South Korea has agreed to resume massive shipments of rice to impoverished North Korea, despite Pyongyang's failure to shut its main nuclear reactor as promised at six-party talks on its nuclear weapons programs. Kate Woodsome has more on the agreement from VOA's Asia News Center in Hong Kong.

North and South Korean officials continued to negotiate Saturday, hours after they were due to wrap up four days of economic talks. The two sides were expected to issue a joint statement hours ago in the North's capital, Pyongyang. But reports say South Korea first wants the North to commit to honoring its nuclear disarmament pledge.

North and South Korean officials are struggling to make progress on economic talks in Pyongyang, but North Korea's missing of a deadline to start dismantling its nuclear programs is causing tension at the talks. VOA's Heda Bayron reports from our Asia News Center in Hong Kong.

North and South Korean officials have opened talks in Pyongyang regarding food aid and other joint-projects. News reports from Pyongyang say the North Korean delegation delayed Thursday's talks for hours after demanding to see a text of the South's keynote speech, which Seoul refused.

As Americans mourn the victims of Monday's massacre in Virginia, South Koreans are expressing shock and shame at word that the man behind the worst mass shooting in U.S. history was one of their own. VOA's Heda Bayron reports from our Asia News Center in Hong Kong.

South Korea began talks with North Korea on possible aid despite its failure to make progress on an international agreement to dismantle its nuclear programs. The economic talks in Pyongyang, which run through Saturday, come as the two Koreas restore relations that suffered a blow last year following the North's missile and nuclear tests that rattled regional stability.

South Korea may delay resuming rice aid to North Korea after Pyongyang missed a deadline to start shutting its nuclear reactor under a disarmament deal, a local daily reported today.

South Korea's Defense Ministry says the country will draw up plans by the end of June to withdraw its remaining troops from Iraq. The ministry said Friday, that a plan on the termination of the mission will be sent to parliament.

A prestigious South Korean university said Monday it is investigating the veracity of its researchers' recent claims to have successfully cloned wolves. A Seoul National University research team led by Lee Byeong-chun, a former collaborator of disgraced stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk, is suspected of using erroneous data to inflate their claims of having created two cloned wolves, the university said in a statement.

The United States and South Korea concluded a landmark free trade agreement Monday, a U.S. official said, culminating 10 months of negotiations in a final week of intense haggling that just beat a key U.S. legislative deadline.

The push for a trade liberalization deal between the United States and South Korea is going down to the wire. Negotiators extended their deadline to hammer out sensitive issues to produce a deal before a crucial legislative deadline.

Free trade talks between the United States and South Korea are coming down to the wire Friday, with the presidents of both countries urging negotiators to reach an agreement.