NORTH Korea is feeding its construction workers crystal meth to try and speed up completion of a new skyscraper, it has been claimed. The exhausted workforce is being openly supplied with the drug as their chiefs come under increasing pressure to finish the massive tower. This in turn has led to grafitti being daubed across Pyongyang mocking bosses and the industry. According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), slogans found on a derelict building read “Pyongyang speed is drug speed” and referred to workers as “drug troops”.

If an Air Koryo passenger ignores its no-photography rule, a flight attendant might take the camera and delete the pictures herself. Crumpling up a newspaper bearing the image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un can earn travelers a stern lecture, or worse. Those are among many quirks that may help explain why North Korea's airline has earned a singular distinction: It's been ranked the world's worst airline for four straight years.

A medium-range ballistic missile fired Wednesday by North Korea flew about 620 miles and landed near Japan's territorial waters, Seoul and Tokyo officials said, one of the longest flights by a North Korean missile. The U.S. Strategic Command said North Korea fired two presumed Rodong missiles simultaneously, not just one. The command said initial indications were that one of the missiles exploded immediately after launch, while the second was tracked over North Korea and into the Sea of Japan.

North Korea has officially declared war on the United States after the US “crossed the red line” by blacklisting its leader Kim Jong-Un over human rights abuses. The US has also banned the dictator Kim Jong-Un from doing business in the country. The US move stemmed from the fact that Kim Jong-Un neglected widespread human rights abuses in North Korea for a long time thus resulting in making North Korea “among the world’s most repressive countries.”

A picture in the state-run Rodong Sinmum newspaper shows the leader watching a missile test alongside his generals. The map in front of him charts the trajectories of three missiles tested by North Korea in a practice nuclear strike this week. But it might also reveal the first target he wants to annihilate with his nukes – and it's a city that's home to several million people.

North Korea has severed its only remaining channel of communication with the United States, saying on Monday it would assume a "wartime" diplomatic approach and cut ties with the country at the United Nations after Washington blacklisted leader Kim Jong Un last week for human rights abuses. All matters related to the US, including the handling of American citizens detained by Pyongyang, will now be conducted under its "wartime law," the North's official KCNA news agency said. The move is the latest escalation of tension with the isolated country...

Kim Jong-un has gained about 40kg (90lb) in weight since becoming North Korean leader four years ago, and binges on food and drink to cope with his constant fear of being assassinated, according to a report by South Korea’s spy agency. Kim, who became leader after his father, Kim Jong-il, died of a heart attack in December 2011, also suffers from insomnia, the national intelligence service told a closed session of the South Korean parliament.

South Korea’s intelligence agency is to continue to hold 13 North Koreans at the heart of a bitter dispute between the rival countries, with Pyongyang accusing Seoul of abducting the group from a restaurant, according to an official. Intelligence officers want longer to question the group of 12 waitresses and a manager at a North Korea-run restaurant in China, who arrived in Seoul in April. South Korea says they defected of their own free will, while the North claims they were abducted.

From free samples of sweet drinks to Italian kitchen displays, brands in the DPRK are learning to compete with the state, writes Choson Exchange.

North Korea may be significantly expanding its nuclear weapons production and could have added six or more weapons to its stockpile in the last 18 months, a U.S. research institute said on Tuesday. The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) estimated last year that North Korea had 10 to 16 nuclear weapons at the end of 2014. It based that conclusion on an analysis of the country's production of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium recovered from spent nuclear fuel.

North Korean state media has praised US presidential hopeful Donald Trump, describing him as a “wise politician” and “far-sighted candidate” who could help unify the Korean peninsula. An editorial in DPRK Today, an official media outlet, welcomed the Republican presidential candidate’s proposal to hold direct talks with Kim Jong-un, saying he could help bring about Pyongyang’s “Yankee go home” policy. “There are many positive aspects to Trump’s ‘inflammatory policies’,” wrote Han Yong-mook, who described himself as a Chinese North Korean scholar.

An aunt of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been running a dry-cleaning business in the US after defecting with her family in 1998, the Washington Post reports. Ko Yong-suk told how she looked after Kim when he was at school in Switzerland. Ko, a sister of Kim's mother, now lives anonymously outside New York City. The CIA, which reportedly helped them buy a house after their defection, has not confirmed or denied her claims.

If you think Facebook's gotten a little too big and you miss the intimacy of a smaller social network, maybe give North Korea's version a try. Go to starcon.net.kp and you'll find a very familiar looking website. It's called "Best Korea's Social Network" and the homepage has a thin blue banner at the top with a search field for "people, #hashtags, !groups."

Slipping across borders with impunity, stealthy helicopter drones have been delivering SD cards and flash drives to North Korean residents hungry for entertainment and information from the West, a North Korean defector and activist said Wednesday.

Most of us have had the experience where airline service isn’t quite what we expected. To do our duty, we run to the internet for an airing of grievances, giving a less than stellar review for sub-par service quality. But what happens when the airline is consistently ranked the worst in the world and only travels to and from one of the most hellish places known to man?

Time to fire up Photoshop.

They like fast fashion from Zara and H&M. They work out to be seen as much as to exercise. They drink cappuccinos to show how cosmopolitan they are. Some have had their eyelids done to make them look more Western. North Korea now has a 1 percent. And you’ll find them in“Pyonghattan,” the parallel ­universe inhabited by the rich kids of the Democratic People’s Republic.

The crew of a Russian yacht detained by North Korea have been released, Russian state media says. Five crew members were sailing in international waters in the Sea of Japan when they were seized by the North Korean coast guard on Friday. North Korean officials said the detention, which saw the yacht towed into Kimchaek port, was a misunderstanding. Russia is one of the few countries that has good ties with North Korea.

North Korean state media have released high-resolution headshots of more than two dozen top officials in the secretive country, including its leader, Kim Jong-un. Nothing unusual about that. But one thing, according to Pyongyang observers, appears to be missing: signs of retouching. It is common for photos of Kim released through North Korea state channels to show signs of manipulation, although North Korean officials deny altering images.

A former North Korean military chief who Seoul had said was executed is actually alive and in possession of several new senior-level posts, the North's state media said Tuesday. The news on Ri Yong Gil marks yet another blunder for South Korean intelligence officials, who have often gotten information wrong in tracking developments with their rival. It also points to the difficulties that even professional spies have in figuring out what's going on in one of the...