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  - An acute food shortage in North Korea has led the World Food Programme to appeal to Seoul to send food aid to the impoverished communist country, officials said Thursday.

The UN agency asked South Korea for a 60-million-dollar donation to its new emergency relief programme to provide sustenance for 6.2 million hungry children, women and elderly in North Korea, a South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman said.

"The government will decide whether to accept the appeal or not based on public opinion," the spokesman said.

"We don't link humanitarian aid to political issues, such as the nuclear issue," he said in reference to North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

Seoul - South Korea's STX Group said on Monday it was more than doubling its stake in Europe's largest ship maker Aker Yards to 88.4 per cent, gaining full management control of the Norwegian firm

Seoul - South Korean and US forces started annual military exercises on Monday to prepare Seoul to retake wartime command of its forces, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The five-day drills, called Ulchi Freedom Guardian, are aimed at improving interoperability between the two nations' forces as well as to prepare for Seoul's takeover of wartime operational control of its forces from Washington in 2012. South Korea regained peacetime control of its troops in 1994 after transferring control of its troops to the US in 1950 after the outbreak of the Korean War.

It is the first time that the South Korean warfare headquarters is playing such a prominent role in the defensive military drills, which are computer-simulated this year.

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 called Friday on North Korea to reopen dialogue between the two countries.

Speaking on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule and the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the South Korean state, Lee also urged Pyongyang to eliminate its nuclear weapons programme, which he called a "source of distrust and conflict."

"I am not going to give up the dream of both Koreas living well together," Lee told an audience of 25,000 people in Seoul.

The most important prerequisite for realizing this dream is creating permanent peace on the Korean peninsula, Lee said.