Pyongyang

Australia is seeking to play a breakthrough role in solving the North Korean nuclear crisis, announcing Friday it will send a senior delegation to Pyongyang next week. The delegation, led by a senior diplomat, will discuss concerns about the North Korea government's nuclear program. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia had a "vital interest in finding a constructive diplomatic solution to address the nuclear question. " Downer said the delegation, led by the deputy head of the foreign ministry's North Asia division, Murray McLean, would visit Pyongyang from January 14-18.

North Korea is currently believed to be a producer of two types of Scud missiles.Jane's Defense Weekly describes these as the Scud-B, which has a range of 300 kilometers (200 miles) carrying a 1,000 kilogram (450 pounds) payload, and a variant of the Scud-C missile, which can travel 500 kilometers (300 miles) carrying 700 kilograms (320 pounds). The Changgwang Sinyong Corporation in North Korea is the marketing arm for Pyongyang's missile export program, along with the North Korean government.

CNN Hong Kong Bureau Chief Mike Chinoy recently visited North Korea as the country marked the 55th anniversary of the ruling Korean Workers' Party. That coincided with a trip to Washington by the highest-ranking Korean official ever to visit the United States. Vice Marshal Jo Myong Rok's three days of talks led to the announcement that U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright would travel to the North Korean capital. On the eve of her historic journey, Chinoy, who has visited North Korea 12 times, offers some insight on that country and its uneasy relations with the rest of the world.

The top U.S. envoy for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, has arrived in Pyongyang for meetings aimed at determining whether North Korea will return to six-party talks on its nuclear program. The veteran diplomat is the first senior official from the Obama administration to hold direct talks with Pyongyang. "The visit gives North Korea a lot of 'face,' a sense of importance," said Wenran Jiang, political science professor at the University of Alberta. Bosworth will meet senior North Korean officials during his three-day visit.

Japan, the United States and South Korea will demand that North Korea completely dismantle its nuclear facilities at the next round of six-nation talks, a Japanese newspaper says. Quoting Japanese government sources, the Yomiuri newspaper said Saturday the three nations would not allow North Korea to operate nuclear facilities even for peaceful purposes, so long as Kim Jong Il remains in power. The Yomiuri report adds to the presure on North Korea, which in October 2002 admitted having a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of international agreements, U.S. officials say. The country, led by the reclusive Kim, is believed by the United States to already have one or two nuclear bombs.

Australia is shelving plans to open an embassy in Pyongyang next year over concerns about North Korea's nuclear program. Australia normalized relations with North Korea in May 2000 after a 25-year hiatus, with the two countries agreeing in June last year on a reciprocal embassy arrangement. North Korea opened its embassy in the Australian capital, Canberra, in May this year. Australia had planned to open an embassy in the North Korean capital by the middle of next year, but the tension over Pyongyang's moves to restart its nuclear reactors has cooled that proposal.

South Korea Thursday refused to discuss providing more food aid to North Korea in the wake of its recent missile tests, prompting Pyongyang to walk out of the ministerial meeting in the southern port city of Busan, South Korea. According to a North Korean statement handed out to the media before its delegation left, North Korea said "the South bears full responsibility for the talks ending earlier than scheduled. " Throughout the two-day talks, South Korea pressed North Korea to return to the six-party talks to address Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.

(CNN) South Korea is to send a presidential envoy to North Korea next week as part of efforts to seek a peaceful resolution to the standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear program, officials say. Former reunification minister Lim Dong-won, a special adviser to President Kim Dae-jung is to visit the North on January 27, the president's office said Friday. The news was followed by an announcement from the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

It's a bit like train-spotting but rather more serious. On October 10, Korea-watchers pored over live televised coverage of a massive military parade in Pyongyang, held to mark the 65th anniversary of North Korea's ruling party. Just like the Soviet parades of yore, it was a chance to see what military hardware the North might be showing off. The official news agency said the parade showed "the will and might of Songun Korea to wipe out the enemy. " The hardware was accompanied by slogans such as "Defeat the U.S. Military.

