South Korea has announced it will include its minister of defense in an entourage traveling to North Korea for their summit meeting next month. This will be the first such defense visit since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

Japan and North Korea have opened rare one-on-one talks in Mongolia, as part of a broader diplomatic effort to end the North's nuclear weapons programs. Although the two countries are seeking a normal relationship, some bitter issues from history pose major diplomatic challenges.

A senior United States official has denied reports that Washington removed North Korea from a list of terrorism sponsors following talks in Geneva, a Japanese news agency said Tuesday.

US: North Korea to Disable Its Nuclear Plants This Year. The chief U.S. nuclear envoy says North Korea has agreed to identify all its nuclear programs and disable them by the end of this year.

U.S. and North Korean envoys opened talks in Geneva Saturday on normalizing relations, and possibly removing the reclusive state from Washington's list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

Russia's government has allocated $300,000 to help North Korea recover from the flood devastation that has ravaged the country in August. Recent flooding in North Korea killed hundreds of people, displaced some 300,000 and destroyed a sizeable portion of the country's crops.

Senior U.S. and North Korean diplomats meet next Saturday and Sunday in Geneva for talks on dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program and on the prospect of normalized relations. The bilateral working group meeting is part of the broader six-party disarmament process.

South Korea has announced a multi-million dollar aid package for North Korea, where hundreds of thousands of people are suffering because of floods. The United States has also pledged to send help. VOA's Kurt Achin has more from Seoul.

Almost 300 people are dead or missing in floods in North Korea, an aid agency said on Thursday, as the communist state painted a grim picture of inundated crops and homes, power cuts and washed-out roads.

South Korean officials say President Roh Moo-hyun will travel by land to North Korea for a rare meeting with leader Kim Jong Il later this month.

North Korea says a planned joint military exercise between U.S. and South Korean forces late this month could derail a deal to end Pyongyang's nuclear program.

North Korea is ready to disable its nuclear facilities before receiving aid pledged as part of international efforts to denuclearize the country, the South Korean Yonhap news agency said Wednesday.