SEOUL, Aug 15: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for a "drastic boost" in missile production during visits to key weapons factories, state media said Monday, as South Korea and the United States prepared for joint drills next week.

SEOUL, Jan 1: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un capped off his 10th year in power with a speech that made more mention of tractor factories and school uniforms than nuclear weapons or the United States, according to summaries by state media on Saturday.

SEOUL, South Korea Last year was a disaster for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

SEOUL, Jan 11: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been elected as general secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party, state media KCNA said on Monday, taking over the title from his late father in a largely symbolic move seen aimed at further cementing his power.

SEOUL, Jan 9: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for more advanced nuclear weapons and said the United States is “our biggest enemy,” state media said on Saturday, presenting a stark challenge to President-elect Joe Biden just days before he takes office.

SEOUL, South Korea, Aug 20: In unusual candor, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un admitted U.S.-led sanctions, the pandemic and devastating floods had hurt his country’s dismal economy as the ruling party scheduled a rare congress in January to set development goals for the next five years.

SEOUL, South Korea, July 27: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has visited a national cemetery and handed out commemorative pistols to army officers, state media reported Monday, as he pushes to muster public support for efforts to contain a potential coronavirus outbreak.

SEOUL, July 26: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared an emergency and a lockdown in a border town after a person suspected of being infected with the novel coronavirus returned from South Korea after illegally crossing the border, state media said on Sunday.

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, June 9:  North Korea said Tuesday it will cut off all communication channels with South Korea as it escalates its pressure on the South for failing to stop activists from floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across their tense border.

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, May 2: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made his first public appearance in 20 days as he celebrated the completion of a fertilizer factory near Pyongyang, state media said Saturday, ending an absence that had triggered global rumors that he may be seriously ill.

SEOUL, April 27: South Korean officials are calling for caution amid reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be ill or is being isolated because of coronavirus concerns, emphasising that they have detected no unusual movements in North Korea.

BEIJING/SEOUL, April 25: China has dispatched a team to North Korea including medical experts to advise on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to three people familiar with the situation.

SEOUL, April 12: North Korea called for tougher and more thorough countermeasures to keep citizens safe from the fast-spreading coronavirus at a meeting where leader Kim Jong Un presided, state media said on Sunday.

SEOUL, Dec 31: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is set to make a closely watched New Year address on Wednesday which is likely to offer a glimpse of a “new path” he has vowed to take if the United States fails to meet his deadline to soften its stance over denuclearization.

SEOUL, DEC 30: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called at a ruling party meeting for “positive and offensive measures” to ensure security ahead of a year-end deadline he has set for denuclearization talks with the United States, state media KCNA said on Monday.

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, Dec 30: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for his military and diplomats to prepare unspecified “offensive measures” to protect the country’s security and sovereignty, the North’s state media said on Monday, before his end-of-year deadline for the Trump administration to make major concessions to salvage a fragile nuclear diplomacy.

SEOUL, Sept 16: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited U.S. President Donald Trump to visit Pyongyang in a letter sent in August, a South Korean newspaper reported on Monday, citing diplomatic sources.

SEOUL, Aug 11: North Korea said Sunday that leader Kim Jong Un supervised test-firings of an unspecified new weapons system, which extended a streak of launches that are seen as an attempt to build leverage ahead of negotiations with the United States while driving a wedge between the U.S. and South Korea.

WASHINGTON/SEOUL, Aug 10: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Kim Jong Un told him he was ready to resume talks on North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs and would stop missile testing as soon as U.S.-South Korea military exercises end.

SEOUL, August 7: North Korea said Wednesday leader Kim Jong Un supervised a live-fire demonstration of newly developed, short-range ballistic missiles intended to send a warning to the United States and South Korea over their joint military exercises.

SEOUL, Aug 3: North Korea said Saturday its leader Kim Jong Un supervised another test-firing of a new multiple rocket launcher system that could potentially enhance the country’s ability to strike targets in South Korea and U.S. military bases there.

BEIJING, July 1: China’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday it welcomed the meeting between U. S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, after Trump took a historic step into North Korea on Sunday and held surprise talks with Kim.

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June 23: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un received a personal letter from U.S. President Donald Trump and will put serious thought into its content, North Korea’s state-run news agency KCNA said.

