Sweden and Switzerland have expressed their willingness to, upon request, send a team to inspect North Korea's possible dismantlement of nuclear and missile programmes, a US broadcaster reported on Saturday (Sept 22), according to Yonhap news agency.

Seoul, South Korea (CNN)North Korea said it would close a key missile test facility in the presence of "international experts" and potentially destroy its primary nuclear complex if the United States agrees to corresponding measures, South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced in a joint press conference with Kim Jong Un Wednesday. The two leaders made the announcement on the second day of a three-day summit, their third this year, as part of efforts with the United States to contain the threat of war on the Korean Peninsula.

A joint statement says the two Koreas agreed to establish buffer zones along their land and sea borders to reduce military tensions and prevent accidental clashes. The statement signed by the countries’ defense chiefs also says the Koreas agreed to withdraw 11 guard posts from the Demilitarized Zone by December with the aim of removing them eventually.

North Korea's Kim Jong-un has written to US President Donald Trump asking for a follow-up to their historic summit, the White House says. The US says it is already looking at scheduling a new meeting. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the "very warm" letter showed Pyongyang's "continued commitment to focus on denuclearisation". Negotiations on the topic appeared to have stalled after the two leaders' historic summit in Singapore in June.

Kim Jong-un has agreed to shut down one of North Korea's main missile testing and launching sites, says South Korea's President Moon Jae-in. After meeting in Pyongyang, the two leaders "agreed on a way to achieve denuclearisation," said Mr Moon. The agreement was described by Mr Kim as a "leap forward" towards military peace on the peninsula. Mr Kim also said he hoped to "visit Seoul in the near future" - he would be the first North Korean leader to do so.

Justice Department charges agents of Reconnaissance General Bureau in broad indictment.

North Korea celebrated its 70th anniversary with a military parade marked by the absence of any intercontinental ballistic missiles, noteworthy as the event comes amid a monthslong detente between Pyongyang and Washington that has appeared precarious at times in recent weeks. At a similar military parade in April 2017, North Korea rolled out at least one ICBM live on state television, and then launched it for the first time a few weeks later, provocatively on July 4. Leader Kim Jong Un called it a “package of gifts”...

The White House is planning a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday. Kim requested the meeting in a letter delivered to Trump via the State Department, Sanders said, describing the correspondence as “very warm, very positive.” “We won’t release the full letter unless the North Korean leader agrees that we should,” Sanders said at a White House press briefing. “The primary purpose of the letter was to request and look to schedule another meeting with the president, which we are open to and are already in the process of coordinating that.”

The shine is starting to come off South Korean President Moon Jae-in's engagement strategy with the North. The liberal politician, who reversed nearly a decade of conservative hard-line policy toward North Korea after his election last year, is preparing for a third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un amid growing public skepticism about his approach.

Japan held a “secret” meeting with North Korea in Vietnam in July without informing the United States, according to media reports. Talks were reportedly held between Shigeru Kitamura, head of Japan’s Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, and Kim Song-hye, a senior North Korean official in charge of reunification. Japan’s decision not to inform the US government of the meeting, which was reported in the Washington Post, was said to have caused “irritation” among senior officials.

Weeks after the Trump-Kim summit, factories are still producing intercontinental ballistic missiles and enriched uranium.

Citizens are urged to "join the struggle" to save precious crops from drought.

South Korea is urging North Korea to speed up the process of denuclearizing. 

North Korea's Foreign Ministry stated Thursday that "one cannot expect any progress in the implementation" of Pyongyang's denuclearization agreement with the U.S. if Washington maintains its emphasis on sanctions. The reclusive state took steps such as dismantling its nuclear test site even before the unprecedented North Korea-U.S. summit on June 12, but the two sides have still failed to decide any timeline for Pyongyang to give up its existing nukes.

North Korea has agreed to allow International Civil Aviation Organization staff to conduct an on-site inspection to ensure the safety of international flights from the country’s missile launches, according to officials with the Montreal-based U.N. agency. An official with North Korea’s General Administration of Civil Aviation gave the assurance when high-ranking ICAO representatives visited the country in May, ICAO officials said.

Gérard Depardieu, the enfant terrible of French cinema, has been spotted in the North Korean capital Pyongyang hours before the 70th anniversary of the country's birth. Journalists noticed the iconic actor in the Yangakdo hotel for tourists in the biggest city of the Communist state, which is due to mark its “Day of the Foundation of the Republic” on Sunday. A major military parade, huge rallies and the return of iconic “mass games” are expected. It is not known whether Mr Depardieu will take part in the festivities or is a guest.

Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, has introduced a new national oath playing down the achievements of his father and grandfather and instead praising his own ideology and leadership.

What happened to U.S. college student Otto Warmbier—who was sent home brain-damaged from North Korea—is more shocking than anyone knew.

North Korea has returned remains believed to be of US troops killed during the Korean War, the latest move in the cautious diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang. Troops formed an honour guard as the plane carrying the remains touched down at a US base in South Korea. Relatives have waited years to retrieve the remains of their loved ones.

