North Korea Sticks on 'Axis of Evil' List

But envoy says no 'major breakthrough' yet

(NEWSER) - Six-country negotiations aimed at producing a formal disclosure of North Korea's nuclear activities have advanced, Reuters reports, but aren't close to being settled. "We've definitely made some progress," said US envoy Christopher Hill today. "We still have a lot of work ahead of us. I don't want to suggest there's been any major breakthrough." More»

Pyongyang keeps sending us the same message

(NEWSER) - Time after time, North Korea has relayed the same message: if the US will hold direct talks with Pyongyang, North Korea is “ready to conclude an agreement to end its nuclear programs, put them all under IAEA inspection and conclude a permanent peace treaty,” writes Jimmy Carter in the Washington Post . It’s time to consider taking them up on their request. More»

Short-range test comes despite seemingly warmer relations with South, US

(AP) - North Korea fired five short-range missiles off its east coast today, news reports said, even as South Korea proposed working-level talks with its communist neighbor. South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified South Korean government official, said the North test-fired the surface-to-surface KN-02 rockets from mobile launch pads. More»

(NEWSER) - The tentative thaw continues in North Korea relations. On the heels of Bill Clinton's trip, Bill Richardson hosted two high-ranking officials from the North today at the governor's mansion in New Mexico and declared that Pyongyang is sending a "positive vibration" about detente. “What I sense was, one, the temperature has really cooled down in the relationship,” Richardson told MSNBC. “I think the Clinton visit has helped a lot.” More»

Experts question grit of trio, fans of Van Damme and Eric Clapton

(NEWSER) - Kim Jong Il has presided over North Korea’s closed, crooked government with an iron fist for decades. But as the Dear Leader’s health fades, anxious observers are analyzing his three heirs apparent—none of whom seem fit for the job, Evan Thomas and Suzanne Smalley write in Newsweek. Unlike Saddam Hussein’s nefarious spawn, the brothers Kim have more benign tastes: Jean-Claude Van Damme flicks, Armani, Eric Clapton, and Disneyland. More»