
World - North Korea
AFP - Tighter international sanctions and a host of domestic problems including chronic food shortages could spark regime collapse in North Korea, an influential think-tank says.
AP - North Korea should let farms produce freely and allow food to be sold in local markets because the communist government cannot provide enough food for its people, a U.N. human rights investigator urged Monday.
Reuters - North Korea has allowed Swedish diplomats to visit a U.S. citizen detained nearly two months ago after allegedly entering the country from China, the U.S. State Department said on Monday.
AFP - North Korea has allowed a Swedish diplomat to see an American detained in the communist state, the first time it has granted consular access, the State Department said Monday.
Reuters - Human rights in North Korea have worsened over the last few years and it is time for the United Nations Security Council to protect the people who are mistreated by their own government, a U.N. envoy said on Monday.
AP - North Korea plans to head back to the bargaining table early next month for talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons program, a news report said Saturday.
AFP - A UN rights expert has accused North Korea's regime of turning the country "into one big prison," saying widespread abuses by Pyongyang put it in a class of its own.
AFP - A senior US official in charge of financial sanctions on North Korea visited South Korea this week for talks, a foreign ministry official said Friday.
AFP - US experts in weapons of mass destruction are taking part in a military exercise simulating an attack by North Korea on South Korea, the US commander in the South said Thursday.
AFP - The United States on Wednesday dismissed North Korean protests over US joint exercises with South Korea, saying that the communist state should not be surprised.
The Christian Science Monitor - Firsthand exposés about the personal lives of North Koreaâs leaders can put the lives of their authors at risk, even if they are far away.The latest tell-all, published in Austria by two journalists to whom former Army Col. Kim Jong-ryul told his story, is a case in point.
AP - North Korea has recently created an army division in charge of newly developed intermediate-range missiles capable of striking U.S. forces in Japan and Guam, a South Korean news agency said Tuesday.
AFP - North Korea said Tuesday it would strengthen its nuclear deterrent in response to US military threats and is prepared for both dialogue and war with Washington.
AFP - Tens of thousands of US and South Korean troops Monday began an annual military exercise despite threats from North Korea, which claims the drill is a preparation for nuclear war.
AFP - North Korea said on Sunday it was abandoning efforts towards nuclear disarmament in response to US-South Korean military exercises and would be free to build up its nuclear forces.
Reuters - North Korea said on Sunday it will bolster its atomic arsenal and was no longer bound by the cease fire that ended the Korean War due to joint U.S.-South Korean military drills, which start this week.