North Korea has and is violating United Nations sanctions, UN experts have said in a report. A summary of the report, which was sent to the security council on Friday night and obtained by the Associated Press, said North Korea was also violating sanctions by transferring coal at sea and flouting an arms embargo and financial measures.

North Korea has reportedly rejected a formal timeline for its denuclearization proposed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Vox reported Wednesday that Pyongyang has rejected the timeline several times over the past two months amid continued negotiations over North Korea's nuclear program. The timeline Pompeo proposed would mandate North Korea hand over 60 to 70 percent of its nuclear warheads to a third party within six to eight months, according to the report.

Pyongyang wants the U.S. to formally declare the end of the Korean War before it begins dismantling its nuclear arsenal. Officials said that was not part of the Singapore deal. North Korea is insisting that the United States declare that the Korean War is over before providing a detailed, written disclosure of all its atomic weapons stockpiles, its nuclear production facilities and its missiles as a first major step toward denuclearization.

North Korea has said it is freeing a detained Japanese tourist on humanitarian grounds. There is very little information available on Tomoyuki Sugimoto, but he was known to have been arrested earlier this month. North Korea has not said why he was arrested, only that he was breaking the law. Japanese media said he could have been filming a military facility. Tourists visiting North Korea are strictly monitored at all times.

A high-level defector has told the US Congress that spreading outside information in North Korea is the best way to deal with the regime. Thae Yong-ho said undermining Kim Jong-un's God-like status among his people could be key to weakening his rule. North Koreans "don't care about state propaganda but increasingly watch illegally imported South Korean movies and dramas," he added.

While attention in Asia has been distracted by the North Korean nuclear crisis in the past year, China has continued to install high-frequency radar and other facilities that can be used for military purposes on its man-made islands in the South China Sea, a U.S. think tank said on Thursday.

The Australian Federal Police has charged a 59-year-old Sydney man for allegedly working as a black-market agent to sell missile components and coal for North Korea. Authorities said it was the first time a person in Australia had been charged with brokering sales and discussing the supply of weapons of mass destruction.

North Korea has dismissed the official responsible for the Punggye-ri nuclear test site and executed him, Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported, citing unconfirmed reports from an unidentified North Korean defector. Park In Young—the name's spelling may be subject to changes, depending on the translation and transcriptions—was the chief of North Korea’s Bureau 131, a division of the ruling party’s Central Committee charged with the supervision of military facilities such as the Punggye-ri underground nuclear test facility and the Sohae Satellite Launching Station.

Peru's government has ordered the expulsion of two North Korean diplomats after declaring them persona non grata over Pyongyang's "continued violations" of UN Security Council resolutions with its nuclear programme. "The government of Peru has informed the North Korean embassy of its decision to declare First Secretary Pak Myong Chol and Third Secretary Ji Hyok persona non grata as officers of the aforementioned diplomatic mission in Lima," Peru's foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday.

One of the North Korean soldiers who defected to the South in 2017 was found to have anthrax antibodies in his bloodstream.

The United States has announced sanctions on two North Korean officials behind their country’s ballistic missile program. The steps were the latest in a campaign aimed at forcing North Korea – which has defied years of multilateral and bilateral sanctions – to abandon a weapons program aimed at developing nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the United States.

A North Korean soldier who defected to the South was found to have antibodies to anthrax — triggering concerns that the rogue regime has weaponized the deadly bacteria, according to reports Tuesday. The man, who was either exposed to or vaccinated for anthrax, had developed immunity to the deadly disease before defecting, UPI reported, citing local Channel A.

merican reconnaissance satellites have reportedly spotted Chinese ships suspected of selling oil to North Korean vessels about 30 times since October. South Korean officials told the Chosun Ilbo that the ships were allegedly trading in the West Sea between China and South Korea in a bid to bypass strict United Nations sanctions on oil exports to the pariah regime over its ongoing nuclear and weapons programme.

A North Korean nuclear scientist who had gone to China poisoned himself after he was forced home. The scientist killed himself in a state security cell while he awaited interrogation. Resources said that he was a researcher in the physics center of the State Academy of Sciences in Pyongyang. He belonged to a group of North Koreans who were detained in Shenyang city in China on Nov 4 and were sent back on Nov 17.

China has rejected President Donald Trump's accusations that it was illegally supplying oil to North Korea, criticizing Friday the Republican leader's evidence, and his demeanor. Trump launched the allegation Thursday via a tweet in which he claimed China had been "caught RED HANDED" shipping oil into North Korea, a violation of the strict United Nations Security Council sanctions punishing the reclusive, authoritarian state for its unwillingness to abandon an increasingly powerful ballistic and nuclear weapons program.

In his annual New Year's address on Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned the United States that his country's completed nuclear arsenal is now a button-push away. "The U.S. should know that the button for nuclear weapons is on my table," he said, according to the Associated Press translation, in a speech carried by state television. "The entire area of the U.S. mainland is within our nuclear strike range. ... The United States can never start a war against me and our country."