North Korea is exporting nuclear and ballistic missile technology and using multiple intermediaries, shell companies and overseas criminal networks to circumvent U.N. sanctions, U.N. experts said in a report obtained by The Associated Press. Read the full story

North Korea on Tuesday threatened military action if the South continued to violate its waters off the west coast, further stoking tension on the peninsula after the sinking of a South Korean warship. Read the full story

President Barack Obama has directed the U.S. military to coordinate with South Korea to “ensure readiness” and deter future aggression from North Korea, the White House said on Monday. Read the full story

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is committed to ending the North’s nuclear programme, Chinese state media says. Mr Kim’s secretive visit to Beijing was only confirmed once it was finished. Read the full story

Reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il arrived in China on Monday in search of economic support and diplomatic protection from his only major ally, after bungled policies at home and military grandstanding that has exasperated the region. Read the full story

North Korea said Friday it will confiscate five South Korean-owned properties at a jointly-operated mountain resort in the isolated communist country, a development likely to worsen already-soured relations. Read the full story

The United States has ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear program in the short term, a top Defense Department official said on Wednesday. Read the full story

An emotional President Lee Myung-bak vowed Monday that South Korea would respond “resolutely and unwaveringly” against those behind the deadly sinking of a naval ship near the tense maritime border with North Korea. Read the full story

Iran’s president has urged the UN to launch an investigation into the aims of Western military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The office of Secretary General Ban ki-Moon said that it was studying the letter from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but had no comment. Read the full story

North Korea has accused the US and South Korea of seeking a regime change in the country, threatening to launch nuclear strikes to counter any provocations by the two. Read the full story

North Korea says it will not abandon its nuclear weapons unless the United States ends its hostile policy in the troubled peninsula. The official Korean Central News Agency said on Friday that Pyongyang will keep its nuclear arsenal unless the US changes its hostile policies. Read the full story

China plans to invest billions of dollars in North Korea in an apparent effort to prod the impoverished country to rejoin international nuclear disarmament talks, a news report says. Read the full story

A senior Chinese official was in North Korea on Monday and a top U.N. political envoy was slated to arrive a day later in a new push to have the reclusive state return to stalled nuclear disarmament talks. Read the full story

The Quadrennial Defense Review developed by the US Pentagon was unveiled yesterday, February 1. The document virtually represents the US military doctrine for the upcoming four years. Read the full story

A shipment of weapons from North Korea seized by Thai authorities last month were headed for Iran, according to a confidential report the Thai government sent to a U.N. Security Council committee. Read the full story

North and South Korea exchanged artillery fire near their disputed sea border on Wednesday, highlighting instability along a heavily armed frontier for the second time in three months. Read the full story

North Korea has declared a no-sail zone off its west coast, indicating it may be readying to test-launch missiles in the area, South Korean news broadcaster YTN on Tuesday quoted a military official as saying. Read the full story

Kim’s all-powerful National Defense Commission had threatened Friday to initiate a sacred “retaliatory battle” against the South in anger over its reported contingency plan to cope with potential unrest in the communist country. The commission also warned it could break off all dialogue and negotiations with the South. Read the full story