US consults allies, urges China to rein in N.Korea

There is a North Korean factory with no portraits of the country's late leaders on the walls, no North Korean flags, no hand-painted posters screaming party slogans. Everything from the tissues to the toilets comes from South Korea.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. called Thursday for North Korea to grant amnesty and immediately release a Korean-American sentenced to 15 years’ hard labour for “hostile acts” against the state. Kenneth Bae, 44, a Washington state man described by friends as a devout Christian and a tour operator, is at least the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009.

NKorea denies SKoreans passage across border to enter factory that is last symbol of detente PAJU, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Wednesday barred South Korean workers from entering a jointly run factory park just over the heavily armed border in the North in the latest sign that Pyongyang's warlike stance toward South Korea and the United States is moving from words to action.

PAJU, South Korea — North Korea on Wednesday barred South Korean workers from entering a jointly run factory park just over the heavily armed border in the North, officials in Seoul said, a day after Pyongyang announced it would restart its long-shuttered plutonium reactor and increase production of nuclear weapons material.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea vowed Tuesday to restart a nuclear reactor that can make one bomb's worth of plutonium a year, escalating tensions already raised by near daily warlike threats against the United States and South Korea.

NKorea sentences US man to 15 years; analyst calls him 'bait' for high-profile American visit SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A Korean American detained for six months in North Korea has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for "hostile acts" against the state, the North's media said Thursday — a move that could trigger a visit by a high-profile American if history is any guide.

SEOUL, South Korea — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his South Korean counterpart said Friday that North Korea gains nothing by threatening tests of its missile or nuclear programs. The United States and its Asian ally would not accept the North as a nuclear power, Kerry said, adding that its provocative rhetoric is “unacceptable.”

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea vowed Tuesday to restart a nuclear reactor that can make one bomb’s worth of plutonium a year, escalating tensions already raised by near daily warlike threats against the United States and South Korea.