Seoul  - North Korea Friday declared all political an military accords with South Korea void, saying Seoul was pushing relations "to the brink of war."

Pyongyang's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification accused the conservative government of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak of raising tensions on the Korean peninsula.

There was no further way to improve relations, the committee was quoted as saying by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Seoul  - The Nigerian government on Thursday rescinded oil exploration rights at two fields off the Nigerian coast that were granted to South Korean firms four years ago.

Justifying the move, the Nigerian government said the Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) had not made payments as scheduled, according to the KNOC. Allegedly, the KNOC only paid 192 million dollars of the 323 million price that had been agreed upon.

The KNOC says the agreement had only been for 192 million dollars. KNOC says part of the deal called for it to help develop Nigeria's energy infrastructure.

Seoul- Hyundai Heavy Industries Co Ltd, the world's largest shipbuilder, on Thursday reported a two-thirds rise in its fourth-quarter earnings but predicted a 23-per-cent drop in orders for this year.

It saw better-than-expected net profit of 854 billion won (621 million dollars) for the quarter as sales rose 42 per cent over the final quarter of 2007 to 6.05 trillion won.

San Francisco/Miami  - A couple in Florida has received the first cloned puppy in the US after paying a San Francisco company working with South Korean scientists
155,000 dollars to perform the complicated feat of bio-engineering.

Nina and Edgar Otto picked up their cloned yellow labrador puppy on Monday, according to a press release from BioArts International. The puppy, Lancelot Encore, was cloned from the DNA of the Ottos' late dog Lancelot, who died of cancer in January 2008.

Seoul - Shares rallied Wednesday on the Seoul stock exchange on the first trading day

Seoul, Jan. 23 : North Korean leader Kim Jong-il met a senior Chinese Communist party official in Pyongyang on Friday.

According to the New York Times, it was his first known meeting with a foreign visitor since reports that he suffered a stroke in August

China's state-run Xinhua reported Kim's meeting with Wang Jiarui, chief of the Chinese Communist Party's International Department, but did not describe Kim's health.

Intelligence officials in Seoul have said that Kim, 66, underwent brain surgery following the stroke.