Hwang Pyong So

Days after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test, its official television network showed the regime's No. 2, sixty-something general Hwang Pyong So, kneeling and covering his mouth to address leader Kim Jong Un, who nodded in his seat as he turned his face away.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye demanded today that North Korea apologise over recent landmine blasts, even as the bitter rivals held marathon talks to defuse tensions that have brought the peninsula back to the brink of armed conflict.

North and South Korea agreed on Saturday to resume reconciliation talks after the North sent its most senior delegation ever to its estranged neighbour at just 24 hours' notice.

Days after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test, its official television network showed the regime's No. 2, sixty-something general Hwang Pyong So, kneeling and covering his mouth to address leader Kim Jong Un, who nodded in his seat as he turned his face away.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye demanded today that North Korea apologise over recent landmine blasts, even as the bitter rivals held marathon talks to defuse tensions that have brought the peninsula back to the brink of armed conflict.

North and South Korea agreed on Saturday to resume reconciliation talks after the North sent its most senior delegation ever to its estranged neighbour at just 24 hours' notice.