Seoul - North Korea said Tuesday it had stopped disabling its nuclear facilities in protest of the United States' failure to remove the country from its terrorist blacklist.

The foreign ministry in Pyongyang accused Washington of not having kept its side of a deal struck to end North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

North Korea therefore decided to halt disabling its nuclear facilities, a ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the official Central News Agency.

Seoul - China and South Korea agreed Monday to begin a high-level strategic dialogue aimed at strengthening political and economic cooperation between the two countries.

South Korean President Lee Myung Bak and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, who is on a two-day visit to South Korea, also announced plans to for an exchange programme for military officers.

In a joint statement, both presidents stressed their commitment to full implementation of the international agreements to end North Korea's nuclear weapons' programme.

Seoul - "Low Carbon, Green Growth" will be South Korea's vision for the next six decades said President Lee Myung Bak Friday in a speech marking the nation's 60th anniversary.

"Now is the time for us to turn the recent surge in oil prices into an opportunity to transform economic fundamentals and create new growth engines," said the president who has been in power since February.

The government will introduce a package of measures against climate change next month that Lee says will promote job creation and overcome challenges from climate change and sky-high oil prices by utilizing green technology and clean energy.

Seoul - South Korean President Lee Myung Bak asked China Wednesday to continue playing an active role in finding a solution for the North Korean nuclear dispute, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.

Meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Seoul, Lee also expressed hope that Beijing would help improve relations between the two Koreas, the agency said.

China's President Hu Jintao plans to visit Seoul at the end of August.

Seoul - South Korea and Australia agreed Monday to begin preparatory talks for a bilateral free trade pact and to boost economic ties, the presidential office in Seoul said.

South Korean President Lee Myung Bak met visiting Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and welcomed the recommendation of a study group that a trade agreement would benefit to both countries' economic growth and trade expansion, the office said.

It didn't specify when trade talks would start.

Seoul  - South Korea's central bank raised its key interest rate Thursday to the highest level in seven and a half years in a bid to tame spiraling inflation.

The monetary policy committee decided to raise the base rate by 25 basis points from 5 per cent to 5.25 per cent, the Bank of Korea said.

It was the highest since early February 2001 and the first time the bank increased its interest rate since August 2007.

"The committee judges that this action should contribute to containing inflation expectations which have gathered strength influenced by the recent sharp rise in headline inflation," the bank said.

Unlike core inflation, headline inflation takes into account all types of inflation in an economy.