Uncertainty brought about by the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has brought swift reaction from regional neighbours and further afield. In an obituary, The Washington Post noted that during Kim’s reign, North Korea maintained one of the world’s largest standing armies, despite a famine from 1996 to 1999 that claimed as many as [...]
North and South Korea were trading threats of retaliation as tensions continued to soar on the peninsula. The South held its biggest land-based military exercises of the year Thursday, while its president visited an army base. The drills, at training grounds in mountainous Pocheon just 20 miles from the heavily fortified border with the north, [...]
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is back in New Mexico after several days in North Korea as an unofficial envoy. He says the situation is still a “tinderbox”. South Korea has staged its largest military exercise of the year in a huge show of force against North Korea to warn against further aggression from its [...]
At an emergency Security Council meeting on Sunday, members failed to reach agreement on a statement calling for calm on the Korean peninsula, with China opposing the majority that wanted specific language condemning North Korea for the November 23 shelling of Yeonpyeong Island. Chinese diplomats did not address reporters after meeting, but diplomats involved in [...]
South Korea said Thursday it would test-fire artillery in the next few days from the Yellow Sea island that North Korea attacked last month, in an assertion of its territorial rights and a challenge to Pyongyang’s aggression. North Korea last week cited a similar artillery drill on the island, called Yeonpyeong, as the reason it [...]