
SEOUL — The number of young North Korean student refugees in South Korea has more than tripled in the past five years, according to official data.
A total of 1,681 student refugees now live in the South compared to 475 in 2006, the education ministry said in a report to parliament.
Elementary school students accounted for 60.7 [...]

North Korea has stepped up a crackdown on soldiers in a northeastern city who are stealing from locals because they cannot survive on their food rations, a report said Wednesday.
Military police have been stationed everywhere in the streets of Hyesan city to check the identification of soldiers, said the Daily NK, a Seoul-based online newspaper [...]

The chief nuclear envoys for North and South Korea said Wednesday they had failed to reach agreement on reviving international nuclear disarmament talks at a meeting in Beijing.
The discussions between the South’s Wi Sung-Lac and his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong-Ho were the second in two months designed to pave the way for full six-party [...]

North Korea is ready to return to nuclear talks without preconditions after a two-hour meeting Wednesday between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, a Russian official said.
“Kim Jong Il has expressed his readiness to resume the six-party (nuclear) talks without preconditions, and then during those talks (the North Koreans) will [...]

The last South Korean employees left Mount Kumgang resort in North Korea Tuesday morning as the struggle over the scenic mountain facility continued.
Fourteen South Koreans and two Chinese workers left after 11 a.m. Tuesday, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said. The ministry said it had no idea when the workers might return.
The move came a day [...]

(CNN) — Tropical Storm Muifa made landfall in North Korea on Monday, bringing heavy rainfall and gusty winds, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
The storm, which was downgraded from typhoon status on Monday, came ashore in North Korea about 7 p.m. Monday, said CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller.
“It’s quickly losing its tropical characteristics and losing [...]

North Korea striker Jong Tae-Se has questioned his side’s lowly standing in the FIFA rankings after they were given a tough qualifying draw for the 2014 World Cup.
North Korea striker Jong Tae-Se, pictured in January 2011, has questioned his side’s lowly standing in the FIFA rankings after they were given a tough qualifying draw for [...]

The United States said Sunday it has invited a top North Korean envoy to New York for “exploratory talks” on the possible resumption of the six-party negotiations on denuclearisation.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a press conference on the 2nd Joint Commission Meeting between the two countries in Nusa Dua on Indonesia’s resort island [...]

BALI, Indonesia (AP) — Tentative steps by North and South Korea to repair relations are not enough to warrant renewed multination nuclear disarmament talks, the U.S. said Saturday at an Asian security conference where it also took a tough line on resolving tensions in the South China Sea.
Declaring the United [...]

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — As his right hand grips the mouse, the physics major’s eyes are fixed on a flat-screen monitor labeled with a red sticker reminding him the computer was a gift from Kim Jong Il.
Kim Nam Il says he prefers learning online to studying from books, and in [...]