SKorea, US start annual drills amid NKorean threat South Korea -- South Korean and U.S. troops started yearly army drills Monday that North Korea slammed being a rehearsal for an invasion that can set off a nuclear war around the divided peninsula. Regardless of North Korea's risk to retaliate, South Korea and the United states went ahead using the drills, which are the allies' very first key combined military workouts given that the North shelled a front-line South Korean island in ...

North and South Korea Restore Aviation Hotline North and South Korea reopened one of the three severed hot lines between them on Monday in response to a request from the North, its first apparent outreach since the youngest son of the leader, Kim Jong-il, was unveiled as his successor. The reopened hot line connects the principal international airports — Pyongyang in the North and Incheon in the South — and a test call was conducted late Monday morning, the Unification Ministry said ...

Iran ridicules Obama's "cowboy" nuclear strategy Iran's hard-line president on Wednesday ridiculed President Barack Obama's new nuclear strategy, which turns the U.S. focus away from the Cold War threats and instead aims to stop the spread of atomic weapons to rogue states or terrorists. Obama on Tuesday announced the new strategy, including a vow not to use nuclear weapons against countries that do not have them. Iran, however, was pointedly excepted from that pledge, along with North Korea, because Washington accuses them ...

Police officers and soldiers held captive by the leftist guerrilla group known as FARC pleaded to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to negotiate their release in a series of nine proof-of-life videos released Monday. Pyongyang limited access to the North Korean border city of Kaesong in December as relations worsened between the nations. The decision restricted traffic to and from a jointly run industrial complex there. Kaesong is also a popular tourist destination. The loosening of border controls means workers and ...

Cross-border traffic between North and South Korea returned to normal Tuesday, ending eight months of restrictions imposed by the North, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. Pyongyang limited access to the North Korean border city of Kaesong in December as relations worsened between the nations. The decision restricted traffic to and from a jointly run industrial complex there. Kaesong is also a popular tourist destination. The loosening of border controls means workers and raw materials will be able to cross ...

North and South Korea reached an agreement Friday on reunions for families separated for decades by the Korean War, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. Reunions will be held from September 26 to October 1, Yonhap said. The agreement comes after three days of talks between the two sides in North Korea. The talks, which were held at the Mt. Keumgang resort, were the first on the subject in almost two years. They were mediated by the Red Cross, according ...

North and South Korea will hold three days of talks on reunions for families torn apart by the Korean War and divisions between the two countries, South Korea's Unification Ministry said Tuesday. The talks, which begin Wednesday, will be the first on the subject in almost two years. The International Red Cross said it was sending delegates to mediate the talks, which will be held at the Mount Keumgang resort in North Korea. North Korea was also to schedule an ...

In 2007 and 2008, photojournalist Tomas Van Houtryve visited North Korea by infiltrating a communist solidarity delegation. In the second story in his three-part TIME.com series, Van Houtryve describes the surveillance he was subjected to and the bizarre majesty of the mausoleum of Kim Il Sung. After dinner at the end of my second day, I was pulled aside by my guides. The interrogation lasted for four hours. The most grim-looking of our minders, Mr. Chung , was bad ...

The well-known spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, Maulvi Umar, has been arrested, intelligence officials said Tuesday. Kim -- who was president from 1998 to 2003 -- won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize for fostering better relations between North and South Korea. He died Tuesday afternoon at Seoul's Severance Hospital, where he was admitted more than a month ago for pneumonia.

Former South Korean President and Nobel Laureate Kim Dae-jung died of heart failure Tuesday, hospital officials said. He was 83. Kim -- who was president from 1998 to 2003 -- won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize for fostering better relations between North and South Korea. He died Tuesday afternoon at Seoul's Severance Hospital, where he was admitted more than a month ago for pneumonia.