President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao emerged from hours of intense talks today determined to marshal their combined clout on crucial issues, but still showing divisions over economic, security and human rights issues that have long bedevilled the two powers.

UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei headed to North Korea today for talks on how to implement a landmark nuclear disarmament agreement.

The US, Britain and France overcame last-minute differences with Russia and China on a UN resolution imposing punishing sanctions on North Korea, and the Security Council was expected to approve it unanimously tonight.

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.

South Korea today urged North Korea not to conduct a nuclear test, saying it would further isolate the communist regime, while countries launched new efforts to persuade the North to resume stalled disarmament talks.

South Korea’s president lashed out today at hardliners in Washington seeking to force the collapse of North Korea’s totalitarian regime, as the Foreign Ministry criticised a US account of a meeting on preventing criminal activity by the North.

South Korea said today it was trying to confirm whether North Korea is preparing its first nuclear weapons test and urged the North to return to six-nation disarmament talks to ensure that its future remains bright, while a top US envoy said the talks were in doubt.

JAPAN sent two spy satellites into orbit yesterday, infuriating heavily-armed neighbour North Korea, whose firing of a missile over Japan in 1998 prompted the move.

North Korea today warned that Japan’s launch of spy satellites could trigger an arms race in north-east Asia.

A NORTH KOREAN fighter plane intruded into South Korea’s airspace yesterday and the communist state, again using strident rhetoric, said nuclear war could break out on the peninsula at any time.