Seoul - North and South Korea have agreed to launch a new round of military issues talks after a previous round broke up without result, Seoul said Saturday.

The Defence Ministry said the new round would take place on Monday at a border point on the western coastline, near the South Korean city of Paju.

Pyongyang had proposed new talks on Friday, after the previous round had broken up without result some three weeks ago.

The talks are aimed at improving lines of communication between the armed forces of the two Korean states.

Wellington , Oct 25 : New Zealand is looking to help North Korea pay for imports of heavy fuel oil as a reward for Pyongyang’s disablement of the Yongbyon nuclear facility.

Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reports that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Wellington said that the country was discussing offering financial assistance for heavy oil aid for North Korea through six-party talks.

London, Oct 25: North Korea is clamping down on mobile phones and long distance telephone calls to prevent the spread of news about a worsening food crisis, the United Nations investigator on human rights for the isolated communist country has said.

Thai law professor Vitit Muntarbhorn, in a report to the UN General Assembly, said that its government is using public executions as a means of intimidating the population, and using spies to infiltrate and expose religious communities, The Times reported.

His report came two days after the World Food Programme said that two thirds of North Koreans do not have enough to eat, in the country’s worst crisis since as many as three million people died of famine a decade ago.

Washington - The United States has imposed sanctions on 13 companies accused of aiding the weapons programmes of North Korea, Iran or Syria, the State Department said Friday.

London, Oct 23: North Korean ruler Kim Jong-il is still in control of the country despite rumours about his health. In recent times Kim Jong-il has missed significant public events including the 60th anniversary of the founding of North Korea.

“There has been a lot of speculation with no clear indication about Kim Jong-il’s whereabouts, but I do not believe there are any changes in North Korea because of Kim’s health,” said South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in a newspaper interview following reports that Kim had suffered a stroke and had brain surgery in August.

London, Oct. 18 : North Korean leader Kim Jong -il maybe dead. According to The Telegraph, North Korean diplomats abroad have been ordered to stay close to their embassies and await an "important announcement" concerning Kim Jong-Il.

The rumours circulating that Kim is dead have caused instability in North Korea''s diplomatic corps, and the announcement may very well be a carefully worded instruction to remain loyal to the regime or have the diplomats'' families still in North Korea face the consequences.