North Korea

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is a country in East Asia, located in the northern half of the Korean Peninsula bordering South Korea and China. Its capital, Pyongyang, is the country's largest city by both land area and population. It is a single-party state led by the Korean Workers' Party (KWP), and governed by Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un since 2012. It has a population of 24,052,231 (UN-assisted DPRK census 2008) made up of Koreans and a smaller Chinese minority. Japan 'opened' Korea in 1876 and annexed it in 1910. The Republic of Korea (ROK) was founded with US support in the south in August 1948 and the Soviet-backed Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the north in September that year.

NORTH KOREA

You have a friend for life, Dennis Rodman tells Kim Jong-un

1 Mar 2013

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman met North Korea's Kim Jong-un on Thursday on the third day of his improbable journey to Pyongyang, telling the leader, "You have a friend for life".

Reporter's notebook: Tweets from North Korea amid easing of controls

28 Feb 2013

“Hello world from comms centre in #Pyongyang.” That Twitter missive, sent on Monday from Koryolink’s main service centre in downtown Pyongyang using my iPhone, marked a milestone for North Korea:...

Kim Jong-un monitors 'actual war' exercise

27 Feb 2013

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw a live-fire artillery drill aimed at simulating an "actual war", state media said yesterday, a day after South Korea swore in its first woman president.

North Korea leader monitors live-fire drill simulating ‘actual war’

26 Feb 2013

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw a live-fire artillery drill aimed at simulating an “actual war”, state media said on Tuesday, a day after South Korea swore in its first female president....

US officials 'secretly visited N Korea twice last year'

25 Feb 2013

The brief visits in April and August were aimed at encouraging the new leadership to moderate its foreign policy after the death of Kim's father, Kim Jong-il, in December 2011.

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Talking points

Park Geun-hye is officially headed to the Blue House as the country's first female president. Park, the daughter of a former strongman, has already faced a test over Pyongyang's recent nuclear...

For China, nuclear test is one provocation too many

For China, Pyongyang's action was shockingly flagrant. The underground explosion was conducted near the Chinese border, generating a 4.9-magnitude earthquake, which startled residents in...

US radar to boost missile defence in Japan

Tokyo and Washington plan to install a US early-warning radar system at a coastal base near Kyoto to bolster defences against the North Korean missile threat, reports said on Sunday.

NORTH KOREA

North Korea honours scientists behind nuclear test

State decorations, medals and other benefits were given to 11,592 scientists, technicians, workers and other officials for their contribution to the February 12 atomic test, the Korean Central...

North Korea's nuclear test gives Beijing a reason to confront Kim

Kim Jong-un, the Supreme Leader of North Korea, demands your attention. He just set off a nuclear bomb in order to get it. It would be easy to dismiss Kim as Asia's resident megalomaniac - to mock...

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NORTH KOREA

North Korean propaganda video shows Obama in flames

The video came with a series of Korean-language captions, arguing that North Korea had been forced into conducting its latest nuclear test by US hostility. “The North’s high-level nuclear test...