North Korea

North Korea executes top education official, South Korea says

Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon Hee held a press conference early on Wednesday to address media reports of a public execution of a senior-level North Korean official.

Two other officials, Kim Yong Chol, the head of North Korea's United Front Department (UFD), and a senior member of North Korea's propaganda department, received "revolutionary measures," commonly referred to as re-education, according to the spokesman.

No other details are immediately available.

North Korea submarine fires ballistic missile

The KN-11 missile was launched off the coast of Sinpo and flew about 500km (300 miles) before falling into the Sea of Japan, a US official said.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the missile had fallen inside Japan's Air Defence Identification Zone.

North Korea, believed to be developing nuclear weapons, is banned by the UN from any use of ballistic missiles.

The reported test follows an attempted launch last month that South Korea said failed in its initial flight stage.

North Korean athlete selfie: What happens next?

But as North Korea analyst and sports fan Michael Madden explains, that is unlikely to be the case.

North Korea has pursued "sports diplomacy" as a matter of national policy since the 1980s.

It is one - distinctly non-politicised - way for the politically isolated North to interact with the outside world and benefit from intercultural contact and exchanges.

North Korea 'fires three ballistic missiles'

The missiles, believed to be Scud-types, were launched from the western city of Hwangju, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

They flew some 500km and 600km (311 to 373 miles), with a range enough to reach all of South Korea.

It comes after the US and the South said they would deploy an anti-missile system to counter the threats.

Tensions have soared since Pyongyang carried out its fourth nuclear test in January, followed by a series of missile launches.

North Korea 'tests submarine-launched ballistic missile'

It says the missile was launched in waters east of the Korean peninsula - the latest in a recent series of tests.

North Korea, which is developing nuclear weapons, is banned by UN resolutions from any use of ballistic missile technology.

The US and South Korea on Friday agreed to deploy a missile defence system to counter threats from Pyongyang.

The South Korean military says the missile was launched at about 11:30 local time (02:30 GMT) off North Korea's port of Sinpo.

BBC correspondent's team expelled from North Korea

He will be joined on the plane by BBC producer Maria Byrne and cameraman Matthew Goddard, the British broadcaster added.

North Korean authorities said they took issue with "disrespectful" reports he filed from inside the country last week. He was detained at the airport and questioned, but has since been released. The team has been taken to the airport, and Wingfield-Hayes was made to sign a statement after eight hours of questioning, the BBC said.

Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have been banned by North Korea

The country has announced that it is officially banning Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and all South Korean sites.

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications made the announcement this week in a move to highlight its worry over the spread of online information.

Although few North Koreans have internet access, with some able to access a government-sanctioned intranet, foreigners had previously been able to browse with little restriction.

The move will inevitably make it more difficult to spread information about the country to the outside world.

North Korea brings forward dates long-range rocket launch

An updated notification sent by Pyongyang to UN agencies on Saturday — a copy of which was released by the South Korean Government — said the launch would now take place between February 7 and 14.The initial window announced by the North on Tuesday had been February 8-25.

North Korea nuclear test: UN vows new measures

The council condemned the test, saying "a clear threat to international peace and security continues to exist".

This is the North's fourth nuclear test since 2006, but if confirmed would be the first of an H-bomb.

However, the US has joined nuclear experts in questioning whether the blast was large enough for such a test.

US White House spokesman Josh Earnest said "initial analysis was not consistent with North Korea's claims of a successful hydrogen bomb test".

NKorea warns it has restarted all nuclear bomb fuel plants

The statement, coming just a day after it said it is ready to conduct more rocket launches any time it sees fit, has heightened concerns the North may soon either conduct a launch — which Washington and its allies see as a pretext for testing missile technology — or hold another test of nuclear weapons that it could conceivably place on such a rocket.