South Korea on Monday brushed off an apparent offer by North Korea to resume nuclear disarmament talks, and chided Pyongyang for a recent personal attack on its president Park Geun-Hye.
North Korea's authorities have opened the border town of Sinuiju to Western tourists, despite international tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear test in February.
North Korea has appointed as its new military chief a hawkish general, widely believed to have directed the 2010 shelling of a South Korean border island.
North Korea fired another short-range missile into the Sea of Japan on Monday, the latest in a series of missile drills that have been condemned by South Korea and UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
South Korea on Monday predicted further missile tests by North Korea which fired four short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan at the weekend, drawing criticism from Seoul and UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
An aide to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned home from a trip to North Korea on Saturday but declined to shed any light on the reason for his mysterious visit.
South Korea voiced regret Thursday at North Korea's decision to spurn an offer of formal talks on removing goods from a joint industrial complex closed by military tensions.
Former head of Kazakhstan private airline East Wing Aleksandr Zykov suspected by UN expert of implication in deals in weapons for North Korea pleads not guilty.
The UN Security Council suspects one Kazakhstan citizen, two Ukrainians, nine North-Korean citizens and three North-Korean organizations of implication in contraband deals with weapons for North Korea.
South Korea and a US strike force led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz kicked off Monday a joint naval drill slammed by North Korea as a "wanton" provocation and rehearsal for war.
The head of a landmark UN team set up to probe human rights violations in North Korea said Wednesday he had been inundated by people wanting to give evidence on abuses just hours after his appointment.
The leaders of the United States and South Korea on Tuesday vowed no concessions to North Korea after months of high tension, saying the burden was on the communist state to end the crisis.
After weeks of soaring tensions over US-South Korean war games that ended this week, North Korea has toned down its warlike rhetoric in what observers say is a sign that it may now be ready to talk.
North Korea could be ready within weeks to start operating a light-water reactor that has triggered growing concern amid the regime's vows to build more nuclear weapons.