A North Korean soldier fatally shot a South Korean tourist yesterday at a mountain resort in the communist North, prompting the South to suspend the high-profile tour program, just as its new president sought to rekindle strained ties between the two.

A North Korean soldier fatally shot a South Korean tourist today at a mountain resort in the communist nation, prompting the South to suspend the high-profile tourism programme just as its new president sought to rekindle strained ties between the divided countries.

Trains crossed into the two Koreas’ heavily-fortified Demilitarised Zone today in the first rail journey through the border in more than 50 years.

North Korea today abruptly cancelled groundbreaking test runs of trains across its highly-guarded border with South Korea, citing an atmosphere of confrontation and war.

North Korea today briefly boycotted a second day of reunions of families separated by the division of the Korean peninsula in an apparent protest against South Korean journalists’ use of language unacceptable to the communist state.

Top US and Chinese negotiators met today for discussions on luring North Korea back to nuclear disarmament talks, after Washington dismissed the North’s latest threat to resume long-range missile testing as counter-productive.

North and South Korea agreed today to hold high-level military talks “soon” to ease tensions between the nations, divided by the world’s most heavily fortified border and embroiled in a standoff over the North’s nuclear weapons development.

A SENIOR executive with South Korean industrial giant Hyundai, whose business spearheaded reconciliation efforts with North Korea but ended up tangled in debt and scandal, leapt to his death from his 12th-floor office window yesterday.