http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstSpecial01/index.php?cmenuid=19 Kyodo News on the Web: Daily international, Japan news, Japan News, national and local news coverage from the newspaper, breaking news updates, technology news, sports, reviews, listings. Kyodo News (C) All Rights Reserved http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstSpecial01/index.php?cmenuid=19 en http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=490325 North Korea should improve its human rights situation if it wants better ties with the United States, a U.S. special envoy said Friday. ''The relationship between the United States and North Korea is very much going to be affected and influenced by North Korea's record on human rights,'' Robert King, special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, told reporters. http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=490011 The head of U.S. forces in South Korea said U.S. personnel specialized in removing weapons of mass destruction are participating in this year's Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercise, the first of two annual joint military exercises in the country. ''They are here for this exercise and if we ever went to war, they would naturally come also,'' Gen. Walter Sharp, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, told reporters, according to Yonhap News Agency. http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=489846 North Korea's State Development Bank held the first meeting of its board of directors Wednesday in Pyongyang, the North's Korean Central News Agency reported. Jon Il Chun, a representative of the National Defense Commission, was elected director general of the board and Pak Chol Su, a Korean resident in China, became deputy director general, KCNA said. http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=489757 North Korea has agreed to lease a pier at Rajin port, close to the border with China and Russia, to a Chinese company for 10 years, giving three northeastern Chinese provinces access to the Sea of Japan, a Chinese newspaper reported Wednesday. ''North Korea's willingness to lease China a pier at the port, as well as one for Russia, has brought speculation that the country will further open up to the outside world,'' Global Times said in a front-page article. http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=489729 North Korean ambassador to Geneva Ri Chol, known as a caretaker of leader Kim Jong Il's secret funds, is expected to leave office after 30 years in Switzerland, Yonhap News Agency reported from Geneva on Wednesday, citing a diplomatic source. ''It appears almost certain that Ambassador Ri Chol is leaving,'' a diplomatic source in Bern told Yonhap. ''But the timing is unclear whether it will be in weeks or take a couple of more months.'' http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=489584 North Korea on Tuesday slammed U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises launched Monday and repeated calls on the United States to conclude a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-1953 Korean War. ''Without a peace treaty it is impossible to defuse the military confrontation on the Korean Peninsula and it can never be denuclearized unless this confrontation is put to an end,'' a Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the North's Korean Central News Agency. http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=489522 North Korea is believed to have a military unit charged with operating intermediate-range ballistic missiles, a spokesman for the South Korean Defense Ministry told reporters Tuesday. However, spokesman Won Tae Jae declined to confirm whether the unit is an independent military division as an earlier news report said. http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=489407 China's new ambassador to North Korea Liu Hongcai presented his credentials to North Korea's No. 2 leader Kim Yong Nam on Monday, the Korean Central News Agency reported from Pyongyang. After receiving the credentials, Kim, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, North Korea's parliament, talked with Liu at the Mansudae Assembly Hall, KCNA said. http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=489325 The top command of North Korea's military ordered personnel Monday to get ready for action in the wake of the launch of U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises. ''The units of the three services of the KPA should keep themselves fully ready to go into action in order to blow up the citadel of aggressors once the order is issued,'' the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army said in the order carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=489323 The top command of North Korea's military ordered personnel Monday to get ready for action in the wake of the launch the same day of U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises. ''The units of the three services of the KPA should keep themselves fully ready to go into action in order to blow up the citadel of aggressors once the order is issued,'' the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army said in the order carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.