SEOUL (Reuters) – Reclusive North Korea on Monday gave South Koreans working at a jointly run tourism resort 72 hours to leave, saying time had run out to resolve a long-running dispute over what was once a symbol of cooperation between the rival Koreas.

The scenic Mount Kumgang resort has been closed since a North Korean soldier shot and killed a South Korean tourist there in 2008, drying up a lucrative source of hard currency for the impoverished North.

ANSEONG, South Korea (Reuters) – Escaping North Korea was the easy part.

“One of the soldiers led me and my sister across the river. There were several soldiers at the guard post — they were pretending not to see anything. It was like I was invisible,” said Eun-seo of her escape across the Tumen River into China.

If you have money, guards can easily be bought. And today, more than ever, North Koreans have access to cash, thanks to a growing disapora in China and South Korea.

SEOUL (Reuters) – Reclusive North Korea on Monday gave South Koreans working at a jointly run tourism resort 72 hours to leave, saying time had run out to resolve a long-running dispute over what was once a symbol of cooperation between the rival Koreas.

The scenic Mount Kumgang resort has been closed since a North Korean soldier shot and killed a South Korean tourist there in 2008, drying up a lucrative source of hard currency for the impoverished North.

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea said on Friday it had agreed to talks with the United States on repatriating remains of American service members killed in the 1950-53 Korean War amid a diplomatic push to ease tensions on the peninsula.

The agreement follows a series of top-level meetings between Pyongyang, Seoul, Washington and Beijing that has raised hopes of a resumption of long-stalled talks on disabling the secretive North’s nuclear weapons program.

SEOUL (Reuters) – The rival Koreas traded blame on Thursday for a brief military exchange at a tense maritime border as the United States urged Pyongyang to get back to the main business of denuclearization talks.

North Korea hit out against it neighbor’s “preposterous” military response to what it says were only blasts at a construction site on Wednesday.

SEOUL (Reuters) – The rival Koreas traded blame on Thursday for a brief military exchange at a tense maritime border as the United States urged Pyongyang to get back to the main business of denuclearisation talks.

North Korea hit out against it neighbour’s “preposterous” military response to what it says were only blasts at a construction site on Wednesday.

SEOUL (Reuters) – The world’s most closed country North Korea has nothing to reform or open up, the ruling party’s newspaper reported on Tuesday, accusing the United States of trying to impose its own ways to stifle socialism.

But in a rare concession, the Worker’s Party official Rodong Sinmun newspaper, indirectly admitted something the rest of the world has been saying for decades: its economy is in trouble.

SEOUL (Reuters) – Hermit North Korea is trying a new pitch to attract foreign investors into one of the world’s most closed, and impoverished, economies. This time it might even work.

What makes this attempt a bit more credible is that world no. 2 economy China is scaling up support for its heavily sanctioned ally and neighbor which has long made a point of avoiding contact with the outside world.

SEOUL (Reuters) – Isolated North Korea said on Monday it had agreed to further dialogue with the United States, and repeated it was willing to resume regional nuclear disarmament talks at an early date, without preconditions.

U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth held talks with veteran North Korean nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-gwan at the U.S. mission to the United Nations in New York last Thursday and Friday.

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s nuclear envoy said on Friday it would be very difficult to persuade North Korea to give up its atomic program, and that a flurry of diplomacy aimed at restarting nuclear talks was unlikely to produce major breakthroughs.

Nuclear envoys from the two Koreas met for the first time in two years last week and a top North Korean diplomat is in New York for talks, raising hopes for a resumption of denuclearization dialogue after a more than two-year hiatus.