Seoul  - Communist North Korea plans to hold elections for its parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly, on March 8, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday.

Elections to the assembly, which serves only to rubber-stamp decisions by the North Korean Worker's Party, are overdue, as the last five-year term expired in 2008. The elections are regarded a formality as candidates are hand-picked by the Korean leaders.

Seoul - Ailing South Korean automaker SsangYong Motor Co is to receive 45 million dollars from its Chinese top shareholder Shanghai Automotive Industry (SAIC) Motor Corp, the company said Monday.

The measure showed SAIC's determination to keep the SUV maker going, SsangYong said. Also the company received an order for 2,000 cars and minivans from SAIC.

SAIC holds a 51-per-cent stake in cash-strapped SsangYong, which had been hit hard as car sales dropped at home and abroad. In 2008, sales of the smallest of South Korea's five automakers dropped by 29.9 per cent to 92,665 units.

Seoul  - Shares surged 2.9 per ce

Seoul  - Communist North Korea plans to strengthen its military
deterrence in 2009 and at the same time kick-start the country's ailing
economy, a joint editorial of the three state-run newspapers said
Thursday.

At the same time, the editorial stressed Pyongyang's determination to
go ahead with the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, while at
the same time accusing South Korea of pursuing a confrontational policy.

"The independent foreign policy of our Republic to denuclearize the
Korean peninsula and defend the peace and security of Northeast Asia
and the rest of the world is demonstrating its validity more fully as
the days go by," the papers said.

Three weeks before US president-elect Barack Obama is to take office,

Seoul - North Korea will use parliamentary in 2009 to prepare the country for the time after Kim Jong Il, South Korean analysts of the Stalinist state said Wednesday.

Pyongyang was likely to hold parliamentary elections to the Supreme People's Assembly in July or August 2009, the official Yonhap news agency and the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said, quoting a report by the Insitute for National Security Strategy.

The institute is the research arm of the South Korean intelligence service.

Seoul - A North Korean family of four managed to flee the Stalinist state's strongly-guarded sea border with South Korea in a wooden boat, news reports said Wednesday.

The refugees were picked up late Tuesday near the South Korean coastal town of Inchon, three hours after leaving the North Korean port of Haeju on the western coast, the official KBS radio station reported, quoting South Korean navy sources.

The family - a husband and wife, their son and daughter-in-law -said they wanted to stay in South Korea. The refugees were being questioned by army officials, the report said.