SEOUL, June 11: North Korean state media called on the United States on Tuesday to “withdraw its hostile policy” towards Pyongyang or agreements made at a landmark summit in Singapore a year ago might become “a blank sheet of paper”.

SEOUL, June 1: The factories have innocuous names, but analysts say several ostensibly civilian facilities visited by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently are also used to build ballistic missile launchers and other weapons.

SEOUL, May 24: North Korea said on Friday an “arbitrary and dishonest” U.S. position had resulted in the failure to reach a deal during a second North Korea-U.S. summit, warning the nuclear issue would never be resolved without a new approach.

SEOUL, May 5: North Korea has conducted a “strike drill” for multiple launchers, firing tactical guided weapons into the East Sea in a military drill supervised by leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday, the North’s state media reported on Sunday.

SEOUL, May 5: North Korean state media on Sunday showed leader Kim Jong Un observing live-fire drills of long-range multiple rocket launchers and what appeared to be a new short-range ballistic missile, a day after South Korea expressed concern that the launches were a violation of an inter-Korean agreement to cease all hostile acts.

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SEOUL, April 26: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told Russian President Vladimir Putin peace and security on the Korean peninsula depended on the United States, warning that a state of hostility could easily return, North Korean media said on Friday.

MOSCOW, April 18: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will travel to Russia in the second half of this month and meet President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Thursday.

HONG KONG, April 14: With the blond wig and red tie, the star of the Cantonese opera in Hong Kong may look familiar.

PYONGYANG, April 13: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he is open to a third summit with President Donald Trump, but set the year’s end as a deadline for Washington to offer mutually acceptable terms for an agreement to salvage the high-stakes nuclear diplomacy, the state-run media said Saturday.

WASHINGTON, March 11: A U.S. Department of State official on Monday said she thinks there will be another summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but that no date has been set.

HANOI, Feb 28 : President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un cut short their second summit Thursday without reaching an agreement, a stunning collapse of talks that caused both leaders to leave their Vietnam meeting early and cancel a planned signing ceremony.

HANOI, Feb 28: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Thursday he was willing to give up his nuclear weapons and he would not be holding a second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Vietnam if he were not.

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HANOI, Feb 26: President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will likely be all smiles as they shake hands later this week in Hanoi for a meeting meant to put flesh on what many critics call their frustratingly vague first summit in Singapore. But behind the grins is a swirl of competing goals and fears.

DONG DANG, Feb 26: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, grinning broadly and waving at a crowd gathered on a cold, rainy morning, stepped off his armored train Tuesday after a long ride that started in Pyongyang and wound through China to this Vietnamese border town ahead of his second nuclear summit with President Donald Trump.

HANOI, Feb 25: An Australian comedian who impersonates North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Monday authorities were deporting him from Vietnam, some 24 hours before the real Kim was due to arrive for a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

SEOUL, Feb 24: North Korea on Sunday confirmed for the first time that its leader Kim Jong Un will hold a second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, days ahead of the high-stakes nuclear meeting set to take place in Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi.

HANOI, Feb 20: Vietnam is preparing for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to arrive by train for his summit in Hanoi next week with President Donald Trump, two sources with direct knowledge of security and logistics planning told Reuters on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, Feb 9: President Donald Trump said on Friday that U.S. diplomats had a “very productive meeting” with North Korean officials, and he announced his summit later this month with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would be held in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi.

WASHINGTON, Feb 6: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would hold his second meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam on Feb. 27 and 28, while giving himself credit for avoiding a major war on the Korean Peninsula.

BEIJING, Jan 10: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reportedly told the leader of his only major ally, China, that he wants to "achieve results" on the nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula in a second summit with President Donald Trump.

TOKYO, Dec 31: Kim Jong Un will be keeping North Korea watchers busy on New Year’s Day, when he is expected to give his annual address laying out the country’s top priorities for the year ahead.

SEOUL, Oct 9: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants Pope Francis to visit the officially atheist country, South Korea said Tuesday.

SEOUL, Oct 7: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has wrapped up his fourth visit to North Korea after meeting Kim Jong Un to seek elusive progress in efforts to persuade him to give up his nuclear weapons.

LONDON, Oct 4: Kim Jong-un and South Korea President Moon Jae-in are the odds-on favorites to win the Nobel Peace Prize this year, according to leading bookmaker Coral after a flurry of bets in the last 24 hours.