Wellington  - South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak will make an official visit to New Zealand on March 3-4, Prime Minister John Key announced on Wednesday.

Key said they would discuss improving economic links between the two countries which are preparing to negotiate a free trade pact.

He said South Korea was an important bilateral and regional partner for New Zealand and his country's sixth-largest export market.

Lee will speak at a New Zealand-Korea Economic Forum which will discuss strengthening ties between the two business communities.

Seoul - Lee Myung Bak on Tuesday became the first South Korean president in five years to preside over a national security meeting in the wake of a series of threats from North Korea.

The focus of the annual gathering - which brought together 200 military, intelligence, security and local government officials - is defending South Korea from "enemy infiltration and provocation of limited scale," the Defence Ministry said.

South Korea fears tensions with its Stalinist neighbour could escalate into a limited military altercation, possibly over the two countries' contested border in the Yellow Sea.

Pyeongchang, South Korea  - Ole Einar Bjoerndalen won his third gold medal at the biathlon world championships with victory in the 20-kilometre individual race in Pyeongchang on Tuesday.

The 35-year-old Norwegian crossed the line 14.1 seconds ahead of Christoph Stephan of Germany, with Jakov Fak of Croatia clinching bronze.

Bjoerndalen, already the most successful biathlete in the history of the world championships, now has a record 87 World Cup wins in ski sport, one more than Sweden's Ingemar Stenmark in alpine skiing.

Pyeongchang, South Korea - The result of Sunday's chaotic men's pursuit race at the biathlon world championships in Pyeongchang could be contested in front of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), Russian media said on Monday.

The appeal jury of the sport's controlling body IBU on Sunday changed an earlier decision by race organizers to penalize the race winner Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and several other biathletes for leaving the track early in the race.

Seoul - South Korean Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou Hwan died Monday at the age of 86, media reports said.

Kim, who was the country's first Roman Catholic cardinal and played an important role in South Korea's democratization, died at Seoul's Saint Mary's Hospital, where he had been hospitalized for the past year.

He had been treated for pneumonia and complications for several months and had fallen into brief comas multiple times, the national new agency Yonhap reported.