Affirming strong ties in a time of challenges, President Barack Obama and visiting Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Monday hailed an agreement to move U.S. Marines from Okinawa and expressed solidarity against North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The two leaders held bilateral talks at the White House and then labeled U.S.-Japan ties an essential alliance for both countries and the Asia-Pacific region. They confirmed that much of their discussion Monday focused on North Korea, which has signaled plans to conduct a nuclear test after its recent failed missile launch.

The United States is prepared for "any contingency" when it comes to dealing with North Korea, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told CNN. "We're within an inch of war almost every day in that part of the world, and we just have to be very careful about what we say and what we do," Panetta said Wednesday on "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. " During a wide-ranging interview at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talked about Syria, the Secret Service and North Korea.

It really doesn't look like much, this mission control. About a dozen tables with monitors, men in the standard issue white lab coats. But this is North Korea's nerve center. From here scientists will be able to monitor their rocket when they try to fire a satellite into orbit. Our government minders have brought us here to the outskirts of the capital Pyongyang. It is all about access, this secretive regime opening its doors to the world's media -- CNN included -- to answer one question: is this a missile or a satellite?

All eyes this week are on North Korea, which looks set to move forward with a provocative long-range missile launch. Last month, Pyongyang announced it would launch a rocket carrying a satellite sometime between Thursday and April 16 to mark the 100th anniversary of its founder, Kim Il Sung. Japan, the United States and South Korea see the launch -- which would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions -- as a cover for a long-range ballistic missile test. And a South Korean intelligence report says it's likely to precede a nuclear test, as it did in 2006 and 2009.

As North Korea presses forward with a controversial rocket launch, journalists were granted a rare glimpse Sunday of the reclusive country's preparations. CNN was part of a group taken to the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in Tongchang-ri, in the northwest part of the country. North Korea announced last month that it would launch a rocket carrying a satellite between April 12 and 16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the founder of the Communist state.

North Korea said Tuesday that it would not abandon its plan to carry out a satellite launch next month despite recent warnings from President Barack Obama over the move. The North "will not give up the satellite launch for peaceful purposes, which is a legitimate right of a sovereign state and requirement essential for economic development," Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency reported, citing the country's foreign ministry. During his visit to South Korea this week, Obama has said that if North Korea moves forward with the launch -- which Washington and Seoul say would breach U.N. Security Council resolutions through the use of a long-range missile -- it will further deepen its isolation, damage relations with its neighbors and face additional sanctions that have already strangled the country.

President Barack Obama arrived in South Korea on Sunday for a three-day trip centered on an international nuclear security summit in Seoul. He flew into Seoul, where he is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with his South Korean counterpart Lee Myung-bak. Top officials from 54 countries, including China and Russia, will attend the summit meeting on Monday and Tuesday. But its message of international cooperation has been overshadowed by North Korea's announcement last week that it is planning to carry out a rocket-powered satellite launch in April.

China says it has had "a frank, in-depth talk" with North Korea about the situation on the Korean Peninsula after Pyongyang's announcement of a planned satellite launch provoked an international outcry. Wu Dawei, China's special representative for the Korean Peninsula, met with Ri Yong Ho, a senior North Korean nuclear negotiator, in Beijing on Monday. Wu told the Chinese broadcaster CCTV that he and Ri had exchanged "opinions on the topic of preserving the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula," as well as on Pyongyang's planned satellite launch.

North Korea will invite foreign space experts and journalists to witness the launch of a satellite that the United States and other nations see as a provocation, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Saturday. The apparent attempt at North Korean transparency comes amid a flurry of condemnations of its planned launch because it uses ballistic missile technology. Pyongyang is set to launch next month an "Earth observation" satellite using a carrier rocket, a move that would potentially violate a United Nations Security Council ban on nuclear testing.

North Korea's agreement to halt portions of its nuclear and missile programs and accept the return of nuclear inspectors is a "modest step in the right direction," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday. Clinton said, however, that the United States will be watching North Korea closely and judging the country's leaders by their actions in the coming weeks and months. North Korea last week announced it would freeze its nuclear and missile tests, along with uranium enrichment programs, and allow the return of U.N. nuclear inspectors in exchange for 240,000 metric tons of food aid from the United States.