Pino Cazzaniga

Announcement of the postponement came after a visit by the US ambassador to the ex-South Korean president. Seoul at first sought to justify the cynical behaviour of the North, which aims at securing bilateral talks with Washington, but it later joined other states in talking about "reactions".

The North Korean envoy invited widespread indignation by talking about threats of war linked to a victory of the Grand National Party. At a Nobel Peace Prize conference, meanwhile, Gorbachev talked about the division of Korea as "fruit of the Cold War" and urged all to resolve conflicts in "national terms".

After almost 30 years North Korea "finds" a man who was abducted to train as a spy and allows him to meet his mother. During his captivity he married a Japanese woman, also abducted, that Kim Jong-il had first claimed was dead.

The story of Fr Hammond who is allowed to cross the 38th parallel twice a year. There are no priests in the country but there is a "Catholics' Association"; there are no religious symbols at its headquarters, only a photo of Kim Jong-il.

According to western military sources, North Korea is about to test a new missile, capable of striking the USA. To pay for its experiments, the regime traffics drugs and fake dollars.

The baby girl is the daughter of a Protestant pastor. "Each child is a gift of God," he said, despite concrete problems that range from keeping the family to finding a table for all.

A letter by a US MP has drawn reactions in Japan and South Korea. He says: "For the generation that remembers Pearl Harbour, a visit by Koizumi to Yasukuni, after his speech to Congress, would be an affront".

Some 438,000 children were born last year, 8 per cent fewer than the year before, a sign that the country is aging. People over 65 are now 7 per cent of the population but will be 20 per cent in 2026.

Takeshima to the Japanese and Dokdo to the Koreans, the two islands, 0.39 square kilometers, are claimed by both countries. The confrontation has become bitter.

Ms Han is the first woman to occupy such a high leadership post in a traditionally male-dominated society. Parliament voted 182 to 77 in her favour.

A proposal by Japan's leader of the Opposition, to remove war criminals from the shrine, appears to be a response to Hu Jintao's declaration against Koizumi's visits, which have dashed reconciliation hopes.

Following the controversy caused by Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni shrine, the Chinese government is turning to other figures in the political and economic spheres. At the end of March, a Japanese delegation is set to make a significant visit to Hu Jintao.