agency.
South Korea said Tuesday it regrets North Korea's announcement that it will cut all ties with its neighbor.
The family of an American citizen who was detained for several months in North Korea said Saturday it was ecstatic over news of his release and thanked the U.S. and North Korean governments for the roles they played in it.
A U.S. team led by envoy Robert King left North Korea on Saturday after winning the release of an American citizen who had been detained there, state media reported.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has met in Beijing with Kim Jong Il, the reclusive leader of North Korea, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Thursday.
Grainy photos of the reclusive North Korean leader in China appeared on local websites but the Chinese government Tuesday declined to confirm Kim Jong Il's visit to his nation's closest ally.
CNN?s Eunice Yoon reports on warnings over food shortages in North Korea.
A U.S. delegation will travel to North Korea on Tuesday for a four-day trip to assess the food situation in the reclusive nation.
A new unpublished U.N. report claims North Korea continues to trade banned weapons technology with several countries, including Iran.
Over the last decade, more news has been getting out from, and reaching into, North Korea via smuggled cell phones. These are mainly used in border areas where cell signals from neighboring countries are available.
Public executions, death by starvation and torture are common in North Korean political prisoner camps, according to testimony given to human rights group Amnesty International.
North Korea has identified a detained American man, who was arrested last year for "committing a crime" against the reclusive nation, according to state-run media.
CNN's Jill Dougherty reports on an American man detained by North Korean authorities.
An American man has been detained in North Korea, two State Department officials told CNN.
It is impossible to know how many North Koreans know anything about the pro-democracy unrest sweeping through the Middle East and North Africa. A safe assumption has to be ... not many.
U.S.-South Korean joint military drills kick off Monday, one day after North Korea threatened to engulf Seoul in a "sea of flames." The annual exercises are taking place amid high tensions. North Korea shelled Yeongpyeong Island, killing two South Korean marines and two civilians, last November.
North Korea has completed the structures at a second missile launch site in the northwest part of the country, a U.S. official said Thursday.
In December, CNN's Wolf Blitzer reported on his exclusive journey into North Korea.
Spy agencies scouring nighttime satellite images of Pyongyang for clues about possible conflict could be forgiven for mistaking Kaeson Park for something dangerous.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday urged North Korea to end its belligerent acts and take concrete steps to meet expectations of the international community.
The South Korean Ministry of Unification confirmed Wednesday that it has reopened communication channels with Pyongyang, North Korea, in the border area of Panmunjom.
South Korean officials tell CNN that they're reviewing a call for resumption of talks between Pyongyang and Seoul that was published by North Korea's state-run KCNA news agency Saturday.
North Korea on Saturday urged better ties with South Korea, warning that a war in the peninsula would amount to a "nuclear holocaust," South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported.
Iran and North Korea's nuclear ambitions trouble Western nations. CNN's Jill Dougherty reports.
Weeks after North Korea's attack on Yeonpyeong Island, the mood is still tense on the streets of Seoul, especially following the largest ever winter live-fire drill and civil defense exercise.
The South Korean defense minister will meet his Chinese counterpart next year amid growing tensions between the Koreas, Seoul state media said Sunday.
Military exercises by the South Korean army have ended. CNN's Kyung Lah reports.
North Korea is sending an onslaught of faxes to South Korea, blaming its neighbor for tensions over a disputed island, an official said Wednesday.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer is debriefed by CNN's Gloria Borger on his journey to North Korea with Gov. Bill Richardson.
For centuries the Korean sovereign state was known as Chosun, or land of the morning calm. But it has seldom seemed calm.
North Korea did not retaliate as threatened Monday after a South Korean military exercise that it had warned could lead to war.
A few months ago, most South Koreans would have laughed at a question that now looms large in their minds: "Will there be a second Korean War?"
At Russia's urging, the U.N. Security Council will hold an emergency meeting Sunday morning aimed at defusing simmering tensions in the Korean peninsula.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Saturday he is concerned about escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula, where he is urging "maximum" restraint ahead of scheduled military exercises.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer says the Obama administration is concerned about South Korea's planned military exercises.
North Korea warned Friday it would launch a military strike against the South if Seoul goes ahead with live-fire drills near Yeonpyeong Island over the next five days, North Korea's state-run KCNA reported.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson says he hopes to "to bring down the temperature in the Korean peninsula" during his trip to North Korea.
One of the diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks reveals that North Korean officials suggested the U.S. government make arrangements for rock icon Eric Clapton to perform in Pyongyang as a way of building "good will" between the countries.
Japan is anxious to develop a coordinated plan of action for North Korea. CNN's Kyung Lah reports.
The South Korean military said it heard the sound of artillery fire coming from North Korea on Wednesday, but the shells landed on the North's side of the border in the Yellow Sea.
The head of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff on Wednesday joined a chorus of American officials calling for China to take a leading role in defusing tension on the Korean peninsula, specifically using its influence with North Korea.
Monday's rare meeting at the State Department between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan had a three-part aim.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her South Korean and Japanese counterparts jointly condemned North Korea on Monday for recent attacks and nuclear arms proliferation that the three diplomats said threaten stability and peace in the Korean peninsula and, more broadly, the Far East.
South Korea's new defense minister said his country would respond with airstrikes if North Korea attacks it again, South Korean state media reported Friday. It is some of the strongest rhetoric since the conflict broke out late last month.
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