North Korea fired artillery barrages onto a South Korean island near their disputed border today, setting buildings alight and prompting South Korea to return fire and scramble fighter jets.

South Korea’s president urged North Korea to accept calls to improve ties with the South.

Tens of thousands of North Koreans rallied in their capital to condemn the United States and South Korea on the 60th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, while Seoul told Pyongyang to admit responsibility for a deadly warship sinking.

The deadly sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on North Korea overshadowed local elections today – seen as a gauge of public sentiment toward the pro-American president’s handling of the security crisis.

US President Barack Obama “fully supports” the South Korean president and his response to the torpedo attack by North Korea which killed 46 South Korean sailors, the White House said today.

South Korea’s president said his nation will no longer tolerate North Korea’s “brutality” and said the regime would pay for a surprise torpedo attack that killed 46 South Korean sailors.

South Korea accused North Korea today of firing a torpedo that sank a naval warship in March, killing 46 sailors in the country’s worst military disaster since the Korean War.

North Korea threatened South Korea with possible punishment today over a skirmish that left one of its warships badly damaged and a crew member dead.

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.

North Korea's quest for nuclear weapons could spawn a destabilising arms race in Asia that would threaten world security, South Korea's president warned today.

Mourners in black, heads bowed and shedding tears, gathered in the courtyard of an ancient palace in Seoul for the funeral of ex-president Roh Moo-hyun, nearly a week after he leaped to his death while being investigated for corruption.

North Korea claimed its leader Kim Jong Il was tracked by an agent from South Korea in what the communist nation suggested was an assassination plot.

Tens of thousands of South Korean Buddhists are taking to the streets in anger over what they allege is pro-Christian bias by the administration of President Lee Myung-bak.

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.

Conservatives allied with South Korea’s president have won a thin majority in parliament after voters endorsed his plans to revitalise the economy, embrace the US and talk tough with North Korea.