• Hopeful sign? North, South Korea agree to talks over joint Kaesong factory zone

    Lee Jin-Man / AP, file

    South Korean owners who run factories in the stalled South Korea and North Korea's joint Kaesong Industrial Complex, and workers stand just outside of military barricades set up on Unification Bridge near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War on Thursday, May 30, 2013.

    By Sam Kim, The Associated Press

    North and South Korea have agreed to hold talks on reopening a jointly run factory complex and possibly other issues, a hopeful sign for ending deteriorating relations that comes just as China and the U.S. prepare for a summit where the North is expected to be a key topic.

    North Korea said Thursday it is open to holding talks with South Korea on reopening the Kaesong complex just north of the Demilitarized Zone separating the countries. South Korea's Unification Ministry said in a text message that it "positively accepts" the North's announcement and will announce the date and agenda of talks later.

    The decade-old complex, the product of an era of inter-Korean cooperation, shut down gradually this spring after Pyongyang cut border communications and access, then pulled the complex's 53,000 North Korean workers. The last of hundreds of South Korean managers at Kaesong left last month.

    The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea in Pyongyang announced the regime's willingness to hold talks in a statement carried by state media. The committee handles relations with Seoul. The statement was the North's first public response to Seoul's proposal in April to hold government-level talks to discuss the factory complex.

    The authoritarian country's isolation has grown since a satellite launch in December, viewed as an effort to test its long-range missile technology, and since it conducted a nuclear test in February. Pyongyang was enraged by the United Nations Security Council sanctions those actions brought, and further angered by U.S.-South Korean military drills that the allies call routine but that the North claims are invasion rehearsals. Pyongyang earlier this year threatened nuclear attacks on Seoul and Washington.

    After threatening nuclear war, the North Korean government has now shut down the Kaesong industrial park, where 110 South Korean businesses operated in North Korean territory, which provided thousands of jobs for North Koreans. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    The North Korean statement comes after Choe Ryong Hae, the North's top political officer, met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing in late May and said that Pyongyang was "willing to accept the suggestion of the Chinese side and launch dialogue with all relevant parties." China shares much of America's frustration over North Korea's nuclear ambitions but is concerned about keeping its neighbor and ally stable.

    Xi is meeting President Barack Obama in California on Friday, and Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University, said Pyongyang's announcement is timed for those talks.

    "North Korea is making it easier for China to persuade the U.S. to get softer on Pyongyang," Koh said.

    The North's statement Thursday proposed talks not only about Kaesong, but about resuming cross-border tours suspended since 2008, and restarting the reunions of families divided since the Korean War. It added that the North could restore its Red Cross communication line with South Korea in their truce village if Seoul agrees to talks.

    In a Memorial Day speech earlier Thursday, South Korean President Park Geun-hye reiterated her criticism of North Korea's national goals of pursuing nuclear and economic development, saying they can't be achieved simultaneously. Park, who is set to meet with Xi in late June, also called on North Korea to come to talks with Seoul to build trust.

    Relations remain tense between the Koreas, which have technically been in a state of war for nearly 60 years because the Korean War ended in 1953 with a truce and not a peace treaty.

    North Korea on Wednesday accused Seoul of kidnapping nine North Koreans that South Korean activists call defectors. The group was detained in Laos last month and repatriated via China last week.

    Slideshow: Glimpses into the hermit kingdom of North Korea

    /

    As chief Asia photographer for the Associated Press, David Guttenfelder has had unprecedented access to communist North Korea. Here's a rare look at daily life in the secretive country.

    Launch slideshow

    Related:

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Official: North Korean soldier kills two officers, defects to South

    By The Associated Press

    BUSAN, South Korea – A North Korean soldier claimed to have killed two of his officers before defecting to South Korea across their heavily armed border, a South Korean official said.

    The defense ministry official said the defection took place about noon Saturday across the western section of the Demilitarized Zone.


    The official declined to be identified because an interrogation of the soldier was still under way.

    Defections across the Demilitarized Zone, a buffer zone dividing the two Koreas, are rare as the 155-mile land border is heavily armed and tightly guarded. 

    US-Japan agree on new defense system to counter North Korea ballistic missiles

    The North Korean claimed that he shot dead his platoon and squad chiefs while on guard duty shortly before his border crossing, according to local media reports. 

    Hundreds of North Koreans flee each year across its northern border with China and most make their way to the South, with more than 20,000 having found refuge in the wealthy capitalist neighbor. 

    Slideshow: Daily life in North Korea

    Elizabeth Dalziel / AP

    From work to play, see pictures from inside the secretive country.

    Launch slideshow

    Most cite economic hardship and political persecution as the main reasons for leaving home. 

    The two Koreas are still technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended only with a ceasefire, not a peace treaty.

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook


    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Obama tells US troops at Korean DMZ: 'You guys are at freedom's frontier'

    President Obama paid his first visit to the tense zone separating North and South Korea amid new nuclear tensions. NNBC's Kristen Welker reports.

    By NBC News' Shawna Thomas, Alicia Jennings and Kristen Welker

    SEOUL -- President Barack Obama was greeted with cheers from U.S. troops as he visited the dining hall at Camp Bonifas at the start of his tour of the Demilitarized Zone on the Korean peninsula and told them that they were protecting "freedom's frontier."

    Obama talked about how proud he was of the troops and joked about the NCAA basketball tournament. While, the president has visited the Republic of Korea twice before, this was his first time observing the 38th parallel and members of North Korea’s military.

    At Camp Bonifas, Obama told U.S. troops that they are part of a "long line" of soldiers who have enabled South Korea to prosper. "You guys are at freedom's frontier," he said.

    While at the DMZ, the president spoke to South Korean troops, then went to Observation Post Ouellette, the closest post overlooking the demarcation line on the most heavily guarded border in the world.

    The observation post is about 25 miles northwest of Seoul inside the DMZ and just 100 yards from demarcation line. The North Korean army is visible from this observation post and it was expected that the North Koreans would jam cell phone signals while the president was visiting the area.

    In advance of the trip, White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said that the president’s visit to the DMZ “sends a clear message that the United States is committed to the security of our ally and that the commander in chief stands with those 28,000 Americans that are serving on the Korean peninsula.”

    Jewel Samad / AFP - Getty Images

    President Barack Obama greets US troops at Camp Bonifas in Paju during a visit to the Demilitarized Zone on the border between North and South Korea on Sunday.

    The United States has more than 28,000 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the Korean War six decades ago. Camp Bonifas was renamed in 1986 in honor of US Army Capt. Arthur Bonifas, who was killed by North Korean soldiers in a 1976 ax attack.

    Every president since President Ronald Reagan has visited the DMZ. 

    The president’s visit comes a day before he is set to participate in the second international Nuclear Security Summit.

    During his trip to South Korea for a summit to discuss keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists, President Obama will visit the heavily guarded area along the North Korean border. NBC's Kristen Welker reports.

    While the subject of North Korea is not officially on the list of topics for the summit, the North's presence looms large because of the announcement that it is planning to test a long-range rocket in April.

    There were some indications that North Korea was going to suspend some of its nuclear activities. But then the North Koreans announced a satellite launch in April that, according to Rhodes, “can also serve, frankly, as a ballistic missile test as well.” Obama is expected to call upon Chinese President Hu Jintao to urge North Korea to back away from the planned launch.

    NBC News' Shawna Thomas reported from Seoul, South Korea. NBC News' Alicia Jennings and Kristen Welker reported from Camp Bonifas.

    More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world