London, Apr 24 : North Korea has become a full-fledged nuclear power with the capacity to wipe out entire cities in Japan and South Korea, a confidential report prepared by world's intelligence agencies and defence experts states.

This new reality has emerged in off-hand remarks and in single sentences buried in lengthy reports.

Seoul - North Korea said Friday it has concluded its investigation into the alleged illegal entry of two US journalists now detained by the Stalinist state and formally decided to put them on trial. The state-run Korean Central News Agency said "hostile acts" had been concluded and the two women were also to be indicted on charges of illegal entry.

The authorities were preparing an indictment "based on criminal data confirmed."

London, Apr. 21 : North and South Korea are preparing to hold their first official talks for over a year, amid rising cross-border and regional tensions.

A team headed by an official from Seoul''s unification ministry crossed the heavily fortified border for the meeting at a joint industrial estate just north of the frontier, reports The Telegraph.

Tuesday''s meeting comes amid icy cross-border relations and threats from Pyongyang''s military.

Beijing - North Korea could restart its main nuclear facility within months, the UN's international nuclear watchdog said Monday.

North Korea must also be regarded as a nuclear power, Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in Beijing.

"North Korea has nuclear weapons, which is a matter of fact," ElBaradei said.

He called for a quick return to negotiations with the totalitarian state.

"We need to find a solution before they go into building their nuclear power arsenal," ElBaradei said.

Seoul - North Korea proposed talks next week with South Korea over their jointly run industrial park in the North, Seoul said Saturday amid heightened tensions on the peninsula.

The meeting was suggested for Tuesday at the industrial complex at Kaesong near the inter-Korean border, South Korea's Unification Ministry said.

The South plans to accept the proposal, the domestic news agency Yonhap reported, citing an official at the presidential office.

The meeting would mark the first such inter-Korean dialogue since March 2008.

Seoul, Apr. 18 : Reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has confessed that he feels fatigue from his tough schedule, the communist state''s official media said on Friday.

"A man is not made of iron and must take care of his own body. But I have no time to do so," the ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun quoted Kim, long regarded as the country's benefactor, as saying.

Kim, 67, is widely believed to have suffered a stroke last August.