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.

Seoul says it has decided to withdraw the roughly 175 South Koreans still at a jointly run factory complex in North Korea.

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

North Korea has delivered a fresh round of rhetoric with claims it had “powerful striking means” on standby for a launch, while Seoul and Washington speculated that the country is preparing to test a medium-range missile during upcoming national celebrations.

A factory complex that is North Korea’s last major economic link with the South was a virtual ghost town today after Pyongyang suspended its operations and recalled all 53,000 of its workers, cutting off jobs and a source of hard currency in its war of words and provocations against Seoul and Washington.

North Korea suspended its sole remaining major project with the South after weeks of threats against the United States and South Korea, as Russian president Vladimir Putin said any nuclear conflict could make Chernobyl look like a fairy tale.

North Korea has said it is to recall 51,000 North Korean workers and suspend operations at a factory complex which is the last major symbol of co-operation with its southern rival.

North Korea has moved a missile with “considerable range” to its east coast, South Korea’s defence minister says. But he added that there are no signs that Pyongyang is preparing for a full-scale conflict.

North Korea has warned that its military has been cleared to attack the US using “smaller, lighter and diversified” nuclear weapons.

France has asked China to intervene in the Korean military crisis.

North Korea today barred South Korean workers from entering a jointly run factory park just over the heavily armed border in the North, officials in Seoul said.

North Korea is threatening to shut down a factory complex which is the last major symbol of inter-Korean co-operation.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his rocket forces were ready “to settle accounts with the US”, escalating the country’s bellicose rhetoric and responding directly to the unprecedented announcement that nuclear-capable US B-2 bombers had joined military drills with South Korea.

Reclusive North Korea is to cut the last channel of communications with its southern neighbour because war could break out at “any moment“, it said, days after warning the US and South Korea of a nuclear attack.

North Korea today reiterated a proposal for unconditional talks with South Korea to ease tensions on the divided peninsula.

CHINA will not protect those who sank a South Korean warship, Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday, as he came under pressure in Seoul to join an international push to punish North Korea.

North Korea announced today that it will scrap an accord aimed at preventing accidental naval clashes with South Korea in retaliation for Seoul blaming Pyongyang for the sinking of one of its warships.

NORTH Korea threatened yesterday to shut a border crossing and open fire on loudspeakers if South Korea makes good on its vow to blare out propaganda across the frontier in revenge for the sinking of a warship.

North Korea threatened today to block cross-border traffic and blow up any South Korean loudspeakers blasting propaganda northwards after a six-year suspension, as tensions soared over the sinking of a South Korean warship.

NORTH KOREA declared yesterday that it would sever all communication and relations with Seoul as punishment for blaming the North for the sinking of a South Korean warship two months ago.

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.

North Korea today expressed regret over its recent release of dam water that sparked flooding downstream blamed for six South Korean deaths.

North Korea said today it would not even consider talking with South Korea, lashing out at Seoul for criticising the isolated country’s human rights record.

South Korean officials travelled today to North Korea for the first meeting between the two governments in more than a year, amid tension over Pyongyang's moves to restart its nuclear programme following a defiant rocket launch.

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.

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.

A cargo rail service between North and South Korea will be expanded to take passengers starting next year, but only South Koreans will be allowed to cross the border by train, the Unification Ministry said today.

North Korea’s premier arrived in Seoul today for the first prime ministerial talks with South Korea in 15 years to discuss a reconciliation agreement by their leaders.

South Korea’s president reported differences between the two sides in historic summit talks today with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, while Kim gave a signal that the meeting be extended for an extra day.

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.

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

The two Koreas agreed to resume stalled high-level talks later this month, officials said today, in the first concrete sign of easing tensions on the divided peninsula after the North signed a breakthrough disarmament agreement.

The leader of South Korea’s ruling party today apologised for dancing with a North Korean waitress during his recent trip to a North-South joint industrial zone in the communist country.

US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice today arrived in South Korea to press Seoul to support sanctions against North Korea for its nuclear test that rattled the world.

THE president of South Korea Roh Moo-Hyun has said North Korea’s nuclear test was forcing a change in his policy of engagement with the communist state.

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.

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 two Koreas, wrapping up their first face-to-face talks in 10 months, reached a three-point agreement today that did not mention the impasse over Pyongyang’s worrisome nuclear programme, according to a joint statement.

South Korea will get another chance to press North Korea to return to the nuclear bargaining table after the two sides today agreed to extend their first talks in 10 months for an extra day.

South Korea told US officials it has no plans to launch “large-scale” economic co-operation with North Korea before the dispute over the communist state’s nuclear weapons programmes is resolved, the country’s foreign minister said today.

North Korea is balking at opening its heavily armed border to relief trucks from South Korea, even as international aid groups seek more help for thousands injured and made homeless by a massive train explosion in the impoverished country.

Inter-Korean economic talks today have been scuttled by North Korean concerns about political instability in the South after last week’s presidential impeachment.