North Korea, Missile Tests | featured news

North Korea apparently conducted a widely anticipated nuclear test Tuesday, strongly indicated by an "explosion-like" earthquake that monitoring agencies around the globe said appeared to be unnatural.Click to Continue »

It remains unclear just when, if ever, North Korea will attempt their controversial third nuclear test, but there are growing signs that the reclusive nation's biggest political ally is growing weary of its behavior.

North Korea's missile tests and menacing rhetoric have disappointed U.S. expectations that young leader Kim Jong-un would be different than his father but Washington still hopes to persuade Pyongyang to change course, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday.

China has provided some assistance to North Korea's missile program, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Thursday, a week after the hermit state's failed rocket launch triggered international condemnation.

A joke circulating among officials in Beijing pretty much underlines the bind China is in over North Korea's plans to send a satellite into space. North Korea's young ruler Kim Jong-un phones a Chinese leader to tell him about timing of the planned rocket launch. "When will it be?" asks the Chinese leader. Kim replies: "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four..."

North Korea could carry out a controversial rocket launch this week, straining further the ties between the nuclear-armed state and other countries in the region.

South Korean news outlets quoted anonymous government sources as saying that satellite images of a growing pile of earth at a nuclear site might signal plans for a test.

The United States announces that it is suspending food aid to North Korea in light of Pyongyang's plans for a missile launch next month.

North Korea issued two no-sail zones near its disputed western sea border with South Korea, officials said Tuesday, a possible indication the country may be preparing to conduct missile tests....

The United States is ready to hold talks with North Korea if the conditions are right but will also press U.N. sanctions to punish Pyongyang for its nuclear and missile tests, a senior envoy for Asia said on Saturday.