ON Feb 12, 2013, North Korea carried out its third nuclear test in the run­up to the inauguration of a new administration, led by me, in the South. Around that time, the Presidential Transition Committee adopted the “Trust­Building Process on the Korean Peninsula” as a key policy of the new administration, aimed at creating a fresh dynamic in inter­Korean relations.

North and South Korea have begun preparatory talks at a “truce village” on their heavily-armed border aimed at setting ground rules for a higher-level discussion on easing animosity and restoring stalled rapprochement projects.

North Korea has proposed working-level talks with the South as the rivals move to mend ties that have plunged during recent years amid hardline stances by both countries.

South Korea has vowed to take “grave measures” if Pyongyang rejects talks on a jointly run factory park shut for nearly a month.

Park Geun-hye, daughter of a divisive military strongman from South Korea's authoritarian era, has been elected the country's first female president in a landmark win that could mean a new drive to start talks with rival North Korea.

South Korea’s president urged North Korea today to embrace a “new era” by using its recent leadership handover as an opportunity to transform Korean ties, but warned that Seoul would respond sternly to any provocations.

South Korean troops pushed ahead with naval firing drills today, a day after North Korea warned such exercises would aggravate already high tensions between the rivals following the North’s deadly shelling last month of a frontline South Korean island.

The sound of new artillery fire from North Korea just hours after the US and South Korea launched a round of war games in Korean waters sent residents and journalists on a front-line island scrambling for cover today.

Weeping, angry relatives of 46 crew members missing after a mysterious explosion sank a South Korean navy ship sailed around the site today as rescue teams took to the air and sea still hoping to find survivors.

South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak will meet a delegation of visiting North Korean officials tomorrow, the latest sign that ties between the divided countries are warming.

South Korea today accepted North Korea’s proposal for talks on a troubled joint industrial complex, setting up the first official dialogue between the two countries in a year amid tensions over the North’s recent rocket launch.

Leaders of North and South Korea pledged in a reconciliation pact today to finally seek a peace treaty to replace the Korean War’s 1953 cease-fire, and expand projects to reduce tension across the world’s last Cold War frontier.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il greeted South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun in Pyongyang today to begin the second summit between the two countries since the peninsula’s division after the Second World War.

North and South Korea today adopted a military agreement enabling the first train crossing of their heavily armed border in more than a half-century, the South’s Defence Ministry said.

North and South Korea agreed today to resume reunions of families split across the border for more than 50 years, during their first high-level talks since Pyongyang conducted a nuclear test.

Military officials from North and South Korea failed to reach an agreement after two days of high-level talks, the South’s Defence Ministry said today.

Japan’s Emperor Akihito bowed deeply atop a Saipan cliff where his countrymen plunged to their deaths to avoid capture by US troops and – for the first time - paid his respects today to the Koreans killed on the tiny Pacific island in a key Second World War battle.

A high-level delegation from North Korea arrived in Seoul today for talks with the rival South in an atmosphere of optimism after North Korean leader Kim Jong-il pledged to seek reconciliation and hinted at a return soon to nuclear disarmament negotiations.

The cacophony of propaganda anthems, bellowing in a time-honoured tradition along the tense border between South and North Korea, entered a final refrain today with an agreement to phase out such broadcasts and propaganda signboards in the coming months.

The main hospital treating victims of a train explosion in North Korea laid out young patients on filing cabinets today as it struggled to overcome a shortage of beds and problems with medical equipment, according to an aid official.

North Korea abruptly postponed a reunion of 200 separated family members in the two Korean states today, citing a ‘‘warlike situation’’ in South Korea.