Pak Gil Yon

SEOUL (Reuters) - Paranoid and reclusive North Korea will try to defend what groups and governments see as a systemic abuse of human rights in the country when it faces unprecedented questioning at the United Nations on Monday. The North has sat down for international nuclear disarmament talks, and will host a U.S. envoy who visits Pyongyang on Tuesday, but it has denounced global criticism of its rights record saying it is part of a conspiracy to topple its leaders. North Korea's suspected human rights abuses have often been overshadowed by sputtering talks to end the mercurial state's atomic ambitions and that may happen ... Read Full Story

US President Barack Obama said Thursday he would send US envoy Stephen Bosworth to North Korea for direct talks on December 8, naming a date for the mission for the first time, during a visit to Seoul. "We will be sending Ambassador Bosworth to North Korea on December 8 to engage in direct talks with the North Koreans," Obama told reporters after talks with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak. Speaking at the Seoul visit Obama addressed the issue of a free trade deal with host nation South Korea saying that a number of issues still needed to be worked out before it could be ... Read Full Story

North Korea's plutonium production for atomic weapons "runs counter" to its nuclear disarmament commitments and "violates" UN Security Council resolutions, the State Department said Tuesday. Department spokesman Ian Kelly made the remarks after North Korea announced it has produced more plutonium for its atomic weapons program, putting further pressure on the United States to start direct talks. "It certainly runs counter to the commitment that they made in 2005, and it violates UN Security Council resolutions," Kelly told reporters. In a 2005 deal with the United States and four other powers, North Korea agreed to scrap its nuclear program and return to the Non-Proliferation ... Read Full Story

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will never have normal, sanctions-free ties with a nuclear-armed North Korea, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday, rebuffing Pyongyang's hopes to be accepted as a nuclear state. While repeating the U.S. readiness for bilateral talks with North Korea, Clinton said in a speech the United States would not relax its sanctions on Pyongyang until it takes verifiable, irreversible steps toward complete denuclearization. "Current sanctions will not be relaxed until Pyongyang takes verifiable, irreversible steps toward complete denuclearization," Clinton said in a speech hosted by the United States Institute for Peace think tank. "Its leaders should be ... Read Full Story

South Korea called Monday for talks with North Korea on flood control and family reunions, following reports that its communist neighbour wants to improve relations after months of hostility. The South's proposals reflect efforts to solve "various pending issues," Seoul's unification ministry said. Ties have been strained by the North's nuclear and missile tests this year. Pyongyang has also been bitterly hostile to Seoul's conservative government, which scrapped a "sunshine" aid and engagement policy. But it began making peace overtures to Seoul in August. The South proposed holding talks on Friday at the North's Mount Kumgang resort to discuss humanitarian issues such as more ... Read Full Story