A Chinese internet address was the source of a cyberattack on one company hit in a massive South Korean network shutdown that affected 32,000 computers at six banks and media companies, initial findings indicated today.

North Korea vowed today to uphold Kim Jong Il’s son as “supreme commander” as the campaign to install the young man as the next leader of the socialist nation gained pace one week after his father’s death.

Somali pirates holding South Korean hostages have demanded that the South Korean government release pirate prisoners and pay compensation for a commando raid that killed several pirates earlier this year.

South Korea is losing patience with the North and probably will take military action, former US national intelligence director Dennis Blair said today.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said today his office was starting a preliminary examination of possible war crimes by North Korea.

The Iraqi Foreign Minister has criticised the release of confidential US diplomatic cables as "very, very unhelpful".

The US today condemned North Korea’s artillery attack against the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong and warned it to cease fire.

South Korean officials said today that there have been continual movements of personnel and vehicles at North Korea’s main nuclear test site, but ruled out the possibility that the country is preparing its third atomic bomb test anytime soon.

North Korea requested a shipment of rice, cement and heavy equipment days after South Korea offered relief aid to its communist neighbour to help it recover from recent flooding, the Unification Ministry said.

CHINA will not protect those who sank a South Korean warship, Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday, as he came under pressure in Seoul to join an international push to punish North Korea.

North Korea threatened today to block cross-border traffic and blow up any South Korean loudspeakers blasting propaganda northwards after a six-year suspension, as tensions soared over the sinking of a South Korean warship.

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.

WILL the real Kim Jong-il please stand up?

NORTH KOREA followed recent conciliatory gestures toward the US and South Korea with a return to threats yesterday, warning them of “merciless retaliation” over sanctions imposed on its government, and nuclear attacks in response to any atomic provocation.

North Korea today vowed to restart its uranium enrichment program and “weaponise” all the plutonium in its possession.

US spy satellites have detected signs that North Korea has restarted its nuclear plant, it was reported today.

A North Korean diplomat denied today that leader Kim Jong Il was ill, calling widespread speculation about the leader’s health troubles “nonsense spread by bad people”.

South Korean officials believe North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has recovered enough from a stroke to brush his own teeth but that sporadic spasms forced him to skip his country’s 60th anniversary celebrations.

SOUTH KOREA yesterday said that North Korea has started restoring its nuclear facilities after the communist country suspended operations last month to disable them.

The death of a South Korean tourist shot by a North Korean soldier while visiting the Communist nation overshadowed efforts by Seoul’s new president to reach out and rekindle stalled reconciliation talks.

The South Korean government said it ended talks with the US with no immediate breakthrough on resolving the country’s crisis over renewing imports of American beef.

Planned memorials to 18 Korean pilots who flew kamikaze missions for Japan in the Second World War have run into flak.

North Korea has test-fired a barrage of short-range missiles in what appears to be a response to the new South Korean government’s tougher stance on Pyongyang.

People who send excessive text messages and emails may have a mental illness, according to an editorial in a leading psychiatric journal.

TENS of thousands of South Korean farmers and workers clashed with riot police yesterday at a rally against a free trade agreement with the US.

Nineteen South Koreans freed by Taliban kidnappers prepared to fly home today as their government denied allegations it had paid a ransom to end the six-week hostage stand-off.

Taliban militants in Afghanistan today released eight of 19 South Korean captives they promised to free under a deal struck with the South Korean government to resolve a hostage crisis that began almost six weeks ago.

Taliban militants in Afghanistan have agreed to release 19 South Korean church volunteers held captive since July 19, a spokesman for the insurgents and the South Korean government said today.

TWO women among the 23 South Koreans kidnapped by the Taliban in mid-July were freed yesterday on a rural Afghan roadside and then driven to a US base, the first significant breakthrough in a hostage drama that is more than three weeks old.

The Taliban today said the Afghan government has promised safe passage to two top Taliban leaders so they could meet with South Korean negotiators to discuss the fate of 21 Korean hostages.

The South Korean government banned imports of British pork and pigs following an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, the Agriculture Ministry said today.

The Afghan army today dropped leaflets warning of impending military action in the region where Taliban militants are holding 21 South Koreans, though the army said the upcoming operation is not connected to the hostages.

The Taliban in Afghanistan today offered to swap 23 South Korean hostages for imprisoned Taliban fighters.

The hard-line Taliban militia claimed today to have killed two German and five Afghan hostages but said it was willing to release 22 South Korean Christians in exchange for the freedom of imprisoned Taliban fighters.

The US and North Korea are focusing on ways to resume international nuclear disarmament talks in their discussions in Germany, not on US financial restrictions levelled at Pyongyang, the state department said today.

A global crackdown on North Korea's nuclear weapons programme began today, with countries divided over how to enforce UN sanctions in a foreboding sign that imposing the punitive measures may not be easy.

Flooding that may have killed thousands in North Korea is being ignored because of the country’s pariah status after recent missile launches, a South Korean aid group said today as it prepared to ship aid for victims.

A SOUTH Korean man allegedly abducted by the North met his mother for the first time in more than 25 years yesterday, a highly anticipated reunion that could not only shed light on his ordeal but help resolve a Japanese mystery.

A SUPERSTAR scientist who led the world in stem cell and therapeutic cloning research faces ruin and disgrace after being accused of fabricating results.

Negotiators from Japan, South Korea and the US met today to co-ordinate strategy for talks this month aimed at pressuring North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, after the North’s leader said a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula was his father’s dying wish.

Two South Korean demonstrators cut off their fingers outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul today to protest Tokyo’s territorial claim to a set of islets controlled by South Korea.

An Iraqi militant group believed linked to al-Qaida beheaded a South Korean hostage after the Seoul government refused to bow to the terrorists’ demands to cancel plans to send its troops to Iraq.

A South Korean man captured in Iraq is still alive, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

The fate of a South Korean hostage held by Iraqi militants remained unknown early today after the deadline set by his captors for his country to withdraw troops from Iraq had passed.