Kim Jong Il | featured news

The 17-year-old grandson of late North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il granted a TV interview providing a rare look at a member of the secretive ruling dynasty. "I've always dreamed that one day I would go back and make things better and make it easier for the people there," Kim Han Sol said in the interview posted on YouTube.

A U.S. envoy will hold talks with North Korea on its nuclear program in Beijing next week, the first such negotiations since the death of the nation's longtime leader, Kim Jong Il.

North Korea is punishing citizens who didn’t cry during the orchestrated public mourning over the death of Kim Jong Il, according to a report.

North Korea says that before Kim Jong Il's death the United States offered to provide food aid if Pyongyang halted its uranium enrichment program. North Korea responded angrily to the offer Wednesday, with a Foreign Ministry spokesman accusing Washington of "politicizing" food shipments.

North Korea announced on Saturday it has appointed Kim Jong-un, the anointed successor and youngest son of Kim Jong-il, as supreme commander of its 1.2 million-strong military, two days after official mourning for the late leader ended.

North Korea's power brokers publicly declared Kim Jong Un the supreme leader for the first time at Thursday's massive public memorial for his father Kim Jong Il, cementing the family's hold on power for another generation....

North Korea's next leader escorted his father's hearse in an elaborate state funeral on a bitter, snowy day Wednesday, bowing and saluting in front of tens of thousands of citizens who wailed and stamped their feet in grief for Kim Jong Il.

Thousands of people likely will file past a glass case housing the body of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il during his funeral Wednesday to pay respects to the dictator, revered as a godlike "dear leader" by his people, an expert said.

North Korea displayed the body of ruler Kim Jong Il in a glass coffin surrounded by red flowers Tuesday, and his young heir was one of the first to pay respects -- a strong indication that a smooth leadership transition was under way.

The United States’ close ties with the South are likely to prove crucial as the two countries navigate through the perilous days ahead.