North Korea | featured news

A South Korean fishing boat in the Sea of Japan and its seven crew members are being held by North Korea, according to reports in South Korea.

South Korean troops fired artillery and dropped sonar buoys into the Yellow Sea as naval drills kicked off Thursday near the spot where a warship sank four months ago.

The East Sea off the coast of the Korean peninsula roiled with U.S. and South Korean military hardware — high-profile maneuvers intended to show North Korea that it is being watched.

North Korea warned Saturday that joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises poised to begin this weekend amount to a military provocation that will draw a "powerful" nuclear response from Pyongyang.

The United States announced new sanctions against North Korea on Wednesday including on the purchase and sale of arms and an asset freeze on individuals.

The United States is pushing for what would become nuclear wars against Iran and North Korea, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro said in a rare televised interview Monday.

Abnormally high radiation levels were detected near the border between the two Koreas days after North Korea claimed to have mastered a complex technology key to manufacturing a hydrogen bomb, Seoul said Monday.

Portugal put on the most dominant performance of the World Cup on Monday, knocking in a flurry of second-half goals and routing North Korea 7-0, a win that puts Portugal on the brink of advancing to the round of 16 and means the Koreans won't make it out of group play.

Maicon and Elano scored a goal apiece in the second half and Brazil broke through a solid North Korea defense to win its first 2010 World Cup match 2-1 on a frigid Tuesday night.

North Korea rejected Tuesday international findings that it sank a South Korean ship, warning at the United Nations that the dispute could lead to war.