CHINA protested US president Barack Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama in strong terms yesterday, saying it “seriously harms” bilateral relations and demanding the US take steps to improve ties.

The UN climate summit hit major turbulence yesterday when developing nations staged a five-hour walkout and China accused the West of trickery, as the spectre of failure loomed heavily over Copenhagen.

CHINA’S Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said the chief US climate negotiator either lacks common sense or is “extremely irresponsible” for saying that no US climate financing should be going to China.

South Korea's top nuclear envoy travelled to the US today for talks on how to convince North Korea to return to stalled international disarmament negotiations.

The United States and China have ended two days of high-level talks with few concrete results but hopeful that connections forged among senior officials will help them work together better to fix the world’s toughest problems.

China's top nuclear envoy has arrived in South Korea as part of diplomatic efforts to revive the stalled talks on ending North Korea's nuclear program.

A South Korean news agency has said that North Korea test-fired a short-range missile, a report that came shortly after the communist nation declared that it successfully conducted a nuclear test today.

North Korea said today it has agreed with the US to continue working to resolve a stalemate in international negotiations over its promise to fully declare its nuclear weapons programs.

NORTH Korea will provide a complete list of its nuclear programmes and disable facilities at its main reactor complex by December 31, overseen by a US-led team, the six nations involved in disarmament talks said yesterday.

Japan’s agriculture minister resigned today only a week after his appointment because of a scandal involving misuse of farm subsidies.

A top US nuclear envoy headed today to North Korea in a surprise trip ahead of the expected resumption of international talks on halting the communist nation’s nuclear weapons programme, US and Japanese officials said.

The chief UN nuclear negotiator was unable to meet North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator today due to scheduling problems.

More than 50 years after the end of the Korean War, the United States and North Korea opened historic talks on steps to establish diplomatic relations following Pyongyang’s agreement to dismantle its nuclear programme.

North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator plans to visit the United States within days for follow-up talks on a recent disarmament deal, South Korean news reports said today.

Thailand’s post-coup elections could take place earlier than October if the constitution is drafted ahead of schedule, officials said today.

US and North Korean envoys today ended talks failing to reach an agreement on when to resume six-nation talks on dismantling Pyongyang’s atomic weapons programme.

South Korea has sent a delegation to observe a US-led anti-proliferation exercise, the Foreign Ministry said today, despite Seoul’s reluctance to fully participate in an initiative that could antagonise its northern neighbour.

North Korea is not planning a second nuclear test and is willing to return to six-party talks under certain conditions but warned that it would take action if it feels pressured, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said today.

Neighbouring countries today cautioned North Korea against carrying out a planned nuclear test, while a top South Korean security official said there was no sign a test was imminent.

Nationalist Shinzo Abe, a proponent of a tight alliance with the US and a more assertive military, won election as Japan’s new prime minister today, scoring comfortable majorities in both houses.

Japan today pushed ahead with its proposal for UN sanctions against North Korea for its missile tests, and China dispatched diplomats to Pyongyang amid a campaign to lure the reclusive regime back to nuclear disarmament talks.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told China’s president he is committed to a peaceful resolution of the stand-off over the North’s nuclear ambitions as he wrapped up a week-long, secrecy-shrouded trip to his last major ally.

North Korea would consider dismantling its nuclear weapons programme if the communist country’s relations with the US, Japan and South Korea improved, China’s envoy to Seoul said today.

North Korean disarmament talks were extended until at least tomorrow as envoys struggled to reach an agreement over a Chinese proposal that would let Pyongyang keep its civilian nuclear power programme after it disarms.

China today urged all countries involved in six-nation talks aimed at dismantling North Korea’s nuclear programme to work harder and to use the talks as an opportunity to end the “cold war state” on the Korean peninsula.

China today unveiled plans to honour its Second World War veterans with gala celebrations and renewed its call for Japan to take more responsibility for wartime atrocities.

China and the US moved into a third day of high-level meetings today in talks that could help defuse brewing trade and military tensions.

North Korea today said it would rejoin international nuclear arms talks, ending a more-than-year-long boycott, after North Korean and US envoys held a previously unannounced meeting in Beijing.

China said diplomatic relations with Japan were at a three-decade low and that Tokyo – by refusing to face up to its militaristic past – was to blame.

South Korea urged the United States and its allies to be calm following North Korea’s sudden declaration it is a nuclear power, reminding them that blustering and brinkmanship are nothing new in Pyongyang’s toolbox of diplomatic tactics.

North Korea could return to six-nation talks on its nuclear weapons programs within weeks, a US Congressional delegation said today after a trip to the communist state.

Six-nation talks on Washington’s demand for North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions ended today with no breakthrough, but envoys promised to discuss the ”first steps for de-nuclearisation” of the North before meeting again by the end of September.

North Korea has threatened to test a nuclear weapon unless Washington accepts Pyongyang’s conditions for a freeze on its atomic programme, jeopardising disarmament talks, a senior US official said in Beijing.

High-level talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme will end on Saturday after encountering “differences” and “difficulties” and will be continued by the six nations involved through lower-level working groups, news reports and Chinese officials said.

Top US and North Korean negotiators met behind closed doors for an hour in Beijing today, and South Korea offered Pyongyang aid if it gives up its nuclear programme.

North Korea and the United States will hold direct talks today on the sidelines of a six-country meeting about the North’s nuclear programme, the Chinese government said.

North Korea has expressed a “readiness” to abolish its nuclear programme, a Japanese official said today.

NORTH KOREA raised the stakes in a nuclear standoff yesterday by saying for the first time it had processed fuel rods that could be used to make atomic bombs.

Chinese President Hu Jintao is having medical tests to ensure he is not carrying the deadly Sars virus when he meets world leaders on the fringes of next month’s G-8 summit in France.

Fifty years after Washington forged an armistice with North Korea and China to end the Korean War, the three states were today trying to resolve a new regional crisis amid US claims the North wants to build nuclear arms.

US SECRETARY OF STATE Colin Powell downplayed the significance of a North Korean missile test yesterday, describing it as “fairly innocuous” and “not surprising.”

SOUTH KOREA said yesterday Russia had a key role to play in cooling a nuclear row between North Korea and the United States, and Moscow pledged to use its influence with Pyongyang to defuse the stand-off.

China and South Korea today agreed to work together to help defuse tensions created by North Korea’s nuclear programme, a senior official in Seoul said.

A British envoy met Chinese officials in Beijing today hoping to build international support for a new UN resolution compelling Iraq to disarm or face military action.