South Korean soldiers patrol near Dangjin, South Korea, on Tuesday. South Korea announced new land and sea military exercises on Wednesday, including its largest-ever live-fire drill near North Korea, just as tension on the peninsula was beginning to ease after Pyongyang’s attack on a southern island. The firing drills planned for Thursday near the Koreas’ heavily armed land border signaled... 

South Korean Ahyeon Middle School students take shelter from a simulated North Korea’s attack during a civil defense drill at a subway station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010. South Koreans stooped work, donned gas masks and headed to underground shelters Wednesday in the country’s biggest-ever civil evacuation drill staged amid tension over North Korea’s artillery... 

North Korea has warned that US-South Korean cooperation could bring a nuclear war to the region, as the South began artillery drills amid lingering tension nearly three weeks after the North’s deadly shelling of a South Korean island. The South’s naval live-fire drills are scheduled to run Monday through Friday at 27 sites. The regularly scheduled exercises are getting special attention... 

President Barack Obama on Thursday demanded North Korea cease provocations on the divided peninsula, but held out the prospect of economic aid and respect if it abandons its nuclear arms program. Obama also urged Chinese President Hu Jintao to use his influence over Pyongyang to convince the reclusive state to refrain from provocative acts against the South. Tensions on the peninsula sank to their... 

North Korean president Kim Jong-il The threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear programme has reached an “extremely dangerous level”, an adviser to South Korea’s president has said. It was not clear whether the comments by Kim Tae-hyo, President Lee Myung-bak’s deputy national security adviser, followed new intelligence. A recent report by the Washington-based Institute for... 

This is a satellite image of construction at the Yongbyon Nuclear Site, North Korea-September 29, 2010. North Korea continues to keep the experts guessing. Last week, it promoted the third son of its current leader, Kim Jong Il, prompting speculation that he is on track to succeed his father. And now, apparently, it has commissioned construction activity at the site where it used to produce plutonium... 

North Korea has offered South Korea a new round of reunions for families separated by the Korean War, state media said Saturday. Reunions last happened in September and October 2009, and their potential renewal could signal an easing of tensions after the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship in March. The North proposed that the two Koreas’ Red Cross societies meet soon to discuss the gatherings.... 

A first rate crisis is brewing in and around the Korean Peninsula that may well come to a head this week. The escalation of military tensions in the Yellow Sea that separates the Korean Peninsula from the Chinese mainland is likely to take two pathways – one originating in Pyongyang and the other in Beijing – or both. As Washington and Seoul respond with diplomatic and military measures... 

South Korean soldiers check fences set up along the demilitarized zone between South and North Korea, in Yanggu, north of Seoul, South Korea Monday, May 24, 2010. South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said Seoul would resume psychological warfare against the North that had been suspended in 2004 during a period of warming relations. South Korea won U.S. support Monday for slashing trade to North... 

In this Wednesday May 19, 2010, photo navy soldiers stand guard near the wreckage of the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan, which was sunken on March 26 near the maritime border with North Korea, at the Second Fleet Command of Navy in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. Evidence overwhelmingly proves North Korea fired a torpedo that sank a South Korean warship in March, killing 46 sailors, investigators said... 

The salvaged South Korean 1,200-tonne corvette Cheonan North Korea must face international consequences for torpedoing a South Korean warship, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, warned on Friday. As international diplomatic negotiations began over how to punish Pyongyang for the sinking of the 1,200 tonne warship Cheonan, Mrs Clinton’s remarks heaped further pressure on China to back... 

A South Korean navy ship sank in the Yellow Sea near North Korea early Saturday, and the navy shot at an unidentified ship toward the north, according to reports quoting South Korean government officials. Yonhap News Agency quoted navy officials saying Friday that a ship carrying 104 crew members sank off the Seoul-controlled island of Baengnyeong in a flashpoint maritime border area between the... 

US officials today rejected the latest North Korean call to sign a peace treaty, saying that they are “not going to pay North Korea to come back to the six-party talks.” North Korea abandoned the talks in early 2009 after the US pressed an additional round of condemnations against them through the UN Security Council. Shortly thereafter, North Korea successfully tested a nuclear weapon. North... 

North Korea accused Washington of seeking to “provoke a second Korean War” as the regime prepared to hold maritime military exercises off the eastern coast. U.S. and regional authorities were watching closely for signs that North Korea might fire short- or mid-range missiles during the June 25 to July 10 timeframe cited in a no-sail ban for military drills sent to Japan’s Coast Guard. North...