North Korea threatened Sunday to enlarge its nuclear arsenal and “mercilessly” attack South Korea and the United States, as the allies prepared for joint military drills which the North considers a rehearsal for invasion. North Korea routinely issues threats over the annual joint military drills, but its latest warning could rekindle tensions that rose sharply after two recent deadly incidents... 

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak has called for new strategies to help secure a stable supply of food amid growing concerns about a global food crisis. South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak called Monday for new strategies to help secure a stable supply of food amid growing concerns about a global food crisis. “The likelihood of a global food crisis is rising due to climate change. We need... 

A Somali pirate, hooded, arrives at South Regional Headquarters Korea Coast Guard in Busan, South Korea, on Sunday. Five Somali pirates captured during a raid on a hijacked cargo ship in the Arabian Sea were brought Sunday to South Korea, where they could face life imprisonment, the coast guard said. The men were arrested as South Korean commandos raided the South Korean-operated Samho Jewelry earlier... 

There are reports that North Korea has forced hundreds of people to witness the executions of two people caught reading South Korean propaganda. South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper is reporting that a North Korean woman was sentenced to die after being caught reading a propaganda leaflet from the South. A high ranking military officer was also charged with pocketing dollar bills sent with the... 

The government has so far refused to vaccinate pigs against the disease. South Korea has been heavily criticised for burying up to one million pigs alive as it grapples with a foot and mouth disease outbreak. Since the first case of the disease was confirmed in November the country has embarked on a mass cull. Foot and mouth disease affects all cloven hoofed animals such as pigs, cattle and goats,... 

North Korea said the U.S. and South Korea are “inviting a nuclear war” by conducting military drills, even as a Seoul-based think tank predicted that Kim Jong Il’s regime may hold another atomic test next year. South Korea’s Dec. 20 artillery drill on Yeonpyeong Island near the disputed sea border was an intentional provocation, and North Korea is closely watching “the reckless behavior... 

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... 

A 4 November satellite image shows the site of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear facility. Defence minister hints at deploying US weapons on his country’s soil for first time since 1991 after news of North Korean plant. South Korea’s defence minister today raised the possibility that US nuclear weapons could be deployed in his country for the first time in nearly 20 years, after it was... 

North Korea bombarded a South Korean island near their disputed western border Tuesday, setting buildings ablaze and killing at least two marines after warning the South to halt military drills in the area, South Korean officials said. South Korea said it returned fire and scrambled fighter jets in response, and said the “inhumane” attack on civilian areas violated the 1953 armistice halting... 

Tough day for Obama: Trade deal unfinished, backlash on money policy, president tested anew. Humbled by elections at home, President Barack Obama on Thursday endured a sobering test of his power abroad as well, unable to close a trade deal with South Korea and thrown on the defensive about America’s approach to global economic worries. From halfway around the world, he admonished both friends... 

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... 

US Navy and South Korean ships sail in a 13-ship formation led by the Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Tuscon (SSN 770) on July 26. The US and South Korea are conducting the combined alliance maritime and air readiness exercise 'Invincible Spirit' in the seas east of the Korean peninsula from July 25-28. In response to North Korea’s sinking of a South Korean navy ship early in March,... 

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...