South Korea’s prime minister offered his resignation today after drawing a firestorm of criticism for playing golf rather than overseeing the government’s response to a railway strike, the president’s spokesman said.

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.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun is expected to accept the resignation of an aide over the scandal surrounding disgraced stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk.

North Korean officials visited South Korea’s National Assembly for the first time today in a symbolic gesture of reconciliation with their democratic rivals during joint celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the Korean Peninsula’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule.