Seoul - High-ranking officials of the North Korean army and the United Nations Command (UNC) in South Korea met Monday as tension on the Korean peninsula mounted.

North Korea asked for the meeting, held at the heavily fortified border village Panmunjom, the US-led UNC said, making it the first meeting between the two sides in almost seven years.

Over the weekend, the communist country's state-controlled media accused US troops stationed in the South of "provocations" along the demilitarized puffer zone between the two Koreas.

Seoul  - North Korea has begun to test radar and other equipment in preparation for launching what it claims to be a satellite, South Korean media reports said Friday.

Increased activity was reported from the Musudan-ri missile launch site in the north-east of the communist state as North Korea moves closer to what South Korea claims is an attempt to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Seoul - In a move to support its banking system, the South Korean government plans to provide funds from a planned 20-trillion-won (13-billion-dollar) recapitalization fund in March, an official statement said Wednesday.

The fund aims at shoring up ailing banks and kick-starting loans to medium-sized companies, the Financial Services Commission said, adding that a first tranche of 12 trillion won would be used to acquire preferred shares and subordinated debt.

Stockholm - Swedish clothing retail giant Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) plans to add South Korea to the list of countries it operates in, the group said Wednesday.

The company said it has inked a deal to open a store in the South Korean capital Seoul during the spring of 2010.

"We look forward to establishing in South Korea. We have positive experiences from our establishments in Japan, Hong Kong and China and see South Korea as a natural consecutive step," H&M chief executive Rolf Eriksen said in a statement.

This year, H&M is planning to open 225 stores worldwide, mainly in Britain, the United States, Spain, France, Germany and Italy. The company's first stores were also due to open in Moscow and Beijing.

Seoul  - Shares nosedived Tuesday

Seoul - North Korea has deployed medium-range ballistic missiles that could reach the US Pacific territory of Guam, a South Korean military report said Monday.

The newly developed missiles could carry a 650-kilogram warhead 3,000 kilometres, the Defence Ministry said in its so-called White Paper security assessment of North Korea.

With that range, the missiles could reach Japan, the northern tip of Australia and large parts of China, India and Russia.