North Korea has threatened to retaliate against South Korea for taking it to the UN Security Council over the sinking of a warship, calling the action an “intolerable provocation”.

NORTH KOREA declared yesterday that it would sever all communication and relations with Seoul as punishment for blaming the North for the sinking of a South Korean warship two months ago.

The North's Environmental Protection Agency has confirmed that it is investigating an oil recycling plant suspected of being the source of the dioxin contamination in Irish pork.

The North’s government has been locked in suspended animation by the dispute between the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin, it was claimed today.

Up to 5,000 students from the Republic, enrolled in third level colleges in the North will be denied payment of course fees paid next term.

North Korea reconfirmed today that it has nuclear weapons and demanded the United States give it “nuclear cooperation” instead of seeking to disarm it.

North Korea today renewed its commitment to stalled nuclear disarmament talks, while at the same time vowing to strengthen its stockpile of atomic weapons to counter what it called extreme US hostility.

THE Government said the latest report from the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) presented a “disturbing picture” of ongoing criminality by both republican and loyalist groups.

THE groundbreaking decision by the European Parliament to back the sisters of Belfast man, Robert McCartney, by funding their legal campaign to bring his killers to justice, deserves to be loudly applauded.

DESPITE the hard-hitting allegations contained in the report of the North’s Independent Monitoring Commission, which squarely lays the blame for a string of recent robberies at the door of the IRA and Sinn Féin, the lack of concrete evidence to support this contention remains the weak link in the argument.

NORTH Korea accused the United States of leading the region toward war yesterday in an apparent attempt by the communist nation to increase pressure on negotiators holding a second day of talks on its nuclear programs.

The North’s police board will meet today to discuss the possibility of retaining the full-time reserve against the recommendations of the Patten Report.

The North’s police service has announced plans to recruit 1,000 civilian workers over the next year to ease pressure on police officers.

A war of words has broken out between the North’s police Ombudsman and the Police Association about the Omagh bombing.